I attended a lecture over the weekend entitled, "Is Faith Reasonable?" given by my church's resident scholar. The lecture was very interesting and provided much to chew on. I believe that the question can only be answered once you have identified the object of the faith. Certainly not all faiths are equal and not all faiths are true. The conclusion of the lecture demonstrated that faith and reason are complimentary, at least in Christianity but that faith exceeds reason. This is true. I was asked later what my Christian faith is based on and I said the Bible and gave some explanation as to how we can know the Bible is true. My faith is based on God's word, however it did not originate with my study of the Bible. So the question is how and where does saving faith originate?
"The true faith, the saving faith is something God gives us. For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God(Eph 2:8). You don’t have the faith that saves, it’s not natural. It’s not natural to believe in something you’ve never seen, it’s not natural to believe in someone you’ve never seen...
We’re not talking about that kind of faith based upon experience because when you came to Jesus Christ you put your faith in something you had never experienced. You were just desperate enough to do that. But you believed the promises of the Bible. Why? Because God supernaturally granted you the faith. This is not human faith. This is the faith that God works in us and although the truth of the Gospel is confirmed by many evidences, human nature is predisposed to reject that truth because it wants to see and experience before it believes. But then a sinner comes to the greatest level of desperation and it’s always almost comical when he happens to be some kind of scientific atheist who in a matter of moments has his atheism shattered, which he has had a whole life time to accumulate through his supposed logic, and embraces Jesus Christ in the desperation of his desire for forgiveness. And all of a sudden he’s able to believe without any proof. That’s the gift of God and then once you believe you go back to the Word of God and you begin to see the reasonableness of what you have come to believe through the pages of scripture. Apologetics is mostly for Christians to strengthen their faith. The miracle of saving faith is a miracle." -John MacArthur (Read entire article at http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/80-169.htm).
Faith and reason compliment each other but faith does exceed reason and saving faith is the gift of God.
"The true faith, the saving faith is something God gives us. For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God(Eph 2:8). You don’t have the faith that saves, it’s not natural. It’s not natural to believe in something you’ve never seen, it’s not natural to believe in someone you’ve never seen...
We’re not talking about that kind of faith based upon experience because when you came to Jesus Christ you put your faith in something you had never experienced. You were just desperate enough to do that. But you believed the promises of the Bible. Why? Because God supernaturally granted you the faith. This is not human faith. This is the faith that God works in us and although the truth of the Gospel is confirmed by many evidences, human nature is predisposed to reject that truth because it wants to see and experience before it believes. But then a sinner comes to the greatest level of desperation and it’s always almost comical when he happens to be some kind of scientific atheist who in a matter of moments has his atheism shattered, which he has had a whole life time to accumulate through his supposed logic, and embraces Jesus Christ in the desperation of his desire for forgiveness. And all of a sudden he’s able to believe without any proof. That’s the gift of God and then once you believe you go back to the Word of God and you begin to see the reasonableness of what you have come to believe through the pages of scripture. Apologetics is mostly for Christians to strengthen their faith. The miracle of saving faith is a miracle." -John MacArthur (Read entire article at http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/80-169.htm).
Faith and reason compliment each other but faith does exceed reason and saving faith is the gift of God.
7 comments:
Bravo! Awesome! So true, true, true! Well put Johnny!
You are beautiful beyond description....
Too marvelous for words...
Too wonderful for comprehension...
Like nothing ever seen or heard...
Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom ?...
Who can fathom the depths of Your love? ...
You are beautiful beyond description...
Majesty enthroned above...
Holy God,to Whom all praise is due...
WE STAND IN AWE OF YOU !
I LOVE IT!!!!!
This is from???I don't even know now but for sure from a grace gem so you know it's a gooden:
"One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher's sermon, for I DID NOT BELIEVE it. The thought struck me, "How did you come to be a Christian?" (R.C. would say self here)
I sought the Lord. "But how did you come to seek the Lord?" The truth flashed across my mind in a moment- I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, (self can you hear it...) How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to God."
So simple yet so mysterious and glorious, who can there be other than the GREAT I AM
look dana, I'm here on your blogger:)
How true indeed! It was especially fun to read imagining RC saying it! 6 more weeks and we'll hear him cracking himself up!
awesome hymn
Reason, as a prescriptive mode of cognitive behaviour (an ethical derivation), would be meaningless outside of faith. To dichotomize faith from reason, as if reason had any inherent meaning in itself, would demonstrate a rather muddy understanding of the terms being distinguished. After all, there are many conceptualizations of what entails 'good reason', as there are a plethora of paradigms of "logic", all of which depend upon the faith-based philosophical system in which they operate.
Christians can use terms like 'reason' and 'logic' with prescriptive value in that they possess a system of thought that can account for their existence. Non-christian have no such access to these abstracta in any non-arbitrary way and thus the folley of being outside of Christ is an act of intellectual suicide.
-Ryan
Ryan, WELL SAID!!!
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