Scoffers will always say no. Believers will say yes. I will attempt to lay out the logic contained within the Christian faith in spite of its claims of a sea splitting, an ax head floating, and the raising from the dead. This is mostly for the benefit of the believers since logic alone does not convert a soul – “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). Moreover Paul states, “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (2 Cor. 4-5). Again the Scriptures say, “For indeed the Jews ask for signs, and the Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:22-24). These Scriptures put the above question in proper perspective. I believe there is a ton of logic to our faith, but our eyes have been opened by God, therefore we can perceive it. So, I don’t think you can use this essay as “ammunition” to get someone saved, but it may strengthen your faith in Him. There is the possibility that these words could mark the beginning of a more open-minded inquiry which then could lead to salvation, but the saving power rests with God alone.
When constructing a logical platform one must start with a cornerstone – something that will support all else. The logical base for Christianity is what we find in the existence of extreme complexity in life forms and matter. Evolution tells us that it all came about by chance mutations, natural selection, and random processes despite no hard evidence for it (it‘s not observable nor repeatable in experimentation or study). Not one gradual change from species to species can be found in the fossil record, in fact, they look the same as do the creatures we see today. Darwinian also predicted that the smaller something is, the more simple its construct would be. With the later invention of strong microscopes, scientists discovered the opposite – there is more intricate design with thousands of systems and parts depending upon each other to keep an organism alive. If these parts went through a long process of changing from some primitive to advanced form, how could they keep that organism alive during the millions of years of slow change if it depends on “adult” (grown-up) systems for survival as we now know? To me, this poor theory gets its power from the fact that fallen man does not want to be held accountable to a higher power that has the right to make the rules of life. So rather than true science pushing the theory, we find a spirit of rebellion against God’s Truth. This is why evolution is forcefully jammed down our throats with no tolerance for dissenting, scientific voices. God described this intolerance through Paul, “…men suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them, for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20).
In truth, evolution is extremely illogical because it asserts against all evidence that life came from non-life without a superior creator or some intelligent form. It also maintains that DNA information changed for no apparent reason and spawned new life forms yet offering no observable evidence for it but rather keeps chirping a loud mantra that it had to have happened. And since when do random processes form complex, organized, interdependent structure?
Since design is the cornerstone that should lead people to God, it must be attacked more than anything else. Evolution accomplishes this. Supporting this spiritual dimension of evolution is Lou Reinagel’s testimony. Lou, being extremely intelligent and a deep thinker, was saturated with evolution as a child and strongly advocated it. He later became a high school science teacher and eventually taught astronomy at the college level. While still a high school teacher, Lou surrendered his life to Christ, and the first thought he had was that evolution was a lie! He had never heard any scientific discourse against the theory. Yet he had a sudden “Saul-to-Paul” unbiased revelation. Logic says this could not happen unless Biblical claims about Jesus are true.
If there is design, there has to be a designer. If the design is complex and it works, there must be a reason for its existence. If there is meaning to this life, it is logical that the Designer would in some way communicate that to people. This Designer has to be far above human abilities. Then it is logical to assume that the Designer’s ways are higher than ours, so that we will not understand everything, but that we will understand what we need to know before we die.
Scoffers quickly sneer at the fact that God does not appear to us face-to-face. They fail to realize that if God did that in His normal form, they would die. It’s one of those rules of God that one can discover if one is open to His Truth, but the one who is closed to Truth demands a “sign” such as did some hard-hearted Jews of Jesus‘ day. The late comedian George Carlin would sometimes rant against Christianity by saying, “Have you ever noticed that God never appears to us? He always sends a prophet or someone else!” It was his way of asserting that Christianity is foolish to embrace because this so-called God never shows Himself to us. To Mr. Carlin, Christianity was illogical. The Truth, however, is that God did appear to us face-to-face. He chose a form that would not kill us but give us life, but scoffers cannot perceive that. Philip was almost deceived by this when he asked Jesus to simply show the disciples Go face-to-face which elicited an awesome statement by Jesus, “Have I been so long with you, and you have not come to know Me, Philip?” (John 14:9). So, not only do we have the Creator paying us an in-person visit, but also have thousands of years of history (His-story) revealing His name, nature and purpose for mankind, and how to follow in His steps. God has not made everything only to abandon all to see what will happen. That does not bear the weight of logic. On the contrary, if it was not for His consistent interventions throughout the Old and New Testament times, we would not be here today. Indeed, evil would have overtaken the entire world long ago culminating in total destruction.
All people readily admit that no human is perfect. They all agree that everyone has done wrong things. Logic tells me there must exist an enemy common to mankind that is causing this, and he or it must be defeated if we are to triumph in life. A logical Designer would tell us who or what that enemy is and how to beat him or it. The Bible identifies our enemies plainly: 1) Satan, 2) sin, and 3) death. God told Cain, just before he murdered Abel, that he must master sin since it was “knocking at his door.” Cain failed. So later God gave The Law, and everyone failed at obeying it. Did this catch God off guard? Absolutely not. In fact, just after Adam and Eve sinned the first time, they tried via human effort (fig leaves) to cover their sin. It did not work as evidenced by their fleeing from God’s presence later. God, however, intervened by slaying an innocent animal and covering the humans with skins. He was demonstrating one of His deeper Laws – “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin” (Hebrews 9:22). Have you ever wondered why pagan civilizations conducted human blood sacrifices? Satan loves to pervert anything God says or does. Logic tells me that if the Bible is all hogwash, then those civilizations would not gravitate toward such horrible practices. It would make no sense to do so. God also revealed that human effort (fig leaves in this early case) does not earn God’s forgiveness. We need a much deeper, more serious surgery – a “heart” transplant. That first animal sacrifice for humans was a picture of what Jesus would accomplish on the cross. Jesus gives us His righteousness that He did earn by living a sinless life in our form.
Realizing what God was communicating in the Genesis tragedy gives meaning to Christ shedding His blood on the Cross thousands of years later. Unlike the shedding of animal blood, His sacrifice was Perfect so that it ended all others. Therefore, it is also logical that after the nation of Israel rejected their God in Christ that the Jewish Temple was utterly destroyed, along with animal sacrifices forty years after Jesus predicted it. Anyone trying to return to these types of sacrifices or priests as go-betweens for man and God is an insult to what God had accomplished on that Cross. Jesus died only ONCE and now reigns in Heaven and He is our High Priest forever. No one or no other thing is now necessary! This is one of the main themes of the Book of Hebrews, and Paul, being one of the chief Jewish leaders, got that message loud and clear.
Therefore, the New Testament Book of Hebrews is a logical follower of the death and resurrection of the foretold coming of the Messiah. God tells us how He dealt with our enemies. Satan was defeated because Jesus never sinned. Sin was defeated because Jesus was the Perfect (sinless) sacrifice. Death was defeated because Jesus rose from the dead. With all this history before us, people still try to be good enough on their own efforts – hint: fig leaves do not work, so quit slapping God in His face by dissing (ignoring is also dissing) what He has done for mankind. Logic says people should be running to Jesus for mercy and forgiveness, but this world is not logical. People even say that insanity is repeating what does not work believing that it will…hmmm.
In summation, the strands of logic exist to support Biblical assertions about God’s existence and His salvation plan for mankind. The logic of this world, however, asserts that there can be no good God because the world is full of injustice, pain, and suffering. Jesus, however, revealed that in order to perceive Truth, a person must be willing to do God‘s will (John 7:17). Humans are caught in the middle of a supernatural war. There appears to be logic in both camps, but one side is merely smoke and mirrors. Which strand of logic will be embraced by an individual depends on what is in their heart.
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PT – I’m not an apologist and my knowledge of the many great debates of today’s philosophers taking place today are limited, but those apologists like Ravi Zacharias and many others who God has raised up certainly can logically defend the faith of Christianity (Why else would they be invited to Harvard and other major universities to speak and argue for the faith?) I also find the Apostle Paul lays out an argument that is quite reasonable in the New Testament. But in just finishing my Matthew study, I had also came to the conclusion one cannot believe Christianity unless you believe in the supernatural–the creation, the flood, the many miracles of the Old Testament, visible angels, the virgin birth, the many miracles of Jesus, and most importantly His resurrection, all of which break into the closed system we hold today as reasonable.