Human intellect overshadows the sacred values: Theological perspective.

Let me begin by asking these questions; what is our basic goal and purpose of doing
theology? Is it to equip ourselves with deeper biblical knowledge? Is it to upgrade our cognitive
abilities? Or is it to develop wider perspectives on the relationship between God and humanity?
Yes! You got it right; we study theology to equip ourselves with the deeper knowledge of the
Bible, to advance our perceptive and perspectives on God and his aspiration as well as humans
approaches toward God. But having stated all those obvious possibilities and facts, I would like
to ask are we still missing something? How marvelous the world could be, if we live by the
sacred values achieved by our unquenched intellect.

I am very much aware of the concept of serving God in various ways and in the light of that
awareness, I would like to bring forth some of my thoughts in regard to studying theology. We
should study theology to develop our intellectual capacities so that we can implement those
learned knowledge in the highest way of possibilities. Human beings are created to be
intellectual and this intellect is used by human to unearth every mystery that comes on the way
so that, our curiosity might be answered. The big mistakes that we make is failing to question our
own intellect first, rather than jumping into the darkness fully relying on our intellect. This so
called intellect can sometimes over-step the border and conclude without a concrete answers and
it eventually lead us to a room of skepticism where our faith is stunned and bewildered. We have
become too cautious for everything but we have forgotten to live. We have theorized this world
too much that today we can only hear the melody of morality but we cannot see its motion.
Where is our faith in humanity? Can the faith in humanity be restored by our sugar-coated
mouth? No, I personally dont think so. It can be restored only by our action. Once, I was told by
one of my late grandfather (God bless his soul) that during their youth, the only thing they were
scared of, were the wild animals. But now it is very sad to witness your generation insecurity not
because of the wild animals but the humanity itself. When the same mankind, possessing the
same intellectual powers becomes the threats to our life, how can we survive? It is the
consequences of our intellectual war that has made our life worse and insecure.

What I am trying to say is that we, the human beings have gone to the extent of questioning the
mystery either directly or indirectly. Luke 12:2 says; There is nothing concealed that will not
be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. It is written very clearly and in the
simplest language. The literal meaning of the verse itself speaks in volume. Whatever is meant to
be disclosed, God has already revealed to us from the very beginning and hence, we encounter
with many new discoveries and invention in our daily life. Even here, the so called human
intellect considered the new discovery and invention as approaching towards the same level to
Gods power, not realizing that it is the discovery of the tiniest particle of the whole, disclosed by
God to us from the very time of creation.
 When God created the universe, I believe that He did not categorize the world into two realms
which is the spiritual realm and the secular realm. This sort of categorization is the outcome of
our unchecked and unquestioned intellectuality. The term secular has breached the harmony of
the people. And now not only the science and religion are waging war against each other but the
attitude of humanity towards our creator too, is at war against each other. Problems are not the
absent of our intelligence but it is the product of our intelligence itself. We create our own
problems.

The study of theology with an intention of gaining an intellectual ability alone will decompose
the emotional value of our faith in God. Of course, knowledge is a predominant force but when
we take the advantages of it to comprehend the transcendental elements, it will traumatize our
faith and belief in God. According to my understanding, the primary objective of studying
theology is to shape and reforms our life in the light of Gods direction and be an inspiration for
others through our actions and deeds. Teaching and preaching theology in this age of literacy has
become less prolific. No doubt, People can read and understand the Bible but the question is how
they consider what the bible is? Theologically speaking, it is our responsibility to demonstrate
the bible not by a word but by an action. Otherwise, the bible will remain as a book of fantasy
and as a book of history. The very life present in the words must be transform into an action by
our everyday learning experience in doing theology. For instance, when we preach or teach very
effectively, we will be praised by the mouth of the listeners. Here our reward is the sweet words
alone and the effects which we have seeded in the mind of the listeners through our flawless
insightful preaching/teaching are impermanent. It will fade away sooner or later and along with it
the display of our intellect disappears too. But if we apply the same content of that preaching or
teaching in our action, we might not be glorified verbally but we can bring changes in
somebodys life. Our flawless actions will automatically influence the mind and heart of the
fellow human being. They will long for the umbrella that we hold in the rain. Even the cold
hearted person pauses himself when somebody does good things to him/her. And that moment of
pause of a cold hearted person is not his/her attitude problem but it can be interpreted as the
reaction of gratitude and amazement at the possibility of keeping faith in humanity. We should
study theology not as preparing ourselves to live a life of comfort in the future but as a way of
preparing ourselves to be a comforter for others. We should be the inviting billboard of Gods
Kingdom for the weary and wanderers.

Some years ago, one of my villages elder said to me this very simple line You just live a life of
righteousness then only people will love and respect you. It took me a couple of year to realize
how simple that statement was, yet so fully packed. The Life of righteousness as we all know is
a very broad term. It is a term which includes all the sacred values. When I inspect his statement,
he did not mention anything about God but the life of righteousness which he had stated, itself is
a God. The right conduct of life includes everything like the way of right thinking, perception,
living, feelings and actions. This is the kind of life which God want us to live. This is the way of
life that the Bible instructs us to live. We think too much but feel too less. We are physically
paralyzed and frozen when our mind soars high to reach the sky.

Human intellect is indeed creative but crafty too. It is crafty in the sense that we always get a
way to justify ourselves. Every wrong action is justifiable in our present society and it is the
advantages of using our intellect as a resort. It is quite natural that we give credit to God when
good things happen in life and we blame the devil on the bad times. We never give a second
thought to ourselves before we give credits to God for the good things. Sometime, it is just the
expression that comes out of our excitement. We fail to ponder on the other side of the end. To be
more specific, I would like to bring one illustration which I have also personally encountered in
the past. For instance, you happened to find a diamond ring while walking down the street. You
are extremely excited and conclude yourself to be lucky and blessed at that moment. Therefore,
you thank God immediately saying that it is a gift from Him. But, will you ever give a second
thought about the person desolation on the other side? The bad time experiencing by the person
that lost his/her diamond ring which you have found it? Here, I am not talking about the subject
of lost and found but I am trying to express how our intellect can be deceptive in that kind of
atmosphere. Similar to this illustration, I have personally encountered in my life. Back in the
year 2009, during my Post graduate studies, I found Rs.21000 (twenty one thousand). Well let
me be clear, it was in the hostel. I shared a room with one of my friend; we had three closets in
the room. The closet in the middle was not used by either of us. At one point of time, my room-
mate left for his hometown on a vacation therefore, leaving me alone for a month or so. One day,
I found out that the locker inside the closet that I was using then was not functioning. so, the next
thing I did was to switch the locker with the one stood in the middle. When I opened the empty
closet and remove the internal locker, I was taken aback to see a bundle of note inside. Literally,
I froze for a moment not knowing what to do. The first thing I did after the discovery was to
called up my room-mate and talk about the occurrence. My room-mate politely said, He did not
keep any money there and you found it so it is yours now. Then, I called up my parents, my
relatives and my friends to share about the incident. My father suggested me to keep the money
safe for at least a month until I find the right owner and to be careful in spreading the news inside
the hostel in order to keep away the false claim. I was confused and at the same time I was
excited too. A week later, we were given a new closet and all the old closets were shifted to an
empty room. I waited for a month hoping that one day the owner might knock my door looking
for his money. But nothing happened, no one turn up to claim the money. My room- mate came
back too. I was restless keeping that money safe. It felt like I was given a big responsibility to
take care of. And finally, that adverse moment came where I was compelled to use that money
and I used it for a purpose.

I gave credit to God considering as His concerns for my financial needs. Even today, I am not
clear about the decision and action which I made on that day. I am not sure whether I did the
right thing or the wrong thing. I am not convinced, whether God had accepted my gratitude or
not. The only thing I can do now is to hope and pray that God might bless the person who lost
that money. Also, I am looking forward to Gods judgment on my action at the end of the day.

The above cited illustration of my life event is not meant to be an example for your life. I am
not trying to advocate you to do the same but what I am trying to say is that, our intellect is
crafty and very complex to understand. Sometime, we undermine our moral virtues and rely on
our intellect to pass the situation. Our intellect pushes us too far that we forget to contemplate on
our actions. We are deceived by our own thoughts and in the meantime we devalue the basic
principles of morality, which is a sacred value. I believe that God will never put somebody into a
misery for my prosperity. God does not want us to suffer in any form. He loves us so much that
He sacrifices his only son in order to redeem our life. As we know for God, all things are
possible. He could have redeemed us in many other ways. But to show how much He loves us,
He preferred to do something which human can comprehend it as the height of sacrifices for love
and that is the sacrifices of the only son. It is not about giving away one of His son but it is about
the Only son which our God Almighty had sacrificed for the redemption of the world. Our life
is a debt to God and we can repay Him by obeying God and by exercising His sacred values.

Faith and intellect is a two very different term. Seeking to know much is only a learning to
doubt. Faith does not demand evidence and it does not appear in form. The Bible gives us a clear
picture of faith in Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen." Then why do we question the substance of faith when we already know that
nothing can be accomplished from it. I would like to bring forth some of the finest definition of
faith by various scholars and philosophers;

Blaise Pascal defines faith as, In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and
enough shadows to blind those who don't.

Thomas Aquinas defines faith as, For those with faith, no explanation is necessary. For those
without, no explanation is possible.

Fen Yang defines faith as, When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of
scripture are not enough. When you have realized understanding; even one word is too much.

Our intellect will never find the answer of those things which are built of faith. Why do we
have to put too much effort in solving the impossible things? Why not rather leave it to God?
There will be a time, when human will discover the things which God had already disclosed in
the very beginning. Sooner or later, God will transform our mind in order to achieve those
revealed things which are still a mystery to us. We dont have to rush for the conclusion where
the things are beyond our intelligence. Time is our Father business but not ours. We have all
questions concerning the creation of the universe. But till today, human beings have not found
the concrete answer. It is because we try to understand by our intellect alone but not with faith.
Hebrews 11:3 says, By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God,
so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. Our intellect alone is good only
for the pleasure of living in this world but not for understanding the spiritual realm. Faith in God
is essential besides our intellect to understand the Creator. In the absence of faith, we tend to
conform our intellectual accomplishment to the standards of this world which is not concrete.
For the bible says in Romans 12:2, Do not conformed to this world but be transformed by the
renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God- what is good and
acceptable and perfect.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, let us endeavor to gain more knowledge about Gods kingdom
and let us use those knowledge as a manual for our actions and let our faith in God be the
destination of our actions. Let us be the one to wipe the wound of the leper but not the one who
only say a word of prayer. We are blessed to be equipping ourselves with the knowledge about
God and His kingdom. God has chosen us to be His instrument to spread His love and grace to
the lost souls. Let us not forget that our creator does not want our wealth, our intelligence and
our abilities but what he wants from us in return is to obey and work for Him. As mentioned
earlier, our life is a debt to God and God wants us to repay Him in our actions- spreading the
gospels around the globe. And this is clearly mentioned in the gospel according to Matthew
28:19-20, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have
commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the ends of the ages. God has
demonstrated His desire and His wants through the body of Christ. Christ has given us the
responsibility to perform the duty on his behalf. One day, the Christ will come again and count
the work done by us in his absent and we will be rewarded individually according to the work
done by us for him.

May God Bless us all.