Why is knowing the whole Truth important?

[Nate13]

I’m talking with a Protestant on a variety of different topics and this seems to be where I’m running into a wall on a lot of them. The most recent point I’ve run into this on is: “why is it important to know how the whole after death scenario plays out? I mean if I’m going to do everything I can to be the best person I can be, why do I care what the details of how this happens are? All you can really do is trust your best is good enough for God.” This person does acknowledge that you obviously have to know what is a sin and what isn’t to be a good person and knowing that Truth is important, but the question arises when the practical application of the Truth is not so obvious.

When faced with this, a discussion of Purgatory, Hell, and Heaven really becomes pointless. I know that knowing and protecting every bit of the Truth matters, I’m just struggling to put it into words. This point is of the up most importance as well, because a big reason for being Catholic is because you want the whole Truth.

Anyways I’m hoping to get some help on putting the importance of the knowing the whole Truth (even the parts that don’t seem important) into words. I’m not looking for platitudes, I need some responses that go deeper. Thanks.

 

[JNdoum]

For me personally, who was raised a non-denominational Protestant and went through a period of agnosticism and atheism before I converted to Catholicism, I thought knowing the whole truth was important because we are, when apart from God, truly more sinful than we know. Even practically speaking, we never know just how bad the things that we do are. For instance, when you say something unkind to someone, you really have no idea how much harm you have done to that person. The evil you have wrought in his or her life could run much deeper than you could ever be aware of. I feel and felt that if I knew the whole truth, and possessed the whole truth, I would be better able to avoid harms I would not have noticed otherwise, to myself and others, and to be able to make amends and repent for harms I committed unintentionally. I don’t know if that really makes sense, or conveys what I’m trying to say, but I hope it’s helpful. Please note that I’m not really trying to say that there could be a whole bunch of sins we’re doing that we have no idea about, and we should always worry about them or anything. I’m just trying to say that if you don’t know the truth, you can’t really be sure if you’re lying, so it’s best to know it, or something like that. I hope that made sense.

 

[thewanderer]

Ok, first off, I think you’re going to have to admit his point, at least in part.

noone here on earth can know the full truth, that is impossible, so to a certain extent, knowing the whole truth isn’t important. That is, insofar as we are unable to its ok if we dont. Also, the fact that people can get to heaven without the full truth is something which must be acknowledged as true.

However, having said that, if one is on the right path, desiring to come closer to christ and to know and love him better, than one should at least desire to know the full truth for our Lord has said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” Christ himself is the Truth. If they have problems with this, wanting to differentiate the “Truth of Christ” from “other truths” you can point out that in knowing about what happens to us after death we learn more about Christ, the God who has arranged it to be so. One’s desire to know more about Christ and to come to love Him better ought to lead naturally to a desire to understand and to know more fully.

 

[Nate13]

For me personally, who was raised a non-denominational Protestant and went through a period of agnosticism and atheism before I converted to Catholicism, I thought knowing the whole truth was important because we are, when apart from God, truly more sinful than we know. Even practically speaking, we never know just how bad the things that we do are. For instance, when you say something unkind to someone, you really have no idea how much harm you have done to that person. The evil you have wrought in his or her life could run much deeper than you could ever be aware of. I feel and felt that if I knew the whole truth, and possessed the whole truth, I would be better able to avoid harms I would not have noticed otherwise, to myself and others, and to be able to make amends and repent for harms I committed unintentionally. I don’t know if that really makes sense, or conveys what I’m trying to say, but I hope it’s helpful. Please note that I’m not really trying to say that there could be a whole bunch of sins we’re doing that we have no idea about, and we should always worry about them or anything. I’m just trying to say that if you don’t know the truth, you can’t really be sure if you’re lying, so it’s best to know it, or something like that. I hope that made sense.

I think you have some good thoughts here and its along the lines I was looking for. This kind of plays under the whole idea of we have a responsibility to seek the Truth so we can better live out our lives and avoid sins. In other words not knowing something isn’t wrong doesn’t necessarily mean your not at all responsible if you do it.

The thing is this is easy to explain to someone when you can quickly point like you did to the potential harm that could come down the road because of your failings.

But I’m trying to figure out how to explain why its important to know the Truth regarding whether Purgatory exists for example. Another example would be regarding the Eucharist. They believe that there is more to the Eucharist than it just being a symbol, and believe it is an incredibly important avenue of grace. On the flip side though, they don’t really worry about how the bread and wine have this mystical transformation… Questions like: “Can anyone perform this transformation or does it have to be through your pastor?” or “does it matter what we do with the leftover bread and wine that have been transformed afterwards i.e does it deserve a certain amount of respect?”

Basically I’m struggling to put to words why these supposedly “little Truths” are practically important.

 

[fred_conty]

The whole truth is quite helpful and some cases very necessary.

Purgatory is one. When non-catholics attend catholic funerals, especially one of my own family, the thought never fails to cross my mind, "if they knew the truth of what I know about purgatory, they would be so helpful right now by praying for the relief of the deceased sufferings in purgatory. How aweful that the friend or relative they so much admired and liked in this life they can’t help because they don’t have the truth about purgatory.

And I think, “what would their reaction be if our dear Lord suddenly showed them what they could have done for that person if they had only known.” What a shame and I truely feel sad for them and for the deceased whom I love since they can know and experience thru prayer a union with them even in the next world. But this also means they have to know the truth about the communion of saints, the interrelationship and connection between all the members of Christ’s church.

It is just plain sad.

But in addition, non-catholics attending the funeral will be someday in the same predicament as the deceased since they too when they die will not have anyone to pray for them. Then, they too will wish they had known the truth so that their purgatorial sufferings could be helped.

This is the consequence of not knowing the whole truth.

In this context and others, “one church is as good as another?” is not the whole truth.

I don’t know if this will help because this is not a little truth but a quite important one to everyone who knows the truth.

I might also add, the church has set up various prayer groups for the deceased for those who want to belong so that even after death these groups continue to pray for its members.

There are religious groups that also lay emphasis on praying for those in purgatory, in addition to the lay people, some of which are right here on CAF.

The catholic church all over the world, also prays for its deceased members and has a special day set up Nov. 1, all souls day, to dedicate as a prayer day for the deceased in purgatory.

The church also has given certain prayers and good deeds the power to remit all or some of the suffering of those we love in purgatory.

In this context and others, “one church is as good as another?” is not the whole truth.

And there are so many more truths in this same position of not being known or understood that are being wasted because whole or partial truth factor.