QUESTION:
What Is Mental Reasoning?
ANSWER:
“When he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves.” [Acts 28:29]
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” [Romans 1:28]
“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” [Titus 1:15]
“How they must have felt. And when the disciples would reason in their heart, trying to keep it a secret from Him, and He'd turn around and say, "Why are you reasoning in your heart?" [54-0620E Divine Healing, Des Moines, IA]
“He stood in the audiences, and He perceived what they were thinking about. He said, "Why are you reasoning in your heart about that?" And He found out things like that; they know it come from God. And He said that--things that He had done, and how the Father had showed Him, and He found out everything that He said was the truth. So that was a sign to the Jew anyhow.” [55-0302 The Curtain Of Time, Phoenix, AZ]
“That's the reason people doesn't get healed, is because they only have an intellectual view of it, what their mind conceives. But the mind will reason. The mind will say, "It cannot be. I am no better." My sense of sight says that, "My arm is no straighter than it was yesterday." My sense of feeling says, "I don't feel any different than I did yesterday." Reasoning, mental theology will reason out, say, "Well, now wait a minute, I believe that's foolishness." See, you're reasoning. That intellectual faith will do that.” [55-0403 Fellowship By Redemption, Jeffersonville, IN]
“Father, if there be any uncertainty in any person's experience in this room; I pray, Father, at this hour, they'll confine their faith, not to their mental way of thinking, not to reasoning after men's doctrine, but to the believing of God's Word to Everlasting Life. These blessings we ask in Jesus' Name, Thy Son.” [55-0731 The Uncertain Sound, Jeffersonville, IN]
“Many people come to me, many times in the prayer line, and stand there, and say, "Oh, Brother Branham, I have plenty faith. I've got faith like to move mountains." And, yet, they haven't any faith. They hardly have enough faith to get to the platform. But they are conscious of one thing, that they do believe. They are believing intellectually with their mind. And their mind will never bring them to God. Your mind is reasonings. And God has no reasonings.” [55-0731 The Uncertain Sound, Jeffersonville, IN]
“The mind will reason things. In revivals of healing campaigns you see people get that in their minds. They'll say, "Now, looky here, this is all UNREASONABLE." Here sets a lady in a wheelchair. I don't know her, never seen her. But maybe she might be paralyzed. See, I don't know what's wrong with her. Whatever it is, maybe say she was paralyzed, maybe been setting there for years. But say, the reasonings... The doctors says there's a calcium deposit over the bone; you can't move no more. Maybe the spines broke; maybe there's something wrong in that manner. Maybe there's a blind man setting here with his eyes blinded over. And you'd say, "Well, now..." Reason, "Now, the doctors, I've been to the best, and they tell me I'll never be any different." Well, now, mental reasonings would say, "That's right." But now, as long as you dwell in that mental reasonings, you'll never be no different. [PAR] The Bible said we've got to cast down reasoning. Then when your soul says that "Jesus is my Healer and I now believe it and accept it," then reasonings move out. And your soul comes in first place, and whatever God says, it won't reason at all, it'll take it--God at His Word. That's what brings the results. Such a simple thing!” [56-0128 Inspiration, Owensboro, KY]
“The sin question is settled when the Holy Spirit comes into the human heart. It takes... It casts down reasoning. It goes above our intellectual affair. Now, today the reason so many ups-and-downs and things are enter the religious people, because there's an intellectual conception of Christ. In other words, it's in their mind and not in their heart. See it? They just mentally believe it. And your mental will reason, "Could it be so? Could Divine healing be so? Could the baptism of the Spirit be so?" Now, that's intellectual reasonings. But when that comes into the heart, it's a faith. It's a positive. There's no question at all about it. It's all settled forever. It's in your heart. And your heart doesn't reason, because it's the throne, the dwelling place of the Almighty in the heart.” [57-0114 The Infallible Proof Of The Resurrection, Sturgis, MI]
“The battle raged when Eve opened up her mind, to listen to her reasoning. That's the flue it come in. That's the--the channel it run down, her reasoning. She, in her soul, she reasoned. Her eyes was sight. She saw the serpent. He was beautiful, handsome, far better than her own husband. He was the most subtle of all the beast of the field, and he was probably a fairer man than her husband. He looked like a great masculine beast standing there. How great he was! And he was trying to tell her what a great thing it was. And first thing she did, she opened up her mind. And when she did, human reasonings caught it. "Why, wouldn't that be a thrill?" That's the thing he does to a woman today. Some woman with a lovely little husband, finds some great, big, masculine man. This man will try to opening up the reasons. Remember, that's Satan. That's the Devil. Or, vice versa, man to woman, woman to man, either way. What does he do? Work in that reasoning power, the conscience or something, begins to move through.” [62-0311 The Greatest Battle Ever Fought, Jeffersonville, IN]
“When Satan walked up to Eve, and said, "You know, the fruit is pleasant." She stopped for a moment. Oh, that's when she made a mistake, when she stopped for a moment. Don't stop for nothing. You've got the Message. Jesus lives. God is a healer. That's the Message. Don't stop for nothing, no reasonings, no nothing else. But she stopped for a moment. That's when Satan walked right into that mind. Said, "Well, it sounds reasonable." Oh, don't do that. Just take what God said.” [62-0311 The Greatest Battle Ever Fought, Jeffersonville, IN]
“God can't give nothing else but His Word, because that's what He chose first. And when God makes a decision, has to ever remain that way. And Satan took reasonings, and took the reasonings and attacked the Word, and shook Eve off the path, that's right, by reasonings, human reasoning. Now, the only way that he, she could have got to disbelieve God's Word, it had to be appealing. And Satan knows how to make reasonings appealing. It has to appeal to you. And sin is very appealing. And there's only one sin, and that's unbelief. So it's really appealing. Satan makes sin so appealing to you!” [62-0531 The Conflict Between God And Satan, Clarksville, IN]
“We find that this great enemy of God thought, "Now, as long as they will believe that Word I can never get to them. As long as that little family in Eden keeps behind that Word I can never touch them." Neither can he today. Amen. He's still blocked off. That's right. "But if I can use some real good a strategy and just reason out... I give some human reasonings, because she's human. And if I can just give human reasonings, then we'll--we'll--we'll win the battle," Satan and his Angels. But then Eve gave a way.” [62-0607 Putting On The Whole Armor Of God, Aberdeen, NC]
“Satan reasoned with them, reasonings against the Word of God. That's what the devil does today. He tries to reason it. Say, "Now, this is only reasons that you don't have to do this. It's only reasons we got good doctors; we don't need Divine healing. It's only reason we got plenty of members; we don't need--we don't need the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost. They reason it out, trying to say the people are mentally upset, they're emotional, because themselves they are dead in sin and trespasses and knows nothing about the power of God.” [62-0622E Why? South Gate, CA]
“Satan tried to get in there to spy out, to see what--how he could get a hold of that human race, and he took one of the most famous tactics that... Well, it showed that he had to be a supernatural power to think of it. And he used this the first time and was successful, and he's done it ever since, and still successful to a certain estate. He used reasoning against faith. Satan come to Eve and begin to reason against the Word of God, the great Armor that God had fortified His people with. He begin to use reasoning. Now, "It's only reasonable that God would not destroy you. Surely you will not die." But remember, friends, that's Satan's tactic to begin with, and he still uses the same thing, and still successful with it: a reasoning.” [62-0701 To Take On The Whole Armor Of God, Santa Maria, CA]
“Eve stopped for a moment. That's all she had to do. Satan had her caught, and just reasoned it with her. "Isn't it reasonable? If Sister So-and-so can do that, can't you do it, too? She's the pastor's wife." I don't care who she is, or who he is. If it's contrary to the Word, don't you listen to it. Go straight on! Examples! That's the way Abraham did. How much reasoning do you think the--the medical science could have give him, of that day, that he wasn't going to have that baby? And what about when he was seventy-five? Then we find him when he was a hundred, he still believed it stronger than he did the first place, had twenty-five years to keep building more faith onto it. I like that.” [62-0707 Jehovah Jireh, Grass Valley, CA]
“If you lived in the days of Noah, and was in your present character, what group would you be identified with? Now think of it. What group? When, here is an old fanatic standing up there on the hill, that's been proven, over and over, for a hundred and twenty years, that he's out of his mind, because he's absolutely predicting that there's water coming down from up there. And all their scientific instruments prove that it wasn't there. And because it didn't jive up with their scientific things, how could Almighty God ever do something that was against their own reasonings? See? And the man was talked about. He was the laughing stock of the time.” [63-0123 Identification, Phoenix, AZ]
“The intellectual will always goes to a reasoning. And it can't see the spiritual side, because it's intellectual. Oh, neither could any other time! They can't see it now. They couldn't see it in the days of Elijah. How could this one old fuzzy-faced prophet... [PAR] God forgive me for saying a thing like that. But I--I miss-make... And God knows I'm trying to make--make it as ridiculous as I can, so that you can see the--the Spirit of God. Like Paul said, "I never come to you, speaking with enticing words and wisdom, for your minds would drift off to the wisdom. But I come with the power of the Holy Spirit, that your--that your--your--your hope and trust would rest, not in the wisdom of man, but in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.” [63-0630M The Third Exodus, Jeffersonville, IN]
“People has lost their common thoughts of decency. I'm running little Scriptures down here, just for... I was going to give myself about five minutes on it, ten, see. People has lost their common decency among one another. They are--they are not like they used to be. Man of age, of brothers and I, here, know, and women. People don't act like they used to be. They've lost their common understanding. The--the--the mental--the mental effect it's had upon the people of these modern scientific day that we're living in, has caused people to lose their natural reasonings. They can't regard somebody, a woman, as a sister and a brother. It's something filthy.” [65-1031M Power Of Transformation, Prescott, AZ]
“I will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." This verse is not a declaration that the true church will go into and through the tribulation. If it meant that it would have said that. But it said, "I will keep thee from the hour of temptation." This temptation is exactly like the temptation in Eden. It will be a very inviting proposition held up in direct opposition to God's commanded Word, and yet from the standpoint of human reasoning it will be so very right, so enlightening and life-giving as to fool the world. Only the very elect will not be fooled.” [Seven Church Ages Book, Philadelphian Church Age, 65-1204]
“How can three persons be in one God? Not only is there no Bible for it, but it shows even a lack of intelligent reasoning. Three distinct persons, though identical substance, make three gods, or language has lost its meaning entirely.” [Seven Church Ages Book, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, 65-1204]
Bible References: Acts 28:29; Romans 1:28; Titus 1:15
[Answer provided by Bro. Ken Andes, Minister, Lynden, Washington, USA]