True Thinking?
How do we know it’s true?
“All true thinking starts with what God says.”
“Spiritual growth is the process of replacing lies with truth.”
In the two previous blogs we were exploring the writings of a christian blogger named Scott, on a website called “prepared to answer”. His topic for a three-part series was “how to think like Jesus”. Both part one and part two contain statements that can only be regarded as questionable theology. Not that I really care about theology, but if you’re going to use it, it’s important to get it right. Scott does not. I was hoping his third installment entitled “Start Thinking Like Jesus – Today!” would prove to be more productive, and less deceptive. However, as we shall see, it’s just more of the same, and starts with this statement.
“All true thinking starts with what God says.”
Now there’s a statement that needs analyzing. Unfortunately, many, if not most, christians lack the ability, and the awareness to do just that. Fortunately, some of us have learned to ask questions and to think for ourselves. So, let’s examine Scott’s opening sentence piece by piece.
All true thinking…
What exactly is “true thinking”? The google gods defined it as thinking that is honest, authentic and, of course, true.
That said, we know that there are different categories of truth. But what Scott is proposing, however, is that there is a form of truth which is only available to christians. Which begs the question, (at least for me) how true is christian thinking?
I’ve spent the past three years attempting to answer that question. What I have concluded is that believing something (like the inerrancy of the bible) doesn’t necessarily make it true. Lots of people believe in lots of things that aren’t true, such as the legendary Sasquatch (Bigfoot), and that the world is flat despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
So, we ask the question again.
How true is christian thinking?
Just like believing in Bigfoot or a flat earth, not everything christians believe is true. Consider the following statements which are taken directly from various church mission statements. As you read these, ask yourself, “Do they reflect ‘true thinking’?
- We believe in the full historicity of the biblical record of primeval history.
- We believe that God created the heavens and the earth (from nothing) in six historical days.
- We believe the creation account is factual, historical, and is the foundation of our understanding of the created universe, God’s power, and his glory.
- We believe in the literal existence of Adam and Eve as the progenitors of all people, the literal fall in the Garden of Eden and resultant divine curse on creation.
- We believe in the worldwide flood that destroyed the earth, animal life, and the human race, except for Noah and those he took in the ark with him.
- We believe in the origin of the nations and languages at the tower of Babel.
- We believe there is a real personal devil of great malevolence and power.
One might wonder how christians could actually believe these legendary stories. The mission statement of Veritas International University tells us why.
“Denial of the biblical teaching on creation, undermines many essential doctrines of the Christian Faith.”
It’s really pretty simple, all of christianity is based on these fundamental falsehoods. If christians were allowed to question Genesis, then the entire bible would come into question. And if that happens, as the saying goes, “the walls would come tumblin’ down”. So, if christians want to believe in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they must first believe in the legends of Genesis. Is that true thinking?
…starts (defined)
To begin, commence, initiate, inaugurate, take the first step in a course, process, or operation. According to Scott all true thinking has the same origin which is…
…with what God says.
What exactly is Scott saying here? I guess we have three options.
Option one:
Christians believe that the bible is the word of God. So, is Scott stating that “everything” in the bible is God-breathed? Does that mean that every word between “In the beginning” and “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.” (in Revelations) is what God says and must be considered as the start of “true thinking”? This is what fundamentalists believe and defend in the face of strong evidence to the contrary. It that true thinking?
Option two:
The expression “Thus saith the Lord” appears 415 times in the Old Testament. Could he possibly mean that each of those 415 times is, what God says? If that’s the case, we would have to tell Pharaoh to “Let my people go!” Would that be the start of true thinking?
Option three:
In part one of his series Scott makes this comment. “All that’s required (to live like Jesus) is listening to and trusting what God plainly tells you.” So, the question is, how does God “tell” his followers anything? Does God verbally speak directly to them? Since Scott doesn’t back most of his statements with scripture, is he getting his revelations directly from God? Are those revelations true thinking and can they be trusted? Let’s put Scott to the test.
From Bad to Worse
He writes,
“And if we think about it, (All true thinking starts with what God says) makes perfect sense because any alternative just sounds, well…ridiculous. Just think about it. Try saying the following sentence out loud and replace ‘God’ with something else:”
- “All true thinking starts with what God says.”
- “All true thinking starts with what _____________ says.”
“Does anything else sound right to you? Can you imagine anyone inserting their name into the blank, claiming that they are the source of all truth? You’d think they were out of their minds! But that’s exactly what we’re saying every single day when we don’t submit all thinking to God’s word.”
This is a prime example of how faulty Scott’s reasoning really is. He’s making the wrong comparison and as a result has come to the wrong conclusion. In order to be valid, the word “says” needs to be removed from both statements. For the comparison to have any integrity, it should read something like this.
- All true thinking starts with God.
- All true thinking starts with _____________.
In order to fill in that blank, perhaps we should do exactly what Scott has suggested.
“Try saying the following sentence out loud and replace “God” with something else:”
Okay, let’s do that.
All true thinking starts with “something else”.
Okay, that works! Now, let’s see what that something else might be.
All true thinking starts with ____________.
How about with… reasoning, or investigation, or wisdom, or facts, as in “all true thinking starts with verifiable facts”? (Unless of course, you are Kellyanne Conway.)
From where I stand, Scott’s claim that christians are somehow privy to “all true thinking” is ironically an untrue statement, which by definition, is the opposite of true thinking. Therefore, it’s highly unlikely that Scott, or any of his readers, for that matter, can actually arrive at “true thinking” when their starting point is an untrue statement?
Perhaps we should look at the other side of the coin. As a secularist I would say that…
True thinking does not start with a belief in gods. Period!
Yet, Scott continues,
“Being a Christian isn’t a matter of thinking vs. not-thinking. It’s a matter of where our thinking starts from. Ultimately, there are only two places where thinking can start: either believing truth begins with God or truth begins with us. Either God’s truth is true, or mine is. These are our only two options.”
We’ll come back to that thought in a minute. For now, let’s look at more of Scott’s (questionably) true thinking.
Scott: “Learning to think like Jesus, then, begins with trusting that God is the starting point for all true knowledge. That’s why Solomon in his wisdom declared, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’”
Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. How’s that for wisdom? Is that an example of true thinking? By the way, I’m almost there in my quest for wisdom; I only have 699 wives and 300 concubines to go to. I’d better get busy.
Scott: “As the Son of God, Jesus was the most brilliant man to ever live. When he walked the earth, he never took a blind leap of faith in anything. Nor does he ask us to. Rather, he based every thought, and therefore every action, on what he knew to be true, namely ‘every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
Wow, that paragraph is quite the collection of outlandish falsehoods. So, as a skeptic, I have to ask, “Are those four sentences God’s truths or Scott’s truths? Remember, according to Scott those are the only two options. “Either God’s truth is true, or mine is.” So, which is it? Let’s take a look.
If Jesus really was the most brilliant man to ever live, how would we know? Could we tell how brilliant he was through his writings? Brilliant people all throughout history have shared their brilliance with humanity through their writings. Take for example the writings of Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Marcus Aurelius, Maimonides, Martin Luther and the 13th century major Jewish thinker, Levi Ben Gerson.
So, why not Jesus?
The truth is that we know nothing about Jesus’ brilliance from his own writings. In fact, what we do know about the historical Jesus was given to us many decades after his death by people who never actually met him. Would believing that Jesus was the most brilliant man to ever live be considered “true thinking”? Scott seems to think so, but I certainly don’t.
Let’s look at the rest of that paragraph. Is anything in it verifiable? Can Scott prove that Jesus never took a blind leap of faith or that he based every thought, and action, on whatever proceeded from the mouth of God? Does God even have a mouth?
“If you want your life to be transformed, then you must be willing to surrender your mind to the rock-solid foundation of God’s true word. When you do, God will begin to renew your mind so that you will begin to think like Jesus.” (1)
So, there you have it. After three blogs, Scott has finally come to the point of what it means to “think like Jesus”, and here’s the secret. “You must surrender your mind.” Period.
It doesn’t matter what you surrender your mind to; it’s still a bad idea. Let’s see how he defends this folly.
- “It’s a risky thing to surrender your mind to God.”
Yes, it is.
- “The world will tell you that it is intellectual suicide.”
Because it is.
- You might think that “surrendering your mind to God’s word sounds like brainwashing…
Anytime you surrender your mind to someone or something else, they are controlling your thoughts; not you. That, by definition, is the beginning of brainwashing.
- …the way people get sucked into cults.
When people stop thinking for themselves that is exactly how they get sucked into cults. (2)
- We are surrendering our minds to the one true God.
And that makes it okay? It does not as we shall see in future blogs.
Coming next:
“From Where I Stand” will explore spiritually abusive churches. We’ll look at why people are drawn to such churches and why it’s so difficult to leave.
End Notes
- “It is false to say you cannot know or understand the Word of God unless you have the proper inner attitude, or unless you surrender and submit, and that only when you get to that place will God break through and show you the way. Instead, the gospel is clear and easy to understand. It is not a puzzle that we have to put together.” Recovering From Churches That Abuse, by Ronald Enroth.
- The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, by David Johnson and Jeff Van Vonderen.
From Where I Stand
Aug. 17, 2025
Dale Crum