Logic
Notes
Transcript
Logic: not a normal topic for a bible study. If you recall from a couple weeks ago we discussed how faith is not opposed to evidence. That we believe in the bible because we think it is true not that it becomes true because we beleive it.
As we are getting into this idea of Apologetics we have to first look at how faith and logic or reason connect.
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus commands us to love the Lord our God with our heart, or emotions, Soul- which is that spiritual part of you. The part that makes you you. and mind - your reason. And we are called to grow ith that love.
So in order to love God with our mind we have to grow not just in our faith, but even in our knowledge about God.
Misconception: Logic is not essential in the search for truth.
Misconception: Logic is not essential in the search for truth.
This misconception is linked to one we delt with a coupl weeks ago. Remember how people often think that faith is opposed to evidence. That just because you believe it is enough to make it true. That same misconception is at the heart of this one. Those same people who think that faith and evidence don’t belong together, would also argue that faith and reason don’t mix.
They would say that Paul’s actions in Corinth back that up, because of
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
They take his actions here as to mean that reason and logic shouldn’t be part of ones faith, rather it is only built on “Spirit and power.” But the reality is that Spirit and Power and logic are not exclusive.
Illumination: Logic is a vital tool in the search for truth.
Illumination: Logic is a vital tool in the search for truth.
Logic is the system our brains use to determine what is or isn’t true based of the information it is presented with. Its the how do you figure out what is true, or what is false. In Athens Paul used much reason to show the thinkers what was true. Most of them mocked him when he mentioned Jesus’ ressurection, but some believed. After that he left Athens and went to Corinth. There Paul chose to rely on God to provide the proof for his teachings on Christ through the Holy Spirit and God’s power, rather than only relying on logic like he did in Athens at the Areopagus.
How is Faith Logical?
How is Faith Logical?
Faith and logic work together because it is part of God’s plan. God is rational (logical). He made us in his image and gave us the ability to reason like himself. He created us to be able to understand him. Who he is, and what he does. We will deal with the topic of faith v science later in this study, but Issac Newton and other classic scientists during the renessance actually created the scientific method as a way to learn about God. They believed that as a personal rational being God created the universe in a rational logical way. Science in its purest sense is the study of God through his creation.
So if God is a rational being, then our use of logic doesn’t contradict faith, it helps it grow. It gives our faith credibility, because we can explain why we have faith.
Notice the account of Paul’s trip to Corinth according to Acts 18.1-4
After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
Paul always used reason and logic to discover the truth. Our logic is not all that we need to depend on. If God is real faith works with Logic. And we must be able to use both in life to reach God’s best for us.
Sean talked about this idea of Reducto ad Absurdum. reducing your ideas to absurdity. This is a skill that we gain as we mature. Salvation comes through childlike faith. Jesus says it so we believe it. Yet we are also ment to mature in our faith and understanding.
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
If you never learn to apply logic to your faith, never seek to grow in maturity, then you open yourself up to attack and confusion when presented with false teachings. We have so many young adults “desconstructing” thier faith, because they never learned the logic behind it. All they had was a, “Do this because I said so” kind of Christianity. So as they grew up and heard other “logical” reasons to live in sin, they turned away from what they believed, because they could not give they why.
Lets finish up tonight with an illistration. Truth is like a buried treasure. Logic is the map that leads you to the destination. Faith is what sustains you as you follow the map.