Reason and Religion - Bible Baptist Church

Charge of unreasonable faith

Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-24; specifically verse 21 describes how the world opposes Christ.
Worldly philosophy believes that if the mind is engaged and working properly then it will not cling to faith. To put it another way, the world’s philosophy believes that you have to suspend your reason, your mind, to have faith. It’s the old idea that if you’re outspoken about Jesus Christ it’s because you’re sort of backwoods and unsophisticated.
This same world that says faith in God is a fairy tale imagination offers less reasonable ideas than the faith they disapprove of.
2 Thessalonians 3:2 wickedness is unreasonable and it comes from unbelief.
- The truth is what makes sense.
- Take the interrogation of a suspect. If he is consistent and his story makes sense with the known facts, the idea is there is no wickedness in him. But if he’s inconsistent and his story is unreasonable, the assumption is there is some wickedness there.
What are we saying? Simply that the truth is the thing that makes sense.

Invitation to reason

Isaiah 1:18
The scriptures present God’s way as what is reasonable. Reasonable means you want to gather all the information. And the Lord wants you to make the right decision and the right decision is based on objectively listening to God’s word. It means weighing what your Creator said about things with true observations of yourself and what you see around you.
God’s not interested in a generational belief
- Some people say my family is Catholic so I am Catholic.
- God isn’t interested in a set of beliefs that you were born into, but is not yet reasonable to you.
God’s not interested in belief that came by threat
- Some belief systems are spread by the sword or terror; convert or die.
- God isn’t looking for professions.
God’s not interested in what the masses believe
- Some belief systems are spread by consensus.
- Much that passes for science today is made up of false science built around godless ideas.
Reason is what you have when you get rid of ulterior motives, self-justification, greed, and fear, you are finally in a position to reason.
The fact that God invites reason says there is nothing to hide.

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