Have you ever heard a fellow Christian state an unwillingness to accept something that is Scriptural because it does not make sense to them? They might argue that you have missed some critical piece of information. It just does not make sense, they will say.
On a forum recently, this type of debate occurred over the Doctrine of Predestination. A forum member actually began by stating that they can see how the Scriptures support the doctrine, but they simply can not accept it. After all, it doesn’t make sense to them.
I am going to make clear from the outset that I am not casting aspersions on this person’s character, intellect, or dedication to the Lord. I believe this person to be an intelligent, learned, and dedicated Christian. I only use their statement to introduce my argument.
Logic is a wonderful concept, and to me, and many other believers, it is the element at the heart of our faith. Our personalities seek some logical explanation for what we observe around us, and in the Scriptures. Once given this logical explanation, we are like the dying man in a desert who finds a pool of water. We are sated, and content. This is because logic is not the enemy of faith, but upholds the faith. Logic will only be detrimental to our faith when we make it so. The irony is that we actually violate logic at these times.
CS Lewis was a man who fell away from his faith early in his life, and then came back to it through the influence of his friends. His friends, including future Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien, were academics with Lewis at Oxford University. They used logic to convince their friend of the reality of the Lord. They argued that the commonality in myths, the sciences, everything about the human condition could not be properly understood without a God behind it.
Lewis’s conversion under their influence was interesting because it was not their sincerity, but the weight of their arguments which persuaded him. Also interesting to note was that Lewis was a type of wandering monotheist first, and a Christian second. Lewis recounts in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, how he first came to accept that “God” existed, but still did not know which “God” he believed in. Slowly, he began to consider the alternatives, until he realized that the very Christian God he rejected when he was growing up was, indeed, real.
When I was a young college student almost a decade ago, I began to have doubts about my faith, and my politics. I feared that none of what I believed was true. Then I started to read Lewis’s books, and realized that what I wrestled with was true, and that it could be defended logically. I rejoiced that the Lord had proven Himself true through man’s foolishness as well as His sacred Word. I still wrestled with many issues though. All of the bloodshed in the Old Testament, the eternity of God, Hell and Justice, suffering in our world, and Predestination, just to name a few.
I so desperately wanted to prove how I could logically sort all of these areas out. With the help of the writings of Lewis and others, as well as my friends, I had some limited success. I could not settle everything though. This greatly troubled me until I began to realize that if I am to accept the Lord, I must accept Him wholly and without reservation. I let go of the need to understand, and embraced the imperative to accept. After all, if He is true, then everything He says is true, whether I understand it or not. To say that He is true, but only when I understand Him makes no logical sense.
This is where logic can be detrimental because of us. When we attempt to make logic explain everything, we essentially carry it too far. In such a situation, it will interfere with our faith. It will even cease to be logic any longer. We decide that the Scripture can only be true if we can understand it. We believe this is the only logical and sensible way to deal with such issues. We believe in the Christian God, and then state that only those things we understand are acceptable. The rest we will not accept, or will find some way to discount.
The problem with this is that the Lord says His whole Word is true, and must be accepted as such if we are to accept Him. To accept the Lord as logical under these conditions, but not His word, is the heart of illogic. For if we try to do so, we accept Him as a liar, and how can we trust anything He says. For that matter, to state that the truth of another person depends on our understanding is simply ridiculous. If I don’t understand how another person could have done some feat that they did, it doesn’t mean they did not do it. I can concentrate with all of my might, and they still will be as real as before and still have done their feat that I can not understand. My ability to understand does not alter reality. Once I admit that they are real, then I admit that every part of them is real.
In the end, none of these extra-Scriptural objections can work for the Christian. We must submit ourselves to Scriptural authority for our acceptance of the Lord to work. Either He is real and true, or He is not. We can not have it both ways.
Logic is a great tool for our limited human minds. It restored the faith of Lewis, myself, and so many others. It can also be a hindrance and a stumbling block in our lives. It is how we use it that decides which it will be for us.
