Let Each Man Be Fully Assured in His Own Mind by L. L. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jan 6, 1916

“Let Each Man Be Fully Assured in His Own Mind”

By L. L. C.

TRUE Christianity does not mean intellectual bondage. There is a form of apostate Christianity in which freedom of thought is circumscribed, and the individual must relinquish his right of personal opinion and submit to the judgment of some other man or set of men.

This is not God’s plan. He does not wish forced submission even to himself. Adam was left entirely free to refuse obedience to the divine command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is quite at variance with the methods of those who seek by force to make others do or even believe what in their judgment is right. But force can make only hypocrites, not converts.

In presenting salvation to fallen mankind God says, “Come now, and let us reason together.” And when we have

entered the service of Christ, we find it is our “reasonable service.” Yet the intellectual side of religious experience is often given slight consideration. Many confuse spirituality with emotionalism, forgetting that we are to love the Lord with all our mind as well as with all our heart and soul.

To the true Protestant the Bible is the highest authority and the only court of appeal in theological questions. Correct theology is of the greatest importance to every human being. The dictionary defines Christian theology as “the knowledge derivable from the Scriptures, the systematic exhibition of revealed truth, the science of Christian faith and life.”

In all theological questions the seeker after truth should make personal study concerning the teaching of the Scriptures, as did the noble Bereans, who “searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things [preached by Paul] were so.” It is not safe, nor is it according to God’s plan, that some one else should do our thinking for us, even though that one be a trusted minister or a beloved relative. Even God himself does not so present matters in the Scriptures that we are freed from careful study and personal decision as to our own duty.

Whether it be a matter of doctrine, the interpretation of a difficult text,—of which there are many that may be wrested to our own destruction (2 Peter 3:16),—or our own personal duty under any given circumstances, let us follow the admonition of the apostle Paul, “Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.” Rom. 14:5, R. V. L. L. C.