Last Updated on November 3, 2020
Often a Christian is characterized as having faith that is baseless or blind. Sadly, this language isn’t confined to being spoken by those outside of the church. Today, many professing Christians will speak of faith as if one needs to “just believe” or “take a leap into the dark and let God catch you.” However, we are not asked to “jump into the dark,” but rather to “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). In this article we examine why faith must be rational and reasonable in order to be real.
Table of Contents
Created in God’s Image to Think
For many professing believers, Christianity is about feelings. Worship styles are based on how they make us feel. It is not uncommon to hear someone in a Bible study talk about how a passage makes them feel. Nor is it abnormal for a person to speak of how they feel God is leading them to do this or that.
All of these are risky. Worship is about God, not man. Scripture is about conveying truths from God, and the meaning of His written words are not contingent on our feelings. Perhaps most dangerous of all, when we think we are being led by the Spirit when simply reacting to our own feelings, we court disaster. Life experience should attest to all of us that our emotions will deceive us into thinking and believing things that simply are not true.
We were created in the image of God. This does not mean that we have the power to create ex-nihilo, speaking health into someone’s life or money into our own bank accounts. That would in fact make us God, or turn faith into a mystical impersonal force.
As God’s image bearers, we are rational, volitional, and moral beings. Not only does this mean we have the ability to think, act upon our will, and make moral decisions, but we also are obligated to do so. In each of these areas, we are called upon to emulate the Lord and any failure to match His holy standard is a sin. Of course, until we reach our glorified state, we will constantly fall short of that requirement.
Interestingly, for thinking, willful, and moral creatures, all three of these aspects are connected. When we choose to engage in moral or immoral thoughts or actions, we are following our strongest desires at the time. That will is informed by our thinking. In other words, everything begins in the mind.
God is Always Rational & Logical
God is forever and always completely rational, logical, consistent, and coherent. That becomes the standard by which our thinking is to be measured. Irrationality and contradiction by definition go against truth.
Over the last century, and particularly prevalent in the last two decades, has been a movement to embrace contradictions as if they are virtuous. Professors on Ivy League campuses are living under Emil Brunner’s motto that “contradictions are the hallmark of truth.” (Brunner was specifically speaking of contradictions in a religious sense but the thought is mainstream.) Even seminary graduates think it is ok for there to be contradictions in God or in the Bible, so there is no wonder that church pews are full of people who accept this belief. Yet the thought is just as nonsensical today as it was when Brunner wrote it over 80 years ago.
One of the problems we face is that most people have a very weak understanding of what a contradiction is. Anything that appears to be at odds (paradox) or is unable to be understood (mystery) gets labeled as a contradiction, when in fact they are not. In order for a contradiction to exist, the comparison must be confined to the same time and the same relationship.
Let’s say I were to be in my living room and Tom walked in and asked what I did today, and I said, “I went to the grocery store.” Then Jane walked in 5 minutes later and asked me the same question, and I responded, “I went to the post office.” Is that a contradiction? No, because I could have easily done both things. If I had said I only went to the grocery store and then also said I went to the post office, that would be a contradiction.
Sometimes we will run into a person who will ask, “Do you believe God can do anything?” Setting aside for a moment that God Himself has given us a list of things that He cannot do (lie, die, etc.), if we were to answer “yes” then we would be met with queries of whether God can make a squared circle or a rock so big that He cannot move it.
The person asking might think they are being smart or have a real “gotcha” moment, but in reality they are showing their ignorance. Squared circles cannot possibly exist because an object can’t be both square and round at the same time. Likewise, there cannot be both an immovable object and an irresistible force in existence at the same time, for obvious reasons. One of those would have to give, which would mean that either the object is moveable after all or the force was able to be resisted.
Contradiction is the hallmark of a lie. The very word means “to speak against.” Speak against what? Truth and reason. God cannot partake in contradictions, because to do so would mean that either He was wrong in His understanding, or that He was telling a lie.
Since God is always logical, rational, and consistent in His thinking and actions, mankind as created in His image should strive to be the same. This includes for Christians and their Christian faith, which should be reasonable and not haphazard or blind.
Requirements for Real Faith
Faith, like all beliefs, must begin in the mind. The heart cannot believe something that the mind has not first examined and accepted as true. The mind is the control center of our will. Defining the human will, Jonathan Edwards said, “The will is the mind choosing.” We will examine the will closely in a future article, but for now understand that we always choose what we want most, and what we want most is decided by our mind.
Following are the requirements for genuine faith. We will use Christian saving faith to illustrate but the principles apply to any area where a claim of having “faith” might be made.
Since we are using saving faith as our example, it is important to acknowledge up front that the faith that saves is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-10), and people do not arrive at this faith through their own efforts, wisdom, or intellect. I do not want to leave the impression that a person can get to Jesus simply by thinking really hard about it and “figuring it out.” The purpose of this exercise is not to convince someone that the Christian message is true, but rather to illustrate that if you believe it, you are not out on a limb that isn’t attached firmly to a tree.
Real faith requires real knowledge
Before we can place our faith in something, we must first have knowledge of what we are placing our faith in. A person cannot believe the gospel without having the content of the gospel enter into their minds. It is impossible to believe something we know nothing about.
Real faith requires real acceptance
Once we have the information, we must then accept it as true. It goes without saying that if a person is presented with the gospel but then denies the story is true, he will not have any faith. Likewise, if we do not accept as true that Jesus came to earth as God in human flesh, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again, then we aren’t believing in the facts attained in step one.
Throw out any one of the above planks of the gospel story and we are believing in something other than the truth. That is not good enough to save.
Real faith requires real trust
As has been pointed out by many throughout the ages, if a person has knowledge of the facts about the gospel and Jesus, and they also accept them as true, they are now qualified to be a demon (Mark 1:34; Luke 4:41; James 2:19). Faith must have trust.
Where does trust come from? If we convince ourselves to trust in someone or something with no foundation for that trust, we have only succeeded in brainwashing ourselves. The reason we trust the brakes on our vehicle to stop us from running into the car in front of us is because we have a long history of not only brakes working in our own usage, but we have seen it in others as well. No one pulling up to a red light thinks, “I sure hope my brakes stop me before I run into the intersection and get smashed by an 18-wheeler.” We fully expect the car to stop and do not think twice about it.
The same is true for our faith. The Holy Spirit testifies to us that it is true, but we also have grounded, historical reasons to trust the gospel message (more on that below).
Real faith requires real content
Even when the above three conditions are met, they are meaningless if the object of faith is not real or unable to guarantee the outcome being trusted for. It is what our faith is in that saves us, not the faith in and of itself. In the case of the Christian, the “what” is a who, the triune God.
We can have perfect faith in the airplane flying us home for Thanksgiving, but if the wings fall off mid-flight, we are going down. Likewise, faith in false gods, regardless of how genuine, are ultimately fruitless. A false deity does not have the ability to save because they do not actually exist, and “things” that do not exist are not things at all.
A person can have the strongest faith in a world, but if it is in a false god—or as dangerous, a false belief about the real God—then the faith is worthless.
God Gives Us Reasons to Believe
The existence and functioning of the world itself is enough to make it plain to all that God exists, is powerful, loving, and glorious (Romans 1:18-20), though man is want to suppress this truth (v18). As mentioned above, this general revelation is not enough to provide a saving faith or even the content of the gospel message. However, it is sufficient as a starting point to show that it is not only rational that the Being we put our trust in exists, but it is so obvious that deep inside everyone knows He is real.
The Bible is full of signs and miracles. The purpose of these were to validate the message being delivered by the person presenting the signs, or in the case of Jesus, not only to show that He was speaking on behalf of God, but that He was indeed God in human form.
In Exodus, God startled Moses by speaking to him from a burning bush that was not consumed (Exodus 3). That would get my attention! When Moses asked why Israel should believe he was delivering a message from God (Exodus 4:1), the Lord turned Moses’ staff into a snake, a sign Moses would perform “that they may believe that the Lord…has appeared to you” (Exodus 4:5). God proceeded to give Moses two more signs for those who were slow to believe–turn flesh in leprosy and back (Exodus 4:7) and water into blood (Exodus 4:9). The purpose was so that the people would “believe the witness” (Exodus 4:8).
When Moses went before Pharaoh, he did not say, “He Pharaoh, just take what I’m saying on faith…” Rather, signs were performed before Pharaoh as evidence that what Moses was saying is true.
This process continued throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament, culminating with the apostles, who displayed signs to illustrate that they were delivering the message of Jesus Christ.
Not only did signs accompany the messengers of the Lord, but the events of Jesus’ ministry on earth were done publicly before many witnesses. Multitudes saw His works, heard His preaching, witnessed His death, and saw Him post-resurrection. As Paul said to Festus when standing before Agrippa, “these things were not done in a corner” (Acts 26:26).
Peter, encouraging believers to confirm their “calling and election” (2 Peter 1:10), repeated what was already known and accepted by the church (2 Peter 1:12), appealing to the fact that the glory of Jesus was seen with human eyes at the Transfiguration (2 Peter 1:16) and the voice of God from heaven was heard by human ears (2 Peter 1:18). Peter points to tangible evidence; he does not ask for it to be accepted “on faith.”
Paul routinely called on those listening to him to think about the words he was saying, and not simply have an emotional reaction. For instance, he reasoned with those he was evangelizing (Acts 17:2-3) and pointed to the resurrection of Christ as evidence of Scripture’s truth (Acts 17:31). In Corinth, Paul “reasoned in the synagogue” while “trying to persuade Jews and Greeks” (Acts 18:4). When writing to the Corinthian church concerning some who denied physical resurrection, he appealed to the fact that there were hundreds of witnesses of Christ after He had risen (1 Corinthians 15:5-8).
Closing Thought
The idea of God is not irrational. In fact, in order to deny the existence of God one must either deny basic logic or deny the foundational pillars of accepted science. As for our Christian faith, God has given us reasons to believe. We have a collection of 66 books that have stood the test of time under incredible scrutiny. We have miraculous Acts of God recorded and the testimony of witnesses to critical events (even outside of Scripture). We have seen God work in our lives and the lives of others, giving us more clear evidence. Most of all, we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit inside of us.