In Prison Photo Credit.

Can you be a prisoner to your philosophies? Yes! And even if you’re a Christian, if you’re not on the lookout you can be taken captive by fallacious teachings:

Colossians 2:8 (Niv): “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”

What a serious verse! I think this may be the Bible verse that best epitomizes the mission of Cranial Collision. We don’t want to be taken captive by the faulty philosophies of this world. In order to keep up our guard against them, we diligently seek to train our minds to identify bad reasoning and to recognize the truth. And we write these posts for you to help you do the same thing.


"Wait, is there really such a thing as a bad philosophy, a bad idea?"
Of course, thinking about hollow or deceptive philosophies is not inherently wrong—I’m doing it right now myself. If you accept those philosophies as truth and order your life around them, that is when they become “bad,” if you will.

Here are a couple of hollow, deceptive philosophies that I can think of off the top of my head. By no means is this a complete list:

-Truth is relative. (Postmodernism)

-Nothing material exists, we don’t exist, all there is are bundles of perceptions floating around in an unknown space. (Hume)

-The “thou art that” thinking of the Upanishads.

How to Stay on Your Guard
As the Apostle Paul approaches verse 8 in this passage, he leads up to this culminating thought of not being deceived with some explanation of why he is writing and how to do it. In verses 2 and 3 Paul writes that “My purpose is that they may. . .have the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Hmm, I’m liking this language of treasures and riches! (This same language is used frequently in Proverbs.) It’s logical that if you don’t want to be deceived by philosophy dependent on human tradition, the place to go for true wisdom and understanding is to Christ and not to a human philosopher.

Continuing on in verse 4: “I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine sounding arguments.” Yes, this is exactly what Paul is getting at in verse 8 as well! I think it is important to note here that Paul is not promoting the naïve denial of others' claims due to ignorance on our part. Rather, he is telling us as Christians to seek Christ and to find the true wisdom and understanding which is hidden in Him in order that we may know when a argument is false.

We must be grounded in Christ!

Verses 6 and 7: “So then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness”

This is the foundation that Paul has built when he presents the key verse, verse 8, which really wraps these thoughts up. The chapter goes on of course, but it transitions into a discourse about your life in Christ, and actually attacks some deceptive philosophies circulating in the church at that time.

Conclusion
In summary, if we are to guard against these "hollow and deceptive philosophies" we must first seek Jesus and know Him, and from that knowledge of him we'll yearn to have the wisdom that comes only from God. From this Godly wisdom and understanding we will be able to combat hollow and deceptive philosophies and stand strong upon the foundation of Jesus Christ!

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