Have you ever thought about what The Thinker is thinking about? This famous statue is just sitting and pondering. But what is he thinking from? The Thinker symbolizes deep thought and contemplation rooted in philosophy.

What about you? What source do you think from? On what basis do you form opinions, make decisions and solve problems? Maybe you use a mix of ideologies, including your own reasoning. But how reliable is that? Is there a solid foundation you can anchor your thoughts on?

There is.

You may already believe on it, even know it quite well—but is the Bible your source of thought?

Herbert W. Armstrong, the great 20th-century theologian and educator, once said: “The Bible is the source I like to do my thinking from.” He used the Bible as the foundation for his thinking. Beyond this, he was diligent to ensure he had a Bible reason for everything he did.

For example, until 1927, Mr. Armstrong smoked tobacco. “Then, immediately after I was baptized, the matter of smoking had to be settled,” he wrote in his autobiography. “Of course the Quaker church, in which I had been reared as a boy, taught that smoking was a sin. But I had been unhappily disillusioned to see that in so many basic points the Bible teaching is the very opposite of what I had absorbed in Sunday school. ‘I’ve got to see the answer to the tobacco question in the Bible!’ I said to myself.” He found the answer, applied the biblical principles, and stopped smoking.

In 1930, while facing a slew of family trials, Mr. Armstrong beseeched God for the first time in fasting and prayer. “Not knowing how one ought to go about fasting and prayer, I first prayed and asked God to show me the way—to open my understanding. Then, since God speaks to us through His written Word, I began to search the Bible for instruction about fasting” (ibid).

When he conducted his first funeral service in 1931, he consulted the Bible. “I had attended very few funerals. I did not know what customary funeral sermons were like. I did not want to know. I felt it would only be a pagan ceremony. I merely prayed and asked God to direct me through His Word. Soon I had a short sermon worked out from the Scriptures, reading certain basic scriptures on the subject of death and the resurrection, with a few brief comments expounding them” (ibid).

During the early years of the Armstrongs’ Christian journey, they received many miraculous answers to prayers for healing. But when Mr. Armstrong’s father died in 1933 after claiming the promise of healing, Mr. Armstrong was confused. Why was his father not restored to full health and strength then and there? “Through James God instructs us that if any lack wisdom, he shall ask of God—asking in faith, not wavering or doubting—and God promises wisdom shall be given. I prayed earnestly. I asked God for understanding. And I searched the Scriptures for the explanation” (ibid). And he found it.

When called upon to conduct a wedding ceremony in 1934, he was totally unprepared. “My first thought was to go to the pastor of some church in Eugene and ask him for his form of marriage ceremony. But on the heels of that thought flashed in the next second the thought that I had found the Bible entirely different from modern-day religious beliefs, forms and ceremonies. I realized then that instead of going to men to learn how to perform a marriage ceremony, I should go direct to the Bible. Instead of learning from men, I should learn of God” (ibid).

You get the point. Mr. Armstrong looked for a Bible reason for everything he did. Do you?

If you don’t, you subject yourself to your own faulty human reasoning. That source will quickly ignore truth, marginalize the Bible, and promote its own ideas. We live in a world that operates that way. And it doesn’t work.

What does work is the Instruction Book given to us by our Creator. Now, the Bible doesn’t contain all knowledge, but it is the one right foundation on which all knowledge acquisition must be based. The Bible should be the basis of religion, family, education, science, health, finance, agriculture and so forth. This is true in the broader sense of the world at large, but also on a very personal level.

It is easy to think you know what the Bible says, but unless you dust off that book and see for yourself, your assumptions are invariably wrong. “But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead? Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark” (Isaiah 8:19-20; New Living Translation).

So how do you avoid the pitfalls of prejudice baked into human nature? How do you calibrate your mind to know right from wrong? What is the standard that should guide your day-to-day conduct? Read the Book. And find a Bible reason for everything you do.