What’s happened to our minds?
By Paul Bawden
I can only ask this question as I hear and see what is happening in the United States.
It has nothing to do about which political party you are part of or not a part of, although some like to think so. It has nothing to do about what education you have or lack there of. It has nothing to do about your philosophy of life or your religious belief or background. It has everything to do with what is happening in each of our minds.
Take the idea, if we don’t follow a particular persuasion, man could destroy the planet he lives on. So in ten years or so we need to do away with air travel, 99 % of our cars, banning of meat, and provide economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work, just to name a few concepts. Can anyone believe that? Evidently the number is growing.
Then we live in a society where morality is a lost word. Marriage has lost its true meaning, and now about anything goes. We have those changing sexual identity, still maintaining their own body structure, so we see men who are supposedly women winning in women’s athletic competitions. Add to that the denial of the value of life in the womb and even a living baby on the table in a botched abortion.
What has happened to our minds? Has insanity set in? Well, some will probably say, “What difference does it make? Every person to his own way of thinking.” Others just keep on living being oblivious to what’s going on.
But is it okay? Does it make a difference as to how we think? The man of wisdom in the good book has said that as a person thinks so is he or she. That’s very convicting, at least it should be. For what is said is that our thinking tells us what kind of people we are. So, what kind of people are we?
The popular idea is that we are the masters of our own destiny. Generally speaking, we are people who depend on our own limited reason to get us through life, which includes all the different thinking, philosophies, religions, and isms of mankind.
May I suggest for your thinking that what has happened, in what I call our “death culture,” is spiritual blindness. Yes, because we are not just physical/material people, we are also spiritual people. Sure, one can deny that as well, but to deny that reality doesn’t do away with the reality of it. That’s why the Bible says, “the god of this world (the evil one, Satan, himself) has blinded our minds . . . . (II Cor. 4:4a). What kind of a blindness has he brought to all of us? It’s called deception. Adam’s and Eve’s deception in the Garden of Eden is now affecting all of us. We are deceived people, believing the lie that any idea is rational and we can do about anything we want without any consequences. We only have to look at what’s happening in our culture to see where that is taking us.
What’s the answer to the deception promoted in our culture? One word — the GOSPEL. That’s why II Corinthians 4:4-6 tells us that it’s the gospel that provides us the true light in the midst of our cultural deception. The gospel, that Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, our breaking God’s law, was buried, and rose bodily from the grave, breaks Satan’s deception, providing the believer a whole new way of thinking – actually Christ’s mind. Thinking that’s grounded in truth, love, hope, purity, humility, forgiveness, seeks the good of the object loved, even involvement to make sure the planet is cared for. Have you believed the gospel? (cf. Romans 1:16). If you have believed the gospel, in Christ’s power, live worthy of the gospel to the glory of God! Remember, your mind matters!!
Paul Bawden is married and served in the pastoral ministry for 45 years, retiring in 2011. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Speech and attended Dallas Theological Seminary, receiving a Master of Theology. He has taken counseling courses at Trinity Evangelical Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois. Paul is a lifetime member of the Evangelical Free Church of America, as well as being a member of Interim Pastor Ministries (IPM), which serves churches during their time of transition in searching for a new pastor. He writes for Union Gospel Press, as well as being a volunteer writer for GotQuestions.org. Paul likes to write, read, bike, and work in the yard. The Bawdens have had the privilege to travel to Mexico and Romania on mission trips and visited various countries in Europe.