Love God With All Your Mind Part 4-3
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Part 4-3 in the series. Stewardship of the mind: practical guidance, worldview & apologetics. According to Jesus, the greatest commandment in the Old Testament is: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37-38). How are we to fulfill this commandment, especially the part about loving God with all our mind? Jesus implied that what we think and what we believe is extremely important to God, and being a thinking Christian is a major part of our loving God. Using Dr. J.P. Moreland's book, Love Your God With All Your Mind, this class will explore how we can use our minds to love and glorify God.
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Love God With All Your Mind Part 4-3
- 1. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies
- 2. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies • Is there a God? – No • What is the nature of reality? – What physics says it is • What is the purpose of the universe? There is none • What is the meaning of lie? – There is none • Why am I here? – Just dumb luck • Is there a soul? – Are you kidding? • Is there free will? – Not a chance! • What is the difference between right/wrong, good/bad? – There is no moral difference between them The Atheist's Guide to Reality by Alex Rosenberg
- 3. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies In philosophy, objective refers to existence apart from perception. An object independent of perception does not change with our feelings, interpretations, or prejudices. Applied to moral values; if they are objective, then they are discovered, not invented.
- 4. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies The Universe Next Door, James Sire There are multiple editions out there. I think the 5th is the newest.
- 5. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies James Sire in his book, The Universe Next Door, developed seven questions to help you determine your worldview. 1. What is the Nature of Ultimate Reality? 2. What is the nature of material reality? 3. What is a human being? 4. What happens to a person at death? 5. Why is it possible to know anything at all? 6. How do we know what is right and wrong? 7. What is the meaning of human history?
- 6. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Intellectual Virtues • Intellectual Virtues • Passion for the truth • Passion for holiness, application of truth • Passion for consistency • Compassion for others • In a framework of humility “He [Christ] wants a child’s heart but a grown- up’s head.” C. S. Lewis
- 7. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Intellectual Disciplines • Intellectual Disciplines • Solitude, Silence, Attention • Lateral Thinking • Prayer • Create good intellectual habits, this is honoring to God • Taking classes, reading books, research • Liberal arts has a place, interdisciplinary reading
- 8. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies A place and time to think • Make a place and time to think • No noise, silence • No interruptions, location is important • No background music • Society, Community, and Groups • Rest • Exercise • Keep a journal, notes, keep notebook around • Set goals
- 9. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Study, Exercise for the Mind “The desire to know, to think clearly, to pursue ideas back to their sources and on toward their implications: this desire should not be difficult for one who is called by God to think.” – James W. Sire Habits of the Mind pg. 132 “If we are to love God adequately with the mind, then the mind must be exercised regularly, trained to acquire certain habits of thought, and filled with an increasingly rich set of distinctions and categories.” J.P. Moreland pg. 105
- 10. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Intellectual Loneliness • “In too many churches, a questing mind can be a plague to its owner. The thinking woman or man seldom gets much support today—and more often than not meets with resistance and suspicion. This is true, not only for those inclined to dig more deeply for a more reasoned, better-founded faith, but for the Christian who is laboring out in the world to resolve debates and value-clashes in fields like social justice, medical research, education, law, and finance. And so the Christian who must use his or her mind, because they are driven by the joy of using it, can exist in an odd, ambivalent relationship with his brothers and sisters in Christ. This should not be.” - David Hazard
- 11. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Resistance and Suspicion • “In too many churches, a questioning mind can be a plague to its owner. The thinking woman or man seldom gets much support today – and more often than not meets with resistance and suspicion.” • “According to the Bible, developing a Christian mind is part of the very essence of discipleship unto the Lord Jesus.” • “[God] does not love intellectuals more than anyone else. But it needs to be said in the same breath that ignorance in not a Christian virtue if those virtues mirror the perfection of God’s own character.” J. P. Moreland, Love Your God With All Your Mind
- 12. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Resistance • “If anything, the pressures against using the mind carefully, honestly and faithfully as an essential aspect of the Christian’s calling are stronger now than ever before.” Mark Noll (J. Stott 2006, 8)
- 13. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies “…contrary to popular opinion, Christians are not supposed to “just have faith.” Christians are commanded to know what they believe and why they believe it. They are commanded to give answers to those who ask (1 Peter 3:15), and to demolish arguments against the Christian faith (2 Cor. 10:4-5). Since God is reasonable (Isa. 1:18) and wants us to use our reason, Christians don’t get brownie points for being stupid. In fact, using reason is part of the greatest commandment which, according to Jesus, is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 33:37). - Norman Geisler & Frank Turek pg 29
- 14. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies What is faith? 1. A decision to believe something independent of reason (Reason and Faith have no relationship). 2. A decision to believe while ignoring the lack of evidence (Blind belief). 3. A decision to believe in spite of the evidence to the contrary (Belief in opposition to evidence). 4. A decision to believe because we have a reason to believe (Faith based on reason).
- 15. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Thomas Aquinas • By reason alone we can know of God. • In fact we can know there is one and only one God. • No need for special revelation. • By Faith we can know Christian doctrine. • We can learn of Divinity of Jesus, Trinity, Redemption etc… • Through special revelation, (Bible and Tradition). • All truth is harmonious. • If our Faith and Reason are correct. • There will be no conflict between what faith tells us and what reason tells us. Professor Thomas Williams, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
- 16. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Apologetics Removing Obstacles Jesus Intellectual Barriers Emotional Barriers Spiritual Barriers Unbeliever
- 17. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies The Church in an Age of Crisis The failure of the Church to cultivate an intellectual tradition has lead the Church not to engage the culture for Christ.
- 18. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Media • Supersaturation (much knowledge, little wisdom) Chapter 16, The Church in an Age of Crisis, James E. White • Media use and abuse Chapter 17, The Church in an Age of Crisis, James E. White • Shallow News, No substance, bias, shape opinion rather than inform, Chapter 18-19 The Church in an Age of Crisis, James E. White
- 19. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Resources
- 20. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Recommended Books to start with
- 21. ©2015 T hird Colum n Ministr ies Thank you for participating! • Register for future sessions • Suggest future topics • Be a guest speaker www.thirdcolumnministries.org/the-forum
Editor's Notes
- Stewardship of the Mind A Christian Argument for Fostering Intellectual Virtue
- Five Groups of Virtues: “The first group contains truth seeking, honesty and wisdom. . . . .even if that truth is not what one wanted to hear. . . . . to know and to do the truth. . . . . in a certain sense the believer’s commitment to the truth is even more basic than his or her dedication to the Christian faith in general or some doctrinal position in particular. If one came to believe that Christianity or some doctrinal belief were false, then one ought to give up the belief in question. “ P. 106 “Honesty. . . . proportion our degree of belief to the degree for which we have grounds for accepting it. . . . . If you believe something, you must be at least slightly more certain that it is true than you are that it is false. . . . your certainty about the belief can grow. . . . we should be honest with ourselves about the strength of our various beliefs and work on strengthening them by considering the issues relevant to their acceptance.” P. 107 “God is not honored when His people use bad arguments for what may actually be correct conclusions. . . . rejecting certain arguments is not the same as rejecting a conclusion.” P. 107 “Wisdom . . . . involves knowing how to use good means to accomplish worthy ends in a skillful manner. “ P. 108 2nd group: Faith (trust) and hope. “One must have peace and serenity of mind in order to develop a life of understanding, reflection and meditation. . . . . We Christians trust and hope that truth is good and worth having because we are confident in the God of truth. . . . . truth is a valuable thing to have because it is ultimately good. A confident mind is a mind free to follow the truth wherever it leads.” P. 108 “A lack of faith and hope creates a distracted mind incapable of intellectual growth and devotion to God. Noise and busyness can rob one of serenity of mind as well. If you truly desire to develop a Christian mind, then you must squarely face this fact: The mind cannot grow without reflection and meditation on what has been studied, and reflection and meditation require periods of quiet and solitude on the one hand and simplicity of life on the other. You must order your life so as to remove as far as possible, given your other commitments, unnecessary modern gadgets and distractions to maintain focus and quiet in your life. . . . . if you can afford it, pay to have your taxes done or your yard mowed.” P. 108-109 “As an application, you may want to draw up a list of ways you can simplify your life and create more time for quiet reflection.” P. 109 (DonH, This is a possible idea for a class activity,) 3rd group: Humility, open-mindedness, self-criticality, and nondefensiveness. “We must be willing to seek the truth in a spirit of humility with an admission of our own finitude; we must be willing to learn from our critics; and we need to learn to argue against our own positions in order to strengthen our understanding of them. . . . . The purpose of intellectual humility . . . . is for you to do anything you can to remove your unhelpful biases and get at the truth in a reasoned way.” P. 109 “When your view is criticized . . . .jot down on paper the person’s main thesis and how that thesis was supported. . . .assume the person is expressing at least some good points and try to identify them. . . . . the search for common ground with intellectual opponents is a good habit. . . . .try to argue against your own view . . . . try to state on paper exactly how you would argue against the view being expressed in an intellectually precise yet emotionally calm way.” P. 109 4th group: Ardor, vigilance and fortitude. “The Christian thinker should be a passionate person filled with ardor, or zeal. . . . . Often a topic of study requires the patient development of a long, complicated chain of arguments before the issue can be understood, and vigilance is needed to see it to completion. An impatient generation looking for instant solutions and quick answers will be a generation of shallow slogans.” P. 109-10 “Fortitude or courage is also needed, and this comes from confidence in God’s providential care for His children, including the availability to comfort them even in the face of martyrdom. The Christian mind requires the courage to face the truth and to stand up for it even when doing so is not popular. Bravery does not imply the absence of fear, but the ability to rise above and not be controlled by it.” P. 110 “A person must have motivation to develop zeal, vigilance, and courage. One of the best ways to gain this motivation is to put yourself in a slightly threatening yet not overwhelming situation in which you must defend your views.” “they realize how ill-prepared they are to articulate and defend their own beliefs.” p. 110 “Final virtue . . .is fidelity to God and dedication to His cause in the world as one’s chief end.” P. 111 See also Chapter 6, Habits of the Mind by James W. Sire
- Study as a Spiritual Discipline: “Dallas Willard defines a spiritual discipline as “an activity undertaken to bring us into more effective cooperation with Christ and His Kingdom. “ p. 111 “Study is a discipline that strengthens the mind and enriches the soul.” P. 111 “Seen as a discipline, study becomes a means of building my character, ingraining habits of thought and reflection, and reinforcing in my own soul the value of the life of the mind.” P. 112 “If all you do is read simple books or those that overemphasize stories or practical application, you’ll never learn to think for yourself as a mature Christian, nor will you develop a trained mind.” P. 112 See also Chapter 7, Habits of the Mind by James W. Sire
- Serious Times by James E. White talks about going off to cabin in the woods (I think it was in this book might be in another one of his like The Church in an Age of Crisis.) I do much of my thinking while I swim
- “Some think faith is opposed to or should be separate from reason. . . . . It is . . . . justified by the idea that a relationship with God is a matter of the heart, not the head. . . . .” but “faith is relying on what you have reason to believe is true and trustworthy.” P. 60
- “Aquinas argued that we can know from reason alone that there is a God and that there is only one God. Any human being -- regardless of the person's religious commitment or lack thereof -- can in principle arrive at these truths by experience and logic alone. Aquinas had a great respect for human reason -- and saw it as compatible with faith (which gives us additional information about God). Faith goes beyond what human reasoning by itself can establish and gives us additional information about God. Faith is reasonable since it involves believing what God has revealed. We can recognize God's revelation by special signs (including things like miracles). By faith, we can know that God came into the world through Jesus Christ and that God is triune (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). These truths about God cannot be known by reason alone. When faith seems to conflict with reason, we must examine both very carefully -- because either we have misunderstood faith or we have misunderstood reason.” - Author and Professor Harry J. Gensler, department of Philosophy John Carroll University - http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/index.htm Additional Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) used the works of Aristotle as his primary philosophical inspiration, developing arguments for the existence of God as well as an account of the powers and limits of human reason in knowing God. After Aquinas's death, some of his views were officially proscribed by the Condemnation of 1277 “Reason and Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages” Professor Thomas Williams, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, University of South Florida http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=4636
- Examples of how we neglect the acquiring of Biblical knowledge (in the church). Moralistic therapeutic deism. Chapter 5: The Church in an Age of Crisis, James E. White
- Supersaturation (much knowledge little wisdom) Chapter 16, The Church in an Age of Crisis, James E. White Media use and abuse Chapter 17, The Church in an Age of Crisis, James E. White Shallow News, No substance, bias, shape opinion rather than inform, Chapter 18-19 The Church in an Age of Crisis, James E. White