In the classic Miracle on 34th Street, Maureen O'Hara's Doris finally comes to believe in Santa Claus. Natalie Wood's Susan, her inquiring daughter, wonders about this change. So Doris warmly shares this bit of wisdom with Susan: "Faith is believing in things ... when common sense tells you not to."
Then there's that wise character from All in the Family, Archie Bunker. About faith he says, "It ain't supposed to make sense; it's faith. Faith is something that you believe that nobody in his right mind would believe."
For some reason, it seems, nearly the entire world, Christians included, have bought into this type of thinking. Adhereing to the sagacity of a Santa Claus movie and the wisdom of Archie Bunker, we now agree that faith and reason do not coexist. If it is faith it is not reason, and if it is reason it is not faith. And that, dear readers, is pure, unadulterated nonsense.
One of the primary complaints against Christianity is that it "doesn't make sense". Christians like to tell skeptics "Well, it's a matter of faith. God's ways are not our ways. You just have to believe." The really wise Christian might even point to Deuteronomy: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God" (Deut. 29:29). And to those Christians who object, there is a volley of Scripture to prove otherwise. "Lean not on your own understanding", "We walk by faith, not by sight", and "Knowledge puffs up."
Is this so? Are faith and reason opposites? Are we not to think, not to reason, not to figure things out? Well, the first clue comes from Deut. 29:29. The second half of that verse says, "But the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever." So, what is revealed? The Word of God is revealed. It is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, and it is revealed in the Bible we have. So while we must absolutely concur that God, being infinite, has not/cannot/will not reveal all of Himself to the finite, we must also see that we possess what He has revealed and learn to handle it rightly. That takes ... reason.
While much of Christianity has headed toward a rending of the mind from faith, Scripture seems to contradict this. We are commanded to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Matt. 22:37). Nor is God opposed to human reasoning. He tells Isaiah, "Come now, and let us reason together" (Isa. 1:18). And while knowledge without love will make you arrogant (1 Cor. 8:1), Proverbs is full of the call to knowledge (Prov. 1:22; 2:10; 8:9-12; 10:14; 11:9; 12:1; 14:18; 15:2 ...). In Paul's first epistle to the church at Corinth, Paul lays out a classic logical argument for the resurrection. His approach is formally called reductio ad absurdum, and he shows that if there is no resurrection, there is no Christianity (1 Cor. 15:12-19).
But let's take it one step further. When we look in the New Testament, we find the word "faith" repeatedly used. The standard Greek word is pistis or some form of it, and it means, according to Vine's, "firm persuasion". "Persuasion". The Bible says that "faith comes by hearing". In fact, Strong's says it means "to be convinced (by argument, true or false)".
What a pity! While so many Christians have been spending so much time trying to distance their faith from reason, it would appear that we are commanded to reason and that biblical faith itself is predicated on reason. Maybe Archie Bunker and Doris Walker weren't right in their explanation of faith after all? And maybe, instead of preserving the integrity of Christianity by avoiding rational discussion, we are actually doing harm? Now that's a sobering thought.
5 comments:
Excellent post, excellent! Seriously this is where my heart lies as of late. I can't help but hunger to see lives changed by renewing their minds and persuading them out of their stupor and back into the action that makes the church great. :)
Well, to this world, Christianity is not reasonable, right?
"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."(1 Cor 1:21)
So it is foolish in some aspect, which is why Christianity is unreasonable to the natural man, right?
Samantha,
On one hand, we know that the message is foolishness to those blinded by the god of this world; you're right. On the other hand, we are required to be ready to defend what we believe. We aren't called to prove the Gospel, because "proof" entails "compelling to accept as true", and that's not possible. But we diminish the truth when we deny that it is reasonable.
A friend of mine was having a conversation with a coworker -- a son of a preacher -- who had objections to Christianity. He was stunned that my friend was explaining things, examining Scripture, using rational thinking. "I've always been told, 'You just have to believe.' I never knew it would make sense, too."
We will be hated and disbelieved, but we don't need to compound the problem by making the truth appear foolish by ignoring the mind that God gave us.
True Stan, so true. :D
hellow everyone
faith is describe in believing in that which is unseen. but there is another aspect to faith that gets little attention. FAITH ALWAYS FOLLOWS FACT. This is significant because although we stand on faith for that which we cannot now see, we must realise that our faith is based upon the facts and events that accually occured in the past.
we believe that Jesus is comming soon because of the historical fact that he rose from the dead.
we have faith that God is trustworthy because he has demonstrated his trustwortyness in that past.
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