More questions than answers

Two things pop to mind.

First, in Matthew 22:37 when asked about the greatest commandments, Jesus is recorded as saying, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ It seems that we delight in the first two but tend to gloss over the third. When the students were sharing in chapel today, I couldn’t help but think of this scripture and how it appears to be a requirement rather than a suggestion. I may be out of line but I rather suspect that He takes no delight in intellectual laziness. Having said that, I cannot lay the blame solely at the feet of today’s young (and older) generation. Sadly, since the mid-19th century when Christendom had no immediate response for the new scientific thinking of the day (Darwinism et al), we put our emphasis in faith based on personal experience rather than sound doctrine and intellectual rigour. So we have come about our ignorance of reasons for faith quite honestly. By the way, please understand that I am not opposed to experience and relationship (indeed it is at the top of my list of desires for myself and my students) but without an intelligent, thoughtful, serious challenge to the prevailing secularisms of the day, we have no right to the marketplace of ideas. These are our leaders of the future. What shall we do BUT equip them as best we can?

Second, Steven C. Meyer has said, “The heart cannot exult in what the mind rejects.” Personally, I know this to be true, once being a self-proclaimed atheist and hater of every mindless Christian. (In my late teens I was convinced of Darwinism and fully believed that to be a Christian one had to commit intellectual seppuku. Okay, so I know better now.) However, I believe that at some point every student, every Christian with a shred of intellectual integrity will be forced to come to grips with the tough questions leveled against Biblical teaching. And as time goes by, we should expect our detractors to become more vociferous in their complaints. Do I have enough understanding to be able to satisfy those issue in my own mind let alone answer?  

Interview with Steven C. Meyer: