Reasoning

REASONING

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Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; (Proverbs 3:5)
And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’” (Mark 11:31—NASB)
But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts?” (Luke 5:22—NASB)

One of the biggest problems we humans have, with respect to doing the will of God, is that of reasoning. We reason, reason, reason. The demons also reason, reason, reason. God and truth are not found by reasoning, but by prayer and obedience.

We have a young lady from our church who is in her first year of college. It is a secular college, but she met other Christian young people there. These young Christians are getting together and trying to determine whether they believe in the Bible. They have been brought up in church, but now the teaching they are receiving in college is challenging their belief. Our young person asked me what advice I could give them. I said, “Pray. If you want to find out if there is a God, pray. He will make Himself known to you soon enough if you will pray and do what you believe He wants you to do. You will never find God by reasoning from biology, philosophy, psychology, archaeology, or any other discipline.”

The Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day spent their time reasoning. They came to the conclusion that Christ was of the devil. If they had gone to God in prayer, they would have discovered the Son of God.

Our natural mind is an enemy of God. It cannot be reconciled to God. The Spirit of God freely gives us understanding and wisdom.

The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. (Romans 8:6,7)

I am not stating there is no room for sound judgment, the counsel of the elders, or common sense. If we do not partake of these, particularly as a young person, we soon will find ourselves in a swamp of confusion. Also, we know that Paul reasoned with the Jews concerning Christ.

Rather, I am referring to our personal pursuit of God, and also to direction for our life.

The following passage speaks of decapitation:

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)

“Those who had been beheaded because of their testimony.” I do not believe being physically beheaded is any more precious in God’s sight than being burned at the stake, or shot, or strangled because of holding the testimony of Jesus. The passage is emphasizing those who had suffered under Antichrist, refusing to worship Antichrist or his image (which I believe to be money). The wisdom of the world spirit is education and the power is money.

Antichrist is the worship of self. Today the world advises us to be highly educated and to trust in money, and that in this manner we can control the kind of life we lead. Multitudes of Christians are embracing the Antichrist spirit, believing the more educated they are and the more money they have, the more pleasing to God they are.

The only escape from the Antichrist spirit is to die in the Lord. This means we forsake the reasoning of the world and keep looking to the Lord Jesus for every decision of life. I believe this is what the passage means when it says “those who had been beheaded because of their testimony.”

I have come to the place where I will not reason with people. I will spend unlimited time answering questions and explaining the way of the Lord to those in need. But the moment someone begins to reason with me, arguing about this or that point of doctrine, I change the subject. Truth does not come by reasoning. Truth is a Person—the Lord Jesus Christ. The more of Christ we have, the more Truth we have.

The Apostle John has stated “greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.” We Christians often interpret this to mean we have more power than the wicked do. This is not what it means. It means Christ, who is Truth, is in us, and through this resident Truth we overcome the lies of Antichrist, the great lie that the world spirit is.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. (I John 4:4-6)

We Americans are educated far beyond our intelligence. We go to high school and perhaps on to college. We learn all about science and psychology. Then we look at the starry universe and say “There is no God!” The native in the bush who has never learned to read beholds the starry universe. He then falls on his knees and worships God. The native has little money and limited education. Yet he or she perceives God in nature.

The educated, affluent American looks at nature and claims that all he or she sees came into existence through the perpetuation of those organisms that were best adapted to their environment. He cannot see that there is an uncrossable gap between the lowest man and the highest animal, in that the lowest man (as we perceive lowness) has an instinct for God whereas no animal of any kind whatever has an instinct for God.

He cannot see God in the creation, so God regards him as a fool. And a fool he is!

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:20-22)

Let us not be fools. Let us look to Jesus each day for every issue, great and small, of our life. He will draw close to us and guide us through the minefield in which we are living and hoping to survive.

God has given us a brain, not so we can plan our life, but so we can comprehend His love and compassion (and wrath), and realize the value of forsaking our own understanding that we may gain His Kingdom and His righteousness.

(“Reasoning”, 3132-1, proofed 20230902)