HEART OR THE HEAD?

 

Do believers' emotional disposition to Jesus and his teaching take precedence over their intellectual perception, at least in the initial stages of the believer's discipleship. In other words, can a person believe in Christ without being consciously aware of that belief, just as Christ entered Jerusalem in secret during the Feast of Tabernacles. John 7:10. Is the human mind too feeble and fickle an instrument upon which to base something so important as one's eternal salvation?  Is it the "heart" or the "head" which determines one's posture toward Christ as far as salvation is concerned? 

See Romans 10:9. "If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."  This passage seems to say that if the believer's head ("confess with your mouth") and heart ("believe in your heart") are aligned properly toward Christ, that believer will be saved. Is this two-pronged approach mandatory, or does it represent what lawyers like to call a "safe-harbor." In other words, are there other ways to be saved, or is this formula the exclusive test? 

What if a person's heart (see Hebrews 4:12: "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart") enjoys the proper disposition toward Christ, but that person's head (mind or brain) is unclear on the subject?  Is such a person saved? 

Of course, such questions don't concern us in the sense that we are not the judges of salvation, but the answers to these questions may give comfort to those left behind by people whose minds were foggy on the subject of Christ at their death but whose hearts may have been in the right place toward him.  Only God knows all the secrets of the heart.  See Psalm 44:21: "[W]ould not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?"  Only God knows whose names are written in "The Book of Life." Rev. 20:15. 

When in doubt on this or any other topic, we can always pray to God with our concerns. See Ephesians 6:18, Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere."