Faith and Reason (Part 2)

by Terry Ivy
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FAITH AND REASON - QUESTIONS

Please see (Part 1) before reading through this section. When we seek to understand the relationship between faith and reason, there are several questions which will arise. We mentioned this in the opening section. Let's turn our attention to some of the remaining questions which meet us concerning the compatibility of faith and reason.

1) Do faith and reason oppose each other?

No! We use reason under the illumination of the Holy Spirit to investigate the Word of God in order to come to mature and balanced truths. We use faith to submit and surrender to the truths which godly reasoning has arrived at. Through godly reasoning we do not desire to cast out any part of Scripture, for we know the Spirit and the Word are one. (I Jn. 5:7) We use the truths of God, revealed in the Bible, to come to an understanding about truth, life, meaning, purpose, direction, love and eternity. Reason protects us from embracing false teaching by bringing us to sound doctrine through biblical hermeneutics. Saving faith is when we surrender of our life to those truths!

Faith and Reason work together to protect us from extremes which lead to fanciful beliefs. If reason is unrestrained (e.g. unsubmitted to faith in God's Word and the obvious impetuses from creation and conscience), it will lead to all types of foolish and humanistic conclusions. These will include everything from denying the virgin birth of Christ to denying His resurrection. There are things 'reason' alone cannot prove or disprove, but when it considers all the evidence available, godly reason will deliver a resounding 'amen' to the truth of Christ! Therefore, faith (surrender to) in the truth of God's Word is a fail safe for reason.


Likewise, if faith is unrestrained (e.g. unsubmitted to sound doctrine from God's Word) it will surely go astray into all types of foolish beliefs and experiences as a result of faulty interpretations and foreign spirits. God's Word is the basis for us to 'test the spirit' of any experience or teaching, in order to determine it's origin. (I Jn. 4:1) So, faith protects reason, and godly reason protects faith!

2) Are there limits to reason?

Absolutely! By reason the world knew not God. (I Cor. 1:21) However, through the testimony of creation and conscience, every man knows that God exists. Paul develops this beautifully in the first chapter of Romans. (Rom. 1:19-21) But reason alone can not bring a man to God, because man will never understand the message of the cross of Christ apart from the Bible. Reason needs the revelation of the Scriptures to be introduced to the understanding of our origin, our sin, our fall, our need, our redemption and our eternity. So there are many truths which reason falls short of understanding and this is where faith goes beyond reason's understanding.

Important to note that when a man is born again, his faculties are re-directed toward God and his reasoning, through the renewing of his mind, becomes more and more in sync and fellowship with the mind of Christ. A man begins to use godly reasoning as the grid to evaluate all things!

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Rom. 12:2)

"...But we have the mind of Christ." (I Cor. 2:16)

3) Are there limits to faith?

Absolutely! Simply put, faith is limited to the boundaries ascribed in the Scriptures. Any attempt to say, "I'm trusting God for....." is foolish and spiritually dangerous if that 'something' is in violation of Scriptures. It is foolish because it attempts to control God through personal wants or pleasures. It is dangerous because if we get what we claim we are trusting for, this exercise of presumption moves us away from genuine faith by convincing us that God wanted us to have it. The answer could have come from our own efforts, psychosomatic feelings or worse, from a demonic spirit. Among many groups today, prayers are offered in the 'name of Christ' which He neither prompted or agrees with. How do we know this? Because they violate His revealed standard of truth-the Bible.

Until a believer becomes aware of the limits of faith, he is in a dangerous place of getting deceived by false teachers and foreign spirits. Look at this warning from Paul.

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;" (I Tim. 4:1)

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (II Tim. 4:3-4)

So without a doubt, genuine Christianity understands the limits of faith. And we should always be thankful for and seek sound doctrine, for it protects our practice of 'faith' from getting off track and chasing all types of foolish antics and practices. Look at one more verse from the Apostle Paul on this issue.

"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (II Tim. 2:15)

4) Why does secular society promote a separation between faith and reason?

Simple. They must separate faith and reason in order to help justify their actions by removing themselves away from the conviction of biblical truth. Here is the danger, when you look at the secular epistemological paradigms (remember the four sources: Sensory, Reason, Testimony, Intuition), they, in practice slice man in half and embrace only sensory and reason as legitimate sources of truth. This is a result of enlightened secular thought and philosophy ranging from evidentialism to skepticism. This happens when man becomes a fool by saying, "There is no God." The secularists/humanists hold that testimony and intuition are untrustworthy for forming true beliefs because they cannot be submitted to scientific inquiry. This is a 'red herring' which helps them justify their rejection of accountability to God. In the true fashion of the word, the humanist, secularist and modernist, divides man into two compartments by rejecting half of our perception faculties.

In witnessing to these groups of men, we need to make sure we do not yield to their playing field of sliced up humanity. There are some questions we can ask of them which reveals the foolishness of their sliced up view of reality. As Christians, we are the ones who should move out into society as a total man, epistemologically speaking, using all the perception faculties our creator has given us. I will address this in detail in another article.

5) Why do some Christian groups separate faith and reason?

Very similar to the last question, but on the other end of the spectrum! These religious groups, especially the word of faith and prosperity teachers, either reject or strongly diminish the faculties sensory and reason. They only appeal to testimony (Scriptures) and Intuition. (subjective promptings) This unbiblical separation is the cause of many of the strange doctrines and practices we see taking place under the name of Christianity. By rejecting the God given faculties of sensory perception and reason, these fanatics set themselves up for receiving their own unbiblical 'revelations' from God. They abandon sound doctrine as well as common sense under the banner of 'walking with Christ.' They give themselves over to their own fleshly and demonic visions which take place because of the pride of their own hearts. In short, because they desire to be their own god, or to control the works of God, they give themselves over to false teaching and doctrine. They are guilty of the other extreme, that is, slicing man up and using only the last two sources.

Regardless whether it is the secularist or the professing christian, anytime a person abandons any of the faculties God has given us to form accurate beliefs, damage to the remaining faculties takes place. Through this, their heart of perception and proper reasoning becomes darkened by refusing to embrace the total man. All truth is ultimately God's truth. Anytime truth is rejected, regardless of which faculty delivered it to us, we become guilty of setting aside an important part of God's design for the welfare of our soul!

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CONCLUSION

True believers should embrace all four sources of knowledge. If we are going to mature in Christ, this is a must! We stand in the light of the revelation that God was in Christ redeeming us to Himself. Jesus was sensory to those who walked with Him in the first century. He is intuitive to those of us who believe. He is historical to us according to testimony of the Scriptures. And when we consider and evaluate all the evidence relating to His life, ministry, passion and teachings, nothing is more reasonable than to believe on the truth of the Gospel. Truly, man is complete through Christ in many ways.

As believers, we stand in the light of creation with all its laws. And in the light of reason which God gave man as a rational being. And in the light of conscience. Our reason is different from the world, because it has been divinely re-directed toward God through the new birth in Christ and does not attempt to explain our world from the limited viewpoint of man. (Humanistic reason) Instead, because of the revelation of Scripture, the testimony of creation, the testimony of conscience and the illumination of the Holy Spirit, Christians understand the world from God's view!

Therefore, let us walk by faith. That is, a faith based upon the truth of God's Word as godly reason and wisdom interprets it. Nothing makes more sense and is more reasonable than to completely trust and follow Jesus. Though reason cannot understand the hypostasis of Jesus, His virgin birth, His miracles or His resurrection, through the testimony of those who walked with Him and the Holy Spirit's witness to our hearts, placing our faith in Christ is the most reasonable thing to do!

"Come now, and let us reason together, said the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:18)

In the Crucified, yet Risen Lamb,
Terry