4 The Age of Unreason and Emotion

we grow up, however, we’re supposed to escape fantasy and live in reality. But the natural mind causes us to live in fantasy as opposed to reality.

Therefore, we are naturally opposed to the gospel because the gospel comes along and does not speak fantasy to us. It comes and speaks reality. God tells us things as they really are. He causes us to see things as they really are rather than the way we would like to believe or hope they are.

In Colossians 2:18 and Romans 8:7, Paul talks about the fleshly, sensuous, hostile, or unspiritual mind (depending on your Bible translation). This is a mind that is prone toward lust and all the things that we call the flesh. In Titus 1:15, Paul talks about the corrupted or defiled mind. We are born with this kind of inclination. We are born with a mind that is perverted. With a corrupt, depraved, fleshly, futile, sensuous, defiled mind, am I capable of doing a whole lot of correct thinking? Of course not.

In 1 Corinthians 1:18, Paul says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The word of the cross is folly to those who are still living in the natural state. They don’t comprehend what God is doing. Why? Because they don’t have the spiritual nature within them. Spiritual truth can only be perceived by people who have a spirit, by people whose spirit has made them alive.

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Someone in this fallen state is not capable of right thinking. Therefore, it’s absolute folly to go to a person who is living in a darkened, perverted, and corrupt mind—with all the characteristics of our natural state— and say “Stay positive.” They’re not capable of that. Until God opens the minds of people, there’s nothing we can do to make them comprehend. The natural person can no more think correctly in the biblical sense of the word than a blind person can see color or a deaf person can hear sound.

Here is one beautiful example of God opening someone’s mind in the New Testament. In Acts 16, Paul went down by the riverside in Philippi to find a place of prayer. “One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message” (verse 14). In other words, the Lord opened her mind to comprehend.

We know that God wants to do this, but He is never going to open a mind until a person begins to have a will that is ready to be submissive. When God opens the mind, then a person can begin to comprehend truth. It’s the preaching of the Word that begins the process the Bible calls conviction.

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We are living in what I call the Age of Unreason. At the end of the 1700s, Thomas Paine wrote The Age of Reason, but the Age of Reason has never really been here. There may have been times when people have seemingly operated by their minds more than their emotions, but right now, we are living in an age of unreason. We’re living in a time of emotion. We have gone back to what we might call the age of romanticism and even the age of mysticism.

What’s the reason for that? You see, we are not really living in our minds—we are living in our feelings. The maxim of the day is “If it feels good, do it.” Vance Packard wrote The Hidden Persuaders all the way back in 1957. He said that 90% of all purchases in the United States are based upon emotions and impulse. The percentage is probably higher today.

The real problem is that the church has copied the world. In the Old Testament, we read a great deal about the Babylonian captivity of the Jewish people. Overall, Babylon represents the world in the Bible. I am con-

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vinced that there’s been another Babylonian captivity. The church tends to be captivated by the age it is living in, which today is the Age of Unreason.

We were not put in society to copy the world. We were put here to be the salt in society. We are to be a model for the world to copy. Yet the world has invaded the church far more than the church has invaded the world. And the world is living in an age of unreason, experientialism, and emotionalism.

Some time ago, a man named Mel Tari was traveling all over America because of his (now-controversial) book Like a Mighty Wind. It was his account of the Indonesian revival in the twentieth century, and he was asked a question. Can what happened in Indonesia take place in America? He said, “Yes, if you will take out that small computer which is your brain, put it in a little box, and shoot it to the moon and then let God use your heart.”

This is an absurd quotation. There is no place in the Bible where God asks you to kiss your brains goodbye and freewheel it on your heart and emotions. Anytime you do this, you’re opening the emotional Pandora’s box for every fickle, erratic thing to take place. The problem in the church is that we have allowed subjective experience to become our authority rather than the objective, propositional Word of God.

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Emotions First, Thinking Second?

One common example of this extreme subjectivity is when Christians often get together, put their mind out of gear, and freewheel it on their emotions and experiences. God never meant for our emotions to control our mind. It’s the other way around. Anytime we do that, we’re really headed for trouble.

This is one of the reasons I think events like revivals and other gatherings down through the years have fallen into such disrepute. They have been experiences where people have tried to whip up others’ emotions, prey on them, and cause them to make emotional decisions that aren’t really going to last.

Commitment must be based on content if it’s going to be a valid, lasting commitment. Anytime a person makes a commitment and doesn’t understand the content they have committed to, then they’re going to be in trouble.

Read what Paul said: “I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God” (Acts 20:27). Essentially, he was trying to tell them, “I have explained to you all the mind of God that God has revealed to us, so you know the God with whom you have to do.” Commitment, if it’s mature, must be based on content. God’s people need to rediscover God’s Word and then start applying that content to their lives.

I have talked with numerous people who say, “I have

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experienced exactly what they experienced in the book of Acts” (supernatural activity). Then, they go out, share this, and oftentimes breed a lot of confusion within the body of Christ. Because if any doubt is expressed toward them, they reply, “I don’t care what you say, you can’t take away what I’ve experienced.” At this point, I can no longer have a reasonable biblical discussion with that person because they have elevated experience and emotion above God’s Word.

The problem is they have started living by the authority of experience rather than the experience of authority. As Christians, we were created as creatures to live under the experience of authority, specifically the authority of God.

Since we’re in rebellion against God, we often live under the authority of experience. In other words, our experiences, as fickle and erratic as they are, constantly dictate our behavior. Therefore, we live under the authority of every new “spiritual” experience or fad that comes along. We do this instead of living under the experience of authority, under the propositional, objective Word of God and in a relationship with Him, regardless of experiences.

The Throne of Your Heart

Let’s talk about what the Bible calls the carnal Christian, as opposed to the spiritual Christian. Remember

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that we’re talking about the heart first as the seat of reflection and then affection. The Bible says to be carnally minded is death and to be spiritually minded is life.

Tragically, we have gotten to the place in the church where carnal Christianity has often become the norm, and spiritual Christianity has become the exception. We have gotten so far off base that what was subnormal has become accepted as normal, and what was normal is now called supranormal. We have accepted carnal Christianity as normal Christianity, and that is perverted Christianity. It is fleshly Christianity, as Paul would call it, whereby Christians are living under the authority of experience. This is absolutely displeasing to God.

Let’s put it this way. In the heart of every believer there is a throne. Rather than putting God’s Word on the throne, a person lives more by experience and feeling. They often run around from one meeting or revival to another, trying to get spiritually pumped up. They tend to evaluate every so-called spiritual experience by how many goosebumps they get! The more feeling, the more spiritual, and that’s not necessarily reality.

As a result, we have elevated experience to the throne of authority. And yet, the authority of experience always leads to a fickle, fluctuating, frustrating Christian life, never satisfying. Why? Because it’s a spiritual rollercoaster, going up and down, from elation to depression, hot to cold, on and off, and so forth. This is carnal Christianity, living by the flesh. To be carnally minded is death.

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How, then, can we learn to live? Walk by the Spirit. Think spiritually rather than carnally or fleshly. I am by no means discounting emotions and feelings and experience. God gives us great spiritual experiences from time to time. But we must live with the authority of God’s Word where we rely on what He has said rather than how we experientially feel at any given point in time. Experiences are in a secondary position.

We elevate God’s Word through His Spirit to the throne of authority in our hearts. This is the experience of authority. In other words, God has the authority over our lives that He originally created us to experience. And this is all done by faith. Faith is that attitude which pleases God. Faith honors God and therefore God honors faith.

As the writer of Hebrews says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (11:6). And Romans 14:23 adds, “Everything that does not come from faith is sin.”

Tragically, most Christians are more carnally minded than spiritually minded. We live in the Age of Unreason and Emotion. Therefore, we’re on the rollercoaster of faith rather than living a spiritual life, walking by the Spirit, and having the mind of the Spirit.

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Wrapping Up Wrong Thinking

God emphasizes the role of the mind and thinking in the Bible. He wants us to let Him renew our minds and teach us how to think rightly again. God never asks us to deny our feelings and our emotions. He does give us many genuine experiences, but He never intends that we walk by feelings. We should always walk by faith and therefore honor Him.

God said, “Come now, and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18 kjv). However, some believers want to retranslate this verse into “Come now, let us experience together.” To be clear, Christianity is not a cerebral religion. By that I mean that there are those who want to get to heaven headfirst. You can’t do that. We come to faith through a new birth experience. If we wait until we comprehend it all intellectually before we decide on it, we will never get there.

We can’t really get to heaven headfirst, but neither can we get there by completely denying our reason. This is why Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” Be ready at all times to give a reasonable answer.

So, let’s summarize. We are what we think, because all our actions rise out of our attitudes. The real crux of the problem is this: we are not capable of right thinking

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in our fallen condition. Therefore, we’re not capable of right living. And because we’re not capable of right living, we are creatures victimized by our perverted feelings, living by our emotions.

We’ve also seen that our minds are fallen and darkened. Even when we become Christians and have the new birth experience, many of us continue to think with the old natural mind more than we do the new spiritual mind. Therefore, the work of the flesh will still characterize our lives more than the fruit of the Spirit. Paul chastised the church at Corinth for this reason. They continued to think with the old mind after they had received the new. This is why Paul admonished Christians in Colossians 3:2 to “set your minds on things above.” When we start thinking and setting our minds on the things above, we will be able to live with a new quality of life.

We have lived for so long in the futility of our minds, with wrong thinking and a darkened understanding, that we have accepted it as normal. But the Lord gives us a new mind to think His thoughts and transform our behavior.

As Christians, not only do we receive a new heart with new affections, we receive the “mind of Christ,” as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:16. We have the privilege of thinking God’s thoughts after Him, having the mind of Christ. And that’s where we’ll look next: making preparations for right thinking.

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