Explore
This article is from
Creation 45(2):6, April 2023

Browse our latest digital issue Subscribe

Leaving your brains at the church door?

Editorial

Sneak peek of a powerful article from the latest Creation magazine

by

fliplid-brain

And he [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”—Matthew 22:37

Many people, both inside and outside the church, think that Christianity means abandoning the mind. Nothing could be more wrong! Just see Jesus’ “greatest commandment” quoted above: our love for God must include our mind.

Furthermore, His Apostle Peter told us, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). So our hope has a reason, and we should be prepared. And the Apostle Paul instructed us: “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). That sounds radical: destroying arguments (but not people) against Christianity and bringing people’s thoughts (not emotions) to follow Christ.

Jesus Himself is called the Logos (John 1:1–14), from which we derive the word ‘logic’. We are supposed to be imitators of Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:1); thus, loving God with our mind should be logical. Furthermore, it was by and through Him that all things were created, including mankind, in His image and likeness. This divine image must include being programmed with language and logic.

Such programming is clear from the creation of Adam, “the first man” (1 Corinthians 15:45):

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16–17).

The language was not just about things Adam could see but included abstract concepts such as logic. For example, Adam could eat the fruit of “every tree” but one—‘every’ is a logical concept called a universal quantifier. Adam didn’t need to see each tree to understand this concept. But there was one fruit Adam must “not” eat—‘not’ is a logical negation. And if he disobeyed God (sinned), then he would die. This command presupposed that God programmed Adam to understand logical implication.

This passage also logically links death to sin. Many Genesis compromisers deny this teaching by claiming that Adam could not understand death without seeing a dead animal. However, Adam didn’t need to see things to understand them. E.g., how could Adam have seen a ‘not’? But since God programmed Adam to understand negation, He also programmed Adam to know that death is negation of life. God also programmed Adam (and Eve) as adults, ready to multiply and take dominion (Genesis 1:26–28).

CMI, including our flagship Creation magazine, exists to help readers worldwide love God with their minds and imitate Christ in logical thinking. In every issue, we interview good examples of that; this time, geographer Dr Sarah Buckland from Jamaica (pp. 18–21) and biologist Dr KeeFui Kon from Singapore (pp. 36–39). We also show how biblical creation is logically illustrated by super designs, such as the golden plover (pp. 24–25) and even the air we breathe (pp. 50–52).

An important teaching is the Flood of Noah’s day, which must logically be global (Genesis 6–8). With an intense process like the Flood, we don’t need millions of years. And millions of years are necessary (but not sufficient) for evolution from goo to you via the zoo. The Flood explains the spectacular ammolite (pp. 12–13) and the wide Nile valley (p. 56). But God rescued a remnant of people (such as Shem, pp. 46–48) and animals on a massive Ark (pp. 32–35). After the Flood, people and animals migrated around the world, such as rafting monkeys (pp. 14–17).

A good logical response is to share this magazine as widely as possible!

Posted on homepage: 15 February 2023

Helpful Resources

Can We Trust the Gospels?
by Peter J Williams
US $10.00
Soft cover
Christianity for Skeptics
by Drs Steve Kumar, Jonathan D Sarfati
US $12.00
Soft cover
Does Evolution Explain Everything About Life?
by Philip Bell & 10 Ph.D. scientists
US $10.00
Soft cover