3.1 Logic and Thinking
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Logos, the Greek word John used to describe the Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus, also came into English as the word “logic.” I have heard preachers wax strong against “the carnal mind,” against using “logic” and “reason” in our lives. They were being utterly ridiculous, for every argument they used came out of their own muddled system of logic and reason.
Instead of being dishonest about our thinking, let’s look clearly at logic and reason to understand how they work. We also want to know why most people’s logic takes them in the wrong direction, but how ours can take us into an ever increasing knowledge of God.
Changing Our Minds
God uses most of our life-time to work on our hearts, paying little attention to all the nonsense going on in our minds. Then, when He has our hearts filled with the knowledge of His presence, He makes short work of changing our minds. Yet this process of changing our minds, though less important than winning our hearts, is also critical to our Salvation.
The one who says, “I have a carnal mind,” has a carnal mind. That’s how they define and see themselves, by darkness. The one who says, “I have only the mind of Christ,” has only the mind of Christ. They see Christ alone through all they are. Let it be to you according to your faith.
A Computer
The human brain is a vessel, like a computer. Human thinking is neither good nor evil; Jesus said that good and evil come out of the nature of the heart. The brain simply processes information.
Two things must be true before our brain can produce the knowledge of God as the result of its operations. First, the operating system by which it operates must be true, that is, our knowing that we possess the mind of Christ. And second, the data coming into our minds to fit into the operating system must be correct facts. Our minds can work only with what they have.
Clear Thinking
IQ has no relationship with clear thinking. One semester I had two very similar students, one with an IQ of above 160, the other with an IQ of around 80; both young men could think clearly and would be successful in life. They were similar in their hearts – hearts that were lowly and eager to learn. Other brilliant students I have known had chaotic and selfish hearts – some will be successful politicians and destroy many people’s lives.
A heart that governs a clear-thinking mind is a heart that is (1.) aware of its own ignorance, (2.) desirous of learning, and (3.) filled with Christ.
Using Human Reasoning
I use logic and reason all the time as I write these lessons. Often a step of logic takes me into a glorious understanding of truth. Yet my thinking is always anointed by the Holy Spirit. If I am thinking in a certain direction that is not right, I quickly know by the knowing of the Spirit in me and simply erase what I had just written.
Here is an example of my human reasoning taking me directly to the next truth of Christ. 1. I have claimed that Romans 8:28-30 is the ruling verse. 2. I look at the Greek words and discover “four” that are a big deal.
Spirit and Mind Together
3. I slowly ponder in my spirit, as I write the lessons of the Purpose course, as to what those four big words must mean. 4. When I come back to Romans 8:28-30, I see that there are five, not four. I had left out pro-ginosko, pro-knowing, having imagined that “foreknowledge” was less important. 5. If all of my prior reasoning is correct, then pro-knowing must be a big deal, so I consider it. 6. My knowledge of God-NOW informs me that I come out of His knowing of me every moment. 7. My eyes blink in amazement at what my reason just told me.
You see, God designed our spirits and our minds to work together seamlessly.
Three Levels
All human thinking operates at three levels always at the same time. The first level is the ruling definitions, the underlying assumptions held to be true, but which are rarely considered. The second level is the theories, or paradigms of thinking by which the human mind arranges knowledge and facts. The third level is the many sets of facts coming our way or bits of knowledge that we accumulate.
Our underlying assumptions rule which paradigms of thinking we use. And our paradigms of thinking rule how we arrange facts – even which facts we accept as important and true and which facts we reject as meaningless.
Paradigms of Thinking
The human mind thinks inside specified paradigms of thinking in a very similar way as to how computers can work using different operating systems. A brilliant mind, operating inside a wrong paradigm of thinking, can produce only nonsense, brilliantly done.
For instance, Stephen Hawking operated inside a paradigm of thinking that says: “Math is pure science.” Thus, using his gifted mathematical mind, he reasoned by mathematics to postulate all sorts of things that do not exist, including “black holes.” Because others recognize his genius, millions of people and billions of dollars are focused on unreality.
Math is a tool of science, but it is not, in itself, science.
Theories
Science is rooted in observation and measurement. Because “pure math” departs from observation, it no longer remains science. But we will look more at scientific thinking in the next lesson.
People are locked into paradigms of thinking, sometimes many opposing paradigms in differing arenas of life. These paradigms of thinking can also be called theories, a framework or pattern of thinking by which facts are arranged into a working order. These paradigms of thinking are ruled by, or sit on top of, a very simple underlying assumption deemed to be true – such as “math is pure science” – even when it is false.
Contradicting Theories
For instance, the medical system studies “science” inside a paradigm of thinking that treats the human body as a mechanistic machine that needs intervention to be fixed. In contrast, natural health advocates study “science” inside a paradigm of thinking that treats the human body as an organic whole, operating by electrical frequency and interacting with a spirit, an organism that only needs assistance to heal itself. Both groups study science inside their sphere; both groups claim that the other is not “scientific.”
Trillions of dollars are spent, and billions of lives are affected by paradigms of thinking that are false. Some are false because of ignorance, and some are false because of deliberate evil.
Contradicting Assumptions
Here is a set of simple underlying assumptions that RULE people more than they understand. (A.) Government officials and news casters typically tell the truth. (B.) Government officials and news casters are almost always lying.
One of these assumptions is supported by the New Testament; the other is not. Yet the one not supported by the New Testament is trusted in by most of our brethren in this world. But look at the slight difference between these two underlying assumptions. Both address the same events of this world; both line up the same facts into an order of understanding.
Facts
As you can see, entire realms of human thinking operate off of very simple differing assumptions. Yet individuals inside contradictory paradigms of thinking place the exact same set of facts into entirely different scenarios or story lines. Yet we must also be certain of the facts.
A fact is simply some measurable phenomenon. There is a coffee cup sitting in front of me. That is a statement of fact. It could be true; it could be not true, but it is still a statement of fact. It is a statement of fact BECAUSE you could come yourself and measure the object in front of me to affirm that it is, indeed, a coffee cup.
Evidence Required
For instance, a few months ago, the news of the world told us that a bombing had occurred in Paris, France, killing hundreds of people. That was a statement of fact, whether true or untrue. Here is another statement of fact, either true or untrue. Hundreds of young people at the events where the bombing occurred had cell phones. Not one picture of mayhem or bloodshed or murder was uploaded to the Internet.
You see, even when I consider some event claimed by the news, I still require evidence. I do not know of any forensic evidence that these explosions actually occurred. No uploaded cellphone pictures is an overwhelming absence of evidence.
Tangible Evidence
Now, please understand, if there were, in fact, many such cellphone pictures of actual bodies ripped apart and real human suffering that were uploaded to the Internet, then I am simply miss-informed.
The point is this, facts require evidence of some tangible kind. Then, once facts are determined to be true, as best as can be, those facts are fitted into an entire paradigm of thinking based on what are, in fact, simple underlying assumptions. Those underlying assumptions are the simple rules deemed to be true, rules that govern how all things exist – at least in the minds of the thinkers.
But in a world filled with lies, we require any fact to be proven.
Lies as “Truth”
Here is an example of what I mean. I saw a list of statements about Paul’s teaching on the law, a list compiled by someone who was pushing “keep the law.” Every statement in that list referred directly to a passage in Paul’s letters and was worded in such a way that it sounded like what Paul said. Every statement in that list was the direct opposite of what Paul actually said; every statement was a lie. Yet to the unsuspecting, those who do not check out all statements of fact, the list sounded like “thus saith the Lord.”
And sadly, direct and open lies get far more followers than any statement of truth.
Three Levels Again
Again, we have established three levels of human thinking common to all. First is the underlying assumptions, simple rules by which all reality is deemed to be governed. Second is entire paradigms or systems of thinking that are based on the differing sets of assumptions – paradigms of thinking in which it seems, sometimes, that the participants live in entirely different universes (and in some ways they do). And third is all the many facts, facts that can be true or false, but that are shared by all, except that one paradigm of thinking will value a different set of facts than another paradigm.
All paradigms of thinking leave out inconvenient facts.
What God Says Are Facts
How is all of this important to us? There is zero debate for us regarding science and God. God IS – science studies what is – end of discussion. We do not enter into debates with people whose spirits are dead to God; they are incapable of knowing Spirit.
Thus, for us, we treat what God actually says in the Covenant He signed with us and we with Him as established facts of reality. Yet we do so out of knowing God as He is and out of knowing the realms of Spirit and how physical and spiritual substance relate and interact together.
Revolution
Thinking clearly and thinking logically are the same thing. When I hear the preacher say “the Bible says,” or “Paul says” and I look at what the Bible says, I am able to see and know what God actually says logically. That means I am able to look at the context clues, at word meanings, at other things God says on the same topic, and come to a reasonable determination of what God actually says. BUT – I must do so, sometimes, against the hard face of the lying preacher, one who is preaching out from the many paradigms of “Christian” thinking based on false underlying assumptions about God, man, Christ, and salvation.
Sometimes clear thinking is radical revolution.
Revelation
Revelation, then, is believing that what God says is true. This believing comes only by the miraculous operation of the Holy Spirit through our minds, minds that think clearly and logically, minds that base their thinking on the foundational assumptions of reality that are God’s.
Most unclear thinking comes out of dishonesty, out of an effort in the thinker to hide from God or from others. Because we walk in the light, open before God, never trying to convince Him that we are righteous in ourselves, we have nothing to hide from God or each other. Thus we can know that our thoughts are clear; we know that we possess the very mind of Christ.