Intellectual integrity

Although I was raised in a Christian family, I began to doubt my faith during my first philosophy course in college. In the midst of my spiritual journey, the Lord showed me His presence one night in the bright stars. I surrendered my heart to the Lord, and I returned home spiritually renewed. However, unknowingly at the time, I still had to surrender my brain to the Lord as well. I still attended classes where I was subtly being taught that I should be the judge of truth myself, that truth was relative and subjective. My brain was being washed with that mentality, without me realizing it. I continued to live a duality between my "spiritual" life and my intellectual life.

I woke up to that reality when I took a course on ethics. I first thought my professor was a profound thinker, because of the way he asked good questions. He always said, "Why do you think that?" He made me realize that I should be able to defend my point of view. One day we went to listen to a lecture by a renowned philosopher who spoke on the topic of ethics. It struck me that throughout his speech he did not defend any position. He simply threw out his opinions on any subject. I went back to class indignant, and sure that our professor was going to criticize him harshly for it. When the professor asked for our opinion of the speech, I raised my hand, convinced that everyone was going to applaud my comment. I said, "It was interesting, but he didn't defend any of his opinions." Do you know what the professor told me? "Why do you think he should defend his opinions?" I couldn't believe it! In an instant everything became clear to me. The professor had been playing with us all semester. He had no answers, and only pretended to be wise, making us defend any comment with his easy question, "why?"

After this revelation, I began to question the most fundamental presuppositions of my university education. It was the books of Francis Schaeffer and Cornelius Van Til that helped me see the problem of relativism and the supposed subjectivity of truth. They led me to surrender, not only my heart, but also my head, to Jesus Christ. In reality, it was like a "second conversion." Don't get me wrong. The Bible teaches that there is only one conversion, theologically speaking. However, some of us live such a divided life between our Christian faith and our non-Christian thoughts, that we need a radical change in our way of thinking, so radical that we could call it an intellectual conversion.

After my struggles, I promised to help others who were doubting their faith. In reality, that is what has motivated me to work in ministry. I would like to offer this book to the Lord as a partial fulfillment of that promise I made to Him.

The book provides a Christian perspective on four key areas of the current world: