The Proof is in the Power
I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. I Corinthians 2:3-5 There is a tendency on the part of American Christianity to intellectualize faith. There is a focus on the mental aspects of understanding the gospel, often to the exclusion of experiencing or demonstrating the gospel. This is not to say that authentic Christianity is anti-intellectual, because a review of early Christianity will reveal some of the greatest and deepest intellectual minds the world has ever seen. However, in our immediate context, there is typically an unbalanced approach, where the gospel is to be understood, but not necessarily experienced. Modern evangelism techniques often focus on explaining the theological principles of the gospel than proclaiming the reality of the g...