Revelation Versus Reason What is the True Relationship of Human Reason to Divine Revelation? Bible, the Final Appeal By DR. FREDERIC W - FARR Los Angeles
thoughtful man.. Musing is a synonym for thinking. To amuse is to keep from thinking. An amusement is a device to pr v nt thought. This may explain to some extent why worldly amuse ments are under the patronage and di rection of the devil. God appeals to reason also in the case of the saved man. “ I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a liv ing sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Ro mans 12:1). Reason is a divine en dowment and should be dignified, not disparaged. What relation does reason- sustain to revelation? This question demands á four-fold answer. 1. Reason discovers the need of rev elation. The patriarch Job in one place gives utterance to a peculiar prayer that would be out of place today. “ Oh that one would hear me! behold my de sire is, that the Almighty would answer me and that mine adversary had writ ten a book” (Job 31:35). The patriarch personifies his mani fold adversities into one great unknown adversary, whose apparent hostility to ward an upright man is inexplicable and whose actions seem at variance with all principles of right and justice. Job may be pardoned for thinking and praying on this wise. His prayer would be superfluous now, however, because long since answered. The One whom Job conceived of and called an adversary has written a book and in this book he has fully explained that so-called adversities are blessings
was made in the image of d. The reason of man is a lection from the divine rea- i.
God is a thinker. There
fore, man has the power of thought. Reason distinguishes man from the brutes. Reason links man to God. The Creator deals with the creature on the plane of reason. The revelation of the Creator to the creature may transcend reason, but cannot contradict it. Some things in Scripture may be above the human reason, but nothing in Scripture can be against it. God honors reason and appeals to it even in the case of fallen man. “ Come, now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scar let, they shall be white as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). Sin is irrational. No man can give a reason for committing it. Sin is not only moral obliquity, it is mental aber ration. The sinner is not only a crimi nal, he is a lunatic. When the prodigal came to himself, he came to his father. He had been beside himself. Hell has been called a penitentiary. May it not also be a lunatic asylum? It is hard to say which term is the more suggestive. Either is bad enough and sad enough. When a man is willing to sit down and reason with God, he is far on the way to salvation. The Psalmist said, “ I thought on my ways and turned my feet u n t o Thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:59). The relation between the thinking and the turning may be more than anteced ent and consequent. It may be that of cause and effect. The etymology of re ligion, according to Cicero, is thought fulness. The truly religious man is the
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