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Beware of Intellectual Schizophrenic Professors

BEWARE OF INTELLECTUAL SCHIZOPHRENIC PROFESSORS

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

NOVEMBER 4, 2007

Christian parents understandably have legitimate concerns whenever a child leaves home to attend college. In addition to his or her health and safety, parents often fear their son or daughter may succumb to the widespread anti-Christian influences on today’s college campuses. Informed parents know their child runs the risk of sometimes having their faith attacked in an effort to destroy it. Imagine the thoughts flowing through the mind of a father after he read a very disturbing text message from his daughter. The distraught young woman sent it to her dad as soon as she left her philosophy class. The message concerned the disgusting lecture she had just been subjected to. Allow me to quote a greatly toned down portion of what the father shared in a recent article he posted on his web site. Referring to his daughter’s professor, the dad wrote:

“At one point (47 minutes into the lecture) he opines, regarding followers of Jesus when he returns, “We don’t give a crap about your ideas, don’t give us this idea stuff, we can’t understand that s**t anyway! It’s the power we want, man, and you’ve got miracles . . . good enough for me!” Then he speaks about how people would not recognize Jesus were He to come back. “They wouldn’t know who the hell he was.” He speaks of how you might marry someone when you are young and then one day wake up and say, “Son of a bitch! Who is that person I married?” “You were looking through a lot of illusions.” In this context then he made the following statement that became the main element of the text my daughter sent to me after class:

“And in fact, if Jesus did come back, the most likely people to put him back on the cross would be Christians, and the most likely people to nail him to the cross would be fundamentalist Christians. They would be the ones who would be nailing that son of a bitch back to the cross, because he’d be the one who’d be refuting what they believe, and they wouldn’t want that. Fair enough? So the most likely guys to be hammering in the nails, they are the guys who elected George Bush, and believe in the literal truth of the Bible, and don’t believe in evolution, because they don’t want to use reason, and they don’t want to think, they’d rather stick to their illusions that hopefully may convince them that they don’t have to be afraid at night when they are all alone, and the devil may whisper in their ears.”[i]

If you were that student’s parent; how would you respond to this kind of anti-Christian bigotry? The girl’s dad wrote an open letter to the professor as well as a follow up. As you might have guessed, he never received the courtesy of a response. What advice would you give your college student son or daughter in order to help them to better understand the dynamics of similar divinely ordained tests of their faith? Are you prepared to intelligently help him or her to respond in a manner which will bring glory and honor and praise to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?

When I read the father’s article the evolution comment jogged my memory of something I shared in one of my recent sermon’s concerning the biblical account of creation in which I said: “Science cannot go beyond the “big-bang.” It’s impossible. That particular area is beyond the realm of science, because to do so would involve entering into the supernatural, an area which scientists tend to dismiss. They’re only interested in scientifically verifiable facts, such as what Satan has convinced them evolution is”

I went on to add, “It saddens me whenever I think that men and women whom God has blessed with what are often brilliant and inquisitive mind’s, but who have absolutely no interest in learning about what was going on before what they refer to as being the “big-bang.” [ii] From the beginning, Christians have always had to contend with unbelievers…

The Apostle Peter wrote his famous letter to the First Century Christians who were also living in very challenging times in which their faith was often tested to the max. Those early Christians were suffering greatly because of their faith and Peter wrote his letter to encourage and exhort them to hang in there (1 Peter 5:12). He also told them that each of them should always be ready to defend their faith (1 Peter 3:15).But first the great Apostle of Hope (cf. 1:3, 13, 21; 3:15) offered the following comforting words of reality concerning Biblical truths that all Christians can never be reminded of too often.

Peter 1:1-7 (AMP) 1 PETER, AN apostle ( a special messenger) of Jesus Christ, [writing] to the elect exiles of the dispersion scattered (sowed) abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 Who were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated (sanctified, made holy) by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and to be sprinkled with [His] blood: May grace (spiritual blessing) and peace be given you in increasing abundance [that spiritual peace to be realized in and through Christ, redeemed from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts].

3 Praised (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 [Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are being guarded (garrisoned) by God’s power through [your] faith [till you fully inherit that final] salvation that is ready to be revealed [for you] in the last time. 6 [You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations, 7 So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) is revealed.

The Apostle Paul reiterated the fact that they and every follower of Jesus are aliens in this world. Personally I cannot remind any of us of this wonderful fact too often; Christians are traveling through a world which is a perilous spiritual minefield on the way to their real home.

Philippians 3:20 (AMP) 20 But we are citizens of the state (commonwealth, homeland) which is in heaven, and from it also we earnestly and patiently await [the coming of] the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) [as] Savior,

Referring to the status of the deceased Old Testament saints, the divinely inspired author of the Letter to the Hebrew Christians echoed Paul’s comforting reminder of reality when he wrote:

Hebrews 11:13-16 (AMP) 13 These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God’s] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth. 14 Now those people who talk as they did show plainly that they are in search of a fatherland (their own country). 15 If they had been thinking with [homesick] remembrance of that country from which they were emigrants, they would have found constant opportunity to return to it. 16 But the truth is that they were yearning for and aspiring to a better and more desirable country, that is, a heavenly [one]. For that reason God is not ashamed to be called their God [even to be surnamed their God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob], for He has prepared a city for them.

All Christians live in a world which I like to describe as being “The Planet of the Living Dead.” We’re surrounded by animated dead people such as that college professor I spoke about earlier who unknowingly hit the nail on the head when, speaking of the return of Jesus said: “we can’t understand that s**t anyway! Whenever we are interacting with non-Christians we must remember to factor in the reality that every one of them without exception cannot understand spiritual truth any more than the pew you folks are sitting in right now can. If we don’t remember this fact we are apt to frustrate ourselves and become discouraged, especially whenever we attempt to lead them to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (AMP) 14 But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.

Ephesians 4:17-18 (AMP) 17 So this I say and solemnly testify in [the name of] the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds. 18 Their moral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is beclouded. [They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the insensitiveness of their moral nature].

How should followers of Christ respond to those “in-your-face” spiritually dead people such as the college professor who claims that Christian’s “don’t believe in evolution, because they don’t want to use reason, and they don’t want to think?” Remember what Peter advised his readers.

Peter 3:15(AMP)15 Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.

Responding to my recent sermon in which I spoke about folks who believe in evolution as being “only interested in scientifically verifiable facts, such as what Satan has convinced them evolution is,” I received the following from a brother in the Lord.

Hi Mike. Here’s some additional food for thought. For any scientist to claim that they cannot accept creationism because of their professional background—i.e. the years of training to learn the scientific method which uses observable and measurable events as the ultimate test of an hypothesis—is to ignore the historical context within which “science” actually originated. Multiple times in the past the scientific community was forced to accept scientific “truths” that were in apparent contradiction to one another or at the very least could not both be explained by a single principle. The physics of Isaac Newton that explained the behavior of the physical world that we can see with our eyes failed miserably when applied to the subatomic world of electrons and quarks, although the former is made up of the latter.

Even when an eventual explanation of the subatomic world was discovered it was based on probability; not an observable certaintysomething that “science” on the macro level abhors and denounces. Even one of the breakthrough principles that gave rise to the physics of quantum mechanics is called “the Uncertainty Principle”—first postulated by Weiner Heisenberg. So profound was the impact of these “nonsensical” truths derived in whole from mathematical and scientific certainties that many early quantum physicists ended their historic careers in philosophy and/or theology.

So when a man of science or math says that belief in creation cannot be squared with his lifelong education in that profession he is clearly choosing to ignore not only how science as a discipline of higher education came to exist itself, but also how, in reality, the scientific community makes the “giant” leaps forward in human understanding of a God created world, and universe,” J. Scott Strenio.[iii] In my opinion, our friend Scott has given exactly what Peter advises; a logical, courteous and respectful defense of the hope he has in the veracity of God’s Word. The Apostle Paul gave sound advice to young Timothy as to how he ought to interact with these spiritually dead people, advice which all Christians ought to follow.

2 Timothy 2:23-25 (AMP) 23 But refuse (shut your mind against, have nothing to do with) trifling (ill-informed, unedifying, stupid) controversies over ignorant questionings, for you know that they foster strife and breed quarrels. 24 And the servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome (fighting and contending). Instead, he must be kindly to everyone and mild-tempered [preserving the bond of peace]; he must be a skilled and suitable teacher, patient and forbearing and willing to suffer wrong. 25 He must correct his opponents with courtesy and gentleness, in the hope that God may grant that they will repent and come to know the Truth [that they will perceive and recognize and become accurately acquainted with and acknowledge it],

As I said a moment ago, all Christians should follow Paul’s advice to Timothy. We must never attempt to answer foolish questions or allow ourselves to get all bent out of shape. Furthermore, relying on God for the strength, Christians must humbly and lovingly attempt to educate the non-Christian, and always remember to be mindful of a crucial fact Paul pointed out in his letter to the Church at Rome.

Romans 1:19-22 (AMP) 19 For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them. 20 For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification], 21 Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves].

I don’t know about you, but I think Paul just gave an accurate characterization of a certain College Professor who is behaving like an “intellectual schizophrenic.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen in his excellent book “Always Ready”, makes this very insightful observation: “The unbeliever “opposes himself.” By his foolish presuppositions the unbeliever actually works against himself. He suppresses the clear truth about God which is foundational to an understanding of the world and of oneself, and he affirms a position which is contrary to his better knowledge.”[iv]

Romans 1:18 (ESV) 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

In closing, I want you folks to know that I have already prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to constantly remind each of us, especially college students, that all non-Christians, including the intellectual Schizophrenic professor’s, are spiritually dead fools. Lord willing, in a couple of weeks…


[i] http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive2007/10-30-07.asp?vPrint=1

[ii] http://s128601634.onlinehome.us/sermons/how_great.htm

[iii] http://www.charlieandtheangel.com/3.html

[iv] Always Ready: Directions For Defending The Faith, Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen, ©1996 by Robert and Virginia Bahnsen,  page 65, published jointly by American Vision P. O Box 724088, Atlanta, Georgia and Covenant Media Foundation 4425 Jefferson Ave. Suite 108, Texarkana, Arkansas 71854.

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November 4, 2007 Posted by Categories: Uncategorized 5 comments

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