The Logic of God

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,... (John 8:31)

The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor. 2:15-16)

Many of us can probably quote the beginning of John's Gospel. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." John 1:1-3. Many of us have probably heard that the Greek for 'Word' is logos. Logos in the Greek can mean word or reason, intelligence or proposition. It is the very word which forms the basis of the word logic. And logic is that discipline that forms arguments through premises that lead to certain conclusions that can be provable. 

There are laws of logic. Like gravity one cannot see them but we know they are there for they hold true in every situation at anytime. We use logic in philosophy, theology, mathematics and the sciences. It is how we prove something to be true. And God is true. Like the sun and moon logic is also a creation of God.

There is a logic to creation. God spoke it into being. "Let there be light and there was light." (Gn. 1:3) But many people refuse to believe this choosing instead to believe random coincidences of molecules changing and becoming something we call earth and even more improbable human beings. And all of this just happened! Many people believe they can do anything they want as they are their own authority. Apply the laws of logic to any of these assumptions and you will see how illogical that person's worldview is. 

I was engaged in a conversation with an atheist about the meaning of Psalm 82. His argument was that Judaism was originally pantheistic. Since I know Hebrew I showed him how the meaning of 'el' is used by both God and local judges. This is not too different from 'lord' and 'Lord' used in England distinguishing between the nobility and God. His response was not a reasoned (logos) one. No, he resorted to calling me names. This happens when people hold onto false assumptions. The Bible says so. (Ps. 14:1) And this is why reading the Bible is so important. It is God's word that points to The Word of God. Reading the Bible makes sense of the world. It makes sense of man. As a pastor I have lost count the number of times parents become flummoxed when their small children tell a lie for the first time. Their response is usually, "We have never taught them to do that" or "Where did they learn that?" Actually, the bible is clear that lying is a part of our fallen nature. (Ps. 58:3) Hence, the need for Jesus and His word in our heart. Meditating on Scripture and applying the truths of the bible to our life helps us make sense of the world. We can see the world as God sees it. From His most awesome design to man's corruption and our need for redemption, the truth lies in God's book. It is no wonder St. Paul exhorts us to "not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rm. 12:2)

A Childlike Faith or No You Can't Believe Anything You Want!

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And he laid his hands on them and went away. (Mt. 19:13-15)

When I was a child I did what I was told. I had two loving parents who taught me right from wrong. They took an interest in my development especially when it came to my education.  I was expected to learn from my teachers. And I did learn from my teachers. I learned that 2+2=4. I learned many other equations and as I advance in my grades these equations became more complex. But nonetheless, 2+2=4. It does not equal 22 or 35 or 59. There can only be one right equation.

Now that I am an adult I find that I should still be a student. I look for articles and read them with the hopes of advancing my understanding of theology, the discipline of my chosen profession. After all, the word, 'disciple', means student. Now a funny thing has happened to us grown ups. We forget there is only one right answer. So we begin to argue among ourselves. And our arguments never succeed because each one of us thinks we are right forgetting that each one of sees through a glass dimly. It's as if we somehow believe 2+2 can somehow be 4 or 9 or 36 or maybe 128,649. It's all just an opinion, right? Try telling that to your third grade teacher. Or the teller at your bank when arguing that the reason you are overdrawn is because when you added up the numbers in your checkbook they came out to show there was plenty of money in the bank. Who's going to be right? Theology is no different. It is the Queen of the Sciences according to Thomas Aquinas. Yet we differ on essential doctrine.

In logic there is something called The Law of Non-Contradiction. What this means is that two mutually exclusive statement cannot be true at the same time. For instance, A is B and A is not B both cannot be true. One or the other is true. But often when we stake a position regarding God, each person argues without acknowledging that contradictions need to be addressed. Both contradictory statements need to be examined to see which is true. So how is this done?

The first case in human history where the law of non-contradiction was ignored was in the Garden of Eden. God said, "If you eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you will die." Then the serpent says, "No you won't die!" (Gn. 3:4) Eve did not say, "Let me check with the creator on that." She did not go to the source of truth, God, and seek an answer. Probably because the fruit was a delight to her eyes. (Gn. 3:6) In other words she trusted herself too much. And then things got worse after that. The point is, when it comes to being a disciple of Jesus, we need to be humble in our learning not trusting ourselves but God alone and his word. We need to understand that none of us have all the answers but the Bible does. Like children, we must understand that there is a right answer and the teacher, Jesus Himself, has it. If there are differing opinions, well, they all can't be true! and so, with the humility of a student, let us seek the truth because we cannot believe anything we want. Even Jesus lovingly called his disciples children! (Mk. 10:24, Lk. 10:21)

Proof That God Exists: logic

This link - Proof That God Exists: logic will take you to a website dedicated to using the laws of logic and science to prove God exists. One can only image how Mr. Spock would have dealt with skepticism of his day!