The ability of human intellect is not a byproduct of matter, time and chance through evolutionary process as Atheists and Rationalists blindly believe but a gift inherently given to us by our Creator.
We not only have the ability to think but to think about our thinking౼what we think, why we think and how we think౼as well! It is the faculty of reasoning that helps us think right. Reasoning is a tool for understanding. But for this ability humans could not have achieved what they have achieved today. Reason is not against faith, as many opine. In fact, true faith is always reasonable*. The ability of rational thinking is intrinsic to the image of God, a unique privilege of every human being.
The Bible in its pages has given enough space to emphasise the importance of intellect and reasoning in a believer’s life. When God had given the task of cultivating the ground and naming the animals to Adam in the Garden of Eden he was expected to harness this God-given ability in doing so. Like wise, Noah tapped this ability when he was commanded to build an ark to escape the Great Flood, Joseph in developing a strategy for Egypt’s calamity, Moses (following Jethro’s advice) in leading Israelites, Joshua in spying and building war strategies, David while killing Goliath the giant, Solomon while making judgements as a king, Nehemiah while rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, etc.
Christ in His incarnation utilised His human intelligence for the glory of His Father and for the blessing of His people. The Gospel of Luke reports, “He grew in wisdom”. Jesus exercised His creative intelligence as a carpenter in making woodworks and His reasoning ability as a teacher in all His discourses and debates. The Bible exhorts us to love, serve and worship our Lord “with all our minds” (Deu. 6.5 & 11.13, Mark. 22.30, Rom.12.1-2). Paul reasoned with both Jews and Gentiles while preaching Christ crucified.
Throughout the Church history, church fathers and theologians like Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther and John Calvin stand to reason in deriving and defending Christian doctrine.
Yet, Christians today gave in to emotionalism, the latest scheme of the Devil. Today, our sermons, youth worship, gospel preaching, and even our repentance in the so called revival meetings are dominated or manipulated by emotionalism. Emotions in themselves aren’t bad (because they are also God-given) but they can be deceptive and disastrous when they are used without applying thought. After The Great Awakening, John Wesley warned the church leaders and pastors about this. His words were prophetic but the Church did not heed to his pleas. Today, we are reaping the consequences.
When Christians neglect the intellectual rigor and lack interest in harnessing their reasoning capacity in the spiritual realm it’s easy for the Devil to deceive them. Which is why we have so many false teachers/teachings in and around the church today. We gave them a foothold and they have built strongholds in our midst. “Intellectual laziness is sin”, remarked Dr.A.W.Tozer. No doubt, many of us are guilty of this sin. Apostle Paul predicted this trend beforehand (2 Tim.4.3-4, cf.Eph.4.11-15) and it is up to us to take his warnings seriously lest we may fall prey to the hungry wolves around us.
© prakash gantela | E-1
*We shall deal with this subject in detail in the coming episodes