Is It Reasonable?

1
Is It Reasonable?

• Many today consider it unreasonable to have a
  fundamentalist view of God and the Bible.

2
Anti-Reason (Robert C. Wittig, Dec. 2002)

• Reason has never been religion's strong suit.
  Religion demands that its adherents embrace
  faith. Without faith in an unseen Deity, and
  faith that an ancient text was written by that
  Deity, or inspired by that Deity, religions
  cannot exist. Reason's place in religion is only
  secondary to faith in the religion's basic
  premise. What this means, is that if the basic
  premise is faulty, reason is useless, or worse
  than useless, because it is building on a false
  premise. To today's crop of fundamentalist sects,
  reason, and all human thought that derives from
  reason, is anathema. Reason is heresy. Only
  blind, absolute belief, that the ancient text (or
  the interpretation of the ancient text that the
  religious bosses say is correct) is permitted.
  This is certainly not a reasonable mindset.

3
Is it Reasonable to BelieveThat God Exists?

• (Genesis 11), In the beginning God created the
  heavens and the earth.
• (Psalms 191-2), The heavens declare the glory
  of God And the firmament shows His handiwork.
  2 Day unto day utters speech, And night unto
  night reveals knowledge.

• Both the universe and life came about through
  chance?
• Consider the watch-maker (Design) argument!

4
Acts 1726-27

• And He has made from one blood every nation of
  men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and
  has determined their preappointed times and the
  boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they
  should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might
  grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far
  from each one of us.

5
Is it Reasonable to Believe thatGod Revealed
Himself to Man?

• Knowing this first, that no prophecy of
  Scripture is of any private interpretation, for
  prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy
  men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy
  Spirit. (2 Peter 120-21)

• What is untenable is the position that the Bible
  is just the product of men, but still a good
  thing.
• Internal and External evidences

6
Luke 31-2

• Now in the fifteenth
  year of the reign of
  Tiberius Caesar,
  Pontius Pilate being
  governor of Judea, Herod
  being tetrarch of Galilee,
  his brother Philip
  tetrarch of
  Iturea and the region of
  Trachonitis, and Lysanias
  tetrarch of Abilene, 2
  while Annas and Caiaphas
  were high priests, the word of God came
  to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

7
Is it Reasonable to Believe thatWe Can
Understand the Bible?

• How that by revelation He made known to me the
  mystery (as I have briefly written already, by
  which, when you read, you may understand my
  knowledge in the mystery of Christ).
  (Ephesians 33-4)

• What is untenable is the position that an
  omnipotent and omniscient God fouled up regarding
  His revelation!

8
2 Peter 315-16

• And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord
  is salvation as also our beloved brother Paul,
  according to the wisdom given to him, has written
  to you, 16 as also in all his epistles,
  speaking in them of these things, in which are
  some things hard to understand, which untaught
  and unstable people twist to their own
  destruction, as they do also the rest of the
  Scriptures.
• Not only can we understand God expects us
  to!

9
Is it Reasonable to Believe thatGod Expects Us
to Obey Him?

• He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is
  he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be
  loved by My Father, and I will love him and
  manifest Myself to him. (John 1421)

• What is untenable is the position that we are
  free to decide for ourselves how we will worship
  and serve God!
• Examples Noah, Nadab Abihu, Uzziahcf. 2
  Chron. 2616-20

10
2 Chronicles 2616-20

• But when he was strong his heart was lifted up,
  to his destruction, for he transgressed against
  the LORD his God by entering the temple of the
  LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.
  17 So Azariah the priest went in after him, and
  with him were eighty priests of the LORD valiant
  men. 18 And they withstood King Uzziah, and
  said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn
  incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the
  sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn
  incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have
  trespassed! You shall have no honor
  from the LORD God

11
2 Chronicles 2616-20, cont

• Then Uzziah became furious and he had a censer
  in his hand to burn incense. And while he was
  angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his
  forehead, before the priests in the house of the
  LORD, beside the incense altar. 20 And Azariah
  the chief priest and all the priests looked at
  him, and there, on his forehead, he was leprous
  so they thrust him out of that place. Indeed he
  also hurried to get out, because the LORD had
  struck him.

12
Is it Reasonable to Believe Gods Ultimate Proof
The Resurrection?

• This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are
  all witnesses (Acts 232).
• And with great power the apostles gave witness
  to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Acts
  433).

• What is untenable is the position that 500
  eyewitnesses to the resurrection are wrong!
  (cf. 1 Cor. 156)

13
1 Corinthians 158-11

• Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by
  one born out of due time. 9 For I am the least
  of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called
  an apostle, because I persecuted the church of
  God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am,
  and His grace toward me was not in vain but I
  labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I,
  but the grace of God which was with me. 11
  Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach
  and so you believed.
• Saul of Tarsus was an eyewitness!

14
Is it Reasonable to Believe Many Religious People
are Wrong?

• Enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate
  and broad is the way that leads to destruction,
  and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because
  narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which
  leads to life, and there are few who find it.
  (Matthew 713-14).

• What is untenable is the position that sincerity
  in religion is enough!
• The Bible is plain in regard to teaching about
  salvation and worship.
• God expects us to do it His Way!

15
Galatians 16-8

• I marvel that you are turning away so soon from
  Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a
  different gospel, 7 which is not another but
  there are some who trouble you and want to
  pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we,
  or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel
  to you than what we have preached to you, let him
  be accursed.

16
2 Timothy 42-4

• Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of
  season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all
  longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will
  come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
  but according to their own desires, because they
  have itching ears, they will heap up for
  themselves teachers 4 and they will turn their
  ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to
  fables.

17
It Is Reasonable!

• Yes, we base our lives upon FAITH. But it is not
  a blind faith! It is a reasonable faith, which
  we can successfully defend to all who have an
  open mind.