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Why Christ Must Be Lord Over Reason
The Lordship of Christ Begins in the Mind
When Christians speak of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, they often think in terms of behavior, morality, worship, or family life. But Scripture presses even further: Jesus is not just Lord over our hearts and habits… He is Lord over our reason itself.
The Bible does not allow a compartmentalized discipleship that keeps our intellect free from divine authority. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
1 Peter 3:15 commands us to “set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts,” and only then be “ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you.” This verse is foundational for Christian thought and apologetics, yet many overlook the condition attached to our defense of the faith…
Christ must be sanctified as Lord first. That includes our reasoning processes. It’s not a coincidence that Peter makes Lordship the prerequisite to offering any rational answer.
All Reasoning Has a Master
Let me make a pretty bold statement… there is no such thing as truly autonomous reason. Every person uses their intellect within the framework of a larger worldview. This presupposes some view and place of authority. There’s no neutral ground where believer and unbeliever can stand side by side, surveying the evidence as if neither had prior commitments. Even the desire to be “neutral” is itself a presupposition and posits an authority structure.
The claim that Christians must set aside their belief in the Bible to meet unbelievers on common ground is not only unbiblical… it’s intellectually impossible. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that we must “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
This means our logic, analysis, conclusions, and categories must all bow to Jesus.
Reasoning Without Christ Is Foolishness
To reason without reference to Christ is not neutral… it is rebellion. Romans 1 says that unbelievers “suppress the truth” in unrighteousness and become “vain in their reasoning.” So the problem isn’t lack of intelligence; it’s that they refuse to acknowledge the source of authority and wisdom: Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).
This is not simply about knowing Bible facts. This is about the necessary preconditions for knowledge itself. Logic, mathematics, morality, science… all require immaterial, universal, and unchanging truths.
But such truths cannot arise from a random, materialistic universe. They only make sense if they flow from the character of a rational, personal, eternal God. And the only God who fits that description is the Triune God of Scripture.
The Myth of Neutrality
Unbelievers may claim to be impartial, but in reality, they borrow from the Christian worldview every time they appeal to logic, moral absolutes, or induction. (the regularity of nature)
Many Christians have been taught that in order to reach unbelievers, they must lay aside the Bible and argue from “common reason” or shared human experience. But as theologian Cornelius Van Til emphasized, no one is truly neutral. Everyone has a set of presuppositions that governs their starting points in thought as well as the interpretation of any and all evidence presented.
Unbelievers may claim to be impartial, but in reality, they borrow from the Christian worldview every time they appeal to logic, moral absolutes, or induction. (the regularity of nature)
They believe in cause and effect, in ethical responsibility, in the dignity of the human person… but they have no foundation for these beliefs in their own worldview. They live on borrowed capital from Christianity while denying its truth. This is a bit like standing on a floor while denying that there is such a thing as a floor.
Christian Thought And Apologetics Must Have A Unique Starting Point
Defending the faith cannot mean pretending that Christ might not be Lord. We must defend Christianity by presupposing its truth. This is the method known as presuppositional apologetics. It does not start by arguing for a generic deity or some abstract moral system, then slowly building toward the gospel. Instead, it challenges the unbeliever at the level of their basic assumptions and shows that… apart from Christ, their reasoning collapses into absurdity.
This method is rooted in Proverbs 26:4–5, which instructs us not to answer a fool according to his folly… lest we become like him… but also to answer him according to his folly… lest he be wise in his own eyes.
That is, we maintain our own worldview and, for the sake of argument, step into the unbeliever’s to expose its wacky contradictions. When we do this, we demonstrate that only the Christian worldview can account for rational thought, ethics, and meaningful experience.
Faith Precedes Reason… Not the Other Way Around
Presuppositional apologetics does not reject evidence or even reason; it simply locates reason in its proper place… under the authority of Christ. All reasoning rests on faith, and the faith that gives reason a solid foundation is the faith that begins with the Word of God.
It is not irrational to reason this way. In fact, all reasoning begins with some authoritative starting point. The only question is whether our starting point honors the One who created reason itself.
Some critics claim this approach is fideistic… that it demands blind faith. But nothing could be further from the truth. Presuppositional apologetics shows that all other worldviews ultimately destroy the possibility of knowledge. Christianity is not just one possible answer among many. It is the necessary foundation for making sense of anything at all.
Only Christ Makes Reasoning Reasonable
At the end of the day, the unbeliever can count, build, judge, and reason, but only by contradicting his stated worldview. He cannot account for why logic works, or why truth matters, or why morality is binding. He knows God, but suppresses that knowledge (Romans 1:18). In contrast, the believer should openly acknowledge the Lord of reason and therefore has a consistent foundation for rational thought.
So Paul says… “Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20). The wisdom of the world at that time was classical thought. And yep, He has made classical thought then and today foolish… and our task is to show the unbeliever that unless he repents and honors Christ as Lord, even his reasoning is without foundation.
To think autonomously and then to defend the faith without acknowledging Christ’s Lordship over our minds is to betray the very One we claim to serve. But when we set apart Christ as Lord… not just over our hearts, but over our reasoning… we fulfill the command of Scripture and engage in thought as well as an apologetic that honors both the truth and the Lord of truth.
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