14 November 2022
I didn't come up with this: "You hold your opinions; your convictions hold you." But I will venture to say that compelling logic cannot give you peace with God. I decided long ago that debate was a waste of time. It won't matter whether I can come up with a better system that you cannot refute. Your heart won't change based on my arguments.
By the same token, divine truth can awaken a moral recognition in your convictions. It's not argument; it's just an echo of God's voice. Just saying that in itself requires that God confirm it to you in your spirit before you can absorb it. Getting you to buy into it by logic or manipulation is not going to bring you peace with God.
This is at the root of the mystical, otherworldly religion of the Bible. There are a lot of things out there that somehow get the label "Christian Mysticism", but the real deal is a direct encounter with God in your own spirit. The mysticism part insists it cannot come through the flesh; it can come only on a higher plane. Intellect will die with your flesh, but your soul is eternal. If it doesn't register in your soul, then it really doesn't matter what your mind makes of it.
Oddly enough, it was one of the sharpest intellects that brought this home to me in my youth. When I was a kid, Josh McDowell was all the rage for preacher boys going to college. To be honest, I don't much care for what he's doing these days, but when I was a freshman in college, McDowell's Evidence that Demands a Verdict was required reading on the basis of peer pressure alone.
If I recall correctly, I saw a video clip of McDowell in an interview. He said something about how he challenged some heavyweight intellectuals to a public debate. It was a big deal, hosted in some conference center and video-taped by several agencies. He won the debate by himself. He pretty much backed some atheists into a corner, and they conceded that it was foolish not to at least consider what he had to say. Then McDowell noted that not a one of those atheists became a believer. He went on to say that logic and evidence can't get you to Christ.
Since then, I've seen plenty of evidence for myself that believers who claim reason as their path to Christ were people who did a very poor job of manifesting Christian morals, particularly in difficult times. It breeds a legalism with no heart for peace with God, never mind seeking peace with any humans. You can know the Bible forward and backward, and still miss the whole point.
If you don't connect with God personally, you'll never have peace with Him.
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