APOL550 - Discussion Questions - Faith and Reason

Discussion Questions #1

Why is it important for Christians to develop the skill of thinking well/thinking properly?

When a Christian develops the skill of thinking well and properly, they are more able to defend their faith in the culture in which they exist. The problem with not being able to think properly and logically in regards to the faith, it leaves Christians on the outskirts of cultural thought and seen as outcasts unable to combat the prevailing ideas of the modern times. This is unfortunate since the Christian faith can most definitely be properly defended through logic, reason, and historical research. Not only that, but thinking properly helps avoid heresies and false cults from forming like they did in the 1800s, “One tragic result of this was what happened in the so-called Burned Over District in the state of New York. Thousands of people were “converted” to Christ by revivalist preaching, but they had no real intellectual grasp of Christian teaching. As a result, two of the three major American cults began in the Burned Over District among the unstable, untaught “converts”: Mormonism (1830) and the Jehovah’s Witnesses (1884). Christian Science arose in 1866 but was not connected with this area” (Moreland 16). This can be very concerning especially as one grows in the faith and develops their theology, however, one of the main benefits of thinking properly about the faith is in the boldness it produces in believers. This boldness that results from greater understanding and thinking allows the believer to engage in intellectual debates and discussions regarding the faith, many times winning souls through this apologetic method. Moreland writes, “I have trained people to share their faith for over forty years. I can tell you from experience that when people learn what they believe and why, they become bold in their witness and attractive in the way they engage others in debate or dialogue” (Moreland 25). When it comes to individual discipleship the ability to think well and properly helps in building one’s faith on a solid foundation of experience and also reason. Reason, experience, and faith are all important in a believer’s life and relationship with God. When we neglect reason and exercising our mental faculties we lose an important aspect of our faith and can build a disciple on a shaky foundation that could get shattered when they enter a secular setting with intellectual atheists. Training disciples to think well and properly fortifies them against deceptions of the enemy that seemingly ‘undermine’ the faith or veracity of the Bible when really that is not the case. This skill is extremely important in discipleship and in evangelism because of its ability to win souls through an apologetic method. This skill relates strongly with apologetics because to defend the faith through reason requires a mind capable of thinking properly and correctly regarding the topic of the Christian faith. This skill is of immense value to any believer and allows one to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Something we must be cautious of is permitting the Christian faith to become something few people genuinely consider to be true, as Moreland writes, “If a culture reaches the point where Christian claims are not even part of its plausibility structure, fewer and fewer people will be able to entertain the possibility that they might be true. Whatever stragglers do come to faith in such a context would do so on the basis of felt needs alone, and the genuineness of such conversions would be questionable to say the least. This is why apologetics is so crucial to evangelism” (Moreland 89). It is extremely important for us to develop proper thinking to apologetically defend the faith against the oncoming ideas that attack its very legitimacy. These ideas will constantly be thrown against the faith and must always be defended with sound thinking in each generation.