Spiritual, Reasoning Christian with Faith
Spiritual, Reasoning Christian with Faith
"Come now, and let us reason together" (Isa 1:18)
Are you a spiritual, reasoning Christian with faith? Does your faith stand on God's word and reasoning? Can you reason with anyone who questions your faith and be able to answer whatever questions not just from the Bible but also from reasoning? When you find yourself unable to answer questions in life, do you become a Biblical dogmatist or are you open to reasoning? Are you willing to have your Christian doctrines and practices to be questioned by reasoning? Your answers to these questions would indicate whether you are just a brain-washed Christian robot or a spiritual, reasoning Christian with faith.
Does it make a difference to be reasoning Christian with faith?
If today, I tell you as a Christian that you must believe that the earth is flat as proposed by Diodorus of Tarsus (d394). Will you accept it? If not, why? When Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) promoted heliocentric view over the geocentric view, the Roman Catholic Church tried him for heresy, forced him to recant and he was condemned to live under house arrest for the rest of his life. What would you say about that event? Will you say that under the present scientific awareness, the Roman Catholic Church was wrong? If yes, why won't you support the Church even now as a Christian? You must be loyal to the Church! You must continue to say that the Church was right. Will you? So, in what ways does it make a difference to be a spiritual, reasoning Christian with faith?
Firstly, ignorance can be remedied but deliberate non-reasoning fools cannot be helped. You might say that I am being harsh. Am I? Imagine one of your family members is crossing a road without looking left and right. You immediately call out to him and say, brother be careful, look first before you cross. And he says to you, I don't want to think. If he is hurt or dies because he refused to listen or reason, there could be only four reasons: 1) He is a non-reasoning fool, 2) He wanted to commit suicide, 3) He believes in miracles to safe him or 4) He couldn't care less. Anyone who deliberately refuses to reason no matter the justifications, he or she cannot be helped. Secondly, when someone refuses to reason but relies totally upon faith, that person would have the potential of repeating history as it was with the Roman Catholic Church and Galileo Galilei. Take the tragedy of the "Heaven's Gate" mass suicide in 1997, a classic case of erroneous reasoning based on an erroneous faith. Do you need to die or kill someone or would prefer to be a spiritual, reasoning Christian with faith. Thirdly, when someone refuses to reason but relies totally upon faith, that person is the easiest target (robot) to be used as a pawn by power crazy individuals or groups for fulfilling their own agendas. Lookup another tragic event involving mass murder and suicide called "Movements for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God that took place on the 17/03/2000.
So, if you don't want to be a non-reasoning fool, to die, to hurt someone else, or to be used as a pawn by crazies (even religious ones), my suggestion to you would be to use your God given reasoning. As stated in the context of Isaiah 1:18, when you and I were called to God's Salvation, it involved reasoning. There was no blind call or following. Our continual faith in God must be accompanied with reasoning in order to lead a balance spiritual life. If someone quotes Moses and says to you, be like him, be blind, be non-reasoning and go and do things blindly and that is faith - you will be a real non-reasoning fool (Eph. 5:15) to follow that kind of exhortation. But if you so decide to be that kind of fool, be considerate enough not to take others with you on that kind of foolhardy journey. Reason is simple, you and I, are not Moses and this is not a march in search of the promise land. The promise land (figurative) is already a reality through Christ our Lord.
What it means to be spiritual, reasoning Christian with Faith?
If you want to be a spiritual, reasoning Christian with faith, then you should be aware of the following points:
1. Spirituality is not being religious. One can be religious but not necessarily spiritual. But a person who is spiritual would be more than religious. I would cover spirituality in a future separate article.
2. A spiritual Christian is not to be considered an unintelligent or non-reasoning robot. A real spiritual Christian would exercise his/her full intellectual faculties to reason anything and everything without the fear of losing their faith. It is only the shallow, non-reasoning and non-spiritual Christians and leaders who worried about losing their faith because of reasoning.
3. Reasoning and our faith in Christ goes hand-in-hand. It is only the ignorant fool who promotes the idea that faith cannot involve reasoning. Usually the individuals or groups that promote this kind of cognitive thinking are suffering from psychological, intellectual and spiritual insecurity. They are also the type that seeks to keep Christians in an intellectual and spiritual limbo and passive state in order to have control over them for selfish reasons. If God himself set an example by calling us to reason, who are we to tell others not to reason in faith?
4. Reasoning is essential to a balance Christian life. Reasoning is the safe-guard that prevents Christians from going overboard and making a fool or hurting themselves. Do you still hear about how Christians allow certain love ones to die physically because they believe in prayer to cure common sickness that has medicinal alternatives? Do you hear of Christians fasting to death because they want to be a "super" Christians? These are example of what I mean by going overboard. But if there are "so-called" Christian leaders out there who believe that they are authorized by God to go overboard, please feel free to do so, but be unselfish enough to do it alone. Bon Voyage!
5. Reasoning is essential to transparent and effective governance of not only our lives but also the Church. Do you still hear of financial scandals because of mismanagements in Churches? Do a Google search and you will find real classic current examples. Why? The neglect of using reason and a foolhardy blind obedience to erroneous so-called "missions (giving) of faith" which lack transparency and effective governance is the cause of these kinds of scandals.
6. Reasoning is essential to the solidarity of our faith especially when it is challenged either sincerely or insincerely. If we can't answer for our faith, how can we expect someone else to believe? Why should anyone believe in something that the believer himself/herself does not have answers? I disagree that, to have faith in Christ is to be blind. I believe in Christ but I also know the reasons why I believe in Christ. I am not blind psychologically, spiritually or intellectually and I refuse to be blind psychologically, spiritually or intellectually. If I am called to follow a faith that I myself can't answer for spontaneously, than the faith is not worth following or believing in my life. God is not blind and he is not expecting blind followers!
To be a spiritual, reasoning Christian with faith in this high-tech century demands that we cast away our false hypocrisy of so-called "Christian conservatism" in not wanting to reason-out our faith and practices. We should be bold to face criticisms and be willing to change for a better spiritual state through reasoning. We should abandon the medieval psychology of keeping the Christian public in intellectual ignorance (chaining knowledge in the Church) like when the Bible was chained to walls of the Church. We should discard the protectionist practices of calling for blind obedience to non-transparent Church governance that is meant for selfish control of a minority who live in luxury at the expense of the majority.
Here is a tip I give to you as a Christian. If another Christian or Christian leader tells you that it is either God's will or God spoke to him or her that you must do this or that reason first. Ask Why? If God can speak to another to tell you what to do, the same God can definitely speak to us individually and directly without the need for a mediator. The age of mediating or the need for a human mediator is long gone with the arrival of Christ (I Timothy 2:5). Don't mix-up Church administration with God's will and What God has to say! Reason, reason and reason is what we as spiritual Christians with faith need more than ever.
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