How Deep Is Your Well — Part # I
Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Proverbs 4:7
Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Proverbs 29:20
(2) For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you… (5) Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:2–5
What can the above three passages teach us about bringing godly wisdom to an often dense world?
First — A Story About Faith & Science?
A few years back, one of the church teenagers came and asked my permission to pass along some tracts to the other church teens. The small booklets were in opposition to the theory of evolution, and this eager young man believed it would be good for the other students to pass along these anti-evolution tracts to their science teachers. The tract was entitled, 15 Questions For Evolutionists? (*Link to digital copy of tract below)
I generally have no issue in giving out literature (*I regard myself a free speech absolutist, and believe people should be able to reason for themselves), and I didn’t have an issue with this teen passing out the tracts to those interested. At first, I thought the tract was pretty clever, as it quickly got my brain buzzing around many of the questions the document posed. Thankfully, just before I was about to give my assent, an internal warning bell seemed to go off in my brain, spurring me to warn this teen, “Hey, maybe it isn’t very wise to pass these pamphlets out, especially to educated biologists!”
Consider question three from the tract: “How could mutations — accidental copying mistakes (DNA ‘letters’ exchanged, deleted or added, genes duplicated, chromosome inversions, etc.) — create the huge volumes of information in the DNA of living things?”
If you are like me, you might be thinking, “That sounds like a reasonable question? How would an evolutionist answer this?” Then came another, and probably a much more important thought, “What does this question even mean?” And, “What on earth are, ‘chromosome inversions?’”
With these new questions coming to mind, I did something very cruel; I asked the young man to help elucidate for me his his own understanding of, “mutations,” “gene duplications,” and “chromosome inversions?”
As I suspected, the fearless apologist, like me, had little familiarity with these terms, nor could he even define for me a, “chromosome inversion.” I then asked, “Do you think it wise, to arm an army of teenagers with provocative booklets filled with information they know nothing about?”
Even though I never said he could not pass along these tracts, after our little exchange, he came to the same reasoning. Maybe this was not the wisest course after all.
Please understand, even to this day, I am not opposed to the handing out of this pamphlet. However, I am concerned about who should be handing it out. As already stated, the contents grabbed my attention, and I would love to hear a respected evolutionary biologist engage with these 15 questions. However, I would rather have them posed by someone, who has at the very least, some grounding within this field of inquiry.
I have not read, Sun Tzu’s famous/infamous book, The Art of War, but I am familiar with at least one piece of Tzu’s legendary advice:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Sun Tzu, The Art of War
I am not suggesting high school science teachers are our enemies, rather I want to point out Tzu’s great wisdom: If we are going to engage in the arena of ideas, we need to be equipped. We need to first know what we believe and why we believe it; we also need to know, what others believe and why they believe differently. In the instance shared above, I had the suspicion, if I wasn’t careful, I could have sent young people into battle, where they did not, “know their enemy,” nor did they, “know themselves.”
A Present Day Tragedy:
Tragically, we live in a culture of talking heads and “tweeting” thumbs, where ignorant people hastily express their opinions on many consequential and complicated issues. Each night you can turn on a local “news” show, where there are a panel of alleged experts giving their opinions on a host of issues. One night, the topic might be climate change; the next night, these same pundits are talking about universal minimum wage; and the following night, its foreign policy with China. And these clearly ‘simplistic’ topics are easily understood and solved with three and half minutes of sensational soundbites! Sadly, many of us, watch a 20 minute video, read a single one-sided article, or listen to a celebrity’s take on a complicated issue, and we begin to think we also might know something about it; or even worse, begin to believe those who think differently, must, by definition, be ignorant!
Along with Sun Tzu, the Bible also give us essential wisdom on how to think, and potentially more importantly, when to speak, when addressing the consequential issues, ideas, and ethical concerns of our day.
First, Solomon implores us to recognize, “Wisdom is supreme!” Even if, “it costs us everything,” Solomon motivates us to, “get understanding!” (Proverbs 4:7)
Secondly, Solomon warns us to keep our mouths shut! Or, at least, to hold our tongues until we know what we are talking about. Solomon explains, “There is more hope for a fool,” than for the clown who speaks with “haste.” (Proverbs 29:20)
Finally, Jesus also articulates the same wisdom for his followers (Matthew 7:1–6). Jesus warns us, we should not be quick to judge, because, “The measure we use, will be measured back to us.” Often when we read Jesus’ statement about, “not judging,” and about not removing, “the spec in another’s eye,” because of the, “2x4 in our own eye,” we wrongly conclude: We should never judge another. Or more problematic, we believe we have to get our act perfect before we have any business in expressing disagreement towards another. This type of thinking is nonsense!
Jesus, actually encourages us to, “remove the spec from our brother’s eye.” However, he “first” commands us, “to remove our own blindspots (the plank),” otherwise we are “hypocrites!” The key is actually verse 6, the portion never quoted: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” Jesus is warning: Yes, our truth, our judgements could be 100% accurate, but if we make them from a naive, uneducated and undisciplined perspective, they are as worthless as pearls are to pigs! Not only this, they may also lead to our own slaughter.
Christians — How deep is your well?
When you speak back to your world, to you family, to your friends; regardless of the issue, do you speak from a place of ignorance? Or from a well of discipline and deep understanding?
I pray, the practice and prudence of the Christian church far excels the pointless opinions of a world littered with pretentious pundits! And I pray, the Christian church might be given the ‘earned’ voice to speak the knowledge and grace of God back to our wisdom-starved world.
Resource Mentioned
