Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
Do We Study the Word with Reason or Faith?
Our salvation is through faith. The core of our beliefs are based on faith. We are to trust in God and have faith in the Lord in all things. Does this mean we do not need logic and reasoning?
There are those who believe that we should not use logic, reasoning or intelligence when studying the Bible. We must read the Bible and just have faith it is right. We must have faith that the Holy Spirit will guide us to the correct interpretation of it.
Proverbs 3:5 (NASB)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
This is a favorite verse for people who believe everything is purely on faith. Trusting in the Holy Spirit to guide you in everything. Even your studies of God's Word without the use of logic. Those same people will completely ignore that just a few verses later in that same chapter is says this...
13 How blessed is the man who finds wisdom And the man who gains understanding.
and a few verses after that is another...
19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, By understanding He established the heavens.
20 By His knowledge the deeps were broken up And the skies drip with dew.
21 My son, let them not vanish from your sight; Keep sound wisdom and discretion,
22 So they will be life to your soul And adornment to your neck.
23 Then you will walk in your way securely And your foot will not stumble.
Isaiah 1:18 (NASB)
“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.
God is not against us using reasoning. God promotes it over and over throughout the Bible. In this next verse pay particular attention to the last words in verse 2 and all of verse 3.
Colossians 2 (NASB)
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Let me set the verses aside for a moment and speak just from common sense. When God's Word says "5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding." God is not telling us to not use our brains at all. He is telling us to not depend solely on our own understanding. He still wants us to try to understand.
When studying God's Word, it is very important to do both, use reasoning (logic) and let the Holy Spirit guide us (faith). For if you use only one or the other, you do what the devil has pushed many people to do in order to start new religions and denominations.
If we use only logic, there are too many verses that will become impossible for us to interpret. Atheists use only their own understanding when they study the Bible and are consistently misinterpreting verses for it. The human brain simply is not able to understand the holiness of God.
On the other hand, if we try to let the Holy Spirit guide us and not use logic as we study the Bible, we fail to understand what the Holy Spirit is showing us. In fact, what essentially happens is by following the Holy Spirit alone and not using reasoning, in the end we take a very great chance that we will be leaning solely on our own understanding anyways. How is that possible? The Holy Spirit can lead you to a verse that He wants you to learn something from. You will read that verse and interpret it wrong. Not realizing you interpreted it wrong, you will believe you have the right of it. Then when you find a verse that says just the opposite, you will assume that verse must mean something else because the Holy Spirit already interpreted the other verse for you. You are having faith the Holy Spirit is guiding your studies. What you are also doing without realizing it, is you are blindly having faith in your own ability to hear the Holy Spirit clearly every single time! And being human, you are prone to making mistakes.
God created us in His image. That is not saying God has two eyes, a nose and a mouth and hands and feet so He created us to look like that. God gave us the ability to think. Be self aware. God gave us emotions. God did not give us the ability to use reasoning just to expect us to toss intelligence aside and use faith only.
God is all knowing. In other words, God is the epitome of intelligence. When he gave to us His Word, it was not a word to be taken solely on faith alone. The Bible is a very intelligently written book. There is a reason for that. Throughout the Bible, God promotes reasoning, intelligence and wisdom.
1 Peter 3:15 (NASB)
15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
This is not telling us that if someone should ask us why we believe in God, that we should just say, "I have faith." That kind of answer will not win anyone over. We should be prepare to give an answer filled with reasons to have faith in God.
Most Christians when they are asked why they believe in God, they don't fully know how to answer that. They just do. God wants us to give an intelligent answer that makes the one asking have to stop and think.
Paul is often thought of by the world as the greatest of the apostles. He wrote a good chunk of the New Testament. He performed some of the greatest of miracles. He was the leader of several churches. Paul was also a very intelligent and well educated man. He didn't go to the temples and just preach faith. He went to "reason" with them.
Acts 17:2 (NASB)
2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
Acts 17:16-17 (NASB)
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. 17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.
Acts 18:4 (NASB)
4 And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
Paul didn't lean only on faith. He used intelligence, wisdom and logic from the scriptures to try and persuade Jews and Greeks to accepting Christ.
Do not make the mistake of believing you are so in tuned with the Holy Spirit that you get everything right when you read God's Word. Do not assume you could never misunderstand what the Holy Spirit is saying. That is the very reason God made His Word so intelligently written. That is why everything in the Bible lines up and there are no contradictions in theology. So that we can let the Holy Spirit guide us as we study His Word using logic and reasoning. That way if we find a contradiction, we can then know we misunderstood something. The Bible says we should test all things. You don't test something by just listening to the Holy Spirit. You test it by looking it up and using reasoning with the Word of God. You let the Holy Spirit guide you in doing that.
There are those who believe that we should not use logic, reasoning or intelligence when studying the Bible. We must read the Bible and just have faith it is right. We must have faith that the Holy Spirit will guide us to the correct interpretation of it.
Proverbs 3:5 (NASB)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
This is a favorite verse for people who believe everything is purely on faith. Trusting in the Holy Spirit to guide you in everything. Even your studies of God's Word without the use of logic. Those same people will completely ignore that just a few verses later in that same chapter is says this...
13 How blessed is the man who finds wisdom And the man who gains understanding.
and a few verses after that is another...
19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, By understanding He established the heavens.
20 By His knowledge the deeps were broken up And the skies drip with dew.
21 My son, let them not vanish from your sight; Keep sound wisdom and discretion,
22 So they will be life to your soul And adornment to your neck.
23 Then you will walk in your way securely And your foot will not stumble.
Isaiah 1:18 (NASB)
“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.
God is not against us using reasoning. God promotes it over and over throughout the Bible. In this next verse pay particular attention to the last words in verse 2 and all of verse 3.
Colossians 2 (NASB)
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Let me set the verses aside for a moment and speak just from common sense. When God's Word says "5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding." God is not telling us to not use our brains at all. He is telling us to not depend solely on our own understanding. He still wants us to try to understand.
When studying God's Word, it is very important to do both, use reasoning (logic) and let the Holy Spirit guide us (faith). For if you use only one or the other, you do what the devil has pushed many people to do in order to start new religions and denominations.
If we use only logic, there are too many verses that will become impossible for us to interpret. Atheists use only their own understanding when they study the Bible and are consistently misinterpreting verses for it. The human brain simply is not able to understand the holiness of God.
On the other hand, if we try to let the Holy Spirit guide us and not use logic as we study the Bible, we fail to understand what the Holy Spirit is showing us. In fact, what essentially happens is by following the Holy Spirit alone and not using reasoning, in the end we take a very great chance that we will be leaning solely on our own understanding anyways. How is that possible? The Holy Spirit can lead you to a verse that He wants you to learn something from. You will read that verse and interpret it wrong. Not realizing you interpreted it wrong, you will believe you have the right of it. Then when you find a verse that says just the opposite, you will assume that verse must mean something else because the Holy Spirit already interpreted the other verse for you. You are having faith the Holy Spirit is guiding your studies. What you are also doing without realizing it, is you are blindly having faith in your own ability to hear the Holy Spirit clearly every single time! And being human, you are prone to making mistakes.
God created us in His image. That is not saying God has two eyes, a nose and a mouth and hands and feet so He created us to look like that. God gave us the ability to think. Be self aware. God gave us emotions. God did not give us the ability to use reasoning just to expect us to toss intelligence aside and use faith only.
God is all knowing. In other words, God is the epitome of intelligence. When he gave to us His Word, it was not a word to be taken solely on faith alone. The Bible is a very intelligently written book. There is a reason for that. Throughout the Bible, God promotes reasoning, intelligence and wisdom.
1 Peter 3:15 (NASB)
15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
This is not telling us that if someone should ask us why we believe in God, that we should just say, "I have faith." That kind of answer will not win anyone over. We should be prepare to give an answer filled with reasons to have faith in God.
Most Christians when they are asked why they believe in God, they don't fully know how to answer that. They just do. God wants us to give an intelligent answer that makes the one asking have to stop and think.
Paul is often thought of by the world as the greatest of the apostles. He wrote a good chunk of the New Testament. He performed some of the greatest of miracles. He was the leader of several churches. Paul was also a very intelligent and well educated man. He didn't go to the temples and just preach faith. He went to "reason" with them.
Acts 17:2 (NASB)
2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
Acts 17:16-17 (NASB)
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. 17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.
Acts 18:4 (NASB)
4 And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
Paul didn't lean only on faith. He used intelligence, wisdom and logic from the scriptures to try and persuade Jews and Greeks to accepting Christ.
Do not make the mistake of believing you are so in tuned with the Holy Spirit that you get everything right when you read God's Word. Do not assume you could never misunderstand what the Holy Spirit is saying. That is the very reason God made His Word so intelligently written. That is why everything in the Bible lines up and there are no contradictions in theology. So that we can let the Holy Spirit guide us as we study His Word using logic and reasoning. That way if we find a contradiction, we can then know we misunderstood something. The Bible says we should test all things. You don't test something by just listening to the Holy Spirit. You test it by looking it up and using reasoning with the Word of God. You let the Holy Spirit guide you in doing that.