A Rational Faith

How do you learn? How do you study? Do you give any stock to logic? Do you believe, for example, that truth can be illogical? My seminary students, almost every one of them, comes in there their first year, I said, “Do you believe that the truth of God can be contradictory?” The vast majority of them say “yes, of course.” They don’t realize that they are blaspheming God! They’ve made God a liar. But they come that way because they haven’t learned the rule of rationality in the pursuit of truth. 

Christianity is not rationalism. But it is, by all means, rational. And so the Bible assumes both the importance of the mind and the importance of the senses. I want you to think about how you know what you think you know. To ask yourself the question, “Am I sure about this?” Take out a piece of paper and write down on it ten things that you know for sure. Ten things that you would die for, that you know for sure. If we did that in this room tonight, we would find people convinced of one thing that is the direct opposite of another persons. Somebody is wrong. But we are supposed to be people who are committed to the discovery of truth.