Can you use reason too much as a Christian?
“You’re reasoning about the Christian faith”
“That’s not very spiritual, you want to be trusting the holy spirit and God.”
The trouble only comes if you trust your reason.
This attitude is responsible for the fact that the generation before me, knows nothing to very little about apologetics. Because there was a wave of folk very sceptical about reasoning about the gospel.
“You can’t reason somebody into the Kingdom”.
Really? Jesus did it all the time. Paul did it all the time. We should be!
The problem is this. There’s a rightful fear of trusting reason, instead of trusting God. That’s idolatry, of course.
Idols in the ancient word were not things they loved, but things they trusted.
Idolatry is when we trust a reason and use God when we get stuck.
Christianity is when we use our reason, and trust God.
That’s the difference.
Scripture is revelation – so when you read it you don’t use your reason? That’s silly.
We all use our mind and reason to read the bible. But Human reason did not create the bible.
Humans did not put the Bible there. Just as scientists didn’t put the universe there.
Scientists study the universe, a given, with a given, their mind.
Same with scripture; we study a given, with a given and you’ve got to use your reason to read scripture.
The question is not using reason, but do you trust reason, instead of God.
But this warped view of reason vs revelation has had generations disobeying the first commandment, to love the Lord with their mind.