Give Me an Example That Truth Isn't Subjective?
13 June 2026This article is part of "Dialogues," where real questions from people are answered by AI and then reviewed by theologians for clarity, accuracy, and faithfulness to Christian teaching.
Question
“Give me an example that truth isn't subjective?”
Answer
A simple example is this: if Jesus Christ rose from the dead, then He rose from the dead whether I feel it strongly today or not. If He did not rise, then no amount of religious feeling could make it true. Truth is not created by preference, emotion, or personal agreement. It concerns what is real.
The question of whether truth is subjective can certainly be treated as a philosophical question. Philosophers may ask whether truth depends on the mind, on language, on social agreement, or on reality itself. But for Christians, the deepest answer does not begin with an abstract theory. It begins with God.
Jesus prays to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). This gives Christians a concrete example of truth that is not subjective: what God has spoken is true whether or not any individual feels it, prefers it, understands it fully, or agrees with it.
Truth Is Grounded in God
If truth were only subjective, then every person's inner feeling would become its own final authority. One person could say, "This is true for me," another could say the opposite, and there would be no higher standard by which either claim could be tested. Scripture presents a different vision: God Himself is the source and measure of truth.
God is not changeable in the way human opinions are changeable. He is faithful, holy, and consistent with Himself. Scripture says, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind” (Numbers 23:19). It also says, “Let God be true though every one were a liar” (Romans 3:4). Truth does not become true because we approve of it. It is true because it is anchored in God.
The clearest Christian example is Jesus Himself. He does not merely teach true things; He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). In Christ, truth is not only a proposition but a Person. Yet this does not make truth vague. It makes truth more solid, because it is rooted in the living God.
Creation Witnesses to Objective Truth
Creation also bears witness to objective truth. Paul writes that God's “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived” in the things that have been made (Romans 1:20). This means that reality bears witness beyond private preference.
Of course, people may suppress, misunderstand, or argue against that witness. Romans does not say that everyone responds rightly to the truth. It says that the created world is not silent. There is an objective truth about God, even when human beings resist it or reinterpret it.
A simple example may help. If God is the Creator, then the statement "God made the world" is not true only for believers and false for unbelievers. Believers may receive it by faith, but the reality itself does not depend on their believing.
Empirical Truth and Spiritual Truth
This does not mean that Christians should despise ordinary human knowledge. Earthly things can often be studied empirically. We observe, test, compare, measure, and reason. These methods are part of how we seek objective truth about the created world.
If someone says, "Under ordinary conditions, water freezes at a measurable temperature," or "this medicine has this measurable effect," we do not treat those claims as merely private feelings. We investigate them. The created world has a stability and order because it comes from a faithful Creator.
But the truth about life itself, about the meaning of the human person, about sin, grace, judgment, salvation, and communion with God, cannot be reached by laboratory method alone. These realities are not irrational, but they must be revealed and received. Scripture says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). The deepest wisdom begins when the human heart is turned toward God.
The Spirit Enables Us to Receive the Truth
The knowledge of objective truth in God is not merely a human achievement. It is a gift of grace. Christians believe that the Holy Spirit opens the heart to perceive and receive what God has revealed. Jesus says of the Spirit, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13).
Paul says something similar: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). This does not mean that Christians become omniscient or that every personal impression is automatically God's voice. Nor does it mean that the Spirit creates a private truth inside the believer. It means that the truth of God is spiritually discerned and received through the Spirit whom God gives, in harmony with what God has revealed in His Word.
For this reason, for believers the objectivity of divine truth is not only a conclusion from doctrine. It is also personally known through the Spirit's work in the heart. Spiritual experience does not make God's truth true; rather, by the Spirit, the believer comes to recognize and receive the truth that was already true in God. The person discovers that the truth of God stands over him, judges him, heals him, and gives him life. It is not something he invented inside himself. It is something he has received.
Truth Is Personal, but Not Subjective
Here we must make an important distinction. Truth can be personally received without being subjective. When a person says, "I know God's mercy," that knowledge may be deeply personal. It may involve repentance, prayer, peace, conviction, and joy. But personal does not mean invented.
The resurrection of Christ is a good example. If Christ has been raised, then He has been raised whether or not I feel strong today. Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Christian faith is not built on the idea that truth becomes real because it comforts us. It is built on God's act in history and on God's living revelation in Christ.
At the same time, the believer does not receive this truth as a cold fact only. The Spirit makes the truth alive in the heart by illuminating and applying what God has revealed. Paul writes that “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). So Christian truth is objective in its source and personal in its reception.
Conclusion
So what is an example that truth is not subjective? For the Christian, one clear example is the resurrection of Christ: either Christ has been raised, or He has not. Our feelings do not determine which is true. And the deepest foundation of all truth is God's Word: “your word is truth” (John 17:17).
God's truth does not depend on individual preference, cultural agreement, or emotional condition. It is grounded in God's own character, revealed in Scripture, made visible in Christ, and received through the Holy Spirit.
Earthly realities can often be explored through empirical methods, because creation has order. But the truth about life itself is given by God. We come to know it not by making ourselves masters over truth, but by receiving the Spirit of truth. This is why Christian faith can say both things at once: truth is not subjective, and yet the human person must be inwardly opened by grace to recognize, love, and live by it.