"Come, let us reason together." Isaiah 1:18God is very often counter-intuitive. He acts based on a much greater knowledge base than we do. But God is never irrational. He is the inventor of the physical laws on which all of our science is based. He is a God of order, rules, hierarchy, and reason. He is not the author of chaos and confusion.
Understanding that "equals" does not mean the same thing as "is," if God says a=b and b=c, then you can be certain that a=c. He does not reveal a truth in his written word and later flatly contradict that with a spiritual revelation.
I was told today that interpreting the Bible rationally instead of spiritually is the basis of heretical sects such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons. That assertion is obviously false. The facts are exactly the opposite.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses didn’t come to their doctrines through a rational interpretation of the Bible. They were founded on prophetic revelations that were contradicted by the plain meaning of Scripture. Later, they had to change the Bible to justify their reasoning, rather than letting the Bible speak for itself. By the very plain testimony of Scripture, Russell and Rutherford were both false prophets.
The same is true of the Mormons. Joseph Smith didn’t acquire his doctrines through honest Bible study. They were given to him by looking into a hat with special goggles. If that’s relying on reason, then...well, I don’t even know what, because nothing in the universe can be known or understood.
The heart is deceitful above all things. If you ever receive a spiritual revelation that contradicts the written word, then you are hearing from demons or your own imagination. God cannot be discerned with reason, nor can all of his laws, but that which he has already told us can be relied on completely. God is not the author of lies or of confusion. He is a God of order and reason.
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