A REASONABLE FAITH

For some time now it has been my common experience to find conflicting opinions
being debated. If Justice Kwame Gyasi is your friend on Facebook it will be your common
experience too. Business as usual would be to wake up to a long post about some controversial
point of view on Christian doctrine followed by a barrage of comments arguing for or against.
Gyasi versus the world, armed to the teeth with scripture and a difficult to deal with logic and
then comes some comment to the point that the Christian faith has no relation or basis in logic.
I believe this sets the context in which writing of this article becomes apropos. This oft-
stated opinion is indicative of the fact that the average Ghanaian Christian sees no room for
logic in his religion or matters of doctrine. I find this disturbing. I have always found it
disturbing even when I could not articulate a reason why, I still found it disturbing. Now I can.
So are they telling me God has no use of our intellect in his worship? Must I believe and accept
mindlessly?
Joh 1:1
(1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:3
(3) All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.

I am almost certain the reader is probably asking himself what the above verses of
scripture have to do with what is being discussed. Steady ‘ai’, in due time. It appears the body
of John’s work was focused on identifying Jesus Christ as the ‘logos’ (what is translated
‘word’), as divine and revealing his demand that we love our neighbour. First of all, it is
necessary to understand that John was writing in a Hellenised world and it is within this cultural
backdrop that he writes concerning the logos of God. Secondly, it was a term used by pagan
philosophers and the audience of his writings contained members who formerly identified as
such. It is therefore acceptable to believe that the early Christians were very much aware of the
philosophical consequences of his usage of the term ‘logos’ to identify Christ.
Logos in Greek means ‘to say’ but its usage in Greek literature extends it to mean
‘reason’ and ‘discourse’. It is conventionally translated as ‘word’ in the bible and the English
word ‘logic’ is derived from it. Heraclitus was the first to develop a philosophy concerning the
logos describing it as a universal mind responsible for harmony and order, a mind which
pervaded and permeated everything. Aristotle painted it as the originator of the field of logic
and understood it as the analysis of rational discourse and the Stoics described it as the active
form of reason that pervades and governs the universe but it is Philo of Alexandria who most
interests me. Philo a contemporary of Jesus Christ sought to create a synthesis of the old
testament doctrine concerning the Wisdom of Yahweh (which was already referred to in old
testament scripture as the word) and the Greek philosophy of Logos, bridging together also in
Greek philosophy an intelligibility of things that transcended the world and one that was
immanent in the world. It is interesting to note that some of his expressions concerning the
logos in his writings are found in new testament scripture (more commonly in Paul’s writings)
even though the Christian understanding differed in several ways chiefly being that the logos
is divine and not less than God but God himself.
 Ok let’s move from there a bit; my point is that the divine mind is rational, God is
rational and from his reasoning/wisdom he created all that is created as such there is a rational
or logical order to things. It can therefore not be that the doctrine that comes from him will be
unreasonable or illogical. It is necessary to understand that what one considers logical is not
independent of the person’s worldview. To naturalistic men the talk of miracles and
resurrection is nonsensical because to speak of the miraculous presupposes that the
supernatural exists, an idea they do not accept but in a Christian worldview it is logical. They
may break the laws of biology and physics but they are still logical. Why? We believe there is
a spiritual world and a God who created everything, is omnipotent and sets the laws governing
physical things. It therefore follows that this God can temporally suspend those laws or break
them. It is therefore logical. In a Christian worldview miracles are logical. We may not fully
understand how they occur but that does not warrant us deeming them illogical. If you stumbled
across a paper clip suspended between two magnets and had no idea what a magnetic field was
would it be right for you to consider that event illogical? Certainly not. Please, stop citing the
miraculous as a proof that Christianity is not logical.
There is also talk that Christianity is based on faith and faith has no relation with
logic/reason. I beg to differ. This idea belongs to fideism. It claims that reason is of no use in
matters concerning God and religion but in Isaiah 1:18 an invitation is thrown us to reason with
the Almighty. God is a rational being and he created us as rational beings for the purpose of
relationship. How would we worship him if his doctrine made no sense to us? How could we
relate if we didn’t understand each other? This article would be useless. It is also claimed that
what pleases God is faith not reason (Hebrews 11:6). Realise that the verse does not say that
with reason a person cannot please God but establishes that without faith it is impossible to
please God. Secondly, the verse does not say that faith must be without reason rather in other
places of scripture we are encouraged to provide reason in defence of our faith (1 Pet 3:15).
Paul reasoned in synagogues. I don’t know anyone who believed in the Gospel because it didn’t
make sense to him. Faith does not exclude evidence rather in Hebrews 11:1 it implies evidence
and reason and experience can provide this evidence. Such talk fails to differentiate between
“believe-in” and “believe-that”. ‘Believe-in’ is without basis, ‘believe-that’ is with reason and
can be tested. I believe that for someone to believe in Jesus it is a necessary first step that he
has reason to believe that He is the true God to be committed to and Hebrews 11:6 requires us
to ‘believe-that’. Lastly, fideism is self-defeating because if there’s no reason to abandon
reason in relating to God then there’s no reason to accept it and does not qualify as a declaration
of truth or knowledge but if there’s reason to abandon reason for faith alone then this is a clear
demonstration of the use of reason in relating to God and it becomes self-contradicting. Alright,
my head is spinning now.
My point is; if Stunner(Justice) corners you, don’t run and hide behind faith, stop
making excuses, explain and defend yourself logically. If you can’t do that just admit it
honestly. Possibly this is an indicator that you should consider what he is presenting and
reconsider what you have known.