“I believe that if the Church is to survive the onslaught of a world barren of thought it will have to be a place where thinking is restored…”writes Dr. Ravi Zacharias.In another place he states, “A Church is a place simple in its appearance but profound in its talk.” From its inception, the lofty thoughts of Christian community have been quite paradoxical. Jesus Christ Himself talks of coming in the clouds but was bound to a tree on Golgotha’s mount. Apostle Paul propounds of a rich God yet had to be satisfied with a winter coat and bare basic necessities in his care. The appearance of the Church doesn’t matter so long as sensible, sound talks are discoursed in the pulpits. It’s quite frightening to express that the Church has become too materialistic and worldly because I’m a part of it. I would be pleased if our Church buildings were tattered and thatched-roofed rather than enclosed with magnificent towering marbled building with the presence of God so abundant and the word of God so richly proclaimed to the people who are willing to identify themselves with the humble Christ.
Now, the Christian faith is not a leap into the unknown. It is neither trying to catch a black cat in a dark room that is absent yet proclaiming to find it. The Christian faith has a strong basis on reason and thinking. Faith and reason cannot be displaced. Maybe that faith is too emphasized and reason is placed on the shelf. No longer is Christianity making sense within and without its realm. The focus isfor the Church to regain her position as authentic believers knowing the reason for why they do believe what they believe. Forgive me here but if we were to ask an average believer today to defend their faith, they would simply say that they’re not trained. Yes, they’re not!! Shallowness and surface-level Christianity purports the real face of what the Church should be. Why do we believe Jesus Christ? Why do we believe the Bible? Why be a part of the Church? and many others… No answers. We simply believe it because we think that that’s right! The Church should be a place of discoursing, reasoning, thinking and reflecting on all Christian belief and faith. Christians need to reason and ask questions. But we’re too afraid to do that, do we? That’s anathema! Why should God be angry at such a disposition? The Church needs to be a place where the believers open their Bibles to see whether the preacher is preaching the whole counsel of God. Reasoning believers steeped in the Word can never be swayed but unreasoning believers will be tossed back and forth by every wind of teachings.
Never separate the academic side of studying the Bible with the spiritual values of believing God’s word. Both have to remain on equal footings. Have the time to pause and think on the reasons why we believe what we believe. The tendency for many believers is to pass over the thinking fragments and simply believe what they perceive to be true. We evade the idea that intellectualism can point to spiritualty. Many times, this can result in erroneous concepts about the faith. That is the problem with scores of other religious systems in the world. They put blind faiths on whatever idols they adhere. But Christianity should not and is not so! The rise of genuine scepticism is not a hindrance for the Christian message because real doubts lead a person to the feet of the Truth.
Satan has not restricted the truth from us but he has tricked us into thinking that reasoning truths is wrong. We have spent enough years in simply being complacent and flowing with traditional biased minds. But it’s time that the Church becomes a place to speak the truth and reason deeply on the maladies of our times. It’s time that the Church brings reason and thinking back in its place. There’s too much wrongs that need to be set right even within the Church. Spirituality in promoting denominations, organizations, self-deification, and material gains will soon be uncovered before the world.But the Church that propels people to think and act on the basis of God’s truth will stand the test of time. It’s about time that the Church acts matured, pause, ponder, and see where we’re headed!
The Bible describes Berean Church in this manner, “Now the Bereans were more open-minded than those at Thessalonica, since they received the word with all readiness of mind, carefully studying (reasoning) the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true (Emphasis added; Acts17:11).”
