December 2005

By Konrad Kern

In a previous month I introduced The Christian Mind by Blamires. This month I want to elaborate on the first characteristic of the Christian Mind; we see a supernatural aspect of life.

Unfortunately, an unbounded awareness of the spiritual domain is a dangerous thing.   A quick look at popular TV indicates a spiritual awareness is common in popular culture. However, most of these show's trailers give me the creeps, and for good reason. Christ told us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves for good reason.  Therefore, we use the "weight of evidence" principle to know what we know about the spiritual domain.

The Christian mind completely and comprehensively knows there is an eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful God who created and sustains all life and will someday righteously judge all men by a perfect standard. We know God took on human flesh in Jesus Christ, paid the penalty of sin by death on a cross, and then arose from death to prove He is God. We know God in the person of the Holy Spirit lives inside all Christians. This information and more is repeatedly presented so we might love and enjoy God intensely.

The Christian mind has a limited understanding of "other" spiritual beings and activities. We're told about angels and demons and their occasional interactions with humans. We have some insights into a recurrent warfare between these spiritual beings. We also understand we participate in this spiritual warfare with appropriate armor, offense weapons of prayer and God's word, and are ultimately sealed (protected) by the indwelling Holy Spirit. God gives us some knowledge of these affairs for our protection, to assure us of eventual victory, but not so much to distract the Christian from the primary goal of knowing and enjoying God.

When we encounter the spiritually interested but uninformed, we need to frame the discussion around the truth God has emphasized. Agree with them that there is a domain beyond what we can see and there is a lot going on there. Then direct their attention to the key issue of the Spiritual domain. Remind them of their relative power in this domain.  If they don't embrace God's salvation through Jesus Christ, they could end up like a smooshed ant between an elephant's toes.