p. 1 | REASON AND FAITH by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 5, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 44.

REASON AND FAITH.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

"FINALLY, brethren, pray for us, . . . that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for all men have not faith." (2 Thess. 3:1, 2.)

FROM this we learn that the unreasonable man is the man who has not faith. He is both unreasonable and wicked; for "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Sin is unreasonable. In the Bible sinners are characterized as foolish persons. "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding." (Job 28:28.)

"WITH the heart man believeth unto righteousness." (Rom. 10:10.) The heart, therefore, and not the head merely, determines whether one is or is not reasonable. Foolishness is more a matter of the heart than of the head. Some of the most foolish people have very good intellectual faculties, but a depraved heart deceives them.

"FAITH cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. 10:17. The connection between faith and the word is shown in the text first quoted. "Pray for us, that the word of God may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith."

THE unreasonable and wicked man is the man who has not faith; and the man who has not faith is the man who does not accept God's word without question. The really reasonable man is not the one who can argue every point, and can answer every question out of his own head, but the man who believes God. An unlettered plowboy may thus have more right reason than a cultured philosopher. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord." (Isa. 1:18.) How often that text is used to justify strife and debate and quibbling over the word of God. Many people take it as tho it read, "Come now, and let us argue together, saith the Lord." No; it says, "Let us reason together;" and when the Lord begins to talk, the most reasonable thing for man to do is to keep still, except as he responds, Amen.

THE remaining portion of the text shows that this is all that is expected of man in reasoning with the Lord. He continues: "Tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (Isa. 1:18-20.)

Now WHAT can anybody say to that?—Only that he believes and accepts it, or that he does not. To say the latter is to say that God is a liar, and that is the height of folly. Manifestly, therefore, when the Lord calls us to come and reason together with him, he means us to listen with reverent humility, and to accept what he says without any gainsaying.

MIND that it is not our conception of what God means, that we are to accept. That would be simply to set up our wisdom in opposition to God's, which is the height of presumptuous folly. It is to say that we can not venture to accept anything from the Lord without first submitting it to the test of our superior judgment. But God's mind is not to be measured by man's. He is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." (Eph. 3:20.) What God is able to do, that he does. He is infinite, and there is not a word or an act of God that does not contain more than the mind of the wisest man can fathom. What impudent folly, then, to presume to pass God's word through the sieve of our feeble intellect before accepting it!

NICODEMUS started in on that line with the Lord. When Jesus spoke about the new birth, he asked, "How can these things be?" an endeavor to show that the thing was impossible. He afterwards, however, learned true wisdom by attending to the word.

When Jesus spoke about the necessity of eating his flesh, the Jews asked, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" They thought that that question settled the matter.

NOTICE that pure human reasoning, as expressed in the preceding questions, is doubt. It is negative. It does not build up anything, but only endeavors to tear down and obstruct. It tends to make more narrow the narrow field of vision that one already has. But God's thoughts are infinite, and when they are received in simple faith, without any attempt to dissect and analyze them, they expand the mind. There is no limit to the development of the mind that reasons according to the Lord's plan.

THE word is given to all; it carries its own credentials, so that faith comes by it; therefore faith is given to all. The only reason why any men have not faith is that they have not kept it. It is both sword and shield—a mighty weapon. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations [or reasonings, margin], and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (2 Cor. 10:4, 5.) E. J. W.