I’ve been thinking about Christian clichés lately—e.g., “Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship,” “Love the sinner, hate the sin,” “Let go and let God.” While pithy and memorable, and while they communicate important biblical truths, some of them also express unbiblical ideas. These erroneous clichés have some traction within the Christian community, and are sometimes espoused at the pulpit. Given their inaccuracy to Scripture, and given their popularity, it’s worth discussing some of these clichés
Take, for example, the following: “We can’t reason people into the Kingdom.” The idea here is that rational arguments aren’t effective for convincing people of the truth of Christianity. If we want to bring people to a saving knowledge of God, then reasoning with them is not the way to do it. But is this biblical? In short, no. You can reason people into the Kingdom. The Apostle Paul himself reasoned with unbelieving Jews and Gentiles as a means of evangelism, and was successful. In Acts 17, we read:
17:2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. (Acts 17:2–4; emphasis added; see also Acts 18:4; 26:28; 28:24; 2 Cor. 5:11)
“Bam! Prooftext!” as a former professor of mine might say.
To be fair, we should consider why someone might endorse what the cliché has to say. One reason is the conviction that ultimately it’s God who saves a person. Jesus says, after all, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). In response, it’s indeed true that God is the one who ultimately saves, but it doesn’t follow that God never uses a person’s arguments as the means by which He brings someone to a saving knowledge. Besides Paul’s case, we should remember other Christians who came to faith through rational arguments, such as C. S. Lewis and Lee Strobel, and how their books, which also involve rational arguments, have been instrumental in bringing others to faith—of course, all with God’s help.
Now, when people say that we can’t argue people into the Kingdom, they’ll sometimes also offer the following cliché: “We must love people into the Kingdom.” However, this cliché is problematic for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you can’t love people into the Kingdom anymore than you can reason them into it. Apart from God’s work, neither our arguments nor our charitable acts will be effective in bringing people to salvation. Secondly, reasoning with a person and being loving toward him are not mutually exclusive. If my unbelieving friend has problems with Christianity which are mainly intellectual in nature, it would be an act of love on my part if I take his doubts seriously, and do my best to rationally engage with them (and demolish them! See 2 Cor. 10:5) in the hope that he would be convinced and saved.
So can you reason someone into the Kingdom? If God so pleases to use your arguments, yes.1
1 For more discussion about this topic, check out chapter 2 of Greg Koukl’s Tactics, and chapter 1 of William Lane Craig’s On Guard, both of which I consulted in making this post.
"The charge is made that no one ever comes to Christ through apologetics. If this implies that the Holy Spirit never uses apologetic evidence to bring people to Christ, this is clearly false. C.S. Lewis noted that 'nearly everyone I know who has embraced Christianity in adult life has been influenced by what seemed to him to be at least a probable argument for Theism'. Lewis is an example of an atheist who came to Christ under the influence of apologetics. The skeptic Frank Morrison was converted while attempting to write a book refuting the evidence for the resurrection of Christ. Augustine tells in his confessions how he was led toward Christianity by hearing a Christian debate an unbeliever. Harvard Law School professor Simon Greenleaf was led to accept the authenticity of the Gospels by applying the rules of legal evidence to the New Testament. God has used evidence and reason in some way to reach virtually all adults who come to Christ." – Norman Geisler (Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, p. 41)
Love this! Thanks, Job.