Is it easy to find the truth?

Is it supposed to be easy?

It depends.

Some truth is implanted in your heart. You don’t need to search for it. It is right there.

For example, God wrote the requirements of the moral law on the heart, Paul says (Rom 2:15). In an appendix to C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, he lists some moral values shared across cultures and civilizations. No culture praises cowardice, for example, and all praise bravery.

Another truth is evident from the world around us. For example, according to Rom 1:20, nature reveals the power of God to all men, so they are without excuse.

But what about the gospel? What about the truth about how to be eternally saved? Is it easy to find?

My experience is that it is much, much, harder. There are many competing “gospels” in the world. There are many false teachers and many different versions of what you need to do to be saved.

Samuel Brengle thought you must diligently search for saving truth the way a miner digs for gold:

“The truth that saves the soul is not picked up as we would pick up pebbles along the beach. Rather, it is obtained as gold and silver, after diligent searching and much digging” (Brengle, Helps to Holiness, p. 101).

Solomon expressed this same idea—that you must seek the truth as you would treasure:

Yes, if you cry out for discernment,
And lift up your voice for understanding,
If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,
And find the knowledge of God (Prov 2:3-5 NKJV).

Mining for gold is not easy, especially from the perspective of the ancient world. It is a struggle. It is risky. It involves back-breaking work. How hard are you searching?