Our Unique Perspective – A Look at the Conflict Between Faith and Logic
Rev. Robert Fleischmann, Christian Life Resources National Director
Are you afraid to speak up? Are you worried about being mocked because you are pro-life, pro-creation, pro-Scripture and pro-Jesus?
Those who oppose us often mock us for our viewpoint. They suggest that we aren’t especially bright. Let’s try to understand our unique Christian perspective.
Sticks and Stones
In debate people sometimes attempt to diminish a position by attacking the person rather than the facts. They use the psychological tactic of verbal abuse to intimidate their opponent (such as name calling or mockery of one’s perspective on a given subject).
Although holding your position may make you seem less-sophisticated, naïve, or viewed as a simpleton, it does not make you wrong. Don’t allow the “sticks and stones” of emotional argumentation and accusations compromise the facts. Stand by what you know is right. Attacks on your character are merely attempts to throw you off track. Don’t fall for it!
The Conflict Between Faith and Logic
Many Christians stumble over the very thing that makes them Christian – faith! Faith is defined as: “… being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).
Faith is illogical. How can you be sure of what you hope for? How can you be certain of what you don’t see? That is the nature of faith. It is the ability to believe the unbelievable.
When people debate life in the womb some argue it is merely multiplying cells – certainly not a “person.” Perhaps! Doesn’t our logic wrestle with how life
at conception can be accountable for sin (Psalm 51:5)? That’s not all. Our logic wrestles with many things.
Left to our logic we have trouble accepting the idea that breaking one little point of law is equal to breaking all of it (James 2:10). We are so encompassed by less-than-perfect surroundings and life, we have trouble comprehending perfection – and how strikingly contrasted and opposed it is to imperfection (Exodus 33:20).
For those reasons some wish to craft a religion that makes sense to them – that which appeals to their reasoning (2 Timothy 4:3). This homemade religion works to reject parts of Scripture on the basis of supposed unreasonableness and illogic. They say, “How can we trust in the promises of God without seeing the evidence? How can we possibly walk through the valley of the shadow of death without fear?” (Psalm 23:4)
The Miracle of Faith
True Christian faith is not the practice of Christian ideals. Those are the fruits of faith – not the substance of faith. Faith is that miraculous ability to take God at His Word.
Scripture tells us, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Faith is something that comes to us – we don’t go to faith. Through the means of grace (the Gospel in Word and Sacrament), God the Holy Spirit plants and nurtures faith in us. We don’t buy it, we can’t earn it, and we cannot reason it to become our own.
Scripture says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9). As we miraculously accept God that He saved us from our sins through Christ, so also we accept the other incredible things He tells us.
We were knit together in wombs of our mothers and are wonderfully made (Psalm 139). We are human beings even if others say we are not. Certainly, logic
gets in the way. If others want to see life in the womb as a blob of tissue – well, without faith that is what it looks like.
The Faith Perspective
Some might be apprehensive in their convictions of faith because they lack logic. Remember what Scripture also says about the logic of the world: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).
The strength of the faith perspective is found not in the holder of faith but in the Giver of faith. As we stand by our convictions and do the right thing – even when others want to mock us for it – it is God who is our protector and strength (2 Timothy 4:16,17).
The strength of our position is found in its correctness. The position that life exists already at conception may be more an article of faith than logic.
It doesn’t matter – if God says it is so, it is so! Our acceptance of things that our reason would reject is the miracle of faith in our lives.
