Intellectual Faith

Intellectual faith. Umph. Can the two really co-exist? I struggled with this thought for several years. I’ve always been one to support intelligence, especially in the church. In fact, an intellect is the #2 on my Must Have Qualities in a Husband list--lol. I thrive off of folk who challenges my mind. I’m a thinker by nature and so it is only natural for me to approach every situation with careful thought and reason. But if we’re living in Christ do we need to be intellectual? Or should I say….apply our intellect to our faith? About a year or so ago I got the answer.

This morning I got up early to take my car in to be serviced. And since I was about an hour earlier than normal getting dressed, I stumbled across a Christian program that I wasn’t familiar with. Basically, the program had to do with leaning on one’s own understanding. And so what the facilitator did was ask a series of questions in which the participants were instructed to answer using their own logic. But when the facilitator gave the correct answers most of the participants were shocked because “leaning on their own quick logic” gave them incorrect responses. It was questions as simple as……. “How many of each animal did Moses take on the Ark?” The facilitator’s point was that because our minds are naturally programmed to think and focus in a certain way making decisions solely on our own mental ability could adversely affect our lives.

Ironically, over the last few months I’ve been seeing a quite a few ministries that are leaning towards teaching intellectual faith. I’d like to think that churches that are incorporating this into their congregations are just merely promoting increased knowledge, but those pastors who are deep thinkers…..well they know what they're doing. I’ve known of several church pastors and leaders who study and apply methods from philosophers such as Edgar Cayce and Josia Royce and Sigmund Freud and many others. But many are developing their own individual philosophies based on their personal thoughts and beliefs.

Just a few weeks ago, I stumbled across a prominent pastor’s blog and what he’s doing is spreading the message to his congregation that they must approach the Word of God intellectually. I’m not sure he got the full understanding of what intellectual faith is, but since its all a trick of the mind its not surprising that it would be confusing to anybody. Ok, let me go back a step or two to explain that intellectual faith is based on evidence. It’s exercising Christianity and Christian beliefs based on evidence.

Ok, so I was reading the pastor’s blog and apparently he has started a movement on preventing HIV/AIDS by supporting and embracing individual sexual practices. Yes, you heard me right. Men and women. Men and men. Women and women. Men and teens. And probably humans and animals. All sexual practices. Cause there’s no limit to sexual immorality---lol. Basically, his argument is that God made each and every one of us sexual beings and so because “God knew that He made us sexual, He obviously knew that there would be countless sexual practices resulting in HIV/AIDS.” HIV/AIDS is most commonly a sexually-transmitted disease according to countless studies. Not even I would argue that. But what the pastor is saying is that understanding the reality of the outcomes of various sexual acts, the church needs to create and support activities that promote “safe” sexual practices.

Basically, he said that the church should approach the world where they are and not where we think they should be. In exact terms he said…… “we shouldn’t try to pull people up to God, but pull God down to the people according to what’s happening in our society.” LOL. Ok, I’m not going to drive off of my subject because it’s so easy to fall into the content of this paragraph---lol---but what the pastor is advocating is a result of the scripture that says:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. –Romans 12:2

Ok, this pastor’s philosophy on sexual immorality is not my point today. Really, its not—lol. That’s a whole another entry—lol. The point is that what he’s doing is activating his faith based on evidence. I know, I know…..he’s real off. But he is a pastor that stands firm on pushing his congregation intellectually. It’s all over his blog. And he’s not the only one practicing Christianity in this way. This morning I stumbled across a blog that gave an example on intellectual faith. This is what the Christian writer said:

I intellectually believe, by a preponderance of the evidence, that God exists, that the Bible is true, and that Jesus is his Son... How does this affect me? What is faith, as far as it concerns me?

I love the metaphor of a chair... Find the chair closest to you. Look at it closely. Examine its design. Is it structurally sound? Is it sufficiently engineered? Will the materials chosen by the manufacturer support your weight? Most likely, you picked a chair that you believe will support you. That's belief. You applied logic, knowledge and experience to make an informed intellectual decision. Now some will say that if you sat in the chair then that’s faith. That’s intellectual faith.

Oh REALLY???? But suppose I was given a chair that was raggedy and broken down and clearly didn’t look like it could hold MY weight. Would I sit in it?????? Nobody in their right mind would risk sitting in a chair that looked as if it were about to break. But taking the risk is what Christianity is all about. It’s trusting and believing God’s divine authority even when it doesn’t make human sense. That’s what true faith is. I guess the difference is, according to the guy’s example, is that my Christian walk is not based on my choices, but God’s choosing for me. Therefore, I cannot rely on my reasoning, but only on the Holy Spirit to make sound choices for me. Even if it means accepting from the Lord what looks like a raggedy chair. If the Lord says that it would hold me…….then I believe that it would hold me. Not because I saw it hold someone else, but because……..I trust God.

Last year the Lord gave me a revelation that some things have no mental revelation. That some things are only understood by God’s divine purpose and order. And that some things, ok all things, we have to just trust that God got our back even when we don’t understand why and how. That’s faith. Reasoning and logic will cancel faith in God out. Because one cannot practice Theology and Philosophy together.

I guess to sum this up…..it is absolutely impossible to have intellectual faith and faith in God. Because it would clearly be a tuggle between the mind and the Spirit.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. –Hebrews 11:1-3