What arguments can and cannot do

What arguments can do

The last two lessons looked at four arguments that point to God. What such arguments can do is no small thing. They can clear away misunderstandings and obstacles, show that faith is not a leap without reasons, and commend Christ to those who hear. In Corinth, Acts says, Paul "reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks alike" every Sabbath (Acts 18:4). Yet to the church in that same city he wrote:

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

1 Corinthians 1:21

Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, and Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the one and foolishness to the other; but "to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24). Paul never stopped reasoning, yet he says his preaching came "not with persuasive words of wisdom" but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power (1 Corinthians 2:4). What saves is not skill in argument but Christ proclaimed and God's call.

What arguments cannot do

By themselves arguments cannot give faith. "The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:14), and Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (John 6:44). Paul says that we are saved by grace through faith, "and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). Matthew Henry, noting that even the most powerful arguments and earnest appeals scarcely keep people from folly, adds: "much less can they, without special grace, turn the hearts of sinners to God and to holiness" Matthew Henry.

The Westminster Confession of the Presbyterian churches sets out this relation in speaking of Scripture:

the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, … are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God; yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.

Westminster Confession 1.5

The section speaks of Scripture's authority, but it shows well how arguments and the Spirit belong together. The arguments are real and many; full persuasion is the Spirit's gift, and he works not apart from the word but by it and with it. The Shorter Catechism calls effectual calling ‘the work of God's Spirit’, by which he does ‘persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ’ Shorter Catechism 31. John Wesley, from whom the Methodist churches grew, explained that the Father draws "Not by compulsion" but "by the strong and sweet, yet still resistible, motions of his heavenly grace" Wesley. The two traditions differ over whether that drawing can be resisted; they agree that faith comes from God's drawing.

Not the God of the philosophers

Blaise Pascal, a mathematician, wrote that "The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know" Pascal, Pensées 277. On the night of 23 November 1654 he had an experience that he wrote down and sewed into his coat. The God he met, he wrote, was the "God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob", not the God of the philosophers and scholars Pascal, The Memorial. He had not given up reason; but knowing that there is a first cause is not the same as knowing the living God.

His wager belongs here too Pascal, Pensées 233. To one who thinks reason cannot settle whether God exists, he says that we must wager, for we are already embarked: "If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is." This is not an argument that God exists but an appeal to see what is at stake. To the objection that no one can believe at will, he advised the one who cannot believe to lessen the passions that stand in the way, and to seek. Other objections to the wager are taken up in Pascal and Nietzsche.

The roads, and the witness of a life

All five roads of apologetics confess that faith is the Spirit's gift; they differ over how arguments serve that work. Classical and evidential apologetics hold that the Spirit uses arguments and evidence as his instruments, giving faith, as Warfield put it, not apart from the evidence but along with it Warfield, Apologetics (Classical and evidential apologetics). Presuppositional apologetics argues not from neutral ground but within the confession of God, showing that unbelief's presuppositions cannot uphold reason and meaning, and then presenting Christ (Presuppositional apologetics). Reformed epistemology holds that belief in God is rational without arguments, which serve to answer objections and to strengthen faith; the cumulative case gathers many clues to commend Christ (Reformed epistemology and the cumulative case).

A life is part of the witness too. "By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another," said Jesus (John 13:35), and Peter wanted slandering neighbours to "see your good deeds and glorify God" (1 Peter 2:12). Even the command to give a reason for our hope comes with gentleness, respect and a clear conscience (1 Peter 3:15-16).

Not every question will be answered. Why God does not show himself more plainly is an honest question, and Christians believe that he calls in love rather than compels (Why can't we see God?). Moses said, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever" (Deuteronomy 29:29). So we may say that we do not know. Augustine, too, warned against presuming to decide whom the Father draws, and counselled: "if you are not drawn, pray that you may be" Augustine.

In conversation, give what reasons you can and leave the outcome to God. If a friend is not persuaded, you have not failed; if he is, the credit is not yours. As Paul spoke and "The Lord opened her heart to respond" (Acts 16:14), so we speak, pray and live, and leave the opening of hearts to him. The next lesson, The historical Jesus and the resurrection, weighs the historical evidence for the resurrection, at the centre of the Christian faith.

Practice