Affirm Truth

AffirmTruth.org is a Christian, evangelical, theologically conservative, and non-denominational ministry, based out of Chennai, India.

Category: Q&A

Question: What about the subconscious mind? From what I read in a recent book (The Power of Your Subconscious Mind) explaining about subconscious mind, it clearly states that prayer is a harmonious relationship between our subconscious mind and conscious mind. And we trust and pray to our subconscious mind which is very powerful. We make them God because we humans can’t trust in ourselves after an extend but we can gain more confidence and positivity when we depend on someone who is infallible. The laws and rules we follow can be of social conditioning too??? Not an atheist, just a doubt. A big doubt!!!!

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A proper definition of the subconscious mind would help at the outset. According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the subconscious mind is “the part of your mind that notices and remembers information when you are not actively trying to do so, and influences your behaviour even though you do not realize it.”
Who is God? According to the Bible, a simple explanation would be: God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe—the Supreme Being.
The above definitions help us make a proper distinction between our mind and God: Our subconscious mind is part of us and it is us. While God is altogether another Being with His own mind existing outside of us. Books are great if we pick the right ones. Anyone can write anything and self-attest them. We need to find out on what these truth claims are founded or based on. Stating that the human subconscious mind is God doesn’t make much sense when we understand who God really is. As the Creator of all things, He is beyond all created things and cannot be contained within His creation. The book’s statements about prayer must be tested before they’re accepted. There are several claims about prayer, mind, subconscious mind & God that are problematic and even contradictory.

Consider this claim: “we trust and pray to our subconscious mind which is very powerful” 

Response: The author seems to generalize the concept of prayer as if everybody prays to their own subconscious mind. In prayer, people often tend to reach out to a “higher power” for help and clarity. As Christians, we pray to the eternal God knowing and believing that with Him, all things are possible. We don’t pray to ourselves (subconscious mind).

Claim: “we make them God because we humans can’t trust in ourselves” 

Does this not contradict the previous claim? Why do humans pray to their own subconscious mind when they can’t trust themselves? Since humans can’t trust themselves and are fallible (from the author’s own statements), our only safest and trustworthy option is the infallible Word of God— the Bible! We would encourage you to take God’s Word over man’s word. Many worldviews have their own theory about prayer. According to Bible, prayer takes many forms. But prayer at its simplest is “talking with God.” Prayer can go beyond this but it is never less than this. In the Bible, Jesus promises to answer the prayers of those who put their faith in Him because He is loving and almighty!

Here are few other ideas from Joseph Murphy’s book, “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind,” which are not logically correct:

1) You Receive Answers To Prayer Because Of Mental Acceptance About What You Pray 
‣ We don’t receive answers to prayer by accepting what we pray for. We receive answers by putting our faith in God who alone is capable of helping us with our needs. For example, I mentally accept that my body has a sickness but I am in no position to heal it. My brain cannot heal it.  Or what if our brain also has a sickness? Then who will provide the answer? So my faith must be based on Someone beyond my physical limitation—God, my Creator!

2) Your Subconscious Mind Has The Answer To All Your Problems
‣ No, it does not. If that were the case, we should be having our problems solved in our sleep. But in reality, we end up with many issues in life when we work with our conscious mind, our behaviours get deposited into our subconscious mind which in turn converts those behaviours into habits. In this way, our subconscious mind gets influenced and corrupted. Now, do we want to put our trust in something corrupt?

3) Faith Is The Only Universal Healing Principle Operating Through Everybody
‣ Murphy says in the book “faith is created by accessing and harnessing the power of our subconscious minds. Illness, physical ailments, and even traumatic experiences can be healed by repeatedly submitting thoughts of healing to our subconscious minds. “It is very important to understand the foundation of our faith—what is our faith based on? On God who is infallible or on our fallible self? Murphy points us inward. But we are not the source of our healing. Even with the best of medical science, humans are still desperately struggling with various sicknesses from Cancer to Covid.
‣ But in the Bible, God declares in Exodus 15:26 “…I am the Lord who heals you.” In fact, one of the other names of Biblical God is ‘Jehovah Rapha’ (the God who heals). We are called to put our faith in God for your healing. When we understand the evidence and facts that show us the validity of the Bible,  it can help us trust what the Bible says about prayer better. Everyone can have different opinions about it, everyone can have their own convictions and self-made truths. However, this doesn’t affect the quality of the truth. And of course, truth is not affected by our surroundings, traditions, cultures, or social trends. It is constant. Truth is exclusive, and it cannot be altered with time. Prayer is a conversation with our Creator God and not a mind game. It’s a dialogue and not just us constantly talking to our minds without any response from the other end. God witnesses Himself to us through miracles and wonders in life so that our faith in Him is strengthened. He is not a figment of our mind but rather the One who created it along with everything else we see and beyond.

Claim: “The laws and rules we follow can be of social conditioning too??”
Response: This is a very broad statement. Yes, there are laws and rules that we have created for ourselves in society (social conditioning). Ex. Legal laws (Indian Penal Code), Labour laws (work ethics), Traffic rules etc. Can you imagine a society without these in place? As history has proven, a lawless society will break down into chaos. So God allows these rules to be instituted to help regulate human behaviour. These laws help people understand what is right and wrong. But these laws can vary across societies. However, there are also moral laws given by God in the Bible which is universally binding and unchanging just like His nature (Ex. the 10 commandments in Exodus 20). The problem with mankind is disobedience to God’s Laws. God is the ultimate Law Giver and His Laws reflect His perfect character. We are by nature lawbreakers as history repeatedly proves. In the Garden of Eden, God gave only one commandment to Adam and Eve and they broke it (first sin). Then God had to give 10 more commandments because sins have already begun to multiply. In total, the Old Testament contains 613 commandments (Mosaic Law). God considers breaking one commandment as amounting to breaking all of it (James 2:10)! So, is there any hope for us? Thanks be to God! He has provided His Son Jesus Christ who lived a perfect life on our behalf and taken up our own punishment upon Him on the cross. If we put our faith in Him, God has promised to forgive us of all our lawlessness (sins).

In conclusion, prayer must always involve at least two persons—there is the one who prays (us) and there is the other who receives the prayer (God). Just as conversations with people help build our relationship with them. Prayer helps us to connect with God intimately. This is the chief purpose of prayer—to grow in our relationship with God. 

Laws and rules have good purposes and are meant to maintain order in society. Human laws are imperfect. But God’s laws are perfect. They provide light to our path and life to our soul. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus summed up the entire Old Testament Laws in these two statements: 1-Love your God with all your heart, soul and mind. 2-Love your neighbour as yourself. Humans have the habit of breaking laws. And we always tend to find a way to escape punishment for breaking civil laws in society. But we cannot escape from God for breaking His commandments in the Bible.  God has fixed a day in the future (2 Corinthians 5:10) to justly deal with all lawbreakers. But for now, God is extending a lifeline, offering mercy to all lawbreakers who believe in His Son Jesus Christ.

Thank you for writing to us with your questions. We hope this clarifies some things for you. You are always welcome to reach out to us in your continued pursuit of truth.

Regards
AFFIRM Truth

Question: I am a Christian, can I watch movies/series?

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From Affirm Truth,

It’s a great question for the current generation to ponder. We want to encourage and say that the above question we face is very common among believers and at some point in our lives we all wrestle with such questions and decisions to make.

A movie/ series is a just a story portrayed on screen. Just like how we are writing this content to you, a movie on screen is just words/ messages conveyed by moving pictures. It is God who has given us this ability to creatively think via our imagination and produce movies converting thoughts into audiovisuals.

Now just like information, thought, content, values and knowledge, a story too can be either good or beneficial or harmful or evil. So it is our responsibility as believers to discern and evaluate a movie before watching it.

Today there are so many ways in the internet to learn about the movie before we can decide to actually watch it. A good practice for a believer is to always ask this question – “can I watch this movie with Jesus sitting next to me?” Almost always the Spirit of God in us will convict and prompt us to take the right decision. And it is wise and godly to stand your ground and reject the temptation to watch a film which is not suitable and would not honour the presence of the Lord.

Secondly, Ephesians 5:15-16 states, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (ESV). A Christian should consider the amount of time spent on movies. We should ask ourselves whether spending a certain amount of time will be the best use of our time and if it will help me grow spiritually or personally. Because we must seek to honour the Lord even during the leisure time.

Thirdly, we should remember a movie can be instructing, influential, entertaining and/or inspirational. We are given complete freedom in Christ to watch the movies we want to but, we need to remember that we are given this freedom so that we embrace only what is good and reject what is bad.

1 Corinthians 10:23 says, “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. (ESV)

Also, we must take care not to let this freedom disturb other believers (Rom 14:13). Romans 14 calls for mature believers to not be a stumbling block to a fellow believer if they have a different conviction on matters like this and negatively affect their Christian witness.

Finally, we would also encourage you to join us to pray for godly producers and directors to rise up and make movies that would uplift and encourage people, reflect biblical values, provide hope, increase faith and bring glory to God. Today in our community some tend to address movies or film producers as evil. Media platform offers a tremendous opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and make disciples of all nations. Jesus said the harvest is plenty but labourers are few. So we should encourage the film industry and constantly pray for them to be used by God.

“In conclusion, Christians are not prohibited to watch movies but are called to be discerning in picking the appropriate movies and deciding how many movies we watch would make best use of our time.”

Question: As a Christian should I attend social drinking parties even though I do not drink?

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From Affirm Truth,

Really good question. The short answer to the question would be “it depends on the party you are planning to attend.”

As human beings we are designed and created as social beings. And as Christians we have a greater desire to fellowship with people. The Greek word translated “fellowship” in the New Testament is koinonia, which means “partnership, participation, social interaction, and communication.”

In 1 John 1:7, John tells us that, as believers, we have fellowship with one another by virtue of the blood Jesus shed for us on the cross.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (ESV)

The problem with the parties mentioned in the question is that they are not always a fellowship party. In fact, if there is a party which is focused on Christian fellowship, we don’t even have to ask whether we should attend it. But if a party involves alcohol, drugs, and other immoral or illegal activity it is better to not get involved. The bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Moreover, parties in which sinful activities occur even if you are not an active participant, weakens our witness and brings reproach on the name of Christ.

Now coming to professions and for the need of having social interactions to build contacts, customer satisfaction, finishing a deal, team building and team outing, the question that really comes up is will such parties give you a platform to be professional and will it give you any opportunity to witness Christ and have a fellowship with the people you are participating with. Often times such parties could make us compromise our life in Christ and witness to the world. Even though we can resolve within us to be in control to not involve in anything immoral in the party, as a believer it is wise to not open one self to temptation. So our humble suggestion would be to evaluate, discern and prayerfully listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit before taking a decision to attend such parties.

1 Peter 5:8 says, Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And Matthew 5:16 says, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Finally, concerning our relationship with people of the world, Apostle Paul reasons 1 Corinthians 5:9-10, that, “9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.” We are called to be in the world yet not of the world. It is okay to be friends as long as those relationships do not affect those friendships with God (James 4:4). Friends can significantly influence our lives— for better or for worse! So we must wisely choose our friends and maintain healthy boundaries within our friendship.