“Answer not a fool according to his folly, let you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, let he be wise in his own eyes.” Proverbs 26:4-5
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Believers are commanded always to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within us. We can have confidence in reason as a way to communicate our hope because God is a reasonable Being and human beings, His image-bearers, are reasonable as well.
We can also have confidence in reason as a way to explain our hope in Jesus because the Bible uses reason to do precisely that. This suggests that reason itself is a reasonable tool for the communication of eternal and spiritual truths.
All the writers of Scripture present their material in reasonable ways, with clear logic and carefully crafted arguments or story lines. All the people in the Bible who were called to the work of proclaiming God’s will – prophets, preachers, apostles, and everyday believers – made use of sound reason to get their message across. The people of their day were no more acquainted with or adept at the principles and practice of sound reason than the people of our own. What worked as a tool for the writers and preachers of Scripture can work for us yet today.
As a tool, reason works according to particular rules and procedures. We know these intuitively, so much so, in fact, that we can sense when someone is beginning to be “unreasonable” in a discussion or an argument. In general, reason proceeds as follows: First, discover or declare the facts and claims to be considered. Next, entertain contrary facts and claims. Third, weigh all facts and claims against available evidence. And finally, insist on commitment to those facts that best fit the evidence. This is a very simplistic outline, I know, and there are various pitfalls and traps to be avoided in the use of reason. Nevertheless, for our purposes, this brief outline can help to keep us focused on the task at hand, that of providing a reasonable explanation of why the Gospel is so important to us.
So we have many good reasons to expect that, if we can learn to use reason as a tool for making the Gospel make sense to our generation, many will hear the truth for the first time, and some of those who hear will actually believe. We cannot bypass reason in making the Good News known; we must not substitute appeals to emotion, offers of relief from pressing difficulties or fears, or anything less than the clear exposition of truth in working to win the hearts of lost men and women for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
We must proclaim the Gospel to our generation, just as believers in every generation before us. And we must rely on sound reason as a valuable tool for making God’s Good News make sense. The Gospel is reasonable. It makes sense – we know it does. The challenge we must be willing to take up is learning how to make this Good News makes sense to the unbelieving people around us.
But we must not be naïve about the power of reason. Reason can only do so much. After all, there are many hindrances to reason which exist within the hearts and minds of our unbelieving friends. Mere reason may not be able to overcome all of these. But we should always remember that we do not rely on mere reason alone for bringing the light of truth to our unbelieving age. God’s Spirit works with our words, and He is able to overcome even the most stubborn obstacles to reason, so that people might believe the Good News.
Next steps
Keep praying each day for the people in your Personal Mission Field. Each day, look for opportunities to begin a conversation that will help you to learn something new about the people to whom Jesus has sent you as His ambassador and witness. Today, try asking one or two of the people you will see whether or not they have any interest in spiritual matters, or whether they have a church. Let the conversation go where it will, but be alert to however the Spirit might lead.
Begin your own ViewPoint study group. Start with this ViewPoint series, “A Reasonable Faith.” A free PDF version is available, complete with questions for reflection and discussion which you can use to study the seven lessons in this series with others.
Francis Schaeffer was one of the great defenders of the faith of the previous generation. You can order this Trilogy of his most seminal works and discover the power of a reasonable faith all over again. You might also benefit from reading the article “Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer” by Bing Davis.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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