It is sad indeed to see someone with great potential held down or held back because of erroneous teaching, or cowering in a corner, intimidated by some brainy over-lording personality.
Among the many things Christ set men and women free from is a bondage of mind. In the very true sense of the word, He makes both into freethinkers. "He came to set the captive free," and a free people is a thinking people.
Some have the mistaken idea that only great intellects are great thinkers. I thank God for great intellectual Christian thinkers, I'm not anti-intellectual. But they are few in number compared to the common Christians. If it was therefore left to the upper echelon, so to speak, to provide the great thoughts, we would have few indeed. Great thoughts come from and through great souls, not necessarily from great intellects!
It says of Mary, Jesus' mother, she "pondered" on things she heard. And of Joseph, His foster father, that he "thought" on things. Most certainly, these thinking parents taught their son, humanly speaking, as they taught Him other things about life, to be a thinker.
Our articles main purpose, apart from glorifying God, is to challenge God's people to think on their own. And the first place one should begin his or her journey of contemplation is with God. All great creative thoughts originate with our Creator!
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." Adolf Hitler
by an Old Disciple
So profoundly interesting and helpful article!