The last twenty living hostages are released by Hamas

Hamas released the last twenty living hostages from Gaza this morning as part of a cease-fire deal with Israel. The hostage handover ignited celebrations across Israel, with tens of thousands gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.

President Trump is in Israel, where he met briefly with family members of the hostages before meeting with the Knesset in Jerusalem. As I write, I am watching live coverage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to the Israeli parliament; he just announced that Mr. Trump would receive the Israel Prize, their highest civilian honor. Mr. Trump will address the assembly shortly, then he is scheduled to fly to Egypt to take part in a formal signing ceremony.

As the Economist headlines, this could be “a new beginning for the Middle East.” Crowds rallied in Tel Aviv Saturday in response to the cease-fire, shouting, “Thank you, Trump! Thank you, Trump!”

Why, then, did Mr. Trump not win the Nobel Peace Prize awarded last Friday?

Many are claiming that he should have; the winner actually dedicated it in part to him. Pundits are either lambasting the Nobel committee or criticizing Mr. Trump’s purported ambition for the award, depending on their partisan views.

But the fact is, the deadline for nominations was February 1, just weeks into the president’s second term. The committee’s decision could not consider recent developments in the Middle East, much less award Mr. Trump for them.

Instructor skydives without a parachute

If you’re not surprised that a prize dedicated to advancing peace would be the cause of such partisan conflict, your response points to my point today.

This is the way things are in a “post-truth” culture that equates objective truth with personal opinion and is deeply divided on partisan lines. The artist Frida Kahlo spoke for many: “Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.”

Note the illogic in making the absolute claim that “nothing is absolute.”

And what about objective facts like gravity? According to police, a skydiving instructor was found dead recently after he was “presumed to have fallen from the sky without a parachute.” Tragically, he did not break the law of gravity—he illustrated it.

Or objective acts of wrongdoing? At least twelve people were killed over the weekend after shootings broke out in three towns across rural Mississippi and in a South Carolina bar. Two of the shootings occurred on public high school campuses that were hosting football games. How is this not absolute evil?

Two theories of truth

Of course, those who reject absolute truth will point to the fact that opposing sides in a conflict often claim that their side is absolutely correct.

For example, Eli Sharabi writes in Hostage, his heartbreaking memoir of his captivity by Hamas, that his Palestinian captors were absolutely convinced that “the land belongs to them.” Accordingly, he reports that “they will not relent in their war against us until we all pack up and go back to the countries we came from, until they conquer every last inch of this land.”

Here we see two primary ways philosophers understand the nature of truth.

The coherence theory posits that a statement is true if it is logically consistent and fits within a larger system of beliefs. By this measure, Hamas’s view of its war with Israel is logically coherent. They believe that the land was intended by Allah for the Palestinians, view Israel’s founding in 1948 as a theft of this land and an attack on Muslims, and are convinced that the Qur’an requires them to attack Israel and Israelis to defend their people and faith (Surah 2:190).

Of course, Israel’s view of the land is coherent as well. They consider it their ancestral homeland intended for them by God (cf. Genesis 12:1–3) and view the establishment of the modern State of Israel as a necessary response to the Holocaust and the provision of a secure place for the Jewish people. They see Hamas’s October 7 invasion as a crime that must be punished and the terrorist group as criminals that must be removed for the sake of security for all, Palestinians included.

As you can see, the coherence theory doesn’t get us closer to resolving a conflict in which both sides can claim to be coherent.

By contrast, the correspondence theory of truth states that a belief or statement is true if it accurately reflects or corresponds to reality. It would take an entire book to apply this theory to the establishment of Israel and the response by Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations. However, as I have often explained over the years, Israel’s claim to the land corresponds to the facts of history far better than Hamas’s counterclaim, as does Israel’s view of the horrific October 7 attack against their people.

Why you should “let God have your life”

My purpose in this article is not to take you through a shortened course on philosophy, but to encourage us to live in ways that correspond to the truth of our faith.

Here’s why.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) asked, “What concept could man have of God if he did not first fashion an image of him in his heart? By nature incomprehensible and inaccessible, he was invisible and unthinkable, but now he wished to be understood, to be seen and thought of.”

Accordingly, as the second-century apologist St. Irenaeus explained, Jesus became one of us that we might be one with him. Our Lord took on his flesh then, and takes on our flesh now. You and I are “the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27) through whom Jesus continues his earthly ministry today.

But he can do this only to the degree that we are yielded to him. This is why Scripture commands us, “Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him” (Colossians 2:6). Continue to follow could be translated, “constantly walk alongside, spending your life in his presence.”

Here’s the good news: When we submit to God’s Spirit each day (Ephesians 5:18) and manifest the “fruit of the Spirit” as the character of Christ (Galatians 5:22–23; Romans 8:29), others see “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). They are drawn to the “light of the world” (John 9:5) as that light is displayed in our lives and actions (Matthew 5:14–16).

As C. S. Lewis eloquently explained in The Problem of Pain, “In obeying [God], a rational creature consciously enacts its creaturely role, reverses the act by which we fell, treads Adam’s dance backward, and returns.” And others “return” to God with us.

To this end, let’s consider this simple word from the great evangelist Dwight L. Moody:

“Let God have your life; he can do more with it than you can.”

Will you accept this transforming invitation today?

Quote for the day:

“Carry the cross patiently, and with perfect submission; and in the end it shall carry you.” —Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471)

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