To all of that I ask the questions, "Is Christianity really an unreasonable faith?" "Are all Christians simply not coming to a truly logical conclusion when they say that they believe in God?" After I read that article entitled "Does the Bible speak of the Brain?" by a guy named Ed Babinski, I went into our Analytical Concordance by Young. It is true that the word, "brain" does not appear in the Bible as referring to the actual bodily organ. However, in the concordance, I discovered that the word "mind" was used 85 times in the Bible as a noun. That was divided up into 21 different words when you go into the Hebrew and Greek.
It goes as follows...
Imagination = 1
Heart = 16
Soul, breath = 15
Mouth = 1
Spirit = 6
Knowledge, opinion,
decision = 2 (Phm vs14, Rev 17:13)
Intellect, full or thorough
mind = 9 (Matt 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27, Eph 2:3, Col 1:21,
Heb 8:10, Heb 10:16, 1 Peter 1:13, 2 Peter 3:1)
Inner mind,
purpose = 1
Thought = 4 (2 Cor 3:14, 2 Cor 4:4, 2 Cor 11:3, Phil 4:7)
Mind, will = 17 (Rom 1:28, Rom 7:23, Rom 7:25, Rom 11:34, Rom 12:2,
Rom 14:5, 1 Cor 1:10, 1 Cor 2:16 x2, Eph 4:17, Eph 4:23
Col 2:18, 2 Thess 2:2, 1 Tim 6:5, 2 Tim 3:8, Titus 1:15
Rev 17:9)
Mind,
inclination = 2
Soul,
animal life = 3
To have a sound
mind = 2
Let this mind
be in you = 1
To mind the
same thing = 1 (Romans 12:16 - (Be) of the same mind...)
To remind, put
in mind = 1 (Mark 14:72 - Peter called to mind the word that Jesus...)
Of a like
mind = 1
To mind the
same thing = 1 (Phil 2:2 - The same love.. of one accord, of one mind...)
That was all of them - I suggest to all people to have a look in an analytical concordance for themselves and do a real study on these for themselves. I found it particularly interesting that when Jesus said in Matthew 22:37, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." where He says the word "mind" He was using the word for intellect, full or thorough mind.
So, yes, God does expect us to use our brains - our intellects - our minds. Hey - wasn't He the One that was supposed to have created that? He wants us to be fully functioning thinking, decision-making beings. However, reason can only go so far. It is limited in that it can only go as far as the boundaries of the senses - what we can see, touch, hear, taste, and smell. The world of time, space, and matter.
God existed before time, space, and matter ever did. He created those things. His realm is not based on those things because God lives in eternity. In eternity, a thousand years is as a day and a day is as a thousand years! Time is nothing there! Time was created "In the beginning..." Genesis 1:1. Therefore we can not try and comprehend God by looking at things in the realm that we exist in and saying "Well, this happens here, so therefore God...yada, yada, yada." That is reason. Reason can only go so far.
One guy on an ExChristian site asked the question, "How does reason define the unreasonable?" Answer - It can't! The reason why we must have faith when it comes to the things of God is because reason IS so limited. Between the reasonable and the unreasonable is a huge gap because they belong to different realms. Faith bridges that gap between the reasonable and the unreasonable.
Ultimately, it takes faith when it comes to the things of God. Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." If someone wants to know if there is a God, they need to reach out in faith, and then God will reach out to them. Hebrews 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
Christianity is a very reasonable, credible, and defendable faith, please see the resources on my page "Why I choose Christ" for apologetics, testimonies, and things. There are many people who can give a logical answer for why they believe what they believe. However, in the end, it always comes down to faith.
It must.
