Introduction
With my master’s degree courses beginning two weeks ago with rhetoric and research as the two focuses for the next eight weeks, I have been thinking a great bit about the place of rhetoric and reason in Christianity. First, I should clarify that when I say Christianity, I am referring not to those who are merely religious but to those who have a genuine relationship with God, have trusted in Christ as their Savior, and follow the teachings of the Bible as their guide both to life and to knowing God. With that definition out of the way, I’ve been contemplating what I see in the church around me today versus what I see in Scripture, and I have realized something. Today’s church in America is often one of the least reasonable, least rational things I have ever seen.
This is not, in fact, because the Bible promotes anti-reason, as some have suggested. Key verses that disprove this are 1 Pet. 3:15, which states, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,” (ESV) or Proverbs 1:2 “To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.” (ESV).
Some other examples of the call to reason and discretion are in the form of the men and women of God who stood up and reasoned out their faith in defense of it before those who wished to mock or even harm them. (See Acts 17:17 and Acts 6:9-10 for examples).
We are told to rightly divide the word of truth, to exercise discretion–which requires that we use our minds–and to be prepared with a reason. All of this points toward a strong argument in Scripture for the believer to be a thinking, well-educated, and wise individual or to seek to improve themselves in those three areas if they are lacking. So why don’t we? What have we lost in the American church that we are happy to tell others things like “Oh, I just believe it because that’s what my Bible says,” or “Oh, my pastor said or this respected Christian leader said it, so it must be true”?
This is not to say that believing the Bible to be true is wrong or even unreasonable. I do not believe either to be true. In fact, I believe whole heartedly that it is true in every word and command and that it is reasonable to say as much. But why do I believe this? Not because the Bible says, “Every word is true, so believe it”. No, I believe because I can test the principles, the claims, and the accuracy of it to determine whether or not it is true. Some things, it is true, I have to take on faith because there is no way to prove beyond a shadow of any doubt that they are true. But then, this is true of every individual’s beliefs at some point.
If we demanded that everyone believed only what they could prove with no possible refutation, we wouldn’t have evolution or half the claims scientists have made because those claims required them to make certain base assumptions to arrive at the conclusions. And, as it happens, many of the claims they were so certain of were later proven wrong. It doesn’t stop them from refusing to question their base assumptions for accuracy.
But as Christians, if we are called to make a defense or give an answer for the hope within us, it is hardly going to fly with any reasonable person to simply say you believe it because something or someone told you to. The mind and reason are revealed to be absent in that approach, and it is little wonder that not many are convinced by that little argument–if it can be called that–outside the group of people who already agree with it. So we return to the initial question. Why is the church in this state? What is the problem, and what is the solution?
Why We Are In This State
There a number of reasons why the church has ended up at this point based on the historical record. The ones I go over below are the ones I believe have been the most damaging and the most to blame for the problem that we will discuss later on.
Feel-Good Christianity and Mental Laziness
One that is most clear is the move away from the emphasis on thoughtful study of the Bible to a feel-good Christianity that ignores the harder passages and more difficult truths in favor of whatever makes us happiest. It is a mentally lazy approach that focuses on anything but the difficult stuff. Passages such as “love your neighbor as yourself” or the numerous passages talking about how to live the Christian life are well-read and known because we feel superior when we obey the commands. Those are easy passages to grasp, even if they are not always so easy to live out. But we don’t often take the time to study passages that discuss election (unless it is to make a straw man out of one side of the argument or another in Baptist and fundamentalist churches, which I have frequently observed. But in these cases, little to no in depth analysis is done, and where it has been, the speaker proved the opposition’s point true instead of his own, an event that was both amusing and astounding.) or what our call actually entails.
Emphasis on Doing Over Study and Prayer
The second problem that seems to lead to this issue is the emphasis on doing, doing, doing. Rarely have I seen churches balance doing with prayer and thought. There seems to be the belief that all we need from Scripture are the basic commands and a general understanding of our goal before we can go out and just do whatever we think will best accomplish that goal. We do not take the time to study how the men and women God commended went about accomplishing the goal. We do not so often take the time to ask why they did things the way they did. We do not ask what philosophy or worldview their writings reveal them to have possessed or what worldview God wished to reveal through what he was saying.
We look only at the surface of the issue with no thought about the whys behind it, and then we are off, running a race we never understood to begin with. It is this problem, I am convinced, that has led to so many Christians focusing on all sorts of social and political issues that are symptoms of the disease plaguing society while completely missing the entire point and the disease they are meant to be slowing down. They read passages like those in Matthew where Christ talks about salt and light, and they say, oh, that’s nice. But they don’t think beyond the rudimentary concept that this refers to our witness. They entirely miss the why, and they entirely mistake what those metaphors implied about their purpose.
Then they are confounded when their attempts to treat symptoms do not lead to any effectual change. This is a hallmark of American Christianity both in fundamental and liberal churches. One holds rigidly to the Bible without understanding it and the other claims to “take the Bible too seriously to believe all of it” and therefore tosses out whatever doesn’t fit with their political or social ideals. Neither of them has any success at doing what a Christian is meant to do.
The one ends up being legalistic and gives off the impression the Pharisees gave. The other, who can hardly be taken seriously in their claim of a serious approach to Scripture if they think that mere humans can decide what is true and untrue (as if any of it is untrue, it calls into question to truth of the entire document, and makes it a wholly unreliable source, so how are we then to know which parts are true and which are not? Given the many varied opinions, we must then say no opinion has more validity than another since the text itself offers us no basis or authority on which to say what is true or untrue conclusively.), and their approach to the situation lends itself to the “liberated” Christianity that Paul rebuked many of the early Christians for adopting.
Both destroy not just their testimony but also any effectiveness they might have had at giving that reason for their hope. The second has better success, perhaps, at drawing in numbers if they behave as a social club and stand for nothing at all (or else stand for social issues, not the Bible), but it has no lasting success as the people it draws are very often not true believers but are simply drawn to a religious outlook that allows them to do whatever they please while feeling they’re doing something that lets them believe they are right with God. Whether feel-good Christianity or legalism, neither set of believers does much to change anything for the better.
Note here that doing is not in and of itself bad. Also note that reminding people of the commands of Scripture by itself is not bad any more than reminding people to be loving is. But both sides are doing without really pondering Scripture on any meaningful level because they put doing above careful study of Scripture and time spent in prayer, the two of which must go together and precede doing if we want God’s blessing on us for our obedience. Blind, surface-level obedience is very often no more useful than not obeying at all since it frequently results in approaches to fulfilling the command that do not in any way match the purpose of the command or the intent behind it.
Disdain for or Apathy Toward Rhetoric and Philosophy
This is another reason behind the decline of the American church. Many believers have bought into the idea that we don’t need to study philosophy or rhetoric because we have faith. They separate faith and the mind, which ought never be done since it leads to exactly the sort of blind, stumbling obedience or an irreverent, unserious approach to Scripture that I referenced earlier. Why don’t we think it’s necessary? That varies a bit depending on the person, but there are a few key reasons that continually crop up.
No Time or No Capacity
First, I hear from conservative Christians quite frequently that they don’t have the time for that sort of studying (after all, there’s all that doing to be done). I also hear from some that they’re not “orators” or that they’re just simple, backwoods hicks, implying that they don’t have the capacity for it. Both of these are silly arguments. To begin with, how do you not have the time for one of the most important pieces of anyone’s worldview? Your philosophy is how you view the world around you, and if you don’t assemble it consciously, you will do so subconsciously by grabbing hold of a bit of this and a bit of that. Some of it will be good, some bad, and some of no use either way.
This has to be one of the worst ways to assemble your worldview given that everything you do will then proceed out of these random, jumbled bits of philosophy you accumulated throughout your lifetime. It is certainly not going to give you a cohesive system of beliefs that can be easily or readily explained to others. If you have no idea what you believe or else know what you believe but not why, then why on earth should anyone want to believe it to? And how, exactly, are you to explain to another human being why they should also agree with you if you don’t even know why you agree with you? So I say you do not have time not to develop your philosophy and basic rhetorical skills to allow you to explain it to another person convincingly.
As for the other argument, philosophy, as I said, is simply a more formalized look at worldview and your beliefs. Saying that you’re too simple or too backwoods hick to understand what you believe and why is just you saying you do not have the capacity to think about how you think or why you think it, which would make you no better than the animals around us as they too have no capacity for thought or reason. The only major difference besides appearance would be that you have chosen to discard your capacity for thought and reason while the animal never had the same capacity for it as a human in the first place. It sounds harsh, but it is also a fair statement. We all have the ability to understand what we believe and why, even if it takes some more time to think through it than others. Taking more time to come to a conclusion is not a bad thing. Refusing to think about it or make the conclusion at all is, especially when it’s such a crucially important issue.
No Need
When it comes to other arguments I’ve heard from the more liberal sides of the Christian community, I hear things like, well, we just teach love, and that’s all that really matters. If that were all they actually taught, then I would agree that there would be little need for rhetoric, though philosophy is necessary regardless of what you teach. However, many of them also wish to tell us how we ought to live our lives in relation to culture and how we should remain relevant. That ought to require of them, at the very least, a solid argument for why they are right and everyone else is wrong, ought it not? So this group too has discarded rhetoric and philosophy for less than logical reasons.
Viewed as Dishonest
Finally, there is the general feeling amongst Christians on both sides that rhetoric and philosophy represent something inherently bad or dishonest. We often hear the words associated with politicians and presume that rhetoric itself is bad when in fact it is the politicians who are using it to make a weak argument appear strong who are bad. Rhetoric itself is merely the use of persuasive speech and techniques to convince someone else to change their opinions or position. All writing and speech is by nature in some small way rhetorical. If we didn’t intend to influence anyone, what would we speak about at all? Even small talk could be considered in a way rhetorical since it is an attempt to set someone else at ease and to alter their mindset to be more favorable towards you or the situation. If we truly had no concerns for persuading, what would be the point to communicating?
Now, this does not mean that someone cannot communicate their position without any direct intent to persuade. We inform people of facts all of the time, and we ourselves may not inform with the hope or even the suspicion that it might change a mind. There have been many times where I have engaged with people in this manner. I am more interested in stating my position, the facts that led to it, and the truth that I will remain standing on than I am on persuading the other individual.
In these conversations, I present my side and then let the conversation go or move on as the other individual pleases because I really do not care if they agree or not. The only point is to make clear what I am going to stand on, regardless of what anyone else does. However, the way I present the issue is still in some way rhetorical because even as I present the why behind my position, I may still influence another. Rhetoric may not have been the intent, but the speech remains, nonetheless, rhetorical in nature and result.
However, the prevailing public view of rhetoric often tends to be quite bad, and so Christians have a tendency to steer away from that and philosophy out of a fear that they might be contaminated in some way with its evil or be known for engaging in it. This comes, often, from a well-meaning place. No one wants to be known as the person who uses language to mislead and confuse others, least of all a true believer since we hold firmly that lying in any event is wrong. As such, it is understandable that they would view rhetoric as something to avoid. Out of all the reasons for avoiding it, this one is the only one that holds any real weight, though as we will see, it is not really an excuse.
The Problem
Now that we understand some of the key reasons why we are in this shape, what is the actual problem we’re faced with? Well, we are faced with an apathetic church that is either wholly legalistic or wholly social-conscious and carefree with Scripture. If we are going to adhere to the Bible, which is the sole authority on how a Christian ought to be living in accordance with God’s will, then we want neither of these two scenarios. We cannot behave as the Pharisees did and have a faith that is dead with only the appearance of it through “good” works. Nor can we act as so many liberal Christians were in Paul’s day (and today) by saying that we have liberty in Christ and therefore all things are permissible.
We also must not ever claim that we take Scripture too seriously to believe it all. That statement is internally inconsistent because if you take something seriously, that usually means you do not disregard it or toss away half of it. You take it as a whole, consider it very carefully, and strive to understand it. Given that the New Testament tells us that all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, instruction, and correction, if we say any of it is untrue, then we undermine the authority and reliability of the document and we must say either that it is not the Word of God or else call God a liar. I would not envy any individual that position.
Making light of God’s Word by approaching it as if you can pick and choose what God told the truth about and what he didn’t is a serious and dangerous position to be in. Equally bad is simply saying that only parts of it are God’s Word or that none of it is. How can you know anything about what God wants if He hasn’t been the one to ensure the integrity of the document He gave you to explain what He wanted and who He is. Nothing can be considered reliable if He is not truth.
So our problem is our lack of knowledge of Scripture, our apathy, and our lack of knowledge of the character of the God we claim to serve. Our lack of understanding and apathy toward the very Creator we claim we serve is at the root of many of the other outgrowths of it. We discussed the reasons for this problem above, but the main reason for this ignorance is spiritual and mental laziness.
We don’t care to engage on a deeper level with our faith, and we honestly do not believe it is all that important. We are generally content with a blind faith that does not require us to wrestle with the more difficult truths of Scripture, nor to consider the areas where it may seem to conflict to understand why it does not and how we may best explain this to unbelievers and skeptics. We are happy living a lukewarm, milk-toast Christianity because it is comfortable and requires very little of us. Americans on the whole tend toward being a mentally lazy group, sadly, and have largely discarded the emphasis on reason, thought, and responsibility to learn that the Founders and their fellow Americans possessed. The church has followed the trend, and we are seeing the results in the loss of ground.
Folks, the problem we have is not that the culture isn’t saturated with Judeo-Christianity. It is not that our government is not following the Constitution and is violating God’s law. Our problem is that we have become salt without savor. We have lost our use as a preservative, and because we have done so, we see the impact in an increasingly perverse and wicked culture, the loss of our freedoms, and policies that are overtly and sickeningly defiant of God’s law.
The end result, perhaps even if we address our problem and see a revival in our midst, will be the destruction of this country. And it will be the church’s fault that it went when it did, not because they could prevent the inevitable end–that is already prophesied and will happen at some point regardless of what we do–but because we stopped attempting to act as a preserving influence and started focusing on the symptoms of the rot we were meant to fight against. We were never intended to stop the rot from eventually spoiling the fish we were to preserve, friends. When Jesus compared us to salt, he knew that salt was used to preserve the fish or meat for as long as possible but that it could not, ultimately, stop the rot from setting in and destroying. Neither did He intend for us to do more than delay the inevitable.
But we stopped trying to delay the inevitable and started focusing on other issues based on our politics, our preferences, and our social circles. And we have only to look around in order to see what our departure from the Bible and God’s commission to us has cost us. It was too high a price to pay, but past generations and this current one chose to pay it anyway for the shifting sands that cultural relevance offered or for the Pharisaical legalities that blind obedience to rules could offer. Neither was worth the sacrifice of truth, honor, and purpose that was made, but those in our past and we too now have made that sacrifice. When are we going to stop sacrificing those things that are immeasurably valuable in exchange for a handful of fool’s gold? Until we do, our problem is not going to go away.
The Solution
All of this paints a rather bleak picture for the true believe who wishes to see a return to vital Christianity. Is there a solution? Is there hope? Of course, there is both a solution and hope. The Bible promises us that if we repent, we will be cleansed and restored. It also promises that if God’s people will turn from their wicked ways and humbly seek his face, he will turn to them and heal. This doesn’t mean that doing so will forever stop destruction, but it may mean another fifty or a hundred years of prosperity and blessing.
The solution is two-fold. Both pieces must be present with equal importance and focus. The first piece is a return to the Bible. Without that, the second piece is of little use whatever because you will be of no help in turning the culture or individuals around you to Christ without it. The second is reason. We must reclaim the focus on reason and rationality that our forefathers had.
If you read the sermons presented by many of the ministers during the Founding, you will find examples of men who thought deeply and pondered Scripture carefully. They weren’t always right in their interpretations, but they showed a depth of thought and consideration that few ministers or church goers today have. It was that thought that so often allowed them to bring a straying culture back to the tenets of the Bible. The two worked together: knowledge of Scripture and reason. They tried their faith, and as a result, they knew what they believed as well as why. This had a powerful effect, and if not for the impact of the ministers on the culture, we might never have had the American revolution. (For more on this, read the articles marked Influential Ministers in my series on American History.)
They shaped the political and cultural environment in a way few of us could ever dream of a church doing today because they used the Bible and reason to engage with the world around them and the political leaders as well as the cultural ones. If we are going to start reclaiming morality, virtue, and religious freedoms in this country, we are going to have to start making the same sorts of powerful arguments they made. With that, the need for rhetoric becomes indispensable.
Their sermons are examples of rhetoric used for good. They used it to stand up to tyranny in a way that was persuasive, meaningful, and useful. Rather than using it to encourage policies and actions that were wicked by covering them up with pretty words, their use of rhetoric was intended to adorn the Gospel of Christ, to adorn Scripture to make it lovely to those who listened. We can do that too, but not if we refuse to engage our minds, not just our hearts and emotions, with the Bible and with God. We must wrestle with Him and with His Word the same way that Jacob did, the same way that the preachers in the colonies had to, and the same way that many others have done before us. This is the solution: the Bible and the mind. If we lose either, we lose the fight.
My Appeal to My Fellow Christians
In closing, since this piece is most certainly rhetoric and intended to change the reader’s mind, I make an appeal to you as brothers and sisters in Christ, Christians. It is time to stop being mindless about our faith. It is time to start reacquainting ourselves with Scripture and reason. It is time that we stopped giving people pat answers about our faith because we can offer nothing else. It is time for us to start adorning the Gospel of Christ through the rhetoric we use and the way we live together. It is time to stop trying to put a permanent stop to the decay we see in this country by fighting specific policies while ignoring the bigger disease those policies represent. It is time to start acting as salt and light.
It is time, my friends, that we actually put on our armor and acted like soldiers. We’re in a battle. A battle that requires every faculty of reason and mind we possess in conjunction with the Word. Our battle is against the powers of darkness that are holding those around us enslaved. It is not against whoever is our President this year or in the next four years when we vote again. It is not against members of Congress or our next-door neighbor who is on the opposite side of the political aisle. It is against the forces of evil that blind them, the lawless, godless attitudes that are prevailing today, and against the lies that seek to snuff out the truth. We are the candles and the salt in a world desperately in need of both light and preservation.
Our task is not easy. It will be grueling work to battle what we are up against, even when we do it in God’s power. It will require us to lay aside every weight that could keep us from running this race with our eyes on the goal and unfailing perseverance. It will demand of us mentally, physically, and emotionally. But it is not without reward. We will have to face the hatred, the punishment, the vitriol of a world that hates the light and the truth that we represent. But if we will stand, we will be rewarded with peace, joy, longsuffering, and eventually, an eternity free of any suffering. This lifetime is only a moment on a timeline that includes eternity, fellow believers. What we do here and now will likely be forgotten by most who come after us. But it is never forgotten by our God, and you can be certain that you will be rewarded for fighting well and never giving up.
If you don’t, however, let me remind you what you stand to lose. You may not lose your salvation, but you can lose your rewards. You may not lose eternity with Christ, but you will have to bear the sorrow of not hearing Him say “Well done”. I don’t know about you, but after my own fight is finally over, I am looking forward to that moment when I hear Him say those words. I want to hear that more than anything, and I want to live through eternity knowing that I did fight the good fight, that I ran my race to the absolute best of my ability in accord with God’s principles and the values He smiles on, and that I stood on the truth without budging even if it meant threats and death.
To know that I lived true to Him and to my values is the most important thing to me. I will endure any amount of name calling, suffering, and pain if it is necessary to live this way because it is a standard I will not compromise. I will not hand in the precious gems of truth, reason, virtue, and faith for the ashes that the world will offer in exchange. I do not care what the threat is or even if I must die in order to stand true to my values. What use would my values be to me if I sacrificed them merely to remove a threat? What sort of principle would it be if I were willing to abandon it and live by another’s virtue-less principle in order to save my own life? What sort of life would be if I had to live with the knowledge that I gave up what was beyond precious for that which was worthless and valueless? I cannot answer those questions for you, but I can answer them for me. It would be no life at all, in the end.
Conclusion
It is up to you, in the end, whether you will start fighting the fight you were asked to. I cannot make anyone do this. I certainly would never demand it however strongly I believe it necessary. Whether you fight or not in spite of the risk and the cost is a decision you will have to make. You will have to make it knowing the pain that lies ahead in this life if you choose to hold onto values such as truth, Scriptural principles, and morality based in an unchanging standard. You will have to decide for yourself if you are going to fulfill the Great Commission that Christ gave his church. And if you decide to do what you were put on this earth to do, then you will have to determine in what ways God would have you to do that. But I firmly believe that if we count the costs and engage with God and Scripture using both mind and heart, we will only be able to come to the conclusion that we must fight until the day we are called home to peace and rest.
