People who want to be rational and use logic cannot avoid the huge problem of proof (premises). Logic is unsound if the premises can’t be shown true or anything is added to the premises on the way to the conclusion. If the logic is unsound, the reasoning is irrational. To be rational is to be sane. You can see why this might be important.

Without Divine revelation, how do you prove premise true? With another premise that you can’t prove?

Proof (the premise) is part of logic. Premises lead to conclusions. The premises prove conclusions. They prove it true. The conclusion can neither add to the premises nor can it ignore the premises. If the conclusion adds to or ignores certain premises, the conclusion is non sequitur—it doesn’t follow from the premises. The premises must be sufficient and true. If they aren’t sufficient, then additional information might show the conclusion false. Therefore, the conclusion can’t be claimed true. Truth is absolute by nature. That’s why philosophers of science say that proof is too high a goal for science. In science, one thing can be called “fact” today and shown to be a “falsity” tomorrow. Next week, it can again be called “fact” all because new observations are made. The problem is finding a true premise.

If you state some premise or premises, you must show it/them true. You need proof for the proof. You need a new logical statement that shows the premise true. If you have multiple premises, you must show them all true with new logical statements. Let’s consider a statement that only has a single premise. We’ll call the conclusion “A” and the premise “B.” You assert that A is true because of B. How do you know B is true. B is true because of C. How do you know that C is true? Because of D. This goes on until infinity (infinite regression fallacy) or until you hook the logic back up to itself (D is true because of A—circular reasoning fallacy) or until you just say that something is true just because you say that it’s true (axiomatic thinking fallacy). This is known as the Münchausen trilemma. It’s been known for thousands of years. Secularist thinking has no solution. It destroys the possibility of rational thought. Secularist thinking can’t possibly produce proof in this sense. Therefore, it can’t have a true premise. If the premise isn’t true, the thinking is irrational. Therefore, Secularists cannot have rational thoughts. They must use fallacies, either to make unsupported assertions (axioms) or to cover up the fact that they are just making stuff up and asserting made-up stuff as if it were part of reality. That’s what fallacies are all about. The only solution to the trilemma is Divine revelation.

Divine revelation is a sovereign act of God. God speaks and imparts certainty that what He has said is true. Since the human mind is stuck in a trilemma, He takes over the process. We, of course, must acknowledge Him. He doesn’t force Himself on anyone. Those who are willingly ignorant of Him stay in the trilemma. No certainty (faith) is imparted to them. They can’t tell the difference between reality and make-believe. God still reveals things to them or else they wouldn’t be able to survive. They can still be dogmatic about their beliefs (some of which are true and others of which are false) but they can’t tell the difference between truth and falsity, because they refuse to acknowledge God. They can’t tell the difference between reality that God reveals (through Creation, the Bible, or other means that God speaks to us about through the Bible) and make-believe. The reason they can’t tell the difference is that they are taking two opposites—made-up stuff and Divine revelation—and claiming that the two are the same thing. They claim that what God has shown them is the same thing as what they have made up. In that way, they cloud their thinking to the point that they don’t know the difference between reality and make-believe.

God reveals Himself and His truth through Scripture. If you read Scripture, you hear God’s Voice. However, your fallen mind is deceitful and desperately wicked to the point that you can’t analyze it. God says, “Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) We are not to add to God’s words, literally, utterances. (Proverbs 30:6) God speaks. His Voice is heard as an utterance. Everyone is aware of this. Some choose not to acknowledge Him. (Romans 1:28) Interpretation of Scripture can be done one of two ways. We can allow the Holy Spirit to interpret or we can allow something else to interpret it, perhaps our own fallen mind, the fallen mind of another, or the mind of a demon. If we acknowledge Him in all our ways, He promises to direct our paths. (Proverbs 3:6)

God reveals Himself and His truth through His Creation. If you look at Creation, you hear God’s voice. The fallen human mind wants to add to God’s words, though. Other voices what to do the same. Yet, if we acknowledge Him and realize that He’s talking to us, He will speak. If we stand in His Presence, He will speak to us. (Jeremiah 23:22)

Let me admit that every person seems to have this problem. I have this problem. You have this problem. God is trying to help us. Jesus says that the truth will set us free. Everyone who follows Christ is led and taught by the Holy Spirit on a moment-by-moment basis. The Holy Spirit is teaching us all truth—not all at once, but line on line and precept on precept, here a little and there a little. For this reason, there are things that we know through Christ, but we need allow the Holy Spirit to continue to correct us and teach us. If anyone thinks that he or she knows anything, he or she doesn’t know it as it ought to be known. That partial knowledge we have is true but it’s still partial. We are learning to discern God’s Voice from other voices (including that of the deceitful and desperately wicked human mind), and we’re learning to respond in submission and obedience. To respond in submission and obedience to what God is saying to us is called “righteousness.” It’s actually God doing His works through us by grace through faith—a subject of its own. When God does His works through us, we are changed, transfigured, into the likeness of Christ. We die to self. We live to Him. He is more fully formed in us. This is called “holiness.” Christ in us, the hope of glory. And so, we go from glory to glory as long as we are willing to acknowledge Him rather than all the other voices.