We need not and should not employ any of these substitutes for reason in order to "make contact with" or "be relevant to" those who are doing so. We make contact and relevance not by changing rationality into irrationality but by changing irrationality into rationality. That is what education is. - Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, InterVarsity, 1994, 16).

The study of logic is also the study of the way that, ideally, we should reason as human beings. The inherent structure of human reason takes place in three acts: understanding, judging, and reasoning. Logic takes these three acts and expresses them in terms, propositions, and arguments. If we were to make a simple comparative table of this it would look something like this:

A term is clear if it is intelligible and unambiguous. Terms express concepts which express real essences. A proposition is true only if it corresponds to reality, that is, if it states a fact. In other words, propositions express judgments which express facts. An argument is valid if the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises. Thus, if all the terms in an argument are clear, and if all the premises are true, and if the argument is free from any logical fallacy, then the con-clusion must (necessarily) be true. We can say that arguments express reasoning which express causes, real "becauses" and real "whys." Kreeft and Tacelli put it this way in reference to arguments used in the context of Christian apologetics:

[Logical] arguments are like eyes: they see reality. The arguments in this book demonstrate that the essential Christian doctrines are true, unless they are bad arguments; that is, ambiguous, false or falla-cious. To disagree with the conclusion of any argu-ment, it must be shown that either an ambiguous term or false premise or a logical fallacy exists in that argument. Otherwise, to say "I still disagree" is to say "You have proved your conclusion true, but I am so stubborn and foolish that I will not accept this truth. I insist on living in a false world, not the true one." -Kreeft and Tacelli, 18.

From a Christian (eternal) perspective, the most important use of logical argumentation is for convincing unbelievers of the truth of the Christian faith and the great doctrines of Christianity. But as we have observed on these pages on many previous occasions, biblical faith is more than one’s mental belief or affirmation of certain orthodox doctrines, such as the Bible’s teaching concerning human sin, Jesus’ atoning death on the cross, and His physical resurrection and ascension.

Right doctrinal beliefs are just the beginning. Christianity is primarily a relationship with a Person, Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the way...no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Even in the Old Testament the psalmist talks about the importance of knowing God (Yahweh) as a person. Knowing a person is very different from knowing things, even knowing things about a person.

One can gain knowledge about a person by simple observa-tion. In other words, we can be introduced to a person, read his or her resume, even spend some time with that person without it ever impacting us in any way, except we know and believe a few things about that person. Such knowledge has no weight or impact. There is little "dialogical character" in the knowing of such things. But when we know a person, that implies a very different relationship, one not based on observation or gathered knowledge, but a dynamic relationship which involves responsiveness between two persons.

In Romans 1:5 Paul refers to the "obedience of faith." While we are justified (saved) by faith alone, true faith results in changed behavior, that is, holiness, good works, not sinning, not conforming to this world. (cf. Rom. 6:1-2; James 2:26; 1 Peter 1:14-16; 1 John 1:6; 2:3-4; 3:6). Paul tells the Roman believers they have been "crucified with Christ" and thus they are "freed from sin" (Rom. 6:6-7). Then he warns them that "the wages of sin is death" (6:23). As believers, we are called upon to "confess" Christ with obedient living.