Don’t just assume! Think it through! |
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It’s funny how we seldom question our assumptions. I once read of this trick: Challenge your friend to button up his shirt in only 15 seconds. If he takes up your challenge, chances are he will quickly button the top button, and then swiftly finish off the others, right down to the last with seconds to spare. You will ruin his triumphant smile, however, when you announce, “I’m sorry, but you lose. You buttoned down your shirt; I wanted you to button it up!”
Do we approach the Bible with unquestioned assumptions? Surely we do. Many of these assumptions we inherited from from one spiritual ancestor or another. They taught us either to respect the Bible as God’s Word or to treat it flippantly with no Each one of us must decide, Is the Bible truly what it claims to be—-God’s Message to humankind? Are its claims about Jesus true? Is this first-century character truly the once-for-all Savior who will return some day to judge the quick and the dead? As Jim Woodroof points out in his book, Between the Rock and a Hard Place, we face a dilemma when it comes to Jesus. The “rock” is the audacious claims He made, such as: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” The “hard place” is the undeniable truth that Jesus was obviously a very good man—unselfish, kind, unswervingly devoted to God. Like two jaws of a vice, the “rock” and the “hard place,” repeated constantly throughout John squeeze us into admitting that we know of no other way of reconciling the two except to take Jesus’ claims as true. He is the unique Son of God. He is the Savior of the World. He has earned the right to be Lord of our lives. But this should not be an unexamined assumption, but a thought-through conclusion unassailable enough to stake one’s entire life on. |
| —Steve Singleton DeeperStudy.com |
Want to go deeper?The Greek verb logizomai ("evaluate, reckon, consider, think") is the word Paul employs in 1 Cor. 13:11 when he contrasts the thinking babies have with that of adults. He uses another word, the noun phrēn, related to a verb meaning "think," to urge the Corinthians to be mature in their "thinking." Paul himself was constantly involved in discussing or disputing with people about Jesus and His resurrection (see Acts 17:2,17; 18:4,19; 19:8-9; 20:7,9; 24:12), in which doubtless he employed logic and reason. The notion that to be spiritual means being led by the heart rather than the head is unbiblical.
J. P. Moreland. Love God with All Your Mind (1997). J. P. Moreland feels that Evangelical Christianity is currently being held captive by a thoroughly modern understanding of Christianity which has diminished our ability to positively affect change in our culture. In other words, we are no longer salty, and cannot (do not) function as the salt of the earth. What does Jesus say about salt that has lost its flavor? It is good for nothing and must be thrown out. Moreland makes a convincing argument that our intellectual capabilities are a large part of our saltiness. Has the modern understanding of Christianity made us flavorless? Is it the strong and deeply held conviction that Christianity is supposed to be anti-intellectual (supra-rational). Moreland examines how pervasive anti-intellectualism was in Christianity during the twentieth century, and he argues that we need to recover true Christian intellect and rationality to once again become salt in this world. Moreland asks several very important questions regarding the relationship of intellect (mind) and faith. Those questions include: Why should the mind matter in Christianity? How can one develop a mature Christian mind? What does a mature Christian mind look like? How can we guarantee a future for the Christian mind? His answers are well-thought out and well-reasoned. They are also informative, and the overall effect is a practical, rational book that teaches us to re-elevate reason to its proper status in the Christian life. After all, Jesus did summarize the law by telling us to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength--and with our mind. Recommended for online reading: A. M. Randolph. "Reason and Faith," lecture I (13-52) in his Reason, Faith and Authority in Christianity: The Paddock Lectures (1902). |
more legitimate claims on our allegiance as Paradise Lost or Canterbury Tales. Either way we have to question those assumptions enough to judge the claims of Scripture on their own merits.
