Hearing the Voice of Jesus: Role of Faith, Facts, and Feelings

I wrote most of this article in September but its completion was interrupted by a traumatic event in my life on October 8.  I did not expect that God would bring about this situation, but I am both thankful for and amazed at how God prepared me for this time of pain and dependence by allowing me to study the subject of spiritual discernment and write about it beforehand in this article.  Maybe at least some of what I have written will be of help to you.  I hope to give an account of my actual experience in a future article.


It is not uncommon to hear Christians share how God has intervened in the challenges and decisions of life.  Here are some expressions that I have heard and even uttered myself:

“God spoke to me and I have decided to...”
“I’m still waiting on God’s leading before I...”
“After I prayed, God gave me a real peace.”

Perhaps you too have heard these expressions or sensed a time when God was speaking to you.  Like me, you may have asked,

Discerning God's voice for the decisions of life.

“What is God saying to me at this particular time and in this particular situation?” or,
“How can I know whether the “voice” I am hearing is really from God?” (or Jesus…or the Holy Spirit?)

The Bible teaches that God’s Spirit guides obedient Christians (disciples, or Christ-followers) in times of decision-making (e.g. Proverbs 3; 5-6; James 1: 2-8).  However, we must be aware that other voices may compete with the voice of God—voices that may simply reflect our current emotional state; or voices that echo from our own self-delusion. 

A person who is living in open rebellion against God’s principles or who is in self-delusion is unwilling and perhaps incapable of discerning the voice of God (James 1: 5-8).  We are all prone to wander and be influenced by sin, selfishness, and Satan.  So, how can we be sure when God is speaking; and, what He saying to us?

In September, I began reading The Voice of Jesus:  Discernment, Prayer, and the Witness of the Spirit (InterVarsity, 2003).  The author, Gordon T. Smith, defines life in Christ as “an intentional response to the voice of Jesus, a voice that comes through the presence of the Spirit.” It follows, according to Smith, that discernment is “the discipline of attending to this presence [of God’s Spirit] and responding to this leading.”  The author adds that “discernment is possible only if we are alert to several dynamic tensions [including] the tension between heart and mind.”

Obviously, we must be cognitively engaged if we are to be discerning.  But Professor Smith also emphasizes that Christ-followers must be in touch with their emotions if they are to discern the voice of Jesus. Really?  Emotions?  I must admit, I cringed when I read Smith’s claim that we do not mature in our Christian experience unless we mature emotionally.  Smith adds, more bluntly, that …people who are out of touch with their emotions are out of touch with God, for God speaks to us through the ebb and flow of our emotional lives.

Perhaps you too are cringing upon reading Smith’s claims.  You may have even concluded that The Voice of Jesus is not worth reading.  After all, doesn’t the Bible teach that we are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit and not by our emotions (Ephesians 5:15–18; 1 Peter 5:6–11)?  Doesn’t Scripture emphasize that maturing Christ-followers are those who are being transformed by the renewal of their minds (Romans 12:2)?  Shouldn’t our faith rest on facts and not feeling?

I remember the “Faith-Fact-Feeling Train” illustration which was popular in the early 1970’s through Bill Bright’s “The Four Spiritual Laws” booklet.  The founder of Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) wanted Christ-followers to avoid hitching their faith to feelings.  After all, our feelings can change faster than the weather.  According to the train illustration, facts are the engine, and without an engine the train will not operate.  Feelings, on the other hand, are represented by the caboose which is unnecessary for the train to move.  But are our emotions really of no more importance than an optional caboose?  Because the train illustration gives this impression, Gordon T. Smith rejects it.

Today, I wonder how many Christians are spiritually stunted or even deprived of a fruitful life of faith because they have found no way to integrate their personality and emotional makeup into a healthy relationship with God through His Spirit.  Perhaps they have learned to store their emotions in a useless caboose rusting away on a side spur.  Study the accounts of when Jesus encountered men and women in great spiritual need and tell me He didn’t address their emotions (e.g. Luke 19: 2-6; John 4; John 8: 3-11).

Thankfully, Professor Smith emphasizes that an obedient and fulfilling spiritual walk with Christ involves more than simply mental, or rational, capacity.  Much more than simply being primates with a large brain, humans have personhood and personality which is an important expression of what it means to be image-bearers of a personal God, and Creator.  God’s gift of personality includes an emotional dimension that is a major part of who we are as individuals.  Our emotions enrich and empower our expressions of love, joy, and hope; or, fear, anger, and loneliness?

Our emotional dimension occupies what is called the affective domain and is included in what Scripture refers to as the “heart.”  Therefore, as we read and study God’s Word, our minds become engaged (cognitive domain) and we are moved by the joys and sorrows of Bible personalities with whom we can easily relate, both cognitively and affectively.  God’s Truth in turn influences our will (volitional capacity).  As we submit our wills in obedience to God’s Spirit, He empowers us to “walk in obedience” (action). 

According to Smith, true spiritual discernment employs mind, emotion, and will.  He concludes that discernment requires “listening with both mind and heart.”  Then, when we act upon what we discern we are exercising what Rev. Bob Tuck (1) referred to as a “quartet” made up of mind, emotion, will, and action.

As a result of my reading, I have become more aware of the importance of emotions in the spiritual disciplines of worship, prayer, discernment of God’s purposes, and sharing the Gospel.  I can now relate to the message of God’s Word in a more complete way by being more alert to the biblical account of the emotional dimension of biblical personalities like Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, Abigail, Daniel, Mary and Joseph (parents of Jesus), Peter, John, and Jesus.  In biblical characters we find expressions of both negative emotional traits like fear, anger, and despair; and positive emotions associated with the fruit of God’s Spirit such as love, joy, and peace. 

It seems clear that, central to our spiritual awareness and discernment, is a healthy understanding of our emotions and how God’s Spirit ministers in and through us by our emotional response to daily life.  The challenges and the blessings of our lives produce an “ebb and flow” of our emotions.  If we do not have the habit of entrusting our hearts, representing our cognitive, affective, and volitional facilities, to God’s guidance and comfort, we can become spiritually sluggish or “double-minded and unstable in all our ways (James 1:  5-8).”

Instead of being double-minded, God commands us to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5: 18-21) by which we become attentive to the ministry of God’s Spirit with a “whole heart” (Psalm 119: 10). —i.e. fully engaged in mind, emotion, and will. The Apostle Paul teaches that when we are alive to the Holy Spirit, He becomes a channel through which God’s love is poured into our hearts…(Romans 5: 5 ESV).  This blessed pouring of God’s love occurs in the context of trials and suffering.  Paul writes that it is precisely when we encounter trials and suffering that we are best prepared spiritually to receive this outpouring of God’s love through His Spirit.  Because of this love, Paul explains, we can …rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope… (Romans 5: 3-4).

According to Gordon T. Smith: The suffering that is spoken of here represents all difficulty—the pain we experience physically, emotionally, and spiritually—explicitly because of our identification with Christ, but then also implicitly in all suffering that comes as a consequence of evil in our world.  The apostle indicated that we should actually boast in our suffering…--accept it, walk into it and choose that through suffering we will grow in grace and hope.  Later, while cautioning against doubting God’s love, Smith encourages those who remain faithful: This surely is what it means to live by faith—believing that God loves us, despite the contrary evidence.

In conclusion, how can we be sure when God is speaking and what He saying to us?  We have seen the importance of developing a proper understanding of the role of both our minds and our emotions in discerning and following the will of God.  Yet, many days we experience what can be an unsettling ebb and flow of our emotions similar to those recorded about heroes of the faith in Scripture.  Therefore, if our walk IN CHRIST is to be robust, steady, and alive, we need to learn more of how to discern the inner voice of Jesus. 

I have been motivated through my recent reading of both the Scriptures and The Voice of Jesus to learn more of what it means to discern the voice of Jesus through disciplines noted by Gordon T. Smith.  Discernment is learned through the practices of private worship and prayer, reading and study of Scripture, reading what our church fathers wrote about discernment (Smith recommends Ignatius Loyola, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley), and ministry to those in spiritual and physical need. 

Sequal to this Article:   Hearing the Voice of Jesus--2:  When Suffering Comes

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^[1] Rev. Robert S. Tuck served as pastor of Central Christian Church, Wooster, Ohio from 1923 until 1967.  I “met” this man of God through a collection of his sermons he published in 1939 entitled “A Sermon Bouquet (Picked Along the Way)” which I purchased from Walnut Street Antiques.

Life as It Ought to Be - Part 2: Set Free…to Renew Our Minds

Tomorrow is Inauguration Day and many Americans will be watching as Donald John Trump is sworn in as the 45^th President of the United States.  But indications are that America has never been more divided at any time since the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, in 1861, near the beginning of the Civil War.  Voices of opposition and distain for Trump are heard from people representing the sciences, politics, human rights groups, and the entertainment industry.  Here is a sampling:

America was also divided in 1861 at Lincoln's first inauguration.

I am literally on a remote tropical island and I, even I, don't feel safe. – Hollie Smith (singer-songwriter) 

Having a person in the position of U.S. President who does not acknowledge scientific facts establishing the clear reality of human-caused climate change is a disgrace. -- Dr. Twila Moon, (University of Bristol)

We will fight to make sure that Planned Parenthood health center doors stay open, and that people in this country can get access to basic reproductive health care…   Cecile Richards (president, Planned Parenthood)

The world will never be the same.  – Cher (singer-actress)

Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans.  If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.  -- Harry Reid (U.S. Senate, (D) Nev.)

We've let a hatemonger lead our great nation.  We've let a bully set our course.  I'm devastated.  -- Chris Evans (actor—“Captain America”)

The battle of angry words and rude behavior between Election 2016 winners and losers has continued right up to Inauguration Day.  Thanks to the internet, these angry expressions are broadcasted far and wide.  Occasionally, President-elect Trump throws fuel into the fire with angry tweets of his own.

What makes us act this way?  The cause is not Donald Trump.  Nor is it the two-party system; or, the internet.  The cause is not even fear of “losing our rights”—e.g. reproductive rights, gender rights, voting rights, health benefits, welfare entitlements, government job security, etc.  The ultimate cause lies deep within the human heart—i.e. the mental frameworks of logic and values each person has constructed with their mind.
 

When we are honest with ourselves, we admit we have personal struggles with pride, lust, and deceit.  These in turn influence our moral beliefs and hence how we think about the social and economic issues listed above.  Regardless of our stand on these issues, many of us experience fear and angst over how the new administration will influence our future.  When we reflect on the violence and destruction throughout human history we realize that humans are not naturally “good-at-heart,” or should I say, “good-at-mind.”  The Bible states, there is none righteous, not even one (Romans 3: 10).  And, the Apostle James asks (James 4: 1), What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?  Scripture answers immediately-- Because of your lusts that war in your members.
   
All of us have to deal with lust, an intense desire for something that is not rightfully ours to have.  Although many including Google mistakenly limit lust to “sexual desire,” it applies more broadly to any inordinate desire. We may lust for things like food, wealth, fame, intellectual prowess, or power.  The root of the problem is not that sex, food, guns, or fame are bad.  Instead, it is the way we think about these gifts of God.  What’s worse, we can use our minds and thought processes to deceive ourselves into believing that we don’t lust, or at least not very much.  As the prophet Jeremiah explains (Jeremiah 17: 9 NET), the human mind is more deceitful than anything else.  It is incurably bad.  Who can understand it?

Thankfully, God’s moral revelation in Scripture comes to us with the Spirit and power to help us attack the root of the problem within our minds.  In Part 1 of “Life as It Ought to Be,” we emphasized how God has power to “set us free….to serve Him.”  As the Apostle Peter writes (1 Peter 3:18), For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit…  Sin, is rebellion against God as a result of the prideful, lustful, and deceitful ways of thinking in our minds.  But sin does not need to have dominion over us.  Paul writes in Romans 8: 10, If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

In Part 1, we explained how God sets the sinner free from sin’s mastery and gives the person of faith His Holy Spirit to reside within as a “New Master.” The “old master,” representing sin, selfishness, and Satan can now be brought under the righteous authority of God’s Spirit.  But, as a believer, I must submit to God’s Spirit as His Word tells me to …consider yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus…[not allowing] sin [to] reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts...(Romans 6: 11-12).  Specifically, I must recognize that I cannot serve two masters.  My “death to the old master” representing sin, as expressed in pride, lust, and deceit becomes reality as I submit to my New Master, Jesus Christ.  Romans 12: 1-2 describes what God asks me to do daily (emphasis mine):   

…present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not [let your mind and thinking] be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Notice that our responsibility is to continually allow God’s Spirit through His Word to renew our minds so that our wills are attuned to God’s will.  Dr. Caroline Leaf, a communication pathologist and audiologist has conducted research for years in the field of cognitive neuroscience.  She believes that God created our minds in His image and has given us the “free will” to choose how we will think and react to our circumstances.  Dr. Leaf writes in her book entitled Switch on Your Brain (Baker Books, 2013):   

Your mind is the most powerful thing in the universe after God, and indeed fashioned after God.  Free will and choice are real, spiritual, and scientific facts. Your mind (soul) has one foot in the door of the spirit and one foot in the door of the body; you can change your brain with your mind and essentially renew your mind.

Dr. Leaf rejects the view that the human brain is hard-wired and unchangeable, a view that gained popularity in the 1980’s.  She has based her research on her insights gained from the Scriptures such as Romans 12: 2 in which God commands us to be transformed by the renewing of your mind and Deuteronomy 30: 19 in which God lovingly invites us to choose life in order that you may live….  Dr. Leaf reasons correctly that God would not ask His image bearers to exercise choice if He had not created us with brains that have the neurological capacity to change, and with the free will to make right choices that in turn help build healthy brains.  

In a future article, we will address more specifically how our mind can affect the status of our brain and in turn how we think when we use our God-given free will to make right decisions through the power of His Spirit and the guidance of His Word.   But for now, notice how James 4: 5-10 reveals the blessed benefit of submitting our minds to God’s will.  When we submit to God, we realize that His Spirit is actually longing for relationship with us.  What’s more God wants us to turn our longings back to Him as our Creator.  Listen to God’s loving mind speaking out to our minds (emphasis mine):

Or do you think the Scripture means nothing when it says, “The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning”?  But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.”  So submit to God.  But resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded.   Grieve, mourn, and weep.  Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair.  Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

How does a God Who created mankind explain the current division in America, and the divisions and strife around the world?  As we have explained, God’s Word tells us that our minds are naturally prideful, corrupt, and prone to lust or desire that which we do not have.  Therefore, God’s Spirit desires that each person submit to Him and allow their minds to be transformed by the renewing of their minds so that each will know what God’s will is for them.  The above challenge from the Apostle James seems very pertinent to this year’s politics.  It is the prideful, lustful, deceitful mind that causes the outpouring of prideful speech and actions.  Our only remedy is to allow God’s Spirit through His Word to go deep into our system of thought, causing repentance (change of heart/mind), submission to God, and confession of sin.  These actions bring New Life in Christ for the unbeliever, and they bring regular renewal and spiritual growth to the Christ-follower. 

If all goes as planned, tomorrow Donald J. Trump will be our new president.  Life will not immediately be “as it ought to be.”  But, if we take to heart the instructions of the Apostle James to submit to God Who will help us resist the devil, God will enable us to replace our own tendency toward divisiveness, anger, and rudeness with the virtues like patience, kindness, and self-control.   We can then be a much-needed, fresh aroma in our struggling homes, schools, workplaces, and churches.  The inspired Word written in a letter by the Apostle Paul to Titus during harsh times of the Roman Empire ought to encourage us to be thankful for the privilege of watching the inauguration and then praying for the Trump family and his new administration (emphasis mine):

Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.  For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.  But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by His grace we would be mad heirs according to the hope of eternal life. – Titus 3:1-7

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How about You?   If after reading this article, you sense that you need to do some mind and soul searching, here is a suggestion.  Read Part 1 of this series and prayerfully consider and apply the “four disciplines” outlined there to assure our daily submission to the “New Master.”  They were (1) forging ahead for God while confessing and forgetting past failings; and, being disciplined to (2) feed on God’s Word, (3) adopt a lifestyle of prayer and repentance, and (4) seek fellowship regularly with fellow believers.  If you have particular questions or comments, please use the “Comment” box below or e-mail me at silviusj@gmail.com

No Gun Control Without Self-Control

What do firearms, knives, and words have in common?  All three can protect or save lives; and, all three can destroy by sharp and deadly replies. 

Thanks to the First and Second Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, we Americans have freedom of speech and freedom to bear of arms, respectively. These freedoms also mean relatively few restrictions against fiery tongues and fiery guns.  Nevertheless, our protection from both tongue and gun is rooted not in civil law but in the moral code.  The moral law is grounded in Jesus’ teaching that it is out of the heart [that] come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders (Matthew 15:19).  Therefore, the answer to a safe and civil society is not found alone in “tighter controls” on guns and speech.  Instead, there must be a revival within institutions that nurture a godly disposition of the heart; namely, the family and the local church, both within the context of caring communities.

All Violence Comes Ultimately from the Heart

I believe government is ordained by God to establish rule of law, execute justice for lawbreakers, and protect the nation from foreign invasion.    But, for such a system to work requires both leadership committed to just enforcement of the laws of the land; and, a citizenry that recognizes its individual moral and ethical responsibility to higher authority--and ultimately to God.  This relationship requires no less than a partnership between government and religious institutions, both functioning in their respective roles to maintain order.  While civil authorities encourage social behavior by external laws and deterrents to anti-social behavior; family and church nurture character qualities that promote self-restraint, personal responsibility, and benevolence.  Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his essay "Repentance and Self-Limitation in the Life of Nations," underscores the necessity of strong character in individuals if a society is to prosper:

Whatever feelings predominate in the members of a given society at a given moment in time, they will serve to color the whole of that society and determine its moral character.  And if there is nothing good there to pervade that society, it will destroy itself or be brutalized by the triumph of evil instincts no matter where the pointer of the great economic laws may turn.[i]

Although many believe that government shouldn’t “legislate morality” or “engineer” society, still federal, state, and local governments continue to move in this direction.  Perhaps the moral laxity and the decay of the nuclear family have created the vacuum that government now seeks to fill.  Leadership in Washington, through “ObamaCare” has taken on the management of human health care and even the ‘health’ of planet Earth.  At the local level, the city of New York is attempting to ban big sugary drinks as If to occupy the vacuum left by an adult population that seems less responsible for both their own nutrition and that of their children. But government efforts to legislate individual and planetary health are both doomed to fail without a revival of godly human character and personal responsibility.

The Bible emphasizes individual or personal responsibility under the concept of stewardship.  Stewardship is managing that which is not ours but has been entrusted to us by our Creator—our abilities, our time, and our opportunities to become responsible, members of society.  Stewardship is taught in many parts of the Bible as I have previously highlighted in Oikonomia.  Of particular relevance here is Colossians 3: 23-24 where Paul states:

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,
knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.
It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

In order to fulfill our responsibility as stewards of creation, we have been entrusted with great potential as image bearers of the Creator Himself.  We are to be God’s caretakers who represent His interests as we rule over His creation.  But instead of representing God’s interests, our father Adam acted on his individual interests and consequently brought God’s judgment upon him and all his descendents.

In spite of the fall of man and the curse upon the creation, mankind was allowed to remain as stewards of  creation.  What followed was a steady march of “human progress” in the development of more sophisticated technology.  Each development increased the reach and power of humans to utilize the richness of creation’s treasures of soil, water, minerals, metals, fossil fuel, and biodiversity.  And, with each new technological advance from club and arrow to gun and bullet, and then, to rocket and drone came the challenge to use the potential of that technology either for human benefit and God’s glory, or for human destruction and God’s dismay.

The table below lists several common technologies that are influential in today’s culture.  (Click on table to view.)  The middle and right columns demonstrate that most technology can lead to either morally “good” or “bad” outcomes.

There are differing viewpoints about the moral component of technology[ii].  However, I believe the quality of moral character, judgment, and personal responsibility of the individual user is the chief determiner of whether a morally “good” or “bad” outcome will result from the use of technology.  For example, the same firearm used by an elementary school policeman to protect the students and teachers from the murderous intent of intruders can also be used by the same policeman in a fit of rage to commit the horrible act he or she is hired to prevent.  It follows that our society will not prosper amid a myriad of guns, gadgets, and goodies unless greater attention is given to the importance of each individual taking personal responsibility for his or her actions.

Mass shootings like the ones at Aurora, Colorado [See Oikononia, July 25, 2012] and Sandy Hook, Connecticut have prompted requests for new laws to prevent such tragedies.  Sadly, the moral and spiritual principles voiced by our clergy at memorial services for the dead are not allowed into our public schools, universities, and halls of government where attempts are being made to make sense of such behaviors and to prescribe ways to stop needless killing

Dr. Alveda King told Newsmax (March, 2013) that both her grandmother and her uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King, were killed by guns; but her father was mysteriously killed with no gun involved.  She concludes that,

…rather than giving all of our effort to gun control, we need to start looking at the hearts of the people and even consider when you do things like taking prayer out of schools…or just cut off all efforts to give people value systems, and morals…

Solzhenitsyn claimed that the only “way out” is through repentance:

What way out remains to us?  Not the embittered strife of parties or nations, not the struggle to win some elusive victory -- for all the ferocious causes already in being -- but simply repentance and the search for our own errors and sins.  We must stop blaming everyone else -- our neighbors and more distant peoples, our geographical, economic, or ideological rivals, always claiming that we alone are in the right.  Repentance is the first bit of firm ground underfoot, the only one from which we can go forward not to fresh hatreds but to concord.  Repentance is the only starting point for spiritual growth. ‘For each and every individual.  For every trend of social thought.’

Shouldn’t we who are so rich and surrounded by gadgets—we who are even shaped by them, and who are killing and being killed by them (whether gun, knife, or pen)—shouldn’t we TAKE the only “way out?”  Solzhenitsyn’s “way out” of this rings consistent with God’s heavenly call recorded in the Old Testament:  If…my people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land (II Chronicles 7:13 (part)-14). 

Taking the only way out?   Perhaps during this Holy Week, we can begin by setting aside a quiet time (away from distracting gadgets if possible), obtain a copy of the Bible, and read God’s Word.  Christ’s “Sermon on the Mount” recorded in Matthew Chapters 5-7 may be a good place to start.  Then, pray in communion with our Creator God, allowing His Spirit to illuminate our reading and our medication upon His truth claims.  After all, isn’t …the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12)?

Prayer:   Thank you Father for being a loving God and even “Father” to those who have simply surrendered their pride and rebellious hearts to receive forgiveness for sin based on Christ’s sinless sacrifice on the cross.  Help us to recognize that our hearts are deceitfully wicked without your transforming work through your Holy Spirit.  Without your transformation of our dispositions from pride and hate to humility and love, no amount of man-made legislation will bring resolution to the problems we face in our homes, churches, schools, governments, and environment. Conversely, as we surrender to You, be pleased to mold and shape our hearts so that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds [so that we may] prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).

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[i] I am indebted to Dean Ohlman for recent discussions in which he pointed me to Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s essay cited herein.   He has developed these thoughts very well at http://wonderofcreation.org/2012/07/03/confessing-for-the-church-part-2/

[ii]  Admittedly, there is disagreement as to where the moral component resides, whether in the technology itself, in the human creator, or in the interaction between creator and technology.  For example, see the following source:  Latour, Bruno.  2002.  Morality and Technology: The End of the Means.  Theory, Culture & Society  (SAGE, London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi), Vol. 19(5/6): 247–260

Who Is James Holmes? Who Mentored Him?

On the night of July 19, excited movie-goers crowded into a theater in Aurora, CO for a sold-out premiere of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises.  Before the movie, it was just another evening at the theater as movie-goers allowed Christopher Nolan’s production of lights, sights, and sounds to transport them out of their work-a-day world into the action, adventure, and intrigue of Gotham City.

But while enjoying the imaginary world of Batman, the audience was rudely interrupted by James Holmes, thought earlier to be just another movie-goer.  But, according to ABC News, Holmes donned a “ballistics helmet, bulletproof vest, bulletproof leggings, gas mask and gloves.  Holmes detonated multiple smoke bombs, and then began firing at viewers….” allegedly killing 12 people and wounding 59 others.   After his apprehension by police, he informed them that his apartment was rigged with enough explosives to decimate the building and perhaps neighboring structures as well.

James Holmes' high school photo (L) and college ID photo (R)

When the Friday morning news reports were broadcast, James Holmes and Aurora, CO instantly became “household names.”   We all asked, “Who is James Holmes?”  Some of us tried to look within the man, asking about his mental and emotional stability.  Others searched for sociological influences or political motivations that would lead a person to carry out such a diabolical plan.   Many of us were simply stunned.

Writing on any aspect of this tragedy can easily become an “I told you so” exercise to support one’s political or religious agenda.  Nor is it possible now to give a neat and tidy account of why James Holmes committed the crimes for which he is being held.  For even as I write, James Holmes, his family, the families of his victims, and many others suffer by the hour in various ways.

Yet when tragedy punctuates the normal flow of life, we should take stock of our lives and ask questions that seldom occur during our weekday routines or weekend activities like movie-going.  Questions like the following:   What is wrong or missing in a person that would generate such a tragedy?  If we can know, can it be ‘fixed?’  Who are we as human beings?   Where did we come from?  What is our purpose and destiny?  This week’s blogs are raising these questions, at least “between the lines.”

Each individual must consciously or unconsciously address these fundamental questions of life. The manner in which we address them forms our worldview, or “lens” though which we process and interact with the world around us.  I admit my own inadequacy to answer the questions arising from Aurora.  But let me suggest the strong possibility that James Holmes allowed himself to be “squeezed into the mold” of our contemporary culture, and that he came to lose sight of his origin, identity, purpose, and destiny as an individual.

Perhaps we will eventually know more about whether James Holmes was nurtured in a home and community that helped him gain a sense of his origin, identity, purpose, and future.  Holmes’ neighbor for 15 years described him as a young man who “…washed the car for his parents, he cut the grass, he played soccer.”  Holmes graduated from Westview H.S. in San Diego, CA, in 2006 where he was described as “a smart kid,” “great in chemistry,” and as a “normal teenager.”   In 2010, Holmes graduated with honors with a degree in neuroscience from University of California-Riverside where he was described as an “impressive” student, and “a smart guy.”

Holmes’ choice to specialize in the neurosciences in a highly competitive environment ushered him into one of the frontiers of the biological and medical sciences; and, a field that challenges our very core beliefs about the origin and nature of humans and human consciousness and behavior.  It is likely that James Holmes was greatly influenced by a naturalistic evolution worldview no doubt presented by many of his school teachers and university professors.  Here, James would have learned that he and all of humanity are the product of undirected, random processes within matter that over billions of years have produced molecules, cells, and eventually an array of more and more complex life forms.  If he came to believe that he is the product of purposeless evolution, “survival of the fittest,” then Holmes’ naturalistic worldview would offer him little hope when the deeper questions of life confronted him personally: “What is my purpose for living?   Why should I care about other humans, or about improving our understanding of human health, consciousness, and behavior?

Again, I didn’t know James Holmes, and I don’t want to be overly simplistic.  Some suggest he was influenced by the Tea Party movement.  (Turned out to be a different James Holmes.)  Is my hypothetical scenario any less plausible?  Allow me to continue if you will.

I believe the Judo-Christian Scriptures provide solid answers to the deep questions we have listed here. The Bible teaches that God is the Creator (Genesis 1-2; Romans 1) and that His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made…  The passage goes on to say that this truth is so clear that …they [who deny that God is Creator] are without excuse (Romans 1: 20); instead, professing to be wise, [those who deny] became fools (Romans 1: 22).

The “world system of thinking” which denies the truth claims above can easily force each of us into its mold.   Later in Romans, we are warned not to allow ourselves to …be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).  In other words, “be careful not to allow your way of thinking and defining reality to be molded by a world system that bases its “truth” on the pre-supposition that ‘all we see is all there is’.”

In June, 2011, Holmes enrolled in a highly competitive graduate program in neurosciences of the School of Medicine at the Aurora campus of the University of Colorado.   A classmate described him as “a loner,” and he reportedly dropped out a month ago.  The last course in which he enrolled was on “mental illnesses and psychiatric disorders.”  Holmes’ parents and neighbors observed changes in his behavior; and, for reasons not yet clear, he had become reclusive and left an impression on neighbors in Aurora that he was “deeply troubled.”   When asked whether he takes drugs, his answer: “Prefer not to say.” And, “Am a nice guy. Well, as nice enough of a guy who does these sort of shenanigans.”

So, the question is, “What was becoming of James Holmes during this past year?”  Maybe you’ll say I’m oversimplifying that which brought about the change in James Holmes’ behavior.  Perhaps we will never know.  However, we do know that human health and well being are strongly dependent upon a clear self-awareness, social affirmation, sense of purpose, and an understanding of their relationship to the natural world and reality beyond the material world.

I’m curious that Holmes and his family attended a local Presbyterian church where it is reported that “Jimmy was clean-cut, well-spoken and a good kid.”  What influence did the social and spiritual environment at his church have on James’ life?  After all, God’s plan is for His Truth to be taught, witnessed, and applied consistently within local churches, His body at work on Earth.  Here and in a “Christian home,” James’ life and worldview might have been transformed (changed) by a regular renewal of his mind (Romans 12:2) by regular reading, meditation, and application of the truth of Scripture.   The Book of Psalms opens with this proclamation:

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.   -- Psalm 1: 1-3

Blessed (happy; having much joy in our “happenings”) are the man and the woman who “delight,” “meditate,” and “walk” according to God’s plan outlined in Scripture.  The human heart is, spiritually speaking, the seat of our worldview and value system; our mind, the seat of our decision-making (or “will”).  Both heart and mind must be continually nourished by the truth claims of the Scriptures.  Result:  We are armed against the false claims from a “world system” of thought that denies the authority of God and Scripture.

The tragedy in Aurora is that many lives were suddenly taken or changed forever by a person whose mind had become disoriented and darkened, perhaps by genetic and physiological causes; or, just as likely, by allowing his mind to be “programmed” in such a way that he exchanged his purpose for living and learning about the human mind for the diabolical purpose of destroying human lives.

I close with two applications.   First, I disagree with those who claim that gun control laws need to be stiffened to prevent such disasters.   If my logic above is correct, this was not about access to guns and ammo; it was about the spiritual and emotional health of a person.  Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) said it well:  I don’t think there is a solution here in Washington to solve this problem.  Just as I don’t believe Washington can produce a health care program that will meet the physical health needs of its citizens, neither can it address the emotional and spiritual health needs.  That must come from individual accountability fostered within healthy families, communities, and churches.

Second, I believe there is a somber lesson for those of us who would be teachers—whose “profession” is to be professors of truth.  As professors on college campuses, we should be good stewards of our profession of faith and of our academic discipline.  Students will observe and learn from our profession of truth through both our words and our actions.   Such “professing” helps students to acquire understanding about the world around them as they examine truth claims about human origins, purpose, and destiny.   School teachers and college professors have the privilege and responsibility to nurture young men and women who are looking for answers to these important questions.   May God be merciful to teachers and professors who have rejected the Creator’s clear message of hope that has been revealed in creation (Romans 1: 20) and in God’s Word, the Bible.   As the Apostle James states:   Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.  James 3:1

Related Topic from Oikonomia:    Of grave concern is the tendency within the evangelical church and associated college campuses to question the biblical account of the origin of human life by the special creation of Adam and Eve as given in Genesis 1-2, Matthew 19:4, and elsewhere.  See Caution at the Gate to a Perilous Path (Feb 06, 2011) and Could He? Would He? (Apr 30, 2011)