For many years modern evangelicals have been instructed that because philosophy is vain they ought to leave their minds on the doorstep as entering church. This is a gross misapplication of the Scriptures. Jesus surmises the whole Law and Prophets by saying that we ought to "love the Lord thy God with all of thy heart, and with all of thy soul and with all of thy mind" ( Matthew 22:37). We are to love God with all of our minds too. This means we should not leave our intellect on the doorstep of the church. Rather, one of the very essences in which we are to love our Creator is with our mind or intellect. This, however, means hardwork. To love God with all of your mind means that we are to excercise our reasoning and bring it under the obedience of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). In fact, all thoughts are to be brought under the authority and to the glory of our ascended Savior. Paul warns us in Colossians 2:18; "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after
Christ." Note that we are not warned against all philosophy, but rather against a type thereof. In fact Paul states that we ought to follow a Christ centred philosophy. So what is philosophy? The Princeton Wordnet tells us it is; "a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group
or school ." In other words someone's philosophy is their worldview, it answers questions like how do we know what we know (i.e. epistemology ), ethics and everything else.
All false beliefs use bits and
pieces of the truth and then ultimately and vainly deny the truth
itself. Christians do not need to leave their mind at the door of
church. All Christians have been given the ability to think rationally
and logically and therefore we are not to be foolish in answering
objections to the truth of Christianity. At the same time we must be
equipped or ready to answer objections by revealing the spiritual
foolishness of the objections raised (Pro 26:4-5). Christians need to be
willing to gain understanding, knowledge and wisdom through starting
with the fear of God, which is to hate evil (Pro 8:13). In Christ we are
more than conquerors. Know and understand that Biblical epistemology is
the only theory of knowledge that makes sense of every experience in
life. The Christian can confidently explain universal principles,
evil/good, logic, deduction, etc if he believes in the authority of the
Scriptures - Epistemology - say what?
For many years modern evangelicals have been instructed that because philosophy is vain they ought to leave their minds on the doorstep as entering church. This is a gross misapplication of the Scriptures. Jesus surmises the whole Law and Prophets by saying that we ought to "love the Lord thy God with all of thy heart, and with all of thy soul and with all of thy mind" ( Matthew 22:37). We are to love God with all of our minds too. This means we should not leave our intellect on the doorstep of the church. Rather, one of the very essences in which we are to love our Creator is with our mind or intellect. This, however, means hardwork. To love God with all of your mind means that we are to excercise our reasoning and bring it under the obedience of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). In fact, all thoughts are to be brought under the authority and to the glory of our ascended Savior. Paul warns us in Colossians 2:18; "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after
Christ." Note that we are not warned against all philosophy, but rather against a type thereof. In fact Paul states that we ought to follow a Christ centred philosophy. So what is philosophy? The Princeton Wordnet tells us it is; "a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group
or school ." In other words someone's philosophy is their worldview, it answers questions like how do we know what we know (i.e. epistemology ), ethics and everything else.
