Raising Lazarus

When you hear people making universal judgments about good and evil, you must not believe that this judgment is correct in every respect. Even though people have a sense of justice and injustice inscribed on their heart, it doesn’t mean that they are able to discern the truth in particular cases. People can’t even avoid…

The 4th-century Greek philosopher, Themistius, is more accurate than Plato in in teaching that the human mind is usually correct at discerning general principles, but not very good at applying it to particular circumstances. For example, no one would deny that murder is evil, yet people still conspire to kill others. Unfaithful spouses will condemn…

The third branch of spiritual knowledge is how to properly regulate behavior. We could also call this knowledge, “how to perform righteous works.” The human mind seems to have a little more discernment in how to this than the other two branches of spiritual knowledge (knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves). The apostle Paul…

God gives people wisdom and understanding into spiritual things; they do not have within themselves. As the Paul writes in Ephesians 1:17, “May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, grant to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation.” All wisdom and revelation of divine things is a gift from God.…

If everyone was persuaded of the truth of Scripture that human nature possesses none of the gifts that the elect receive from their heavenly Father through the regeneration by the Spirit, then there would be no need to argue about these things. In Psalm 36:9, the congregation of faith believers by the mouth of the…

As human beings, we are intoxicated with a high opinion of our own discernment. We think we can understand divine things, even though we are completely ignorant of them. Therefore, the best way to demonstrate our spiritual blindness won't be made through logical arguments but by Scripture. One of the clearest passages that speak to…

I now want the show the relationship between human reason and the kingdom of God. When we speak of the kingdom and spiritual realities, there are three main things we're talking about. The first one is the knowledge of God. The second one is God's fatherly kindness towards us which leads us to salvation. And…

Let me summarize my point so far. When you survey the human race, one distinguishing mark of humans is the ability to reason. This reasoning ability distinguishes us from animals, just like animals are distinguished from inanimate objects. While some individuals are born with reason, their defect does not impair the general kindness of God.…