One of the ideas that I held for a long time as a believer was the idea that God wasn’t logical, that he wasn’t rational. People would ask me questions that challenged what I believed to be true, but rather than providing a biblical answer (which at the time I probably just didn’t know), I would respond with something along the lines of, “well, God isn’t logical”. I’ve argued against theological understanding that relied heavily on logical deductions. It’s almost like I thought that if God were logical, intellectually accessible, then he was somehow less God. He needed to be mystical and in some sense unknowable. I’ve changed my mind on that point of understanding. I believe now that God is very logical, very rational, and I think that God, in his Word, teaches us this.
People tend to think, in my experience, that to explain God rationally according to his Word, is somehow to box him in. If God says in his Word that he is loving, then rationally we believe that he is loving. That’s not to box him in, that’s simply one of his qualities that we rationally believe. Or, we might say, for example, God always deals with sin. Is that to box God in? Well, no, but he won’t be leaving that box.
Not only is it not boxing in to understand God rationally, but it seems to me that God perhaps created rationality to begin with. He submits himself to it. Take for example the book of Romans, Paul wanders down numerous avenues of thought—all highly logical—many deeply affecting to the way in which we relate to God. How could this possibly be unless God were a rational, logical God.
Or what about simply pulling way back away from the whole redemptive story to see it at a glance, what do we get? We see a set of covenants, the first of works and the second of grace. Now, an irrational, illogical God would not be bound to keep things such as promises, because it’s only rationality that allows us to believe those promises will be fulfilled. So, what kind of promise is, “Do this and live” from an irrational, illogical being? Or even worse, what kind of promise is, “I have sent my son so that you may have eternal life” from an irrational, illogical being? If we want to believe that God is indeed who he says he is, and he will indeed keep the promises he has made, then we must also believe that God is logical and God is rational.
Why do I say this? I say this because the mounting tendency among believers is to take hard theological issues and stamp them unknowable, or not worth considering and understanding. God disagrees. Our rational, logical God wrote about them in his book. What’s more than that, when forming us, he formed us with minds to perceive these rational things. We dishonor God and the Word when we cast these things aside.
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