| REASONING - Whose Definition? |
R E A S O N I N G
Divine or Abominable?
The definition of the word, reason, has had polar-opposite meanings in our history. It all depends on the mind-set of each writer or speaker.
We've heard the phrase, "common-sense isn't so common anymore".
What happened to the home-schooled youth of America's colonial days? They became world-changing thinkers and in communicating their understanding and their challenges to one another, they "hung in there", until they had created the founding documents of our nation, the United States of America.
When the constitutional "lock-in" was over, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin, "What kind of a government do we have?"
Franklin answered, "A republic, if you can keep it."
During a very hot summer, those few principled men in Philadelphia had "reasoned together", in the biblical sense.
The result, following the Declaration of Independence of 1776, and the deprivations-turned-to-victory of the Revolutionary War, was the Constitution of the United States of America, with its Bill of Rights.
Almighty God had given the whole world another chance, and a new nation was born in faith and blood and the sacrificial love of liberty.
The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying,
" Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?"
Here the men were looking for answers - trying to figure out why the man, Jesus, was forgiving someone's sins. They had not recognized Him as the very incarnation of God, Himself, walking among them.
Daniel 4:34
"But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation."
Poor Nebuchadnezzar! After ruling much of the known-world of the time, and building the beautiful city of Babylon, the king had let his achievements go to his head. Nebuchadnezzar thought he had done it by himself, and was pridefull.
God chose to make an example of this king, and humbled him by taking away his ability to think - to reason. For seven long years he lived like an animal, with the mind of an animal, away from humankind.
Thus, humbled by God Almighty, the king became fully a man again. His subjects recognized the change, and the interim rulers of Babylon placed him on his throne once again.
Isaiah 1:18
[ "Let Us Reason" ] "Come now, and let us reason together,"
Says the LORD,
" Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool."
Isaiah was a man inspired by God's Word and Presence in his life. He heard God speak, and he wrote down what he heard. It is the basis of God's mercy for the penitent sinner - the forgiveness of his or her sins. New life through forgiveness is now possible through the sacrifice of God's own Son. There is a saying that
LOVE CONQUERS ALL,
and indeed it does!
Have you "reasoned" with God yet?
Or are you still stumbling around in the sewers of doubt and unbelief like the wicked innkeeper in Les Miserables (musical version). This man sees with eyes blinded by sin and unbelief. Without any knowledge and understanding of God, he's been harvesting little valuables from bodies of those who have died in the street rebellion:
...Well, someone's got to clean them up, my friends
Before the little harvest
Disappears into the mud
Someone's got to collect their odds and ends
When the gutters run with blood.
It's a world where the dog eats the dog
Where they kill for bones in the street
And God in His Heaven
He don't interfere
'Cause he's dead as the stiffs at my feet
I raise my eyes to see the heavens
And only the moon looks down
The harvest moon shines down!
So, will we REASON according to the standard of
God's Holy Word, the Bible,
followed by the Founding Fathers of the United States of America,
or will we continue Voltaire's dream,
which resulted in the horrors of the French Revolution?
It is time to get off the fence. It is time to choose.
Jesus said,
"He who is not with Me is against Me."