In praise of a closed mind

I’m closed minded about some things; and so are you, if you’re sane.  But there’s a church in my neighborhood that seems very open minded.  They have a slogan on their church sign:  “Open doors, open hearts, open minds.”  Is that the Christian message?  Speaking of his ministry in Corinth Paul said that his entire focus was “on Jesus Christ and the fact of His death on the cross.”  (I Cor. 2:2, Phillips)  Corinth was a major Greek city and Greece was the birthplace of western philosophy.  Paul could have come to Corinth with an open mind, intent on opening up channels of dialogue with all the leading intellectuals.    

But Paul didn’t go to Corinth to hold discussions.  He was absolutely convinced that God the Son had become a man, died on a cross while paying for our sins, and that He had been raised from the dead.  Paul saw this as the ultimate solution to human problems and he proclaimed it with authority.  Jesus Himself said that he was “the way, and the truth, and the life” and that no man could come to the Father apart from Him (John 14:6).  On the basis of that statement Christians have always held that Christianity is right and that every other religion on the planet, while they may contains some true and beautiful ideas, is ultimately wrong.  That sounds terribly closed minded.  We have been culturally conditioned to believe that being closed minded is a bad thing.  That cultural conditioning is pure demonic hogwash.

I once knew a woman who wasted a decade of her life on crack cocaine.  This is what she had to say about it.  “Once the drug has a hold of you, you’ll sell everything you own so that you can buy the drug.  Then you’ll sell everything you can steal.  And once you run out of things to steal, you’ll sell your body.”  I don’t know about you, but I have a closed mind when it comes to crack cocaine.  I examined the evidence, made a decision, and now my mind is closed.  I’m sure the drug must make you feel good while you are high, but I’m not really interested in entering into a dialogue with a pusher on the subject.

I’m not interested in robbing a bank as a solution to a financial need.  You may have come up with what you believe to be an absolutely fool proof plan to do the crime and escape without anyone being hurt, but I’m not interested in your plan.  I’ve thought about crime, made some decisions, and now my mind is closed when it comes to crime.

If there is some poor, confused woman out there who desires to enter into an intimate relationship with me (I know that odds for this are not good) I would want that woman to know that I have a closed mind when it comes to any woman but Nancy Lafyatis Cummings.  I gave the whole issue of monogamy a great deal of thought before I got married and I believe that it is the will of God and the best way to maximize joy and minimize pain as we make our way through this life.  I have a closed mind on the subject of affairs.

Some people don’t believe in vaccines or antibiotics.  I’ve listened to their arguments and I am unconvinced.  I don’t agonize over whether or not to get a prescription when I have a sinus infection.  If I need one I go see the doctor and get one.

I am closed minded when it comes to paying 18%-25% interest on any kind of a purchase whatsoever.  I have a closed mind when it comes to political correctness because I believe in freedom of speech.  I’m closed minded about a lot of things, and so are you, if you are a sane person.

I believe in Jesus Christ.  I believe in Him because of all of the Bible prophecies that have been fulfilled.  If the book of Daniel was written by the prophet Daniel in the 6^th Century B.C. (and I have never seen any convincing evidence that it wasn’t written at that time) then I don’t see how any thinking person who honestly considers the issues could be anything but a Christian.

I also believe in Jesus because of years and years of religious experiences in my personal life, mainly happening in times of prayer.  There is Someone there; He is real; and He consistently confirms the message of the Bible to me.

Last but not least, I believe because the Bible helps me make sense out of life like no other book ever written.  If the Bible is true, then we would expect evil spirits to be present and hard at work manipulating human beings and human culture.  We would expect them to be constantly assaulting our minds and attempting to get us to believe really, deeply stupid things.  For instance, take the idea of being closed minded.  We examine the facts, come to a decision, and when we think we have sufficient evidence we close our minds to what we consider to be foolishness.  We all do it.  It doesn’t make sense not to do it.  (Unless you are currently addicted to crack cocaine in which case none of this will make sense to you.)

So why is it that a mental process, that makes perfect sense when you apply it to high interest credit cards, adultery, and crack cocaine, suddenly feels so wrong when we apply it to religious ideas?  It’s almost enough to make someone believe that there really are dark powers out there messing with our culture; which is exactly what we would expect to see happening if the Bible was true. 

Israel is a modern miracle

The existence of Israel is one of the reasons why I believe in the Christian faith.  There are two kinds of reasons to be a believer:  internal and external.  Internal reasons have to do with our own religious experience.  When I pray I can sense a Presence.  Time spent in the Presence has resulted in permanent alterations in my personality and character.  Those are examples of internal reasons to believe.

External reasons have to do with objective facts.  You can argue that my internal reasons are simply mind games that I am playing with myself; but you can't argue against a fact.  You are argue about the meaning of a fact but you can't argue against the fact itself.

The Christian religion teaches quite clearly that everything that exists, including time and space, were created "ex nihilo " (out of nothing).  To the best of my knowledge none of the other ancient religions teach that space and time had a beginning.  We have gotten to the point where almost every educated person believes in the Big Bang Theory.  But this wasn't always accepted and until it became the dominant theory for the origin of the universe Christians were ridiculed for believing in creation.  As our knowledge of the universe expanded it must have seemed more and more ridiculous to believe that any force could have brought all of this into existence out of nothing.  It would be a tremendous act to bring our solar system into existence if that were all there was to the universe, but to bring all of the galaxies into existence and to create the vastness of space and time out of nothing?  What immeasurable power would that require?  Christians on university campuses were mocked for decades because they denied scientific orthodoxy of the day which was called the "Steady State Theory."  That theory taught that the universe had always been here and mocked dolts who were superstitious enough to believe that there could actually be some cosmic Person with enough power to speak everything into existence.

From time to time I have discussions with well educated people who try to explain to me that God is unnecessary because we have now "proven" that all life is the result of natural, evolutionary processes.  I remain profoundly skeptical of the theory of evolution.  Even if it is true, it is impossible to rule out the possibility that God set evolutionary processes in motion in the creation of life.  These people look at me and I can tell what they are thinking.  "This guy seems to be fairly intelligent, so what in the world is wrong with him?  Every educated person 'knows' this is true.  How can he be so ignorant?"  These same people are usually completely ignorant of the fact that the very name of the Big Bang Theory was given to the theory by a leading scientific figure of the day who was mocking the theory.  "Do you really expect us to believe that the universe began in some sort of a big bang?" he asked.  The very name, "Big Bang," is sarcasm and that sarcasm has become scientific orthodoxy.  Matter and energy and time and space didn't exist.  They came into existence "ex nihilo."  So I don't sweat the fact that "everybody" believes in evolution.  I've seen one "universally" accepted theory that contradicted the Bible go down the toilet in my lifetime and I'm not intimidated to be in the minority when it comes to evolution.

Israel is another objective fact.  It exists.  It is a Jewish state.  They practice the same religion they have always practiced.  I believe that the majority of the citizens of Israel are actually agnostics and that only a minority actually go to synagogue, but that's nothing new.  Throughout most of their history only a minority of the Jewish people have been faithful to their religion.  Israel is the only surviving nation from the ancient Middle East/Mediterranean world that I know of.  None of the others still exist, not even the big boys.  They may have the same name, but they aren't the same nations.  Egypt was a superpower throughout most of Biblical history; if any of the ancient nations were to survive with their religion and culture intact you would expect it to be Egypt.  It is true that there is a place called Egypt today, but there are no Egyptians living there.  They speak a different language and follow a different religion.  If someone tried to revive the ancient Egyptian religion the Muslim population would undoubtedly murder them.

They still speak Greek in Greece but they don't practice the same religion.  In Rome they speak a modified version of Latin, the modern Italian language, but they no longer practice the ancient religion.  Persia is now Iran and Babylon and Assyria are now Iraq.  Once again, the religion has changed.  The same thing is true of Syria.  So these once great nations still exist in a sense, but in another sense they do not.  They no longer have the same culture and the same religion they once had.

Now let's look at little Israel and all her little neighbors from the ancient world.  Do you know anyone who proudly proclaims their Philistine heritage?  Have you ever met a Moabite or an Edomite?  These were Israel's immediate neighbors and they have vanished from the pages of history.  Israel itself ceased to exist as a nation in 70 A.D.  What were the odds that this nation would somehow survive with its culture and religion intact?  All of Israel's little neighbors have vanished.  What were the odds that the Jewish people would survive and still have a Jewish identity?

In order for the ancient prophecies to be fulfilled there has to be a Jewish state in the land of Palestine.  There have to be people there who still practice the Jewish religion.  That nation now exists; and that's an objective fact.