Faith includes intelligence...

After listening to J.P. Moreland speaking on knowledge, it not being a substitute for faith, but a key component of...

I found...

Scripture after scripture showing that faith is cognitive, that knowledge is necessary to finding better or more clear understanding (not that we should lean on our limited understanding. Complete knowing is not ours yet). Faith fills in the things which are not clear, but faith also includes the knowledge He does clearly provide.

Yes, there is a burning in our hearts as He explains the scriptures, like we read in Luke. The burning to me, though, is what happens when we hear the truth from Our Lord. He created us with the truth, so it would, of course resonate with us when we hear it, right?

It is more than a feeling, more than an intuition, though those things should also line up with His truth. However, feelings and intuitions can be marred with other influences. Whereas knowledge from Our Lord stands steady, sturdy, and constant. This is why His word is so precious, so powerful, filled with His truth, justice and mercy.


True heart knowledge and mind knowledge should meet; I believe they do with grace and faith.

For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 2:6 NASB


Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments.
Psalms 119:66 NASB

The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge, And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.
Proverbs 18:15


The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord .
Isaiah 11:2 NASB


There is gold, and an abundance of jewels; But the lips of knowledge are a more precious thing.
Proverbs 20:15 NASB



For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
Colossians 1:9 NASB


So yes, our Lord is a thinking God. He created us with minds, and His creation is intelligent. No doubt about it. Yes, He wants His knowledge, His sound reason, in our minds delivered into our hearts. Yes, He is into the heart of our matter, but our intellect is relevant to our convictions, to our faith.


so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17‭-‬19 NASB


I believe He wants us to use our brains, as we fill our minds and hearts with Him.


Then…


we rest in His embrace. How sweet He is.

I believe...

Critical thinking is such an amazing gift given, from the heart and mind of God, as is His love that hopefully fills our hearts and minds.

I am just adding verses that include knowledge.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:3‭-‬4 NASB

There is the knowledge of this age of all things bound for the fire next time. Many people confusse the knowledge of this age with having value in the sight of the one Who mad it all, and plans to burn it all.

As Charlirene has well indicated knowledgwe is the truth from God. It is written to us, His children, "why destroy yourselvef with what is falsely called knowledge. Yes the truth which is love, is eternal and it may onhly bwe learned and appreciated from Je3sus, the Word. Praise ou blessed Father Eternal. All love and blessings in Jesus...…..

You are so right about the worldly knowledge. His is truth, rising above the ignorance and foolishness. Faith, His intelligent design. It is all His, all knowledge and wisdom that lead to His truth.

that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:5‭-‬8 NASB

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “L et him who boasts , boast in the Lord .”
1 Corinthians 1:30‭-‬31 NASB

Thank you, Brother Jaumej, for reading and sharing your insight. Our Lord is so generous with us, sharing Himself so graciously with His creation.

CharliRenee,

A good definition faith is:
Trusting in that which you have good reason to believe.

In the Bible, faith is never "blind."

When God tells us a thing, we are never to exercise "blind faith", we are to exercise faith in what the supreme being just told us!
Well, that isn't "blind" at all.
That's very reasonable!

Faith is to always trust in what God clearly says.
If the God of the universe says something, it is ENTIRELY REASONABLE and LOGICAL to just presume HE IS RIGHT.

A. If ANYONE is to BE BELIEVED, who could possibly be more believable than God?
B. If ANYONE is to KNOW A THING, who could possibly know more than God?

It is nothing but rational to believe in whatever the God of the universe tells you.
And that's what faith is.
Faith in God is to trust in God.
Nothing is more rational than trusting in the omnipotent creator of the universe who KNOWS ALL THINGS.

.

there are many Commandments in the scriptures that we don't understand -
but yet, if we Love our Heavenly Father, we go without knowing,
we don't walk by sight, but by our Faith -

11COR. 5:7.
(For we walk by Faith, not by sight

both of our experiences have taught us that sometimes, like Abraham,
we just GO, NOT KNOWING where we are GOING, we just TRUST that
He knows better than we do...

Oldethennew,

I agree that we need to just trust God.
I completely agree.

But I DO try to get believers, especially young believers, to consider whether "trusting God" is reall a "blind action."

I don't think it is at all.

To trust in God is NOT to take a blind action at all.
There is nothing more rational than trusting in the person who created all things, and knows all things.

To trust in God is to literally trust in the most rational thing you could possibly trust in.
It isn't a blind action.
It's the most sensible action you can take.

God Bless.
.

MATT. 18:3.
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except you be converted, and become as little children,
you shall not enter into The Kingdom of Heaven.
10:16.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

11TI. 1:7.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Brother Max,
in both of our experiences, and this is separately, He brought us to Him, in the beginning, in our
ignorance, we just can't take any credit for this part of our journey, and we must admit, it was
the ride of all rides!

Amen to that.

The illumination of spiritual truths is directly related to the condition of the heart.

When Jesus explained the meaning of the parable of the sower and the different types of soil he said that if we did not understand this parable we could not understand any of his parables because this parable explained spiritual illumination. Only the heart of repentance (break up the fallow ground of your heart in repentance as mentioned in Hosea) was able to understand in such a way that yielded fruit.

To have ears to hear requires humility and faith. It is to agree with God even if it requires that we change our actions. Unless we have this kind of heart we will be driven to darkness.

Speech is the proper mode of spiritual manifestation. (Albert Barnes 1834)

When we are filled with the Spirit of God we will learn to speak as the oracles of God and this is waiting on our ministry or learning to minister by the empowerment of the Spirit which is far more effective than sharing words alone. To share Spirit-empowered words imparts faith to faith and life unto life.

'Speech is the proper mode of spiritual manifestation.' (Albert Barnes 1834)

our WALK-manifestation of The Holy Spirit in us, is the real proof of our calling'...

it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Quick Interjection:

A. God is not saying that preaching actually IS foolish, or irrational.
B. God is saying preaching "appears" foolish and irrational to the lost world.

There is a HUGE difference.

God NEVER tells us to do anything irrational.... meaning, "against laws of logic."
That is actually something God CANNOT do... to violate laws of logic would be to violate his own nature... as logic and order, as the underpinnings of natural creation, actually flow out from him, and come from him.
But he DOES tell us to do things which APPEAR irrational TO THE LOST WORLD.

Take care guys.

..

The point is that he chose preaching. This usually requires speaking. This is God's method to communicate spiritual truths empowered by the Spirit of God. So Albert Barnes understood something when he said "Speech is the proper mode of spiritual manifestation" it goes over peoples heads but I have found it to be true in my life. The Spirit will use you to speak a word in season to the weary which will be used by the Spirit to illuminate the person and thus we are talking about knowledge in the soul of man. Trying to stick with the original theme of the thread here folks.

Thank you for explaining your reason for posting the verse.
.

I agree with what you are saying and yes we need to be humble. I also agree words, His, has authority, ours should always line up with His will when witnessing. I guess what I am addressing is when studying the word, He has no problem, even wants us to utilize our noggins. Would you agree that His truths revealed are reasonable and sound?

I am not as savy as you but as I study the word more and more, His truths revealed make more and more logical sense. I still do not understand so much, realize that the more I learn, the more I know so little. He comforts me, though, telling me not to lean on my own understanding.

So are you saying the more our hearts are open and humble to Him, the more room there is for learning? If so, I one hundred percent agree.

Well that is encouraging and hopeful.

It would seem like having faith depend upon the intellect would not be very fair to less bookish people, or people with developmental problems (a lot of them are some of the most innocent people there are in the world). The ability to reason is remnant of the former glory of man before the fall. Unfortunately, the enemy is now able to dabble with the mind, so that is why there are so many surprisingly intelligent people believing all kinds of craziness. If a man sets his heart on believing something, his brain is his effective slave that is helping him argue like the devil's advocate, to justify his heart. Even if he may be deceived in his bias to "imagine" that he wants "the truth". That's why you have a Christian brilliantly arguing a perfectly reasonable point, but this never makes the people who hate God change their minds.
2 Timothy 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Most apostles were completely unlearned people. Apostle Paul had scholarly background, but he was very careful that his book knowledge does not swell up or take place of the knowledge of God and he magnified "the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" at all times. After all it was Jesus who spoke like one who had power and authority, and that's why people listened to Him and not to the Pharisee scholars. Because they learned from books, but Jesus had first hand connection with Father God and walked in the power.
1 Corinthians 4:19 ...and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power.
1 Corinthians 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.