When I say intuition, I mean something very particular. I don’t mean a hunch. I don’t mean a line of reasoning to a conclusion or a skill learned over time—like the way a seasoned batter “senses” where the next pitch will come. In fact, intuitions are not learned at all. They are something we’re born with, information built into our minds by a wise Creator. 

I’m convinced many things foundational to a Christian worldview are things people already believe without having to be persuaded.

Most believe, for example, the universe has been designed by a person (Gen. 1:1). They may not admit it outright, but constant references to “Mother Nature” betray their deeper convictions. They believe humans are special, valuable in a transcendent way (Gen. 1:27). That’s why it’s okay to gas termites, but not Jews. They are also convinced that something has gone terribly wrong, that we are each morally twisted and worthy of punishment (Rom. 3:23). This surfaces as the problem of evil.

Each of these essential elements of Jesus’ worldview is something everyone knows. But how? These things are known through a faculty called intuition.

When I say intuition, I mean something very particular. I don’t mean a hunch. I don’t mean a line of reasoning to a conclusion or a skill learned over time—like the way a seasoned batter “senses” where the next pitch will come.

In fact, intuitions are not learned at all. They are something we’re born with, information built into our minds by a wise Creator. Our founding fathers called them “self-evident” truths.

Philosopher J.P. Moreland has pointed out that if you can’t know some things without knowing why you know them—if you don’t have some things in place to begin with—you can’t know anything at all. You can’t even begin the task of discovery. Aristotle observed that some things couldn’t be proved in the usual sense of the term, but without them nothing could be proved at all.

A few weeks ago during a Q&A session after a lecture I gave at a liberal college, I asked a student if he knew what he was thinking just then. Of course he did. But how did he know? Did he need a scientist’s report on the physical states of his brain to know his own thoughts? Of course not. He had immediate and direct access to his own mind. Such things we take for granted. Even to raise the question seems foolish.

Knowledge by intuition is like that. It is immediate, direct, and obvious. And because our intuitive awareness gives us reliable truth about our world, it can be a powerful ally in evangelism, if we know how to use it.

During a “Science and Faith” conference some years ago, I was asked to prove there was purpose in the universe. I answered that purpose isn’t something we need to argue for; it’s something we already know intuitively. To make someone aware of it, ask a question that causes the intuition to rise to the surface.

For example, ask if a person would ever try to talk someone out of suicide. If so, why? I suspect he’d say suicide is a waste of a valuable life. But how can a life be wasted if it has no ultimate purpose?

Has he ever bemoaned the tragic death of a promising high school student? Or a child taken by disease or natural disaster? Or Princess Diana who perished in the prime of life? All of these seem “untimely” deaths, deaths before their time. Yet a life without purpose has no appointed end.

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