Your
Brother Daniel
For
more great blogs as this one go to Daniel’s Blog site at: www.Mannsword.blogspot.com
Loving God with all of our Minds
Do
we need evidence in order to believe? Perhaps not initially! However, Paul
admonished the church to grow into mature thinking (1 Cor. 14:20). Peter
claimed that we had to be able to provides reasons for the hope that we have in
Jesus (1 Peter 3:15). Jude wrote that we have a responsibility to defend the
faith (Jude 3). While our personal testimony is a great place to begin, a
defense requires far more than this.
If
we are going to live a confident and vibrant Christian life, we too need to
mobilize our God –given minds in service of our God-given Gospel. John the
Baptist, arguably Israel’s greatest prophet, needed evidence about Jesus after
he had been thrown into prison.
He therefore sent his disciples to Jesus to ascertain whether or not He was the promised Messiah. Instead of sending John’s disciples back to John with the message, “Just tell John to believe!” Jesus told them to relate the evidence of the miracles they had seen to John (Mat. 11).
He therefore sent his disciples to Jesus to ascertain whether or not He was the promised Messiah. Instead of sending John’s disciples back to John with the message, “Just tell John to believe!” Jesus told them to relate the evidence of the miracles they had seen to John (Mat. 11).
John needed the evidence to revive his
faith even though He was the one who had insisted that Jesus is the Messiah:
·
"Behold,
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! "This is He on behalf
of whom I said, “After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He
existed before me.” (John 1:29-31)
Jesus’ disciples also needed evidence
after the crucifixion, and Jesus provided it:
·
To
these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing
proofs, appearing to them over a
period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom
of God. (Acts 1:3)
However,
we tend to associate piety with an unwillingness to pursue and evaluate the
evidence. Atheist turned Christian, J. Warner Wallace, contradicts this errant
belief:
·
Sadly,
I also find most Christians believe what they believe without assessing the
evidence. In fact, I often have to make a case for case making! Many of my
Christian brothers and sisters are quick to express appreciation for my visit,
but are also eager to tell me they didn’t need any evidence in the first place.
Some have been Christians all their lives, many believe the Holy Spirit has
spoken to them, and others have simply become comfortable in the Christian
community. All of these dear brothers and sisters have faithfully trusted Jesus
for their salvation, but most are unable to defend what they believe (or how
they came to their belief) when approached by aggressive skeptics.
·
Many
Christians believe true faith is independent of evidence. Who needs
faith if we have enough evidence to make the case? But Jesus seemed to hold
evidence in high regard. He repeatedly offered evidence of His miracles to
verify His identity, and He told His observers this evidence was sufficient
(see John 5:36, John 10:37-38, and John 14:11).
We are required to love God with all of
our minds:
- And
He [Jesus] said to him, "'You
shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your mind.'” (Matthew 22:37)
When we reject this command, we reject
God’s grace and calling. We also condemn ourselves to mediocre, defensive
Christian lives.
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