CHRISTIAN THINKING
by Dr. Lawrence Wilson
© November 2019, LD Wilson Consultants, Inc.
All information in this article is for
educational purposes only. It is
not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health
condition.
A great
truth is that all people do not think alike. Many people do not realize that others think totally
differently than they do. As a
result, many honest people are fooled and often taken advantage of by
politicians, teachers, and even marriage partners and others who think
differently than they do.
It is as
though some people are wired differently.
Perhaps it would be better to say their wiring is so different that with
the same input data, they generate totally different conclusions and behaviors.
This article
points out some of the ways that people think today.
WHAT IS MEANT IN THIS ARTICLE BY THE WORDS
ÔCHRISTIAN THOUGHTÕ?
Christian
thought means living by the principles found in both
the Old and New Testament of the Bible.
It means understanding, and doing oneÕs best to follow, the Ten
Commandments of Moses, the Golden Rule and other simple teachings in the Book
of Proverbs, the five books of the Old Testament, and some of the New Testament
as well.
WHAT CHRISTIAN THOUGHT IS NOT
Christian
thought, as used in this article, is not about going to church every Sunday,
although of course this is excellent.
It is also not about observing holidays, visiting the sick or elderly,
or performing specific rituals associated with any Christian holidays.
This is
important because some people confuse the observance of holidays and rituals
with a way of thinking about life.
Rituals and observances serve as reminders for many people of the
principles of the religion, and they have value for this.
However, too
many people go through the motions of observing Easter or Passover, for
example, yet they are missing Òthe spirit of the lawÓ. This means that they have either
forgotten, never learned, or do not want to live as the Bible commands us, and
thus they do not reap the benefits described in this article.
WHAT IS MEANT IN THIS ARTICLE BY THE WORDS,
ÔTHE POWER OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHTÕ?
It means
that some principles taught by the Jewish and Christian holy books build
character, give a positive direction to oneÕs life, and help keep one out of
trouble in hundreds of ways. They
also can teach love, forbearance, forgiveness and other positive values, and
for these reasons help a person lead a much more happy, productive, prosperous
and safe life. This is the power
of this thinking. It is fact,
though some will disagree.
THOSE WHO TEND TO OPPOSE CHRISTIAN THINKING
Now let us
compare Christian thinking with several other popular ways that people think today.
A theme that
runs through most of these examples is the person does not want to be
restrained by the apparently limited belief system or behavior system imposed by
the Hebrew and Christian Bibles.
This opens these people to a PandoraÕs box of possibilities that often
leads them astray.
Here are a
few examples of other ways of thinking and seeing the world:
Example #1. The Ònew ageÓ and often
anti-intellectual approach to thinking and living that whatever feels right is what a person should
do. This is very common today. It is what is taught in almost all high
schools and colleges throughout the world. It is the reason I would never send a child to most public
or even private high schools or to most colleges. This poison is fed to the minds of young people when they
are extremely vulnerable to it by either unthinking professors, or in many
cases by those who intentionally desire people to be confused and mush-headed
so they can be more easily controlled.
The problem
with mainly relying on oneÕs feelings to make decisions about oneÕs life is
that feelings are often superficial, incorrect or at least flawed, and ruled by
lower passions such as sex, greed or even violence. As a result, many who embrace this type of thinking drift
into activities and attitudes that waste their time and ruin their bodies.
They stay up
late, eat poorly, violate the laws and end up in trouble with the police, waste
a lot of time on Facebook, ÒexperimentÓ with legal or
illegal drugs for ÒrecreationÓ or pain relief, and they adopt moral codes and
sexual behaviors that pollute their minds and bodies in various ways.
Their
thinking tends to be scant, sloppy, illogical, and often superficial. They tend not to check their facts
carefully, instead just listening to those who agree with them or what seems or
Òfeels goodÓ in the moment. As a
result, they are not thorough and often make poor decisions. They also tend to elect incompetent and
corrupt politicians who talk a good line but have little substance behind
it. Some liberals easily fall into
this trap.
They are
prone to being taken advantage of financially, socially, sexually and in many other
ways. This occurs because they
have no standards by which to discern and judge who
and what is best for them.
Most
importantly, the new age crowd, which includes some of my friends, does not
seem to progress spiritually or mentally nearly as well. It appears that even as adults, we need
boundaries, discipline, rules of behavior and other types of rules as well to
live our best. When we turn away
from these to just Òdo our thingÓ, and Òlive our own truthÓ, rather than to
seek THE TRUTH that will set us free, the mind does not develop nearly as fast.
A rule of consciousness is that in order to process and
learn as fast as possible, one must limit oneÕs field or ideology, and set up
guidelines for studying and experiencing reality. In other words, it is not that the new
age people are always wrong. It is
that by not imposing any rules on themselves, there is too much to choose from
and they do not process information and inputs from their environment nearly as
well.
This is like
giving a five-year-old child a college physics text, hoping the child will
learn what is in it in the next year or two. It is just too much for most five-year-olds. What Biblical principles do is to give
us, the five-year-olds, rules to follow in order to
evaluate new experiences. This is
like at least giving the child a dictionary with his college physics book so
that at least he is not totally lost in the vocabulary. It is not the whole answer, but it
certainly helps most people.
Example #2. The intellectuals. These people also do not want
to impose Biblical rules upon their thinking. They differ from the new age people in that they are capable
of deeper thinking, however. They
revel in it, in fact, generally in a somewhat arrogant way.
Their
problem is that without a Biblical framework, they are like the 5-year-olds
studying college physics, and they rarely get it right. Again, they lack a logical and
spiritual framework for their thinking so they are prone to many errors that
lead them far astray in their thinking.
For example,
most intellectuals believe the Bible, the US Constitution and Bill of Rights,
and most other ÒoldÓ documents are just ancient history that is outmoded today,
and somewhat old-fashioned and silly.
Many liberals as much as say this openly. They take pride in their supposed
intellect and their ability to reason things out by themselves, without the
help of these older documents.
This is good
in some ways, as they are not tradition-bound. However, in most cases it leads them astray. Once again, it seems that human beings
need to at least know and understand their religious history and philosophy
that is Biblical and perhaps divinely inspired. It is not enough to just think that, for example, communism
sounds good, so let us implement it.
Socialism seems so much easier and simpler than obeying the spirit of
the checks and balances that were built into the US Constitution, so the
intellectuals prefer it. They do
not realize, or do not want to realize that the checks and balances are there
precisely to limit the power of the intellectuals who often work in the
government and are prone to abuses of power.
Arogance rules intellectuals. Intellectuals
are always arrogant, and usually make serious mistakes. They can easily bring down a beautiful
nation by bankrupting it, or otherwise corrupting its foundations and ignoring
its precious documents designed to keep the people safe and protected from
tyrants.
In other
words, most intellectuals think they are so smart they do not need to abide by
the rules and learn much from history that certain
systems work, while others do not work.
They have no valid starting point for their thinking other than their
whims, which are often conditioned by their early life trauma and not by deep
reflection.
Intellectuals
and new agers share something else.
Both tend to get lost in their own mind and ignore reality. They falsely believe that if they think about something enough, or
believe in something enough, it will come true. This is a common human flaw.
It contains
a grain of truth. However, for the
most part it is extremely dangerous because most peopleÕs thinking is far too
narrow. This means that most of
them do not read widely enough, or do not believe certain things, and instead
only trust certain doctrines or books, such as those of Karl Marx or Vladimir
Lenin. Adam Smith they donÕt like,
so they donÕt read and digest his work.
This kind of
lopsided thinking, which is the mark of the intellectual, is dangerous for all
of us, especially for the intellectuals, who often die young in revolutions
that fail.
What is
missing is a broad perspective that is sometimes called wisdom. Sadly, this wisdom is not found in the
textbooks today, because most are written by intellectuals. The Bible, in
contrast, was written by older, wiser men in most cases. It is another reason for paying
attention to it.
Example #3. The religious
zealots. This is another large group of people on planet earth
today. They do impose Biblical or
Koran thinking upon themselves.
However, they focus on one small part, or even a single phrase in their
holy books. They tend to overlook
the Ôbig pictureÕ rules such as the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments.
One might
call this a focus on the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of the law. Christ spoke of such people when he
described the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Many today who profess to be good
Jews, good Christians, or good Muslims do exactly this.
This
approach to thinking is the cause of most religious strife and religious
wars. It is also the cause of
religious persecutions throughout the ages, events that would make the
religious founders such as Jesus and Buddha cringe, as it is such a perversion
of their original intent.
Events such
as the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the witch hunts
and other bloody and cruel misuse of the principles of the major religions
completely miss the spirit of Christ, of Moses and of the other founders.
Those who
are called fundamentalists
or radicals sometimes fall into this trap, though usually not the
fundamentalist Christians, who still retain the whole or big picture. Other fundamentalists, however, often
fall into this trap.
Example #4. The oppositionals.
These are people who are unwilling to
read or study any philosophical work.
This is another large group of people today. Sadly, one reason for this is malnutrition, often in subtle ways, that makes it hard for some people to concentrate, to
learn, and to recall what they have read.
This affects at least half the American children today, I would
estimate. The medical profession
may give it names like ADD, ADHD, autism, delayed development and many
others.
It affects
adults, however, just as much as it affects the children. It is simply that the brain does not
work well enough to sit quietly and read a book like the Bible. The problem is far worse today than it
was one hundred years ago, and that was worse than one hundred years before.
The other
reason for this tendency is our deficient school system that has effectively
banned the Bible and even the Ten Commandments from the schoolrooms. This is nothing less than insane, and
we have the ACLU and the intellectuals to thank for it. However, those of faith and wisdom have
allowed it to happen instead of stopping it when it began in the 1950s and
1960s, when it would have been far easier to stop.
The sad
thing about this group of people is that unlike the others above, they mean
very well. They are often blue collar working people who struggle to make ends
meet. However, because they refuse
to really study and learn, they rarely progress too much intellectually or
spiritually.
They are
sometimes called the Ògreat unwashed massesÓ. This is a derogatory term coined by the intellectuals and
perhaps some new agers who look down upon this group, whom they view as
somewhat crude and unrefined people.
However, they are often the most honest and decent among us.
Example 5. The macho
thinkers. This is a much
smaller group of mostly men in modern societies. They act as if they know a lot, but they do not. They mean well, but they are not that
bright or not too interested in reading and studying carefully.
As a result,
they are intellectually weak and make many mistakes in their thinking. They often accept Christian principles,
and try to live them. However,
their immaturity or ignorance prevents them from digging deep enough to
practice them all the time and to really understand them in daily living. As a result, they are often seen as
buffoons by the intellectuals, in particular, who can manipulate them for their
own ends in elections, in the workplace, in marriages, and elsewhere.
Most are
very hard workers who impose too many restrictions on themselves that others
then take advantage of.
Example 6. The
rebellious liars. This is also a
smaller group, but a dangerous one.
These people know the Biblical principles and many were raised in
Christian or Jewish homes where they were taught to them. However, they are in rebellion. They are also immature
emotionally. Their form of
rebellion is to lie about most everything they please.
This, of
course, is a direct violation of one of the Ten Commandments, and perhaps the
most important one. As a result,
they cannot be trusted at all, and they cause havoc wherever they go and
whatever they touch.
Many are
found in politics today, and some in government positions and union
bosses. Some are also found in the
clergy as well, especially in Europe and Africa. There they give the church a bad reputation, and indeed they
give every profession a bad reputation.
This group
is somewhat similar to the new agers, the intellectuals, and the zealots in
that they impose their own rules and their own thinking. What distinguishes them is their
propensity to lie with a straight face anytime they choose. They think this is okay, that Òeveryone
does itÓ, for example. They do not
realize that human evolution requires factual information and real
communication is impossible if one does not tell the truth.
Their creed
of Òeveryone does itÓ has unfortunately infected the schools, the colleges, the
workplace and even the churches today.
They prefer political correctness to the truth, and their main goal is
getting ahead at any cost. They
often love Karl Marx and Niccolo Machiavelli, who taught that Òthe ends justify the meansÓ.
In plain
English, this means that if you want something badly enough it is okay to lie,
cheat, steal or even kill anyone who gets in your way. This is a common theme in the movies
and on television, and is basically the criminal mind. It is as anti-Biblical as they come,
and unfortunately it is a common type of person in some nations such as Russia,
where criminal elements are still in control of many areas of the nation.
Fortunately,
lying does not produce a healthy society.
Those who live this way are usually eventually found out and defeated,
but only after causing havoc. Soon
I hope the world will simply not tolerate such people. As soon as their tricks are identified,
I hope they will be jailed and totally discredited, so that the young will
realize this is a dead-end path and a very dangerous one if one wishes to
succeed in society.
Example # 7. Those who could not care less. This is another common type on earth. It is caused by poor health, fatigue, inability to think clearly and giving up on thinking as a result, and it can be caused by brainwashing and hypnosis, a subject discussed in a separate article entitled Hypnosis and Brainwashing
.