With respect and please forgive me for chiming in,
Why do you bring up "logic"? Most of the people at Mar's Hill rejected Paul's words because the words were not "logical"...they were spiritual. That's another subject for another time, IMO.
As a very logical man in the flesh, when I look at God's word, I have learned that the only way to do so is by faith.
I do it because I take Jesus at His words:
" Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." ( John 17:17 )
" Thy word [is] a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. ( Psalm 119:105 )
I have come to believe that I can't trust my logic as far as I can throw it, and God tells me not to ( Proverbs 3:5-6 ).
Again, if I haven't stated it enough before, God's words are not addressed to logic, they are addressed to His children who by faith, trust Him, not their own understanding. They trust His word to be true, and gain their understanding of it from it. Scripture "interprets" Scripture, and precept is built upon precept. Besides all this, God's children are dull of hearing ( Hebrews 5:11 ) and it takes time to transform the mind:
" And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." ( Romans 12:2 )
How is this accomplished?
" But ye have not so learned Christ;
21 if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." ( Ephesians 4:20-24 )
" Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
2 as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
3 if so be ye have tasted that the Lord [is] gracious." ( 1 Peter 2:1-3 )
Have you tasted that the Lord is gracious?
Then desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby...growth takes time, and God will reward those who diligently seek Him.
May God's blessings be upon you, and upon your every effort to do so.
His grace to you sir.
Great question. “Logic” is the branch of philosophy concerned with whether reasons presented for a claim, if those reasons were true, would justify accepting the claim. Philosophy is the science of drawing out the truth in an argument and involves recognizing critical thinking skills which are the careful application of reason in the determination of whether a claim is true. For instance, the systematic theology based on the 5 points of the TULIP is a philosophical construct that was built through “logic”, presenting claims giving reason to justify scriptural interpretations which arrive at
conclusions that are known as the TULIP. Therein, it might be said that philosophy isn’t always a perfectly applied science
LOL, but on the other hand logic is the primary tool we, as human beings, use for drawing out the truth with sense, reason and intellect that God gave us in making better judgments.
Logic is important, it places the value of evidence toward establishing truth through reasoning and critical thinking skills.
For instance, it seems to me you appear to approach TULIPing like a Pentecostal approaches talking in tongues, they tell you it’s a special gift from the Holy Spirit that comes through faith, superior faith in fact, and that is why others can’t understand your/their interpretations. They often in a cult-like way attempt to prop themselves up or put “non-believers” in their “prophetic teachings” in their place through the use of scriptures, that place being “carnal”, “unable to see”, “conformed to this world” etc., etc. on anyone that disagrees with them – that is base of their argument, that is their evidence – rather than logic.
Cults leaders will typically make claims that they have supernatural insight that must be acknowledged through agreement with them and only those with “true” faith do you have the ability to see it as them, but, at least I hope, most Baptist are beyond such presenting such reasoning…
The logic behind critical thinking skills helps me to quickly recognize the failure of a person to draw out truth from within their argument and to recognize the typical rhetorical ploys people use to get others to accept their arguments while carrying no actual logical proof.
The desire to avoid logic is pretty synonymous with the desire to avoid coming to, drawing out and/or exposing the truth.
BTW, you might want to study up about Paul because he was a great philosopher and used considerable logic to argue for the truth throughout his writings.
So, how does “logic” apply to Christian reasoning? To start with, acceptance that when we learn in the Bible that God set man apart from the animals having divinely designed us in His likeness and image and He gave us sense, reason and intellect of our own which explains and demonstrates why man had the volitional ability to be prideful and disobedient to God when he chose of his own free will to acquire the knowledge of good and evil. This freely self-acquired attribute to judge between good and evil, which God foreknew man would desire, is where we would condemn ourselves to sin as only God is perfect in knowledge between good and evil. But God being Love had prepared the Way for His creatures through our love of the truth to know that only He is Good and the Judge of it and to which we must bow to our Lord in acknowledgment of this
truth.
Logic is all about reasoning for truth. Every Christian should be concerned with drawing out the truth to the best of his/her ability.
We use the divinely designed mental abilities and attributes God gave us and have to deal with the consequences of the naturally acquired attribute of knowing good and evil for which God judges us. If it were true we have no judgment whatsoever between good and evil then we can’t even discern between God and the Devil, but that is not true. In pride and disobedience man freely chose to be as God to know of good and evil, and
God’s response was to place upon us the responsibility to repent of those desires and NOW, using all these attributes,
we must take “our hand” and also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.
(Gen 3:22) And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:
and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Again, in creation we are given a divinely designed sense of reason and intellect [
logic] and NOW we need to make another choice, and God, who knows the heart, will judge,
in truth, {very important concept to maintain right there} the sincerity of that choice. God will judge whether if it was done in love for the truth which we have the ability to know and He has shown to us or perhaps rather than being thankful for their design in creation some make excuses such as in hating their fallen less than God position so much that before men they claim that they have no further responsibility of choosing which seems to me as an attempt to deny God’s true judgment of their response to His calling. But I would caution anyone who wants to use the excuse to claim a nature of only knowing darkness and inability:
(Rom 1:18)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
(Rom 1:19)
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
(Rom 1:20) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead;
so that they are without excuse:
(Rom 1:21) Because that,
when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened.
To deny logic is to deny a sense of reason and therefore any responsibility, without such there is no true justice in judgment, and maybe some would rather make this claim of inability to know the truth thinking to justify avoid judgment, but scripture clearly tells us otherwise that all God’s ways are JUDGMENT in TRUTH:
(Deu 32:4)
He is the Rock, his work is perfect:
for all his ways are judgment:
a God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is he.
There is only one way to avoid the consequences of judgment and that is through God’s gift of grace which He gives for love of the truth, a truth that Rom 1 makes clear is “revealed, known, shewed unto them, understood by the things that are made” so that none have an excuse.
