Scholarship and Christianity: are they compatible? By and large, global intellectuals scorn the idea of a god coming into this world on a flesh and blood rescue mission. Did not the apostle Paul ask where the wise man is, the scholar or the philosopher who knows and believes that “God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1Corinthians 1:21)? The touted think-tank members do not appear interested in a religion suggesting its Maker permitted Himself to be impaled on a wooden cross in order to have His own creatures be with Him. “What kind of a deity is that?” For example, Stephen Hawking, the British physicist who did ground-breaking work on black holes in the universe, once said: "We are such insignificant creatures on a minor planet of a very average star in the outer suburb of one of a hundred billion galaxies. So it is difficult to believe in a God that would care about us or even notice our existence” (Hawking, A Brief History of Time, p. 140).

Enter the Magi. Talk about a 180-degree difference in attitude! The most amazing detail in the account of the wise men is not their following a miraculously appearing star, nor their dedication to travel all the way to Palestine and ask for one born king of the Jews. It is rather in this remarkable statement: “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11). Unlike their fellow Babylonian astrologers who undoubtedly revered celestial configurations, these wise men truly had become wise through God’s working in them the saving faith in the Bethlehem infant.

Are we ever tempted to think that we are too “wise” for the simple message of salvation through the virgin-born baby in the little town of David? No amount of the world’s wisdom can ever bring the greatest gift needed for each of us personally and for the world at large: the gift of the forgiveness of our sins. Worldly scholarship can send man into space and put him in touch with the moon, but nothing man does or accomplishes by his own research can put him in touch with the God from whom he broke away in the Garden of Eden. That takes God’s own doing and God’s wisdom. “Christ Jesus… has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Do you want true scholarship? Here it is. Learn from the Magi. True wise men still bow in worship at the manger and the cross.