We Can Learn from Front Lines of Disease Control about Stopping the Bad Ideas that Plague Us.
We live in a time of war. There are no soldiers in this battle. There are no landing craft, no bombers flying in formation, no artillery emplacements. Yet attacks occur every minute of every day.
The battle we’re in is a battle of ideas. To be spiritually and mentally strong, we need a healthy worldview that inoculates us against the bad ideas we pick up from the culture around us. In my new book, The Secret Battle of Ideas About God, I show how we can win against bad ideas by thinking of them as viruses and by paying attention to the steps doctors take to stop deadly diseases.
Bad Ideas are Like Viruses
The battles we face are more like germ warfare than like military warfare, because bad ideas are like viruses. A virus is an organism with genetic material coated by a protein. Genetic material is common and ordinarily not harmful. Proteins are necessary for the body to do its work. Separately, they’re harmless. When combined, however, they can be deadly.
Secret Battle reveals the four steps doctors take to battle against viral outbreaks and shows how these same four steps can immunize us against bad ideas and replace them with good ideas about love, healing, purpose, peace, and hope.
What We Can Learn from the Battle against Disease
A recent Time article frightfully revealed how scientists are scrambling to prevent the next viral outbreak that could kill millions. In the article, Bill Gates says that highly infectious disease is humanity’s greatest threat.
Gates is right. Sort of. Deadly diseases have killed millions in the past. But ideas can be deadlier. The ideas of Nazism and Marxism resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions in the 20th century. Both ideas started in books—in Adolph Hitler’s Mein Kampf and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto.
When faced with potentially catastrophic viral outbreaks, doctors have learned not to sit back and hope for the best. Rather, they take decisive action.
A recent study by the Barna Group, commissioned by my organization, shows that such worldviews don’t just infect the young. We found that among church-going Christians,
- 61% agree with ideas rooted in New Spirituality.
- 54% resonate with postmodernist views.
- 38% are sympathetic to some Muslim teachings.
- 36% accept ideas associated with Marxism.
- 29% believe ideas based on secularism.
The battle of ideas affects us all. We need to identify ideas that stand against Christ so we can take every thought captive in obedience to him (2 Cor. 10:5).
Jesus is the Cure
Jesus is the way, truth, and life (John 14:6). In Secret Battle, I show that Jesus offers the way to truly think like he thinks, feel what he feels, and live like he did as we go about finding love, healing hurt, discovering meaning, pursuing peace, and living with hope.
Because of Jesus, fake worldviews cannot destroy us. His love is unconditional. He has triumphed over evil for our sake. He calls us and gives us a reason to live. He points the way to forgiveness and peace with our enemies. He enables us to live every day knowing that his unmatched power brings hope, both in this life and in the life to come.
Yes, we are in a secret battle of ideas, but the outcome is assured. Jesus has won.
[written by Dr. Jeff Myers, professor, author and speaker]
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