3. A God of Logic: Why Reason Matters in Theology

This section demonstrates that God is inherently logical and that we should use logic when studying theology. Affirming that God is logical is essential for determining whether God has revealed that Jesus is God and that God is three in one.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 1:18)

In context, God is calling Israel to reason with Him concerning their sin and the possibility of cleansing. At minimum, this shows that reason is not opposed to faith. God invites human beings to think, discern, and respond rationally to what He has revealed.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matthew 22:36–38)

Human reason and logic are part of what it means for a person to think. Jesus calls us to love God with our entire mind. We therefore should not abandon reason when we study God; using our minds carefully is itself part of loving Him.

Some Christian perspectives on whether God is logical:

1) One translation of John 1:1 reads, “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God.”

One author maintains that this identifies Christ with the wisdom, logic, and right thinking of God. While I disagree with the author's identification of Christ as the Logos, for reasons explained later, I agree with his larger point that logic is grounded in God Himself.

Logic allows us to reason consistently about truth and error—and about right and wrong. The author refers to perhaps the most basic law of logic, Aristotle's law of non-contradiction: “The same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same subject and in the same respect” (Aristotle, Metaphysics IV.3, 1005b19–20).

2) Another Christian author writes:

“Logic isn’t something outside God to which he must conform, any more than righteousness or compassion is; it is an extension of his own being and character that we have the capacity to appreciate and reflect because he has built it into humanity (how we think) and this world (how it operates). So is God bound by logic? In the same sense that he is ‘bound’ by righteousness or by love, yes; those are all part of his nature and he is ‘bound’ to act according to his own nature.

But in the sense that logic or righteousness or love is some universal quality external to God to which he is compelled to submit, no. God is not bound by logic; God is logic.”

The author acknowledges that Scripture can contain things that appear difficult to reconcile—for example, the longstanding disagreements between Calvinists and Arminians concerning God's grace and human freedom. But an apparent contradiction caused by our incomplete understanding is not the same thing as an actual contradiction in God.

He explains, “That doesn’t mean that God’s logic is different than ours but infinitely fuller and more informed because he alone has all the facts” (Is God Bound by Logic?, n.d.).

3) Theologian and author Norman Geisler said:

“Without God, nothing could have existence. God is the basis of all logic in reality and he is in no way inferior to logic. Logic comes from God, not God from logic. But when it comes to how we know things, logic is the basis of all thought, and it must come before any thought about anything, including God. For example, I need a map before I can get to Washington, D.C. But Washington must exist before the map can help me get there.

Even so, we use logic first to come to know God, but God exists first before we can know him” (Morrow, 2013).

4) Author Bill Pratt similarly wrote:

“Can God violate the laws of logic? No, because he cannot not be himself. Whatever God is, he is eternally. God does not shut down various attributes of his being, like cutting off lights in different parts of the house. God is logical, he always has been logical, and he always will be logical. Someone might object, ‘Doesn’t this mean God is limited by logic?’ This objection has always struck me as strange because logic is synonymous with rationality.

Is God limited to being rational? Well yes, in the same way he is ‘limited’ by his goodness, or his beauty, or his holiness. God is never evil, ugly, or unholy; likewise, God is never illogical or irrational.” (Pratt, 2010)

Understanding theology and drawing conclusions from Scripture necessarily requires logic. Theologians cannot make any claim about God without using logical reasoning. Even the statement “God is beyond logic” would itself be an attempt to make a logical proposition about God.

God is inherently logical. That does not mean that human beings can fully comprehend Him. Nor does it mean that everything God reveals must be immediately easy for us to understand. Mystery is not the same thing as contradiction. Something may exceed our understanding without violating the basic laws of thought.

Therefore, if an interpretation of Scripture produces an actual logical contradiction, we have good reason to question whether we have interpreted Scripture correctly. God is the Creator of our rational faculties, and He reveals Himself to creatures whom He expects to understand, believe, and respond to what He has said. Paul even describes God, in the context of orderly worship, as “not a God of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33).

This distinction becomes especially important when asking, “Is Jesus God?”

If two interpretations appear capable of explaining the biblical evidence, but one requires us to affirm genuine contradictions while the other allows the passages to retain their ordinary meanings without contradiction, that is an important reason to prefer the latter interpretation. We should not call something a “mystery” merely because the propositions we have assembled appear logically incompatible. Before doing that, we should ask whether our interpretation itself may be mistaken.

This is not putting God in a box. God has revealed things about Himself, and believing those things means accepting the implications of what He has said. If God is love, He cannot simultaneously be not-love in the same respect. If God is righteous, He cannot simultaneously be unrighteous in the same respect. If God cannot lie, then He cannot both speak truth and falsehood in the same respect. God cannot be other than who He is.

There are therefore things God cannot do—not because something outside God restricts Him, but because God cannot cease to be Himself. For example, God cannot sin (Hebrews 6:18; Titus 1:2; 2 Timothy 2:13). Likewise, God cannot make a genuine contradiction true. A statement cannot both be true and false at the same time and in the same respect.

I believe some of the propositions required by the traditional Trinitarian framework create serious logical tensions—and, in the cases I examine below, contradictions. If that is true, Christians should regard this as a warning sign that something in our interpretation of Scripture may be wrong rather than concluding that God Himself transcends the distinction between contradiction and truth.

One final clarification: I am not arguing that everything in Scripture is simple, black and white, or intended to be interpreted literally. Scripture contains poetry, metaphor, symbolism, figures of speech, prophecy, typology, paradox, and profound mysteries. Logic does not eliminate any of these. Rather, logic helps us determine what a passage can and cannot reasonably mean.

Whether a passage is literal, figurative, symbolic, or nuanced, we still use reason to interpret it. Logic is therefore not an alternative to faithful biblical interpretation. It is one of the indispensable tools by which faithful interpretation is possible.