Be Reason Able
Isaiah 1:18
Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord...
A.W. Tozer
The Set of the Sail, “The Divine Illuminator”
The whole biblical revelation is addressed to the intellect and through the intellect reaches the will, the seat of the moral life; if the will responds in repentance and obedience, the Holy Spirit illuminates the penitent heart and reveals Christ, the image of God, to it. What began as an appeal to reason (Isaiah 1:18) ends in a spiritual experience wholly above reason.
That Incredible Christian
The effort to be practicing Christians without knowing what Christianity is about must always fail. The true Christian should be, indeed must be, a theologian. He must know at least something of the wealth of truth revealed in the Holy Scriptures. And he must know it with sufficient clarity to state it and defend his statement.
Acts 18:4, 19, 28
Every Sabbath (Paul & Apollos) reasoned in the synagogue...proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
Acts 24:25
(Paul)...reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment...
Acts 26:25 After Paul shared his testimony and the Gospel of salvation with Festus and Agrippa
"What I am saying is true and reasonable."
1 Peter 3:15b
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
Richard Dawkins, at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, April 15, 1992 IS WRONG
Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, perhaps because of, lack of evidence.
Richard Sibbes The Soul's Conflict with Itself and Victory Over Itself by Faith
He believes best, that knows best why he should believe.
Faith is an understanding grace; it knows whom it trusts, and for what, and upon what grounds it trusts. Faith useth reason, though not as a ground, yet as a sanctified instrument to find out God's grounds, that it may rely upon them.
God having made man an understanding creature, guides him by a way suitable to such a condition, and that is the reason why God in mercy yields so far to us in His word, as to give us so many reasons for our (trust) in Him.
Bartolome de Las Casas (1474-1566), Dominican friar
The one and only method of teaching men the true religion was established by Divine Providence for the whole world, and for all times: that is, by persuading the understanding through reason, and by gently attracting or exhorting the will.
Thomas Watson The Christian's Charter Shewing the Priviledges of a Believer
Faith is an intelligent grace; though there can be knowledge without faith, yet there can be no faith without knowledge.
William Gurnall The Christian in Complete Armour
Our faith must not depend on our reason, but our reason on faith. I am not to believe what the word saith merely because it jumps (overlaps) with my reason, but believe my reason because it is suitable to the word.
Ezekiel Hopkins "On Glorifying God In His Attributes"
If thou wouldest glorify God, bring thy reason to submit to the authority of faith; urge it with a scriptum est: “It is thus written,” and therefore I thus believe.
C.H. Spurgeon
"The Soul Winner"
The gospel is a reasonable system, and it appeals to men's understanding; it is a matter for thought and consideration, and it appeals to the conscience and the reflecting powers.
"The Seed Upon A Rock" on Matthew 13:5,6
http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols49-51/chs2844.pdf
I believe that, at this present time, we are in great danger of being burdened with a crowd of so-called converts who do not really know anything as it ought to be known. They attended a revival meeting, were much excited, and thought they were converted; but just ask them to explain to you the simplest truths of the gospel, and you will soon discover how little they know. Could they explain the three R's, ruin, redemption, and regeneration Do they know what the ruin is? Do they know what the remedy for that ruin is? Do they understand at all what it means to be born again? Do they comprehend what the new nature is, or what "justification by faith" means. Perhaps someone says, "They do not comprehend your theological terms." I do not mind whether they know the meaning of the terms that are familiar to many of us; but do they know the truths themselves? There is a certain degree of Christian knowledge which is absolutely necessary to salvation.
“Aiming for Conversions in Our Preaching”
The best way to preach sinners to Christ is to preach Christ to sinners. Exhortations, entreaties, and beseechings, if not accompanied with sound doctrine, are like firing off powder without shot. You may shout, and weep, and plead, but you cannot lead men to believe what they have not heard, nor to receive a truth which has never been set before them.
True religion is as logical as if it were not emotional…Of carnal reasoning we would have none, but of fair, honest pondering, considering, judging, and arguing (reasoning) the more the better.
A.W. Tozer
The Knowledge of the Holy, "The Wisdom of God"
We shall not seek to understand in order that we may believe, but to believe in order that we may understand.
Augustine of Hippo Tractate 29 on John 7:14-18
Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. (Isaiah 7:9)
Anselm of Canterbury Proslogion
I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. Unless I believe, I should not understand.
That Incredible Christian
The believer thinks; but he thinks because he believes, not in order that he may.
Jesus, Our Man In Glory
God has purposefully given us a mental capacity with wide human boundaries. Beyond that, if we are justified, regenerated believers, He has given us an entirely new spiritual capacity. God wants us to believe, to think, to meditate, to consider His Word. He has promised that the Holy Spirit is waiting to teach us.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
People who are saved know what they are saved from, they know what they are saved for, and they know that their supreme desire is to serve God, to honour Him, and to magnify and to glorify His great and holy name.
There is nothing better for the sharpening of wits and to help a man think clearly and orderly, than debating, and especially to debate on theological and philosophical topics.
(Lloyd-Jones established that we must never substitute divine revelation for worldly "wisdom")
"Philosophy and Vain Deceit" from Ephesians 6:10-13 https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/book-of-ephesians/philosophy-and-vain-deceit/
"Counterfeits" https://opentheo.org/i/684547143360395456/counterfeits
"Knowledge Puffs Up" https://opentheo.org/i/2576058986856182900/knowledge-puffs-up
Faith on Trial
Let us never forget that the message of the Bible is addressed primarily to the mind, to the understanding...it enables me to understand life. I can "give a reason" (1 Peter 3:15b) for the hope that is in me...
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
Truth must be received with the mind, and the Holy Spirit enables the mind to become clear. The mind is delivered from this bias of evil and darkness; it sees the truth and loves and desires it above everything else.
Caution
Studies in Romans, Romans 14:14-17
The devil always tempts us to become academic or theoretical. This is one of the greatest dangers confronting any Christian, but particularly those who are more intelligent. It applies to all areas of our lives, including our study of theology. We can be interested in a doctrine in a purely theoretical manner and almost forget that we are dealing with God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these great doctrines of salvation. We can be handling them as if we were studying science or any other secular subject – and that is a terrible thing. We must never forget the Spirit.
J.I. Packer Puritan Evangelism
No man will or can come to Christ to be saved from sin till he knows what sins he needs saving from. Man’s first step toward conversion must be some knowledge; of God, of himself, of his duty, and of his sin.
James Denney Death of Christ
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/denney/christ_death.toc.html
If God has really done something in Christ on which the salvation of the world depends, and if He has made it known, then it is a Christian duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies, or explains it away.
William Barclay “The Christian Argument For Christ” in The Letters of James and Peter
It is a logos that the Christian must give, and a logos is a (logical), reasonable, and intelligent statement of his position. To do so we must know what we believe; we must have thought it out; we must be able to state it intelligently and intelligibly. Our faith must be a first-hand discovery and not a second-hand story. It is one of the tragedies of the modern situation that there are so many Church members who, if they were asked what they believe, could not tell, and who, if they were asked why they believe it, would be equally helpless. The Christian must go through the mental and spiritual toil of thinking out his faith, so that he can tell what he believes and why.
William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics
https://www.reasonablefaith.org/store/popular-books/
If you can't explain why you are saved, you may not be.
If you can't explain what it means to be a Christian, you may not be one.