Is it possible to be a Christian, believe God and still be a thinking person?

Question

Is it possible to be a Christian, believe God and still be a thinking person?

Answer

Christians are often challenged by intellectuals who say that because they believe what the Bible says and not what they have personally deduced from their own logic they do not think for themselves. So the question arises, ‘Is it possible to be a Christian, believe God and still be a thinking person?’

If the only thing we did to find an answer to the question was to look at current and past Christians we would very quickly come to the conclusion that many Christians were men and women with clever minds and high intelligence. While 1 Corinthians chapter 1 states that ‘not many wise men after the flesh’ are called it is clear that God has indeed called the wise as well as ‘the average’. Paul the apostle, an outstanding intellectual of his day, is a case in point as are many of the great scientists of a past generation, Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Alexander Fleming, for example. These men accepted by faith what the word of God said and yet they also exercised their minds to make great discoveries for the benefit of humanity.

The second issue we need to consider is that no one ever became a Christian on account of being intelligent. Salvation is on the basis of faith in what Christ has done, not as a result of self effort (the effort is neither physical nor mental). Christians start from the premise that God is the source of all intelligence, Isa. 40. 13-14, and that He ‘made man in his image’, Gen. 1. 26, and therefore man is an intelligent being. Secondly, we accept that it is the Designer Himself who provides us with the deeper and fuller knowledge of the issues of life and not a lifetime spent in research and the accumulation of knowledge. ‘Canst thou by searching find out God?’ Job 11. 7. We firmly believe that the understanding of spiritual issues is as a result of the working alone of the Holy Spirit in our lives, 1 Cor. 2. 13.

Thirdly, all of the great theories of science and education are based on a specific premise. It is generally accepted that the foundation upon which an argument is built has to be correct if the conclusions are to be correct. Many of the great thinkers of the modern world have thrown away the word of God as a basis for thinking and established their own new framework for their philosophies. Christians, however, have the confidence that they base their beliefs on what God has revealed and as a result the framework will be resilient when tested and scrutinized.

A brief look at some of the major scientific and archaeological discoveries over the centuries provides additional evidence that God had revealed in the Bible great principles long before humans discovered them. Here are a couple of examples:

Science and the Bible - The book of Leviticus, written prior to 1400 BC, describes the value of blood. ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood’, Lev. 17. 11. We now know that the blood carries water and nourishment to every cell, maintains the body’s temperature, and removes the waste material of the body’s cells. The blood also carries oxygen from the lungs throughout the body. In 1616, William Harvey discovered that blood circulation is the key factor in physical life, confirming what the Bible revealed 3,000 years earlier! (Source: Clarifying Christianity SM).

Archeology and the Bible - The Hittites were once thought to be a biblical legend, until their capital and records were discovered at Bogazkoy, Turkey. Many thought the biblical references to Solomon’s wealth were greatly exaggerated. Recovered records showed that wealth in antiquity was concentrated with the king and Solomon’s prosperity became entirely feasible. It was once claimed there was no Assyrian king named Sargon as recorded in Isaiah 20 verse 1 because this name was not known in any other record. Then, Sargon’s palace was discovered in Khorsabad, Iraq. So we can go on, and on, and on. (Source - christiananswers.net).

It should be noted that most of the modern theories which intellectuals refer to are in the ‘nth’ state of revision and that they think nothing of abandoning things that become embarrassing only to embrace yet more new theories and explanations. Are they really as wise as they say they are?

When you got saved you did not switch off your mind! In fact you received an added dimension and an understanding to see things from God’s standpoint. Our challenge is to read the word of God and to think through the issues we face in life in the light of it and to trust it implicitly. Indeed it is possible to be a Christian, believe God and still be a thinking person!