“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”-Romans 12:2
Simple to do right? All that’s really necessary for us Christians is to meditate on God’s Word and incorporate it into our lives. But that’s only half the message. Many Christians miss the message that Romans 12:2 is also telling us to intellectually renew our minds. To all my fellow Christians, both spiritually new and old, I must burst your bubble: what are you doing still thinking like an unbeliever? I’m not talking about this in the sense that your mind hasn’t been brightened by Christ, I simply mean that many of us know next to nothing about the many early Christian philosophers, church fathers and theologians. Have many heard of Thomas Aquinas, Origen, Tertullian, Anselm, Saint Augustine of Hippo, or Soren Kierkegaard? Probably not. And it’s unfortunately going to be this way as long as we continue to stay in intellectual neutral. Charles Malik, former Lebanese ambassador to the United States, has probably issued the greatest challenge for Christians to become intellectually engaged. He saw well that the Christian always has two tasks of evangelization: spiritual conversion of the heart and intellectual conversion of the mind. Unfortunately, the church has lagged greatly behind with regards to this second task. We should all heed his words:
“I must be frank with you: the greatest danger confronting American evangelical Christianity is the danger of anti-intellectualism. The mind in its greatest and deepest reaches is not cared for enough. But intellectual nurture cannot take place apart from profound immersion for a period of years in the history of thought and the spirit. People who are in a hurry to get out of the university and start earning money or serving the church or preaching the gospel have no idea of the infinite value of spending years of leisure conversing with the greatest minds and souls of the past, ripening and sharpening and enlarging their powers of thinking. The result is that the arena of creative thinking is vacated and abdicated to the enemy.”
The main problem not just in the church but the schools as well, is that we are living in an atmosphere where truth is regarded as relative. If we apply this ideology to Scripture, we have a recipe for disaster. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Yet how many Christians actually live by that? As John MacArthur stated succintly in his foreword to The Moody Handbook of Theology: “Novelty, human cleverness, and political correctness have been given preference over fidelity to the Bible. Sentimentality and style seem to outweigh the authority of Scripture in the minds of some, including many church leaders. The church in our generation simply does not have the same commitment to sound doctrine that characterized the Reformers and their Puritan heirs.” What Christian these days takes time to learn hermeneutics (proper principles of interpretation), or exegesis? Where are the ones who study Christian philosophy (e.g. God’s omnipotence , omniscience omnipresence, His holiness, etc.), or correct another's bad theology; enhance their poor understanding? The ones who expose works of darkness (Ephesians 5:11)? Where are the Christians who are not "[cheated] through philosophy and empty deceit, which depends on the traditions of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not through Christ" (Colossians 2:8)? Where are the Christian parents intellectually trained in apologetics or any Christian doctrine; who train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6)? How about the Christian who can strongly, philosophically articulate their faith, instead of merely giving opinions? The ones who study Christian ethics and realize that morality is grounded in God, and not secular values? Where are the ones who are made wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15)? Where are the Christian families who realize that their home has no foundation apart from God’s Word? The ones who are eagles and others lions? An honest admission is that they are almost nonexistent.
I honestly find this reality to be a bit disheartening. Even though I was at one point victim of an unsharpened, naive mind, I can’t help but feel and think that we as Christians will make no impact on evangelization if we can’t first acknowledge how desperately our minds need shaping into savvy, sharp swords.
