What Guides Us
When we look around at modern discourse, the sanctity of an individual’s “personal truth” (“my truth” or “your truth” versus the truth) seems to be protected at the cost of an objective standard. At Disciple Gaming Ministry, we embrace Scripture as the guiding truth that tells the world what is right and wrong and (more importantly) what we need to know about God. As Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett wrote, “We’re not merely claiming that Christianity is our personal preference. We’re claiming that Christianity is true to reality—it fits the way the world really is. It’s objectively true.”1 That is, what the Bible teaches about God, morality, and reality is the truth. Which supersedes “my” truth or “your” truth.
The reason we use Scripture is found in 2 Timothy 3:16, which reads, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in Righteousness.”2 In 2 Peter 3:15-16, the Apostle Peter affirmed that the writings of Paul also met the standard to be considered Scripture. To take it a step further, Jesus himself (the Son of God who is the second person of the Trinity, the Word who existed before the world, and by and through whom all things came into existence [John 1:1-18, see also John 8:58, 10:30]) declared that the word of the Father is truth (John 17:17).
As suggested above, this gives us an objective standard to follow. It’s not a “truth” that is derived from personal preferences or feelings, which could result in genuine harm to other people if “my truth” rejected, say, any of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-172. Even if “my truth” today included following those commandments, if the standard for morality remains internal, there’s no reason why that standard shouldn’t someday change. Of course shifts could result in a person doing things that are objectively good, like giving more to the needy or going out of the way to help others instead of just doing so when it’s convenient. But it’s also possible for personal truth to shift toward selfish attitudes that lead to genuine harm to others (like physically assaulting another person).
It’s also not enough to hold to a vague societal standard of objective truth that’s derived from general consensus. The God who spoke the truth of Scripture to us is the Creator of the universe (Genesis 1-22), and he also set standards to live by within his creation. As I mentioned in the article explaining what drives us, humanity’s failure to live up to God’s standards created a rift between Creator and creation that only he can mend. He set the standards and then revealed them through his word. So as Disciple Gaming Ministry seeks to bring God and gaming together to both share the gospel with gamers and make disciples (see Matthew 28:19-202), we will do so guided firmly by God’s word, the Holy Bible.
Sources and Notes
1 While explaining the difference between objective facts, like the scientific truth that all dogs are mammals, and subjective statements, like, “Vanilla is the best ice cream flavor,” Childers and Barnett firmly and convincingly categorized Christianity as objectively true. Read more in Alisa Childers & Tim Barnett, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2023). Pp. 105-106.
2 At Disciple Gaming Ministry, we encourage people to read the Bible using an accurate translation that is also easy to understand. With that being said, the translation we use is the ESV® Bible. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.