A word that makes many eighth grade confirmation class students break out in a cold sweat and lose sleep at this time of year.
Those who grew up in the Lutheran Church no doubt remember well their “confirmation examination” when they were publicly questioned on Christian doctrine as summarized in the Catechism. Oh, the racing heart,
the pale face, and the sweaty palms!Read More »Let A Man Examine Himself…
During the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century an insidious philosophy – namely, rationalism — spread throughout Europe and America. Rationalism’s proponents asserted that human reason, unaided by divine revelation, is the sole guide to all attainable religious truth.
Human reason became the new god. The idea put forth was that if the human brain could not figure something out, it could not be true.
People began to turn away from the “other-worldly” focus of the Middle Ages toward the more worldly focus so prevalent in our day.
The Bible, however, speaks of a whole different concept of attaining truth.
The “carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7). Without God’s Spirit, people walk in darkness, unable to find truth. “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
