Key to Perception of Truth

The Great Controversy Theme provides the conceptual framework for an understanding of epistemology—how we learn, the process of knowing. Along with the knowledge that human beings are free moral agents comes the awareness that two loyalties are in conflict—allegiance to God, or loyalty to self and Satan’s kingdom of evil.MOL 273.3

Since Plato and Aristotle, men and women have proposed a variety of suggestions as to how knowledge is acquired, most of them contradictory. In reference to salvation truth, Ellen White lucidly taught that “the perception and appreciation of truth ... depends less upon the mind than upon the heart.” ^{40The Desire of Ages, 455.} She based her insights on Christ’s teaching: “If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority” (John 7:17).MOL 273.4

What does this mean—the heart determines the perception of truth? The conflict of loyalties in the Great Controversy directly affects how people perceive truth! The Reformers grasped this concept when they distinguished three aspects of faith: cognition, assent, and trust. Without assent and trust, theology would be a mere intellectual exercise; without cognition, feelings would be the master and the door would be open to individual whim. Ellen White would agree with Calvin when he wrote that “all right knowledge of God is born of obedience.” ^{41John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, book 1, chapter 6, section 2.} Defining this thought further, she wrote that the reception of truth “depends upon the renunciation of every sin that the Spirit of God reveals.” ^{42The Desire of Ages, 455.} A mind using the scientific method alone, for example, will fail “to understand the things of God.... Only the mind and heart cleansed by the sanctification of the Spirit can discern heavenly things.” ^{43Testimonies for the Church 8:301.}MOL 273.5

Thus, not by reason or historical research alone can salvation truth be discovered. Ellen White emphasized: “A knowledge of the truth depends not so much upon strength of intellect as upon pureness of purpose, the simplicity of an earnest, dependent faith.” ^{44Christ’s Object Lessons, 59. “Human theories and speculations will never lead to an understanding of God’s word. Those who suppose that they understand philosophy think that their explanations are necessary to unlock the treasures of knowledge and to prevent heresies from coming into the church. But it is these explanations that have brought in false theories and heresies.” Testimonies for the Church 8:110.}MOL 273.6

A spinoff of the practical aspect of this “knowing” principle occurred in the 1888-1901 period. Helping the church to come to a peaceful and constructive agreement regarding the “two laws” in Galatians, she maintained that “it is not so essential to understand the precise particulars in regard to the relation of the two laws. It is of far greater consequence that we know whether we are transgressing the law of God, whether we stand in obedience or disobedience before the holy precepts.” ^{45Letter 165, 1901, cited in The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 6:1110.}MOL 273.7