Unbiblical Irrationalism vs. Biblical Rationalism (REVISED)
Scripture tells us, “...faith cometh by hearing,* and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). Now, God could have (speaking in terms of fantasy) chosen to introduce Truth into the minds of His people without the Bible;* but that is not the method that He determined.
[* Understand: The “hearing” here does not rule out “reading”. In Christ’s Day and earlier, hearing was the method by which most truth was transmitted, because although writing existed, not everyone knew how to read; and before the age of modern printing, manuscripts / scrolls had to be copied by hand, ideally onto media that would survive (papyrus, vellum / sheep skins). However, to copy a scroll of every book of the entire Bible after the last book of the Bible was written (presumably the Third Epistle of John; all of John’s Epistles being written after he wrote the Book of Revelation) would take an experienced scribe 1 or 2 years to produce; and it would require the skins of 300 sheep (or 170 calves). Thus, the cost of such a book (scroll) was enormous. So, the average person only could hear the Bible read to him. However, what Scripture intends is not that faith comes by sound vibrations bouncing on tympanic membrane and bones of the middle ear. It refers to the brain’s reception, recognition, and understanding of these vibrations as not mere sounds, but intelligible words that form thoughts and convey truth — in this case, the Word of God. Faith comes from the facts in the Word of God. It does not come from personal experience; those who believe otherwise reject the Word of God and are in delusion.]
Herman Hoeksema, in his Reformed Dogmatics (1966), makes an excellent point:
“3) From all this it is evident that the deepest error and sin of Rationalism is exactly that it sets aside, ignores, denies, contradicts revelation.* Let us beware, lest we pay respect to this deeply sinful attitude and act of all philosophy. For it is an attitude and act of unbelief. And all unbelief is sin. Nor let us ever admit that the antithesis between the Christian confession and the conclusions of philosophy is an antithesis between Faith and Reason, which would be tantamount to an antithesis between Grace and Nature. For it is not that; but it is the antithesis between Faith and Unbelief,** between Grace and Sin.” (Part II - The First Locus: Theology, I. The Knowability of God, p.35)
[* ...that is, the only modernly valid Divine Revelation that can be used to establish Faith, Practice, Law, Truth, and Doctrine: The Word of God.
** It should be noted that in the Bible disbelief and disobedience are nearly synonymous terms. The reason that people disobey is because they don’t believe. They are either atheists or idolatrous pagans who imagine that God is they way that they imagine Him to be, and not the way that He has in His Word declared Himself to be. If they believed in the God of the Bible, they would obey Him: for they would know that He is Holy and Just and must punish sin. Bracketed notes mine. R.A.B.]
A few points here, however, need to be clarified. Technically, Philosophy itself is “the study of Wisdom”; and this, as its foundation is the Philosophy of Logic. Truth does not change: 1 + 1 = 2. It always has. It always will. 1 [does not equal] 2. 1010 = 10 billion. A + B = C. 10 < 100. 10 [is not less than or equal to] 1. White is not black. Up is not down. East is not west. Male is not female. Old is not young. Immorality is not morality. The past is not the future. Rich is not poor. Ugly is not beautiful. Sickly is not healthy. Fat is not lean. All “philosophy” that is not based upon logic, all philosophy that contradicts truth is not true philosophy. The vast majority of all that which is called “philosophy” or the “philosophies” of men (because they are not based upon logic or violate it and truth) is actually vain babblings of men either in search for truth (but rejecting it because it is not what they want it to be), or purposely attempting to obfuscate or hide the truth to lead others astray.
Thus, it is important to differentiate between Secular Rationalism and the philosophy of Dr. Gordon H. Clark, Presuppositionalism or what could be called Biblical Rationalism. God gave us mind and emotions, but He did not tell us that faith cometh by “feelings” stimulated by the Word of God. Faith does not come by passionately emoting* the Word of God (as the false philosophy and false “theology” of the defective Danish philosopher / “theologian” Søren Kierkegaard mindlessly promoted).
[* —which is an impossibility. All truth is uploaded to the brain via the ears, eyes, or the fingertips (for those who read braille). Personal experience “may contain” truth; but not all experience is truth. Subjective interpretation of truth or experience or perceived “reality” is not necessarily true. All truth is based upon interfacing with the intellect; not with the emotions. No truth or fact is established via the emotions. There is no “emotive” port, outlet, or direct interface in order to establish an “emotional” connection with a human body and then upload the data in the Word of God to the human body “emotionally”. You can’t strap the Bible to your chest or your abdomen and hug it, and experience the Bible emotionally. Truth is understood by the mind; and as Gordon H. Clark has exhaustively demonstrated, 95% or more of the times that the word “heart” is used in the Scriptures (regardless of whether it is the Hebrew leyb or the Greek kardia) it refers to the mind, not to the blood pumping / coronary organ. Sometimes the kidneys (reins) or spleen or bowels (NOT meaning intestines, but meaning internal being) are also used. Since humans experience powerful passions in their stomach and heart, as well as their head, and since the heart is the major organ in the body that is not the head, which is vital to life, which, if it is damaged or destroyed the person dies, the ancients, recognizing the life-and-death importance of those organs, and the fact that one feels deep passions in the chest or stomach (which, they did not know is a response to bio-chemical-electric impulses sent by the brain), they believed those organs were significant to recognize as a seat of life. The Bible is not a manual of anatomy or physiology, and indeed there is a symbiotic relationship between the heart and the brain / mind, so God spoke in terms that they understood, and those terms are not wrong as long as one understands that the heart is being used figuratively in the majority of verses, because the heart does not “think”.
Doctrine (including Theology, which is the Bible Doctrine of the Godhead) is based upon facts in the Word of God (Divine Revelation), not upon “feelings” (emotions / passions) and not upon personal “experience”. Christianity is Doctrine; anything less is humanism passing itself off as “Christianity” or “spirituality”. The only true Christian spirituality is via the Agency of the Holy Spirit working sanctification into the elect regenerate believer who is then conformed, day by day, based upon the facts in the Word of God and who is then by the Grace of God conformed more and more into the Image of Christ (not the false “image” of Christ, held by most “Christians”, which is more like the Hindu Gandhi); which entails dying to self (which the carnal mind cannot do) and being alive to Christ and in submission to Him (again, which the carnal mind cannot do). The vast majority of “Christian” churches are “feel-good” pseudo-spiritual humanistic country clubs that worship celebrate God’s submission to man. See also my booklet, Mental Health = Spiritual Health. Confusing the intellect with the emotions is like confusing the sense of taste with the sense of hearing; or confusing the color blue with a taste or a sound or a tactile sensation with that of sight / vision.]
The Biblical Rationalism or presuppositionalism of Dr. Gordon H. Clark (inquire for a list of his titles that are in stock) maintains that God is a God of Truth, and True and Immutable, and therefore, the statements in the Bible are to be understood by the valid rules of logic. Furthermore, as I have explained in a plethora of books for decades: The only valid method of Biblical Interpretation is the one that finds the harmony: For God is Immutable (unchanging), Perfect, True, and Faithful. God does not change. Neither does His Plan, His Decrees, Covenants, Promises, Word, Law, Truth — all of which is an extension of His Mind and Will. If two different verses or statements in Scripture seem to contradict each other — it is the reader who is confused. The reconciliation / resolution, therefore, is to be sought; and not blasphemously assume that one is right and the other wrong (and then the reader “picking” which he wants to believe to be true).
Those who reject static Truth in favor of a fluid “experience” and subjective “reality” hate truth and embrace delusion. Jesus, the Personification of Wisdom declares, “But he that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate Me love death” (Proverbs 8:36). The truth is simple to understand; the problem is, most people (“Christians” included) don’t like the answer. They want to be in charge. They want to determine what is “fair”, “true”, and “reality”, and in doing so, they are Anti-God and Anti-Christ; while entertaining the delusion that they “love” God and Jesus (because the carnal mind likes to entertain a false but flattering notion of its own non-existent “goodness”); whereas, they only have a slight (and terribly skewed) Jesus fetish. In reality, they consider themselves to be GOD, if they reject what God Himself has said in favor of what they want to believe. This is idolatry and a violation of the First and Second Commandments. Furthermore, is it not taking God’s Name (those few who know it, but it also applies to God’s and Jesus’ Titles: “Lord”, “God”, etc.) in vain, when they claim to love and obey God when they do not...?
The only alternative to Rationalism is Irrationalism / Anti-intellectualism. The problem is not Rationalism, but Secular Rationalism, that which uses man’s own mind and experience and ideas — utterly apart from God’s Self-Revelation in His Word — to establish reality. By comparison, if someone thinks that 2 can be 2, but sometimes 1 or 3; or who thinks that subtraction can sometimes mean division — the problem is not with “math”. A merchant should use a standardized, established, tested 1-oz., 8-oz., 16-oz., etc. ingot as the Standard against which he weighs out a specific amount of his product (whether pepper, grain, flour, garlic, etc.). If he instead uses something that is not a standardized exact weight of specific ounces, but uses something that is his “favorite” that he “likes”, but which does not coincide with the established weights and measures, then everything that he weighs will be fraudulent. This, in a nutshell, explains the majority of the philosophies of men, as well as the majority of what passes for science and academia today in entire fields of study. If you start with a false premise you will end with a false conclusion. With such a faulty method, bits of truth can still be mentioned (even a broken clock, or one that has no batteries or is not plugged into the electrical outlet, is right / correct / true twice a day) — but the bits of truth will be disjointed and have no relation to the method by which they were explained; and therefore, they cannot be established as truth in that paradigm.
Concerning hearing (and seeing and understanding and caring) God declared,
“[I will] Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:10)
The Determinism of God is clouded in these other below passages that quote or allude to Isaiah, if the reader does not understand true Theology (the Nature of God, and therefore, by extension, the Nature of God’s Will, Decrees, and Word), the Doctrine of the Nature of Man, the Doctrine of Sin, and the Doctrines of Repentance and Redemption, and established all Scripture that lays the foundation for all “cause” and “effect”. The author of the Book of Acts and Jesus quote Isaiah. If one understands the Source there is no reason why he should be confused in the repeating of that Source, even if worded a little differently — and when “Christians” do not so understand — ignoring or rejecting established Scripture, it is a problem of lacking true Faith: the entertaining of falsehood is doubt and disbelief — infidelity. Jesus said,
“26But ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto you. 27My sheep hear My Voice, and I know them, and they follow [believe, obey] Me.” (John 10)
and earlier in v.5:
“And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers”.
WHY then do the majority of “Christians” believe the very opposite of what Jesus said, instead believing the voice of anyone else who says anything contrary to what Jesus said? The answer was given in v.26. See also John 6:60-66.
“For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Acts 28:27)
[Understand the DEEP and PROFOUND implications of the last two phrases. God is Master of His universe; not a mere spectator. This passage alone demolishes the humanistic notion of “free will” and establishes God’s Absolute Sovereignty and Determinism. It is not that the truth is hard to understand — most often it is simple. The problem is that the carnal mind does not like the answer; the carnal mind has a “god-complex” and wants to be in charge, wants some of the glory, and wants to believe that he is in charge of his own destiny, and refuses to — is incapable of being in submission to God. This spirit is Antichrist. This spirit has seduced the majority of the “Christian” church. Most, even those with sound theology think that the carnal mind / unregenerate mind is only capable of resisting / rejecting God. However, this too is a misconceptualization. To resist / reject something you must first recognize it and have the ability to accept / receive it. Scripture says that man is dead in trespasses and sins. Dead men do not resist or reject anything. All born from Adam have a sin nature and are spiritually dead. If accepting / receiving is not an option / choice, then neither is resisting / rejecting. Resisting / rejecting is not the issue. The unregenerate / carnal mind by it’s very nature is dead to God. It’s not receiving the things of God and enmity to God is not a choice, but a factual characteristic of it’s nature.]
Jesus Himself, earlier had also referenced Isaiah:
“14And in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Esaias, which saith, ‘By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Matthew 13)
The phrase “their eyes they have closed” does not infer that God was not the one who had done it (God controls man’s delusions, the mind, the heart, and the will). Clearly, the author of the Book of Acts was quoting Jesus. In the two New Testament passages, “waxed gross” is the Greek that replaces the Hebrew, “make ... fat”. In Greek, “waxed gross” is #3975 pachuno (pahkh-oo-no - long o) [from a derivative meaning “thick”], meaning, “to thicken, that is, (by implication) to fatten (figuratively stupefy or render callous):—wax gross”. The Hebrew “fat” is #8082 shaw-meyn, [from #8080], “greasy, that is, gross; figuratively rich:—fat, lusty, plenteous”.
[#8080 shaw-mahn, “to shine, that is, (by analogy) be (causatively make) oily or gross”. The meaning of gross is in it’s original meaning of “fat”; not it’s extended modern meaning of “disgusting”.]
The intention is clearly, “dull, lazy, sluggish, complacent, indifferent, apathetic, unresponsive” — especially remembering that the Hebrew (leyb) and Greek (kardia) words for heart are used figuratively for “the mind”.
The verb [they] “have closed” is also in the Indicative mood (it either asks questions or states facts; and is neither active nor passive). God does not tell us “the means by” which He accomplished what He decreed in Isaiah 6:10, but the fact remains that God determined it. Clearly, God used apathy, stubbornness (stiffening the neck), an obstinate will, bitterness, resentment, delusions, other loyalties / loves / lusts, etc. as the stimulus by which they would turn from Him. For example: Blowing dust in someone’s eyes will cause them to close their eyes — but they are still the ones who closed them: not at first by choice, but by natural reflex; but even thereafter, after the automatic reflexive initiation of the eye closing has passed, the individual may still purposely keep his eyes closed knowing that dust is still floating around. God is not passive. He is not the by-product. He is always actively the Source. Why else would people want to close their eyes and keep them closed?
“14In Him was Life; and the Life was the Light of men. 5And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended* it not. .... 319And this is the condemnation, that Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than Light, because their deeds were evil. 20For every one that doeth evil hateth the Light, neither cometh to the Light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21But he that doeth truth cometh to the Light, that his deeds** may be made manifest, that they** are wrought in*** [by, through] God.” (John)
[* comprehended, here, is a very poor rendering. The Greek word is #2638 katalambano (kaht-ahl-ahm-bahn-o - long o) [from #2596 and #1983; to take eagerly, that is, seize, possess, etc. (literally or figuratively):—apprehend, attain, come upon, comprehend, find, obtain, perceive, (over-) take”.
** the works; the “they” does not refer to “every one” or “him”; the “they” refers to the [his] “deeds”.
*** The Greek preposition en denotes position or instrumentality. The nature makes the act; not vice versa. Dead men cannot produce living works. Darkness-oriented men cannot produce works of Light. Sinful men cannot produce works of Righteousness. God regenerates the elect of His people, changing their nature, whereby they are capable of good works. That is, all truly good works have their origin in God. A “good work” is not established merely by the deed. In order to truly be good (from God’s Perspective — which is the only true perspective), 1. the nature of the doer must be good; 2. the motive of the doer must be good; 3. the act itself must be good; 4. the direction in which the work was done (upon whom it was done) must be good (in keeping with the boundaries established by God); and 5. the situation in which the act was done must be good. All 5 are required for a work / act to be good. A mobster dropping $10,000 in the collection plate (from having murdered and robbed others of $1 million) is not a good work. A man who committed adultery, feeling guilty, buying his wife flowers is not a good work. What otherwise is good and valid becomes evil and invalid when it violates established boundaries or originates from evil. Even saying, “God bless you”, “take care”, “travel safely”, “I wish you well” or “Jesus loves you” is sin, if misapplied (II John 1:10,11; Matthew 7:6; II Chronicles 19:2; Deuteronomy 23:6).]
Even as the Curse so also the Cure. Jesus declared:
“18The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19To preach the acceptable Year of the Lord.” (Luke 4)
Though “opening of deaf ears” is not specifically mentioned, that certainly IS the intention, though not every aspect is mentioned as was mentioned in Isaiah 6:10 (such as the heart). Jesus also said, “he that hath ears to hear, let him hear...” Understand: The only ones who had ears to hear were those of the elect of God’s people whose ears the Holy Spirit opens in order to hear and be able to respond to / receive truth.
Scripture also tells us:
“For He is our God; and we are the people of His Pasture, and the sheep of His Hand...” (Psalm 95:7)
“My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds [pastors! by false doctrine] have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.” (Jeremiah 50:6)
“1Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My Pasture! saith the LORD. 2Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed My people; Ye have scattered My flock, and driven them away, and have not visited [overseen, cared for] them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. 3And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23)
“10Hear the Word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a Shepherd doth his flock. 11For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.” (Jeremiah 31)
“...and let them [Biblical Israel] grow [#1711 daw-gaw “spawn like a fish”*] into a multitude in the midst of the Earth.” (Genesis 48:16)
[* #1709 dawg, “fish” is derived from #1711; as is #1712 Dagon (daw-gon, long o), the Philistine fish-god.]
“15But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. 16Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters [trackers], and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” (Jeremiah 16)
Fittingly, God also declared in Judgment,
“The Lord GOD hath sworn by His Holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks,* and your posterity with fishhooks.” (Amos 4:2)
[* This first word for hooks could possibly refer to goads (which were used to move along cattle, goats, sheep), as Christ Jesus Himself, said to Paul, striking him down with a blinding light: “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.**” (Acts 9:5)
** #2759 kentron (ken-tron - short o), [from kenteo (ken-teh-o - long o) “to prick”], meaning, “a point (“centre”), that is, a sting or goad, prick”.
In the passage in Amos the word hooks is #6793 tsin-naw, [feminine of #6791], “a hook (as pointed); also a (large) shield (as if guarding by prickliness); also cold (as piercing):—buckler, cold, hook, shield, target”.
#6791 tseyn, “to be prickly; a thorn; hence a cactus [thorny] hedge:—thorn”. Strikethrough mine. It does not mean “cactus”, which is a specific species of drought-tolerant plants that have thorn; the word means any thorn; and hence, a hedge or hook or prod like or made from a thorny plant. R.A.B.]
In the northern wall of the Biblical City of Jerusalem there were two gates: the fish gate (Nehemiah 3:3) and the sheep gate (v.1; also both in 12:39).
Jesus said to His disciples,
“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)
“11I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth His Life for the sheep.... 14I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. 15As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My Life for the sheep. 16And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold [scattered Israel]: them also I must bring, and they shall hear [heed, obey] My Voice; and there shall be One Fold, and One Shepherd.” (John 10)
“I am not sent but unto the Lost Sheep of the [whole] House of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24)
“...as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” (John 20:21)
“5These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles [nations], and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6But go rather to the Lost Sheep of the [whole] House of Israel.” (Matthew 10)
God had declared,
“For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the [whole] House of Israel [from] among all nations, like as corn [grain] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the Earth.” (Amos 9:9)
Dispensationalists reject Scripture / Sound Doctrine (Covenant Reformed Theology) because they are humanists who reject truth (because they don’t like the answer), because they foolishly want to believe the delusion that they are in charge of their own destiny, and they want to be in control of telling God how He must order His universe; and they think that God must conform to their corrupt sinful minds. They take the Sovereignty and Determinism out of God’s Hands / Mind (in addition to degrading God’s Attributes of being Perfect, Holy, Just, Right, Omnipotent, Immutable, and True) and put it all into the hands and tiny, damaged minds of sinful humans. Such liberals who reject God’s Sovereignty and Determinism do not even understand the question, let alone the answer; and in their attempt to “deliver” God from Himself, merely delay the inevitable accountability of God, which in sinful man’s imaginary “choice” would make God guilty of depraved indifference (leaving such a choice up to those who are dead in sin, strangers to holiness, and ignorant of Eternity).
[See my books, Does God Repent...? — Can God Change His Mind...?, 506pp., pb., 25.00 + P&H and God and Evil: Did God Create Sin and Evil?, 280pp., pb., 18.00 + P&H.]