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To: metmom

Ephesians 2:8-9
Romans 3:28

Among others. They do not specifically reject reason. But they do emphasize that it is by Faith that one is saved, not by any other means.

In other words, you can’t reason your way to salvation.


24 posted on 06/19/2018 8:15:36 PM PDT by IronJack (A)
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To: IronJack
In other words, you can’t reason your way to salvation.

It wasn't claimed.

I think your earlier reply confused people to believe that they cannot use 'reason' AFTER they are saved.

"Come; let us reason together..."

34 posted on 06/20/2018 4:43:17 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: IronJack

I see what you mean.

Thanks for clarifying.


35 posted on 06/20/2018 5:04:33 AM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith......)
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To: IronJack; metmom
This was Thomas Aquinas' big fail on theologic. As I read, he was unable to admit that man's reasoning powers were also affected by Adam's Fall. Francis Schaeffer has discussed this philosophical problem in his tract "Escape from Reason," showing that what you maintain here is true. A brief reader's comment on the "Goodreads" vendor's site (click here) is as follows:

"Schaeffer writes that man's desire for autonomous freedom began with Aquinas's theology which argued that though man fell in Eden, his intellect did not. This created a system in philosophy that argued that man's reason was autonomous--meaning free and independent of any constraint. This opened the door to later philosophers to build philosophic arguments independent of God. But the problem is that man's desire for autonomy cannot be reconciled to the constraining forces in this world. Through reason man has come to understand that nature is a deterministic force that eliminates any hope for autonomy. This realization leads to the despair of modern man who believes he is but a mere machine in a mechanistic world and any 'meaning' is ultimately absurd because it doesn't exist--it can only be imagined or hoped for--hence man has escaped from reason and is irrational. A good, short, yet profound work."

Because Roman Catholicism is captivated by Aquinas' viewpoint, they find themselves trapped in the role of the "psuchikos" (soulish) man who cannot understand the deep things of The God, because they find the simple spiritual explanations foolish. Paul says so, in teaching the Corinthians about that state of the human mind:

"But the natural man receiveth not the deep (v. 10)things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. but he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man" (1 Cor. 2:14-15).

In order to evaluate the deeper things of God, beyond the transmitted knowledge that bears the fruit of saving faith, one must be regenerate, born of the Spirit anew, from above.

40 posted on 06/20/2018 7:09:44 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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