Logic and the way of Jesus

Reflections after reading

Dickinson, Travis. Logic and the way of Jesus: Thinking Critically and Christianity. Nashville, Tennessee: H&B Academic, 2022.

Introduction

 Formal  logic,  reason,  and  philosophy  are  some  of  the  most  important  things  to  a  society, culture,  and  to  an  individual. And for many years the Church was the leading force in these fields. It  is  unfortunate  then  that  the  modern  Evangelical  Church  has  lost  these  things  and  in  so  doing  has  lost  the  society and  the  culture  and  is  endanger  of  losing  the  individual.  The  Church  as a  whole  is  supposed  to  use  logic  and  reason  as  our  Lord  did  to  influence  the  culture  and  society. In  this  paper  we  will  briefly  discuss  the  Church  losing  logic  and  the culture,  how  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  used  logic, and  why  it  is  important  that  the  church  return  to  using  logic  and  reason

Losing the Culture and Logic

How  did  the  Church  lose  the  culture  and  logic?  In  his  book  “Love  Your  God  With  All  Your  Mind”  J. P.  Moreland  argues  that  the  culture  has  shifted  to  a  post-Christian  one  because  of  a  shift  that  took  place  within  the  church. This  shift  (which  was  characterized  by  revivals  and  religious experiences)  focuses  on  emotions  and  experiences  rather  than  an  intellectual  and  reflective  conversion. People  now  are  converted  on  the  basis  of  emotions  rather  than  a  conversion  based  on  a  consideration  of  the  truth  claims  of  Christianity  and  of  Christ. (J. P. Moreland, Love Your God with All Your Mind (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2012), 15.) Are  emotions  in  one's  conversion  bad?  No, absolutely  not.  One's  conversion  to  Christ  can be  an emotional  thing  but  if  emotions  are  the  only  reason  you  are  a  Christian  then  you  have  a  problem. There  will  be  days  when  you  don't  feel  like  a  Christian. Does  that  mean  that  you  are  no  longer  a  Christian  or  that  you  have  lost  the  faith? Absolutely  not!  Faith  is  more  than  just  feeling  like  you  are  a  Christian  but  because  of  the  shift  in  the  Church  it  is  now  seen  as  that. So  we  have  seen  how  the  Church  lost  the  logic,  but  how  did  it  lose  the  culture?

The  world  attacked  and  most  Christians  weren’t  ready  for  it (Travis Dickinson, Logic and The Way of Jesus, (Nashville, Tennessee, B&H Academic), 6.).   The  church  had  traded  logic  and  reason  for  emotions  and  feelings  and  now  it  is  facing  the  consequence. The  majority  of  churchgoers  and  ministers  were  not  prepared  to  face  the  challenges  that  the world  was  presenting  to  Christianity. So  in  response  to  the  challenges  the  church  detached  faith  from  reason. That  is  to  say  that  one's  faith  has  nothing  to  do  with  intellectual  reason  so  the  challenges  to  the  faith  that  come  from  logic  and  reason  do  not  matter. As  Moreland  puts  it  “this  shift  itself  expresses  a  growing  anti-intellectualism  in  the  church,  resulting  in  the  marginalization  of  Christianity  in  society  and  the  emergence  of  the  most  secular  culture  the  world  has  ever  seen.” (J. P. Moreland, Love Your God with All Your Mind (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2012), 15.). It  has  been  said  that  “the  scandal  of  the  evangelical  mind  is  that  there  is  not  much  of  an evangelical  mind.” That  is  to  say  that  the  local church  sees  no  use  for  and  indeed  at  times  sees  logic  and  reason  as  its  enemy.  But,  is  this  true?  Is  logic  and  reason  the  enemy  of  the  church?

Jesus' use of Logic

Christ  himself  used  logic  and  reason  in  His  debates  with  the  Pharisees.  Our  Lord's  expert  use  of  logic  and  reason  is  the  reason  why  the  crowd  in  Matthew 7:28-29 “were astonished” because  He  was  a  carpenter  and  yet  He  was  able  to  go  toe  to  toe  with  the  Scribes  and Pharisees  and  win.  That  is  why  they  say  He  “was  teaching  them  as  one  who  had  authority.” (Matthew 7:29)  He  was  like  one  who  was  schooled  in  logic, reason  and  philosophy  but  yet  He  was a carpenter.  Let's  look  at  Matthew 22:23-33  as  an example  of  our  Lord  as  a  great logician. We  see  in  this  section  of  scripture  the  Sadducees (a  group  of  religious  leaders  who  denied  a  resurrection)  ask  Jesus  a  seemingly  impossible  question.  They  ask  “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” (Matthew 22:24-28)  This  is  what  we  call  today  a  gotcha  question.  It  appears  that  no  matter  how  Jesus  answered  the  question  he  was  finished. So,  how  does  Christ  respond?  He  uses  logic  and  reason  to  see  that  the  Sadducees  were  bringing  up  a  false  dilemma.  Jesus  says  “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” He  calls  them  out  straight  away  and  tells  them  they  have  no  clue  what  they  are  talking  about.  He  goes  on  to  say  “ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:29-32)  So  Christ  explains  that  the  Sadducees  are  posing  a  false  dilemma  because  there  is  no  marriage  in  the  resurrection.  Their  problem  would  never  happen.

Does it Really Matter?

This  is  just  one  example  of  Christ  using  logic  and  reason,  but  is  it  really  important  that  we  use  logic  and  reason  in  the  church?  Can’t  the  Evangelical  Church  survive  without  the  use  of  logic  and  reason? No,  it  can  not.  Should  logic  and  reason  be  the  only  things  that  we  focus  on  in  the  Church?  No,  absolutely  not!  We  can't  just  ignore  them.  That  is  what  has  led  to  many  leaving  the  faith,  as  well  as,  what  has  given  rise  to  the  New  Atheist  movement. Because  of  the  Evangelical  Churches  abandonment  of logic  and  reason  men  such  as  Richard  Dawkins  and  Christopher  Hitchens  have  been  able  to  attack  the  Faith  and  lead  many  away  from  it. But,  what  is  the  Church  to  do  about  it?  How  is  the  Evangelical  Church  to  regain logic  and  reason?

 What should be done

 The first thing that must be done is to have a more Biblical understanding of conversion and sanctification. We must understand that converting to Christ is not exclusively an emotional experience. Will conversion to Christ change your life? Yes, absolutely. Once the sinner believes and trusts in Christ alone for their salvation they are declared righteous and given a new nature. But, the idea that every conversion will be something to the effect of “I have completely stopped my former patterns of sin” is quite frankly a dangerous idea. It is dangerous because this idea shows that we do not understand ourselves and we do not understand the gospel. We are, by nature, Sinners and though we are given a new nature by God we never stop sinning though we strive to. For a new believer who struggles with particular sins this idea is frightening as it can lead to the idea that perhaps they are not saved because after their conversion they did not immediately stop sinning or struggling with certain sins.

Of course that is not to say that there will be no change in the life of the believer. Yes, there must be genuine repentance with the one who is born again, yet even our genuine repentance is never perfect. So we must lean on Jesus, on His finished work, and learn to walk in his likeness. We must also learn to differentiate between Sanctification and justification. Sanctification is the gradual process in which the believer is conformed to Christ's likeness so that we bear fruit and hate sin. Justification is a once for all moment which is reserved by faith in Christ alone. It is in this moment that the believer is saved and declared righteous, by the blood of Christ, before God. Sanctification is a process that takes place throughout the believer's life and may depend on your level of sanctification. Justification is a one time event that is true for all who believe in Christ no matter their level of sanctification. We must understand that the people who struggle with sin are  just as Christian as the people who fide killing it easy they are just at a different level of sanctification. We  must  also  train  up  ministers  in  the  ways  of  logic.

The  pastors and elders of a church are on the front lines when it comes to apologetics and defending the faith. One of the many reasons so many people leave the church is because their pastor can not answer their objections to the faith or because their pastor has not properly been trained in logic and can therefore not train their congregation in the logical arguments for the faith. If a minister  can  not  argue  for  the  gospel  logically what  business  does  he  have  teaching  the  gospel  to  the  church?  John  Wesley  argued  the  same  in  his  day  “should  not  a  minister  be  acquainted  too  with  at  least  the  general  grounds  of  natural  philosophy?  Is  not  this  a  great  help  to  the  accurate  understanding of several  passages  of  scripture” (Travis Dickinson, Logic and The Way of Jesus, (Nashville, Tennessee, B&H Academic), 7.)? If the church is to return to the uses of logic then it must start with pastors as where the shepherd goes the sheep will likely follow. I  firmly  believe  if  we  want  to  change  the  culture  we  must  first  change  the  church.

  Closing

 In  this  paper  we  have  briefly  discussed  the  Church  losing  logic  and  the culture,  how  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  used  logic, and  why  it  is  important  that  the  church  return  to  using  logic  and  reason.  We’ve  looked  at  how  the  Church's  abandonment  of  logic  led  to  the  church  losing  the  culture.  We  have  seen  how  Christ  himself  used  logic  in  his  debate  with  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees.  We have  also  seen  what  we  must  do  to  regain  logic  and  the  culture.  If  the evangelical  church  is  to evangelize  and  survive  in  the  modern  post-Christian  world  we  must  use  logic  and  reason  to  our  advantage. 

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