Reason and Revelation

Today is National Free Thought Day, according to the calendar of unusual holidays.

This holiday was created by several different groups including the Secular Coalition For America, the Freethought Society, and the American Humanist Association. It’s observed every year on October 12th. And “encourages people to gather their facts from trusted sources and make their decisions based on reason, logic, and science.”

Those associated with these groups reject Divine revelation. Here are just a few statements from the Humanist Manifesto that speak in part to their world view.

“No deity will save us; we must save ourselves”

“We find insufficient evidence for belief in the existence of a supernatural; it is either meaningless or irrelevant to the question of survival and fulfillment of the human race. As nontheists, we begin with humans not God, nature not deity.”

“Promises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are both illusory and harmful.”

“We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational needing no theological or ideological sanction.”

“Reason and intelligence are the most effective instruments that humankind possesses. There is no substitute: neither faith nor passion suffices in itself.”

The Humanist Manifesto was originally published in 1933, revised in 1973 and updated in 2003. Led by Humanist Paul Kurtz and signed by almost 300 leading educators, scientists, philosophers, counselors and psychologists, they reject God, Christianity, and the Bible.

The implication is that people of faith cannot also be people of reason. Yet, ironically, they conclude their Manifesto with this statement. “We, the undersigned, while not necessarily endorsing every detail of the above, pledge our general support to Humanist Manifesto II for the future of humankind. These affirmations are not a final credo or dogma but an expression of a living and growing faith.”

They admit that humanism and its associated free thinkers embrace “a living and growing faith.” Yet, their faith is in themselves. In their own thoughts, feelings and opinions.

While Christians “walk by faith, and not by sight,” God never demands that we throw reason out the window. The Bible challenges us to examine the scriptures, (Ax. 17:11), and to consider the evidence for the deity of Jesus, as Luke challenges us in his treatise to Theophilus (Lk. 1:1-4). John’s gospel is written as an eyewitness account “that you may believe” (Jn. 20:30-31).

The New Testament preachers, apostles, and authors employ reason and logic to challenge their hearers and readers to “work out their own salvation (Phil. 2:12), and grow their faith based on reliable testimony and the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth that He was who He claimed to be (1 Cor. 15:1-19).

Furthermore, the apostle Paul accused the Gentile world who rejected the Creator as being “without excuse,” because they failed to use reason and common sense to see God’s “eternal power and divine nature” in the creation itself (Rom. 1:19-20). The design, order, and precise operation of our cosmos, calls for a Creator. For Intelligent Deign.

Faith is not some warm, fuzzy feeling devoid of reason. In fact, everyone believes in something or someone. The question is “Who will you believe?” And “What will you believe?”

Humanists and Free Thinkers are on the road to a destructive end. The wise man warned, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death (Prov. 14:12). And Jeremiah was right when he wrote, “ O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jer. 10:23).

Why would I give up a viable, meaningful, working faith, for a “faith” that is unsure, unknown, and unproven? One that is constantly changing based on human discovery? And one that seeks nothing higher and more noble than self and carnal desires?

Please be advised, that you don’t have to park your brains at the door to be a Christian. To believe in God. To follow Jesus. And embrace the teachings and tenets of the Bible.

Revelation does not negate nor nullify reason.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord” ( Isa. 1:18).

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman