What does Tribe teach about truth?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on truth starts with a simple image: a hat rack. Brian Simmons used it to ask one question that runs through everything else. Whatever you believe about any subject, is the hook you are hanging that belief on strong enough to bear the weight of reality? He was careful to make a distinction that most people skip: the most compelling hook is not the same as the most trustworthy one. The principle he kept returning to is that people almost never examine why they believe what they believe. Usually they believe it because their parents did, or because social media made that hook look attractive, or simply because everyone around them is hanging there too.
From that starting point, Brian argued that truth, by definition, has to be objective and transcendent. It is true whether or not anyone believes it or acknowledges it, the way gravity is true. Any belief that is not anchored in something that meets that standard will eventually fail under the weight of real life. As Brian put it, "any belief that we hold that doesn't conform to reality disconnects us from the fabric of God's created order." He drew that out through Isaiah 22 and Ezekiel 15, both of which picture God asking what something is actually made of and whether it can hold what is being placed on it.
The answer the teaching keeps coming back to is Jesus. Brian traced the image of the key of David from Isaiah through to Revelation 3:8, where it is applied directly to Jesus, and connected it to Jesus' own claim in John 14:6. The point was not just that Jesus is a reliable hook among others. It is that he is the one hook whose strength is sourced in transcendent truth itself. Brian said, "God's hook is always the most reliable hook you can ever hang any belief you have in the entire universe." The congregation was also invited to examine what hook they are actually using, including the default hook most people reach for without realising it, which is the hook labeled self.
Taught from Isaiah 22:22-24 · Isaiah 22:25 · John 14:6 · Revelation 3:8 · Ezekiel 15:1-5
“God's hook is always the most reliable hook you can ever hang any belief you have in the entire universe.”
From Hang Your Hat on the Biggest Hook
The passage taught · 1 John 2:15
15 Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- June 17, 2024 Hang Your Hat on the Biggest Hook Brian Hunter uses a coat rack and hats to explore how our beliefs need to hang on hooks strong enough to bear the weight of truth, rooted in God's word.
- June 16, 2024 Hang Your Hat on God's Truth A Wyoming pastor uses a hat rack and a nail in the wall to explore what it means to hang your beliefs on truth that can actually bear the weight.
Mentioned along the way
- June 23, 2024 Sex, Money, and the Bible Brian Hunter uses a hat-rack analogy to explore what we anchor our beliefs about the Bible, money, and sex to, and whether those anchors can actually hold the weight.