December 29 – An Intellectual Assault (Romans 9:20)

“There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.” (Proverbs 21:30)

IN WORD:
Intellectual pride has been dressed up and presented charmingly throughout all generations. From the philosophies of Ancient Greece to the sophistry of modern academics, men & women have speculated about who God ought to be. There is a fine line between making honest, intellectual inquiry and raising human reasoning to be infallible, and we have crossed it often. We tag our intellectual ears with names like “The Age of Reason,” “The Enlightenment,” and other such misnomers. All the while, we forget how limited are our senses and how unreliable are our thoughts.
The assumption underlying much religious philosophy is that revelation is a myth, and if we are to know anything at all, it must be from our own investigation. That approach resigns the human race to a long, twisted path to truth that may lead us there on some occasions but will lead us far away on others. In short, it gives up on the knowable God.
The sophisticates of our age seem to think they are an intellectual match for God, challenging — even rejecting — His wisdom at nearly every point. Biblical morality? Outdated and irrelevant. The nature of God? Unbalanced and far too harsh. The identity of the church? A gross overestimation. These are the biases that have been thoroughly integrated into our culture, influencing our media and dominating our universities.

IN DEED:
Do you want to be wise? Take everything your hear with a grain of salt and cling to divine revelation. The human mind is given by its Creator to learn from Him, not to overthrow Him. Surely we must know deep within that we are ill equipped to discover truth. But the Word of god — there’s the living Truth. It is powerful and exalting. Breathe it, eat it, drink it, sleep on it, hold it tight. There is nothing deeper, nothing more reliable to be found.

“Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.” -Thomas Aquinas-