Think About The Messages You Are Receiving
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Passive receptivity actually affects our ability to discern the truth. And when I say truth, I mean the truth about God because all truth is from God. So, passive receptivity affects our ability to discern truth about God or truth, however you want to put that. Without purposefully developing your mind, and I’m guessing you’re here to do just that, you can become prone to apathy. It’s one of the questions I get most often, how do we shake people out of their apathy because they just don’t care. You can become prone to mistakes in your reasoning. My logic students, when they go through the material fallacy section, they tell me after spending a little bit of time getting to know them, they realize that their family members make errors in reasoning every single day of their lives. Okay? You become prone to mistakes and reasoning when you’re not watching out for them and not paying attention to your mind. Our mind needs training and discipline.
So I make it a personal responsibility to truly think about the messages you are receiving. You don’t have to go as crazy as me and analyze every time you’re in a movie theater. Sometimes we just want to have fun, right? But you should be aware that something’s being communicated to you at all times. Like right now, you should be wondering about the truth of what I’m saying. Is what she’s saying accurate? Right? That’s important. The reason I say this is the biblical authors seem to think the same thing that accuracy of thought, accuracy of word is important.
Proverbs 4:6-7, “The wisdom that we’re getting is saying wisdom is supreme. Therefore, if it costs you everything you have, get an understanding.” Wisdom is supreme. That’s gaining knowledge and practicing it by the way. It’s not just gaining knowledge. It’s actually putting into practice. That’s wise. That’s wisdom. So, wisdom is supreme.
And then, our New Testament authors seemed to think that accuracy was important as well. Look at this. This changed my world. When I read this for the first time, and I hadn’t really encountered Christianity yet, this is Luke at the very beginning of his gospel saying why he wrote his gospel. This is why he wrote. He said that he had investigated everything from the beginning to write it out. I went back and investigated everything we were being taught, so that I could write it out, so that you may know the exact truth of the things you’ve been taught. His whole purpose is to accurately communicate the events surrounding the life of Jesus. So he seems to think that objective truth is important.
And then, we’ve got Paul here in the section of 1 Corinthians Chapter 15, which is on the resurrection. Look what he says. Let’s make it a truth claim. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is also in vain. Some of your translations say useless, your faith is useless if Christ hasn’t risen from the dead. Okay? Moreover, you’re found to be a false witness about God because you’re testifying against God that he raised Christ. Either Christ raised from the dead actually, or there is no reason to be a Christian. It’s a truth claim, right? It seems pretty important to the Christian faith. It’s not like willy-nilly, magic, wishful thinking. Paul is saying either this happened or didn’t. And he goes on to say, “You’re to be pitied among all people if Christ hasn’t been raised from the dead,” verse 19. Then he doesn’t lead you there by the way; in verse 20, he says, “But he has been raised.” Okay, but that’s not our goal for today. All right. So be critical.
Proverbs 18:13, if you give an answer before you hear, and in this case here means truly try to understand, comprehend, analyze, understand what’s being said to you, it’s your folly and shame, right? I like to say this is not like, “Whoops, my bad. I just made up a truth. I just made something up.” This is your folly and shame. In our society, it seems like we don’t really care to know what’s actually true or discover it. But as Christians, we’re told that is important. You need to really hear before you answer. So be critical, but don’t allow your feelings to get in the way.
Oh man, this one knows no education level by the way, this problem of letting our feelings take over. I’ve seen it from multiple PhD down to the person who’s never gone to college and barely had any high school. No respecter of persons, this one. Don’t let your feelings get in the way of good reasoning. Again, quoting Dallas Willard, he says, “Feelings live on the front row of our lives like unruly children clamoring for attention.” Okay. Instead of spending your time being defensive about somebody else’s material fallacy, which you’re going to learn a few of today, learn to listen to them, so you can hear before answering. Break down what’s being said, rather than reacting to what’s said. Listen to see if you can find an argument. Listen to see if you can find an argument. Or if you’re just dealing with fallacies.
I’ve actually told people who have engaged me, I’ve said, “You know what? This is just all ad hominem.” We’ll learn that one if you don’t already know it. This is just a bunch of ad hominem. Now, if you have an argument, I’ll still answer that. I’ll still engage you. But this is just a bunch of ad hominem. I don’t even know what to do with that. Calling me names is what we did in junior high. Do you have something to offer me?
Okay. So analyze what you’re seeing and hearing. Don’t let your feelings take over. Defensiveness will cause all sorts of problems in your engagements. All right. Then ask. Part of being a person who utilizes good reasoning is asking questions for further clarification. Here are some questions you can ask, “What do you mean by that?” This question seeks to avoid the assumption, right? You hear something or somebody says something about your faith, what is your immediate response? Well, that’s not true because… In the Kalam cosmological argument…” And they’re like, “You just lost me. I don’t even know what you’re talking about. It’s gibberish.” Right? Instead, saying, “Hey, what did you mean by that?”
So if somebody says like, “Science is the only way to know truth.” And you’re like, “Oh, I’m ready for this one. I’m going to nail them.” Right? No. Ask them what they meant. They may not even know what they’re talking about. And you might launch into some explanation of something they have no clue. They’ve never studied this. They just heard a soundbite, and they’re repeating it back to you because it sounded good to them. It was full of snark. Right? So instead, say something like, “What do you mean by that?” It helps clarify their position, avoid assumption, and it gives you a better path to minister to them.
How do you know that? Oh, Christians. If you’re not a Christian, this is for you as well, but oh, Christians. Where are they getting their ideas from? Right? Or are they sourcing their views? You should hold people accountable for that. I think you get caught up in trying to defend the Bible and you forget you actually have a text that’s informing your view. Right? And then, you let a person who doesn’t have anything, just spew all sorts of stuff about the Bible. And you never ask them to back up their view. How do you know that? What source are you using? Right? What is your source for that? Oh, that’s the last question.
And then, why do you believe that? Now instead of just having them, show me how they came to like, “This is how I know this. In Charles Darwin’s book, he said this.” Okay? Instead, now I’m saying, “Now, why do you believe that’s true?” I’m trying to get at a different point. Not just, “What do you know?” But now, “Why have you committed to this as the truth?” A little different nuanced question helps you to engage them better and minister to them better as well. So if you’re hearing a theme, minister to them, right? That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re not trying to be argumentative. We’re trying to speak the truth in love, right? Speak the truth in love.
To do that, we got to figure out where these people are at and then, help them see the truth with right where they’re at. These questions help for clarification. They also help to drive the conversation. If you’ve ever been like, “Oh man, I’m not getting into a conversation because I don’t know what to say.” Start asking more questions. Right? Start asking more questions. That’ll help you find what to say.
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