Can the Bible be known with the head?

Dec 3, 2017 | Mental health resources

A spiritual connection can be a key to life for many. For me, my spiritual journey had been an emotional one until I became a widow. Up until then I had felt God (or something I called God) for most of my life. Suddenly, I couldn’t feel anything at all. I didn’t know where to go from there. In the aftermath of grief I had gone numb. I would have walked away from Christianity at that point if I hadn’t found that the Creator could be found with the head as well as the heart.

Some faith-based places of worship don’t teach the head stuff. Instead, some aim to move people through their emotions, or guilt them to repentance. But these tactics are flawed. They only work as long as the person is motivated by guilt, or can be manipulated through emotion. What happens if that person goes numb?

In Voddie Baucham’s talk “Why I choose to believe the Bible,” Baucham, who did not grow up in the Church, explains the mindful reasons he came to believe the Biblical texts as reliable documents. “The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report to us supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies, and claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin.

And he goes further than that, comparing the legitimacy of the Biblical text against other elevated writings such as those from Julius Caesar, Aristotle, Socrates, and Homer. He explains the process someone would need to go through to change any part of the Bible. And he puts into context passages from the Bible that make their deeper meanings come to life.

My journey towards reconciling my heart to my head is a long one. But, I’m grateful for this bend in the road, because it taught me my beliefs can be reached with the head, as well as the heart.