stewardship of the mind - evidence for christ conference

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Stewardship of the MindA Christian Argument for Fostering Intellectual Virtue

© 2 0 1 5 T h i r d C o lu m n M in i s t r i e s

The Problem


“There is no longer a Christian mind.”

- Harry Blamires

“Christians view humble

ignorance as being more

noble than a cultivated

mind.”

Richard Hofstadter Anti-

intellectualism in

American Life


The Battlefield

“…thought control, as conducted through the agency of the national media

and related elements of the elite intellectual culture.”

Noam Chomsky, Necessary Illusions, Thought Control in Democratic Societies


"The battle for humankind's

future must be waged and won in the public school

classroom...between the

rotting corpse of

Christianity...and the new

faith of humanism.

Humanism will emerge

triumphant."

• John Dunphy; The

Humanist;

January/February, 1983


College is a battlefield of ideas

FreeRepublic.com


College is a battlefield of ideas

FreeRepublic.com

“[Professors] are rightfully

unimpressed with the inability of

most Christian students to

defend their beliefs.” Frank Turek


Recent Studies

• Percentage of students leaving the faith while in college

61%

Barna

Study

2006

66%

Assemble

of God

Study

70%

LifeWay

Research

2007

88%

SBC

Family

Life 2002

35%Return to

faith later


Not Equipped

• “…it’s not so much that Christian minds are lost at college —it’s that Christian minds rarely get to college. They rarely get to college because many parents and churches emphasize emotion and ignore the biblical commands to develop the mind, which means that most kids skip off to college equipped with nothing more than feel-good emotionalism.”

• Frank Turek

• “A tepid Christianity cannot withstand a rabid secularism.”• Ravi Zacharias


How did this come about?


1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

German

Higher

CriticismHume

Kant

On the

Origin of

Species

Revivalist movements of the

1730s-1750s and the 1800s

Puritans

Edwards

Mather

Harvard


“Thou shalt love the Lord

thy God with all thy

heart, and with all thy

soul, and with all thy

strength, and with all thy

mind”

Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27

Heart

Mind

Soul


1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

German

Higher

CriticismHume

Kant

On the

Origin of

Species


1730s-1750s and the 1800s

Puritans

Literacy Rate

89%-95%

Edwards

Mather

Harvard

Puritans focus on

intellect, spiritual

and emotional

Puritans

build some

of the finest

colleges

Newton

Jonathan

Edwards


1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

German

Higher

CriticismHume

Kant

On the

Origin of

Species


1730s-1750s and the 1800s

Puritans

Focus on

Experience

Edwards

Mather

Harvard

Education started to focus on

specific disciples – science

divorced from theology

Theology separated form other

disciplines and intellectual pursuits

were abandoned

Newton

Great Awakening

George Whitefield


Legacy of the 1800’s revivals“But their overall effect was to overemphasize immediate personal

conversion to Christ instead of a studied period of reflection and

conviction; emotional, simple, popular preaching instead of

intellectually careful and doctrinally precise sermons; and personal

feelings and relationship to Christ instead of a deep grasp of the

nature of Christian teachings and ideas.”

J. P. Moreland, Love God With All Your Mind, pg 23

“Anti-intellectualism was a feature of American Revivalism.”

George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture, 1980

pg. 212


1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

German

Higher

CriticismHume

Kant

On the

Origin of

Species


1730s-1750s and the 1800s

Puritans

Edwards

Mather

Harvard

Secular subculture

in academics

Science and

Religion seen at

odds

Draper &

White

A History of the Warfare of

Science with Theology in

Christendom (1869-96)

A History of the Conflict

between Religion and

Science (1874)

Newton

Draper

White

Darwin


1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

German

Higher

CriticismHume

Kant

On the

Origin of

Species


1730s-1750s and the 1800s

Puritans

Focus on

Experience

Edwards

Mather

Harvard Draper &

White

Jehovah's Witnesses

Mormonism

Newton


1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

German

Higher

CriticismHume

Kant

On the

Origin of

Species


1730s-1750s and the 1800s

Puritans

Edwards

Mather

Harvard Draper &

White

Newton

Today

??????????


1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

German

Higher

CriticismHume

Kant

On the

Origin of

Species


1730s-1750s and the 1800s

Puritans

Edwards

Mather

Harvard Draper &

White

Newton

Today’s Cultural

Perception

Science = Fact

Religion = Myth

People look to science

for issues of morality.

Example: Darwinism

plays a strategic part in

rationalizing eugenics,

euthanasia, infanticide,

abortion, Marxism,

relativism, and genocide.


Impact

• Intellectually shallow, theologically illiterate form of Christianity. (Anti-intellectualism)

• Believers grew suspicious of intellectual issues altogether.

• Birth of Mormonism (1830).

• Birth of Jehovah’s Witnesses (1884).

• Philosophies critical of religious thought, especially from Europe (Immanuel Kant & David Hume) went unanswered.

• Darwinian Evolution made the world safe for Atheists.

• Growth of scientism.


Secularization’s Influence On Culture

• Darwinism plays a strategic part in rationalizing eugenics, euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, Marxism, relativism, and genocide.

• "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


Influence on culture

• America is secularized politically and intellectually.

• Not all the way down to the level of the guy on the street.

• Secular subculture in American education system, mass media and upper echelons of legal system.

• "they are very influential, as they control the institutions that provide the 'official' definitions of reality.“ Peter Berger


Influence in the Church

1. A misunderstanding of faith's relationship to reason.

2. The separation of the secular and the sacred.

3. Weakened world missions.

4. Anti-intellectualism has spawned an irrelevant gospel.

5. A loss of boldness in confronting the idea structures in our culture with effective Christian witness.


Where are we today in the Church?

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

• A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.

• God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

• The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

• God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

• Good people go to heaven when they die.


Where are we today?

“…it is not so much that US Christianity is being secularized. Rather more subtly, Christianity is either degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith."


The Double-minded Person


“Jesus is

God”

“Everyone's

morals are

equally

valid”

What would

follow if

Christianity is

true?

What would

follow if

Christianity is

not true?

How does our view of reality influence

our decisions and actions?


“Jesus is

God”

“Everyone's

morals are

equally

valid”

Private life Public life

People try to compartmentalize their lives.

We act one way at work, another at school,

another at work, and another way at home.


“Jesus is

God”

“Everyone's

morals are

equally

valid”


"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today... is

Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the

door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is simply what an

unbelieving world finds unbelievable."

Lyrics from DC Talk "What if I Stubble"


“Jesus is

God”

“Everyone's

morals are

equally

valid”


Moral Confusion


“Jesus is

God”

“Everyone's

morals are

equally

valid”


Moral Confusion

Psalm 119:113

“I hate double-minded

people, but I love your

law.”

James 1:8

“…he is a double-

minded man, unstable in

all his ways.”


How do we fix this?


Mind

Fix these words of mine in your

hearts and minds

Deuteronomy 11:18

Do not be conformed to this age,

but be transformed by the renewing

of your mind, so that you may

discern what is the good, pleasing,

and perfect will of God.

Romans 12:2


Finally, brothers and sisters,

whatever is true, whatever is

noble, whatever is right, whatever

is pure, whatever is lovely,

whatever is admirable--if anything

is excellent or praiseworthy--think

about such things.

Philippians 4:8


“The mind, not the Bible, is the very first line of

defense God has given us against error.” … “In

order to understand the Bible accurately, our

mental faculties must be intact and we must use

them as God intended.” … “What is the tool we

use in our observations of the world that helps us

separate fact from Fiction? That tool is reason,

the ability to use our minds to sort through

observations and draw accurate conclusions

about reality. Rationality is one of the tools God

has given us to acquire knowledge.”

- G. Koukl, Tactics pg. 32


Stewardship of the Mind

• Is stewardship only related to money?

• “The responsible use of resources, esp. money, time, and talents, in the service of God.” (OED)

• The Parable of the Talents - Matthew 25:14-30

• Your intellect is one of the greatest gifts from God

• How should we use our intellects?

• Should we increase it for His kingdom?

• Steward = Responsibility

And now you know about

your

responsibility


Start with reading

• Reading requires interaction.

• Media is more passive and does not require interaction.

• Media makes fewer demands it breeds passive participation, short attention spans, instant gratification.

• All truth is God’s truth.

• Must read with discernment. In light of the Christian worldview.

• "I knew I had to out-think those who were challenging my faith; and to out-think them, I knew I had to out-read them." - James E. White


Reading, it’s your choice

• Choosing to read• Available to everyone, it is a matter of choice

• May not be easy, difficult to change old habits

• What to read• Widely read v. well read

• What is better, reading a lot of garbage or few excellent works

• Not unlimited time need to be selective

• It is like a diet, junk food verses nutritious food

• The Bible is foundational for your diet (For the renewing of your mind)


Your armoryclaustrum sine armario est quasi

castrum sine armamentario

A monastery without a

library [sine armario] is like

a castle without an armory

[sine armamentario]

- Norman Monk 1170 AD


Discipleship of the Mind

• Barna Group Study (David Kinnaman)

• More than 50% of the 18- to 29-year-olds in the church aspire to careers in science and technology.

• Only 1% of young adult pastors/leaders ever address science in their teaching.

• We need to address the typical “apologetics” issues as part of church programs


Discipleship of the Mind

• “The state, condition, or fact of being a pupil, follower, or adherent of any teacher, leader, doctrine, etc.; the position of a pupil, or follower.” OED

• We need to train people to think with a Christian worldview

• Classes

• Sermons

• Small Group Studies

• Integrated into all aspects of the local Church

• Training people up includes training the intellect


“In their uncompromising determination to proclaim

truth, Christians must avoid the intellectual flabbiness

of the larger society. They must rally against the

prevailing distrust of reason and the exaltation of the

irrational. Emotion, self-indulgence and irrationalities

have always been the enemies of the gospel, and

the apostles warned their followers against them.”

- Herbert Schlossberg


Resources


Recommended Books to Start With

More at http://www.thirdcolumnministries.org/Pages/Stewardship-of-the-Mind.aspx


Thank you for participating!

• Question?

• Contact us: www.ThirdColumnMinistries.org

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