Appeared in INTERFACE Jan-Feb 2013 Issue
BY LIM HEOK CHEOW
INTRODUCTION
Our roots had its beginning from the Brethren setup.
We came into Pentecostal experiences in the sixties. FGA Centre was birth in
the eighties and was swept along with the Charismatic brand of theology. I must
state that I am proud of the legacy that I had inherited; the baptism of the
Holy Spirit and speaking in tongue, healing and deliverance. We continue to
hold fast to the authority of the Word of God, the teaching of “the just shall
live by faith”, the priesthood of believers, together with the new found
understanding of faith, spiritual gifts, healing, deliverance and the leading
of the Spirit.
But I have to admit that as I grew up and
answered the call of God for ministry the gnawing feeling deep within me was
that I was uncomfortable with some of the things going on within the Full
Gospel circles. That which unsettled me the most has been the over emphasis of
the leading of the Holy Spirit whereby the mind, reason or the intellect, was
given little place in the understanding of the Word of God. Some of the things
that we could not understand we placed it in the category of the “mystery” of
God yet to be revealed. I was rather disturbed by that. I had always wanted to
really know.
Now I realized that if we were to put our
mind on neutral gear we stop growing spiritually. There needs to be a balance
between the mind and the heart. Someone said that what we really feel in our
heart must first make sense in our mind. Now I understand that it is important
not only to love God with all our heart and soul but also to love him with our
mind – a renewed mind that can reasonably understand the plan and the purposes
of God for mankind.
With that as an introduction I believe that
one of the greatest roles in the pastoral care is to encourage those of us in
the Full Gospel circles to love God with their mind and not fall into
anti-intellectualism.
HISTORY OF
ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM
A brief history of our own movement would help us to
understand why we have gotten to where we are today. Let me reiterate first
that the leaders mentioned are greatly used of God in their time and we saw
tremendous work of the Holy Spirit done through these men but the reality of it
is that in their ministries, their ideas and theology made great and tremendous
impact on the lives of millions of new Christians. R. C. Sproul often said that
ideas have consequences and I firmly believe in that statement.
The Spill Over from
Evangelicalism
Beginning of 1800 most of the churches in the West
underwent radical changes; it started to separate the heart from the head,
faith from reason, experience from logic, believing from thinking, and
intellect from emotion.[1]
Rick Nanez went on to describe this change
as happening to the nineteenth-century evangelicalism:
When
the church separates the head from the heart and reason from revelation, she
becomes guilty of driving an artificial wedge into God’s unified reality. It is
true, of course, that this is the same mistake that was made by those outside
of God’s kingdom. Religion was for the private world of feeling; the mind was
for dealing with the problems of life. Thus, it shouldn’t surprise us to
witness within the church a general confusion about life when she attempted to
carve up God’s reality as the world did. In some respects, therefore, in
forfeiting the honorable origins, definitions, and place of human intellectual
faculties, nineteenth-century evangelicalism (along with fundamentalism and
Pentecostalism later) seems to have actually helped foster the fragmented
worldview that is so prominent today.[2]
Pentecostal-Charismatic believers and/or
Full Gospel churches excel in the devotional, emotional, and the experiential
aspects of their faith but leave much to be desired in the cultivation of the
life of the mind. It will be a pain-taking effort to help her recover from her
comfortable but flawed approach to issues concerning the intellect.
The Swing towards the Things
of the Spirit
I must point out that I am grateful for all the truths
about baptism of the Holy Spirit, using the Spiritual gifts, and the
deliverance ministry. Through these ministries we saw the effectiveness of
bringing people into the kingdom of God yet I have to honestly say that we are
very poor, inadequate to be more correct, in transmitting of doctrines in our
discipleship and spiritual formation.
Somehow we are contended with the present,
which is, the needs of people, and with the future, dwelling on the second coming
of Jesus and forgetting our historical roots. Here, I am not just saying about
the Pentecostal or the Evangelical roots but the Christian historical roots right down to the first century. There
are several things I would like to highlight; while it is good that we want to
flow with the Spirit of God and to move as the Spirit leads us, we must not
neglect in the following areas.
The Neglect We Give to Our Mind
God did not asked us to let our mind die when we
received him as Lord and Savior but instead to renew and transform our mind.
There is therefore a need of using our mental faculty in the working out of our
faith in Christ. I found that most people in our persuasion does not want to
engage with their mind because of a faulty view that to do so would cause doubt
to enter and therefore negate faith; miracles will not happen as a result or
healing will not happen. How naïve is that?
Leaning Heavily on the Supernatural
There is such a leaning towards the supernatural, the
miraculous that to engage with the mind is worldly, to be carnal, and to give
in to the flesh. I find myself struggling with this idea for many years. I
discovered that I needed my mind to comprehend how much God loves me and what I
needed to do in order to receive my miracles or to grow my faith. It is so
strange that many would put their mind on hold believing that they would be
more spiritually in-tune with God. I find nowhere in the scripture suggesting
that to be spiritual we need to stop using our mind but rather on the contrary.
Over Emphasis on the Experiential
Pentecostal prayers can be loud, aggressive, and
expressive. I was brought up to believe that loudness in prayer equates
spiritual strength. We spent lots of time engaging in spiritual warfare;
binding and losing and engaging in spiritual warfare in the heavenlies. I must
say that it is not all futile because there were great results that I had
personally experience in spiritual warfare intercession. I am not discounting
that, I am merely saying that we have swung over to do these things that we
neglect to spend time engaging with our mind - using our mind and intellect to
understand God’s truth line upon line and precepts upon precepts so that we
have answers to every question foisted upon the church.
I am all for a consistent, logical, and
systematic understanding of the doctrine of God, of Christ and of the Holy
Spirit. The Full Gospel churches needed to go beyond the supernatural, the
things of the Spirit, healing and deliverance, the experiential and get down on
really grasping the truths of God and the reality of our dark and gloomy world
and be prepared to give intellectual answers to intellectual questions
regarding faith and God while at the same time be like Paul, demonstrating
through his life and ministry the power of God. Salvation message is not just
demonstrative alone. It needed to be able to clearly explain so that one who
accepts the message did it not only with his heart but also with his mind!
Poor Biblical Hermeneutics by
Leaders of the Full-Gospel Movement
Tracing through the biographical sketch of the leaders
of the Full Gospel movement (the Pentecostal and Charismatic Leaders)
especially in their writings and sermons, we will soon discover that they had a
strong bias against the intellect - using our mind and reasons. Their ministry
focus was emotional based; faith in terms of “total dependence” on the Spirit’s
movement and direction without the aid of reason and common-sense! While I
cannot discount the fact that we need the leading of the Spirit, I strongly
believe that they had more often than not taught against reason in reaction to
the Enlightenment – science, secularism and modernism. Their teaching had great
influence and had shaped many in the Full Gospel circles even till today.
Let me cite some “poor biblical
hermeneutics” that had great implications on the theological mindset of the
majority of Full Gospel’s leaders today.
Anti-Intellectual Biblical Texts
First, we have to deal with the
“anti-intellectual” verses so often quoted in the past and still are today.
These are just the sample of texts used:
For
it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the
intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar?
Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of
the world? (1 Cor. 1:19-20)
Now
about food offered to idols; we know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge
puffs up, but love builds up.
(1 Cor. 8:1)
He
has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of
the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2
Cor. 3:6)
It was interpreted that the “wisdom of the
wise”, “the intelligence of the intelligent” refers to the wisdom of the world.
They promote love above knowledge and quoted Paul as saying that “knowledge
puffs up.” They taught that knowledge kills us spiritually and the only thing
that gives life is the Spirit.
One popular
nineteenth-century preacher said that “educations don’t give a man the power of
the Spirit. It is grace and gifts that furnish the real live coals from off the
altar. St. Peter was a fisherman – Do you think he ever went to Yale College?”[3]
Another
early Pentecostal leader in 1908 said that education is killing Christianity.
He went on to give an example that his uncle was illiterate yet could readily
accept salvation and it was God who taught him to read the Scriptures. Joan of
Arc was quoted to have said, “I don’t think; I leave that to God.” John G. Lake,
another early Pentecostal leader said that “some men have intellectuality but
the Christian is supposed to be the possessor of the Spirit. There should never
be any misunderstanding along these lines.”[4]
Influences of Four Giants of
Nineteenth-Century Evangelicalism
We need to refer to at least four giants of
nineteenth-century evangelicalism of which the Pentecostal-Charismatic and Full
Gospel community came from, to understand how their ideas, their interpretation
of the Scriptures, the way they minister, and their emphasis had greatly
contributed to the erroneous view about cultivating the life of the mind or to
love God with our mind.
Quote from
Rick Nanez again:
Between
1800 and 1900, four of the most notable player in the proliferation of
revivalistic evangelicalism were Peter Cartwright (1785-1872), Charles Finney (1792-1875),
Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899), and Billy Sunday (1862-1935). Together, they enjoy
180 years of ministry in the nineteenth-century. Each has been called the
greatest in his own respect, each contributed to the anti-intellect mood of
their time, and each has also had an effect on the spirit and methodologies of
Pentecostalism.[5]
Basically they have been effectively use by
God in ministry but at the same time they have made statements and energized
the scriptures towards anti-intellectualism, putting down knowledge and
education, and effectively encouraged the believers to do away with Christian
thinking.
LOVE GOD
WITH OUR MIND: SOME HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS
Revisiting Some Biblical
Texts
And
he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first
commandment. - Matthew 22:37-38 (ESV)
Jesus said that the greatest commandment is
to love the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, and our mind. And what
that means is that loving God involves our heart, soul, and mind. It is not
just a case of loving him with our feelings but it must also involves our mind
– really knowing that we truly love him, and our soul – a conscious decision to
do just that.
….
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. - John
8:32 (ESV)
The text says it very clearly that it is in knowing
the truth that the truth will set us free. The question then is free from what?
Knowing the truth will free us from deception and the pernicious lies of the
devil. He is the father of lies and the whole world is in darkness and in
subjection to the deceptive theories and ideas of the devil. It is in knowing
the truth that the truth will set us free. Jesus, at his trial, testified to
the truth – he is the truth. Knowing involves both the head and the heart. We
must not do away with the mind but must work in collaboration with it through
the help of the Holy Spirit and we will not fall into deception. The Holy
Spirit is also known as the Spirit of Truth; one who illumines God’s truth to
us, reveals Jesus the Christ to us.
Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and
acceptable and perfect. - Romans 12:1 (ESV)
It is only when we allow God to renew our
mind that we will begin to discern God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will.
Again we note in the text that transformation has to do with the renewal of our
mind. Then again, renewal gives us the idea of a change, a replacement of
something that is old or unusable. So in a nutshell I get from this text that
Paul was encouraging the Roman believers to discard old thought pattern, wrong
assumptions and presuppositions that had become part of their view of reality
therefore conforming to the world but rather to have a new mindset, a new and
right way of thinking about truth and reality. It is only in such spiritual
exercise of renewing our mind that we can hope to discern any faulty and deceptive
view of reality from the world that is always seeking to win us over. It is in
such active renewal of our mind that we discover the perfect, good, and
acceptable will and purpose of God.
Developing the Life of the
Mind
People who engage in the life of the mind are those
who are prolific readers, who explore new topics, talk to others about what
they are thinking, listening and engaging in discussion. They love to think and
learn. There is an imperative need of the life of the mind for Christians today
especially those from the Full Gospel circles.
My own experience for the last six years
has been one of a journey into the life of the mind as I have ever done before.
The passion for reading, thinking, and talking about ideas and issues became
almost an obsession. But the fact of the matter is that in ensuing this path of
the development of my mind (more so the development of a biblical worldview
about truth and reality) that I finally found answers to a lot of questions of
life, a lot of clarity to my faith, and an intellectual satisfaction at the end
of it.
What I have discovered in this journey is
that knowing God is not just some idea handed down by my parents or a faith
that is mystical but the ability to experience the reality of God’s world through
my mental faculty – something that I was told is more potentially bend towards
evil than good. How wrong I was!! Of course I do enjoy many other things in
life besides reading, thinking and talking about ideas. I do enjoy movies and
music. I agreed with Dr. Williams who wrote in his book, The Life of the
Mind – a Christian Perspective,[6]
that we need a balanced life.
My guiding thought at this moment is this:
What I feel in my heart must first make sense in my mind and vise versa, what I
think about must first resonate with my heart. Why do I have such fervor? Why
do people like to think and learn? A number of reasons lie behind the
motivation to pursue the life of the mind and they go beyond the development of
skills or to enhance job prospects.
Dr. Clifford Williams gave us five reasons[7]
why it is imperative that we develop the life of the Christian mind. He said
that Christians should read and explore areas and issues that are directly
connected to Christian concern but should also engage with topics that are not.
Knowing the way things are
Dr. Williams suggests that people who engages in the
life of the mind finds the passion for knowledge. It is not enough to eat,
sleep, and work; they must also know. It is not obtaining knowledge that is
related to work but more so for the simple fact of wanting to know how things
are – encountering fresh insight into the workings of life and nature. Just
think with me for a moment what this life long pursues of knowledge of God
would result in. For some this is hard work but nevertheless it is worthwhile
for us to develop this habit of the mind.
Making beliefs coherent
We do not like our beliefs to contradict each other.
We feel unsettled if that happens. The discipline of the life of the mind will
help us be consistent and coherent. We also want our beliefs to be unified – to
be focused on a central idea. With such discipline we can discern when new
ideas come our way that does not fit with our current stock of beliefs. We may
not outright reject it but we would certainly reflect, think, and sort it out
first. The desire for coherent – consistency and unity – will steer us
away from the possibility of collision with secular culture. When we are
connected to the basic truths of Christianity which forms our worldview we
avoid being schizophrenic in our thinking.
Dr. Williams explains it this way:
This
drive for coherence is what motivates one to form a worldview. A worldview is a
set of concepts that assembles everything else we believe into a coherent
whole. This set of concepts constitutes the glasses through which we see life.
All that we observe or take in comes through these glasses, unifying everything
around a dominant idea. This dominant idea is, in a way, one’s primary stance
of life – the rock-bottom perspective one takes towards life as a whole.[8]
Obtaining Self-knowledge
The fundamental human impulse is to try to
understand about who we are. We desire to know what kinds of emotion we have
and whether they or reason rule us. We want to know how we fit together with
others in social structures and how we have gotten to where we are. Christians
should have such inclinations to; the desire to know about things with
Christian concerns such as faith and doubt, forgiveness and guilt, grace and
self-justification. We should be drawn to social and cultural self-knowledge
too. We need to be people who engage our mind with issues that confronts us and
to find the answers to how such things works. God has given us the capability
through our mental faculty to think through these things – things that affects
us, things that would challenge us as a Christians.
Sorting through public issues
Many of life’s moral norms are simple and
clear-cut: Love is good; people deserve respect regardless of their looks; we
should not harm others. However, Dr. Williams said that “…public life… is more
complex, and it is less evident how to apply moral norms to it.”[9]
Issue that is pertinent for us to engage in today is the whole concept of
justice; freedom and choice, the public policy, and what the bible has to say
about justice. Such an issue needs us to think, to investigate, and to do
research. We need to talk about it, and preach about it too. Developing the
life of our mind is to use our mind to work through the various implications of
injustices and abuses and to be proactive in our engagement. We are not called
to preach the gospel message of salvation which only has to do with the
hereafter but also includes the defense of those who are helpless and deprived.
But we cannot possibly just feel for the helpless unless we also actively
think and plan through to come up with some strategic action plan.
Discovering Meaning
One significant motive for education – thinking and
reading – is to discover meaning. We should discover our place in the universe,
in history, and in society. We should discover the “…values by which we can
judge the importance of what we do…the cosmic significance of our life…”[10]
and so forth. There are three reasons regarding the purpose of discovering
meaning. They are (1) finding something worth living for; know about our life’s
worth, wanting to make our lives count, the need to be different, and to feel
in our hearts that what we do impact others in meaningful ways, (2) feeling
keenly the magnificence and tragedy of life; recognizing that reality is
brimming with beauty and goodness but also laden with tragedy and evil, and (3)
sensing the divine – we are not content with only the temporal and finite but
wants permanency and crave the touch of the infinite. Our mind places a very
large part in discovering God. The word of God said that the “…knowledge of the
holy one brings understanding…,” brought forth a revelation of the divine. The
exercise of the life of our mind, loving God with our mind will ultimately
brings us to a place where we discover meaning; a life worth living, a life of
sublimity yet aware of the presence of evil, and the touch of the divine.
CONCLUSION
We started off by tracing the effect of
anti-intellectualism which forms the historical underpinning of those from the
Full Gospel circles and went on to give some helpful suggestions. First I
brought up some basic scriptural texts to give us a firm perspective about the
need to love God with our mind. Second, I took some liberty to use the helpful
suggestions from Dr. Clifford Williams to give us the five motivations when it
comes to loving God with our mind and nurturing the life of the mind. I find
that we can intentionally develop our mind to focus on loving him rationally
and in it find intellectual satisfaction just as much as we find emotional
satisfaction in the presence of God and worshipping him in spirit and in truth.
Bibliography
Clifford Williams, The Life of the Mind – A Christian Perspective, Baker Academic,
Grand Rapids, 2002.
Rick M. Nanez, Full Gospel, Fractured Minds? Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan,
2005
