When speaking of general knowledge, morality, and basic laws of the material world, I would say that the three basic principles of logic- the law of noncontradiction, the law of excluded middle, and law of identity, are very rooted in the Creator God.1 For example, to say that the natural color of grass is blue could never be a true statement, because we know that the natural color of grass is always green. There are no grey areas or middle grounds with the natural color of grass.
On the other hand, I would have to say that, as a child of God, faith in God goes far beyond these borders of logic. For example, in the book of Joshua, and in the sixth chapter, it states in the 21st verse-
“They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys (Joshua.”
…and also states in verse 24…
“Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house.”
Wow.
I don’t know about you….but these two verses are very disturbing for me. Actually more of a shock! Is this the God I serve? Is this the same God of love spoken of in John chapter four- a God ordering his people to go into cities and slaughter innocent children (1 Jn 4:8)? I think it is safe to claim the, “lean not on your own understanding” verse here, you think (Pr 3:5)? What about the sixth commandment “Thou shall not murder”? It would seem that the law of noncontradiction, along with the law of excluded middle, seemed to have just projected out the window at this point…and I still haven’t even touched base on verse 24 yet! I don’t think I really need to expound much about the content of that verse…it speaks for it self.
The rational truth in this circumstance, that a believer must conclude, is that we cannot understand the mind of God, the actions of God, or the motives of our Lord. This is very imperative to our faith! Faith means believing in something we cannot fully understand. Faith goes beyond the laws of logic…better stated- God goes beyond the laws of logic. Obviously the city of Jericho, that was destroyed in the book of Joshua, was a city that was standing in the middle of God’s will, and God needed to forcefully move that obstacle out of the way….and boy did he ever! I have to trust that God’s motives and actions were just and righteous in his dealing with Jericho. I believe that God is truly a God of love, not based on the laws of logic, but based on the laws of faith.
1. James s. Spiegel, The Love of Wisdom (Nashville, B&H Publishing, 2009) pg. 18
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