Should people believe the truth?

Yes.

Jesus thinks that if he tells people the truth, they should believe it.

Paul points out that if you think you’re something when you’re not, you’re deceiving yourself. And he presumably thinks that would be a bad thing, or else what would be the point of mentioning it?

Paul also says that people who don’t believe the truth will be condemned, and that people can be saved through belief in the truth.

And he advises Timothy to turn away from ideas that are falsely called knowledge.

No.

Solomon says there is more hope for a fool than for people who are wise in their own eyes. That statement can only be true if the people who are wise in their own eyes are not fools themselves, because if they were, then they would have exactly the same amount of hope as fools. So people who believe they are wise are not fools, and that means their belief that they are wise is correct. And Solomon disapproves of them having that true belief.

He also thinks you shouldn’t pay attention to every word people say, because you might hear your servant cursing you. If you did pay attention, then you would come to believe the truth, that your servant hates you, and then you would be able to do something about it. But “wise” Solomon thinks you shouldn’t do that, for some reason. He thinks you should be willfully ignorant, and avoid learning the truth.

Like Solomon, Isaiah thinks it’s bad for people to be wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Never mind the fact that they could be right about that. Isaiah wants everyone to think they’re stupid, no matter what. He doesn’t want smart people to believe the truth.

Paul describes a situation where two people have opposing beliefs, so one of them is definitely wrong. So how does Paul recommend fixing the problem that someone has a false belief? He doesn’t. Instead, he says each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind of what they already believe. Including the one who believes something that is false.

Knowledge is a type of true belief. And Paul denounces knowledge in general, saying it just puffs you up, rather than building you up.

Even in the same sentence where he says people will be condemned for not believing the truth, Paul also says that God sends people a powerful delusion so that they will believe a lie. God clearly does not want people to believe the truth.

And the book of Hebrews states that a lot of people in the Old Testament were commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. These people are being commended for believing false promises.

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