[SERay]

I am grateful to respond, albeit brief.

Simeon is striving to attain enlightenment by use of earthly means, whereas the flesh must reason while the spirit expresses itself through faith. While Simeon strives to find an intellectual premise for faith in Yeshua, to find a purpose in his status, he will never be able to grasp a satisfactory explanation within his own mind. Faith relies on testimony or reliance of divine authority while reason relies on evidence and examination. Faith relies on commitment and is unbending while reason relies on detachment and changes when a better philosophy comes along. Faith comes my hearing, and the knowledge is quickened by the Spirit.

Aristotle taught that reason is derived through the human senses, and this reason is metaphysics, asking about the structure of reality.

Fundamentally, our apologetics is an exhibition of didactics that gives reason for our faith. However, to the natural man, he cannot hear, see or understand. For the things of God are of the spirit and can only be discerned by the spiritual. Unless the Holy spirit beckons a soul and quickens their heart, pulls back the veil over the heart, no man can come unto the Father unless the Son calls him. This moves into the arena of Calvinism, in which I am not a total adherent, but there are certain aspects of the position that is very accurate.

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14

In 1 Corinthians 2:14 and 15 the Apostle Paul gives two classes of men – natural and spiritual. He divides all mankind into these two groups. If the Spirit of God has not given them a new nature different from that which they had from birth, he lists them as natural men. He teaches that natural men can never receive the truths of the Gospel unless they are transformed by the Spirit of God into spiritual men.

The word “natural” is translated from the Greek word “psuchikos,” which means “sensual,” of the senses . It refers to man in an unconverted state. Man in this state is described in Jude 19 as “sensual, having not the Spirit” (Jude 19). The man must be converted, becoming “a new creature,” to be delivered from his natural state (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The natural man cannot, will not and does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. He can know the literal sense of the doctrines presented to him. He can know that Jesus Christ was crucified. But there is a wide difference between receiving doctrines as mere statements presented to him and knowing the reality which those statements present. The natural man can know the way of righteousness as a mere statement (2 Pet. 2:21). Other things he can know, merely as ideas presented to him (Titus 1:16; Rom 2:23, 24). But these truths have no transforming effect on his life. The spiritual man, on the other hand, knows them in reality and they have a transforming effect on his life (Rom 12:2; Eph 4:22-24).

Grace and peace be to you brother Michael. I pray you stand fast to the truth, not allowing yourself to be stained by the false teachings often found in seminary environments.