by Michael Hicks

Created on: January 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

In Scripture, clear parallels are drawn between God and Truth. In Isaiah 45:19, the Lord says that "I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right." In the New Testament, Jesus claims to be "The Way, the Truth and the Life" in John 14:6. In my mind, God and Truth are the same thing, and quite interchangeable. Beauty, then, I believe to be the physical manifestation of Truth.

Something which is True is something which is in accordance with God, that is, perfect. The difference between Truth and fact is a different discussion, but let us assume that, because it was created by God, the Earth and everything in it contains an imprinted reflection of perfect Truth. Let us also assume that, because of the fall and sin entering the world, everything in the world has been in a constant state of decay ever since. So it would follow, then, that if our perception of Truth is derived from nature, then it is an imperfect, distorted view. If this is true, then it also follows that, because Truth in this world is imperfect, then beauty is also. Since God is the archetypal Truth, and Truth is a manifestation of Beauty, then God is also the archetypal Beauty, and, just as things which are in accordance with Him are True, then those same things must be beautiful. In this, both ethical beauty and aesthetic beauty are derived from the same source, because God is both Truthful and Beautiful.
The Greeks were able to perceive that Beauty is derived from a source higher than human beings, but their perception was limited to only distinctly human qualities, and so their gods were merely anthropomorphic projections of their own innate vices and virtues. Plato's theory of the realm of the forms was not too far off from the concept that God is Beautiful and the plane wherein God resides must be the objective standard for the measurement of Beauty.

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