Intellectual Honesty

Our pastor recently finished a series of sermons on four common questions Seattleites have about Christianity. Topics such as hell, judgment, evil, and the Bible were covered thoroughly. If you are interested in hearing a reasoned response to those topics, click here.

One idea that stuck out to me was that of "intellectual honesty". To be intellectually honest, we must assess our own beliefs and be able to answer questions for and against our worldview. If we refuse to answer questions against our worldview, we are stubborn, and if we can't give support for our worldview, we are ignorant.

What I often see in my interactions is that people have not been intellectually honest (purposefully or not) with understanding the claims of Jesus and thus have a distorted view of Christianity. Could it be that the majority of people who are not Christians have a false belief of true Christianity? Consider what Michael Horton says in his book, The Gospel Commission,

Most of those who have turned to eclectic spiritualities, agnosticism, or atheism today are not reacting against a clearly understood Christian creed... today we are more likely to encounter people (at least those of post-baby boom generations) who only know "Christianity" from TV preachers and political debates.

Lets correct this "mistaken creed" with a clear, intellectually honest, pure, Biblical teaching of the gospel in one hand and on the other hand intellectual honesty from those who have been misinformed.

Here is a question to test our intellectual honesty: "Do you understand why Jesus is good news?"

I have been praying that God would work intellectual honesty into this city so that they would hear and respond to the Biblical gospel. We have seen it and know it is possible, so let's pray for more fruit!

-G