To rationalize is to think something that is irrational and to believe that it is rational. Rationalizing is irrational, that is, insane.

Unlike Christianity, rationalism defines the human mind as basically good and capable of generating knowledge without the benefit of observation or revelation.  This self-generated knowledge, this miraculously revealed information, is thought to be superior or equal to divine revelation, observation or both.  They are just making stuff up!  In other words, they are lying.  Their lies aren't even well-hidden because the people who are swallowing their lies love to be lied to.

It has been said that you can rationalize anything. This is very true.

There are many fabricated stories, like Agnosticism, Atheism, Evolutionism, Humanism, Intellectualism, Liberalism, Materialism, Modernism, Naturalism, Post Modernism, Rationalism, Relativism, and Secularism, that are based on arbitrary assumptions and rationalizations. None of these have any basis in fact.

This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.  Jeremiah 23:16  Rationalism is the belief that the human mind it the most reliable source for generating understanding, wisdom, and knowledge.  There are three sources of understanding, wisdom, and knowledge, and all of these would require supernatural revelation.  These three are, the human mind, evil spirits, and God.

 While rationalism is expressly a vision out of the human mind, a claimed miraculous revelation from the false god of the human mind, Christianity is based on Jesus Christ, the Living Christ, Who reveals Himself to the Christian on an ongoing basis.  Believer's have the supernatural trust that is a gift from God.  By this trust, we see Jesus and hear His Voice.  It is Jesus Himself who reveals to us that the Bible is His Word, His Utterance.  And it is Jesus Himself Who speaks to us through His Word.   Jesus speaks to us through many different means: Scripture, intuition, bringing Scripture to our remembrance, apostles, prophets, etc.  When God speaks to us, faith comes and with faith comes a vision of hope.  This vision shows us who we are in Christ in an ever-more-clear understanding.  When God speaks, He instructs us what to think, what to say, and what to do.  Then, He does the work through us by His grace, His free gift of righteousness.  This righteousness of God in us is the moving of the Holy Spirit that transfigures us from glory to glory to be like Jesus, killing our fleshly nature and causing Christ to be more fully formed in us.  And this death to self, to the old adamic sin nature, and building up of Christ is the very thing that redeems us, sets us free from slavery to the fleshly nature, to Satan, to the pressures of the world, and to death. (some caveats about hearing God's Voice)

Rather than recognizing God as supreme, rationalism makes each individual the supreme being in his or her own mind.  

Rationalists tend to feel that God could not possibly reveal Himself or anything else to human beings. 

Rationalism makes the human mind superior to Jesus, but the mind may also have a rationalized faith in the person of Jesus as described in the Bible.  The mind can rationalize that the Bible is good and true, but not having a real relationship with Jesus, this will simply be the dead letter.  "The letter killeth"  2 Corinthians 3:6  The mind can also rationalize away God, Jesus, the Bible and anything else.

Rationalism can go anywhere with the work of Jesus.  Rationalists just make it up.  That is what Rationalism is all about.  As a result, Rationalists can make up any story that they want... and they do.  They add to Scripture.  They make up stories about why they think that there are errors in Scripture.  They make up stories about why their made up stories are just as valid as the Word of God.

The authority of rationalism is usually the human mind and the imagination of each person.  Often this takes the form of reverence to the Bible as it is interpreted by the human mind, which gives the human mind the final say as to what is being said.  Rationalism, in a similar way, recognizes the creation as it is revealed or interpreted by the human mind.  And rationalism recognizes the writings and teachings of respected people as revealed or interpreted by the human mind.  

Rationalism can counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit and may claim revelation status for the newly-built theological system.  While God can give visions and dreams, many claim they have a revelation, when they really only have something they have dreamt up, visions out of their own minds.  Rationalism has crept into the church and rationalized doctrines are placed side-by-side with the revealed Word as equal to it. 

Rationalism says that the mind of man is basically good.  Under rationalism, this view can be held at the same time that the opposite view is held by the same person.

The rationalistic view of the human problem can take many forms.  The view may be anything, including some creative variation from the Christian view of sin.  Since rationalism can make up anything, it may say that there is no such thing as sin.  Through rationalism, many are now saying the Jesus Christ is the problem.  Others are saying that those who follow Jesus are the problem.  Whatever rationalism comes up with, it is generated from the mind that is enmity against God and it will always get it wrong.

Most often, rationalized solutions to the basic problems of humanity consist of human efforts or some plan or system devised by the human intellect.  The human mind is corrupt and does not come up with God's solution.

Ethics are rationalized.  They are generated by the imagination of each person.  Each person my accept the rationalizations of others or even accept God's laws, but the person sets the rules and conditions under which the ethical system will be accepted.  Most often, each person will pick and chose from a variety of ethical systems to build a system they like.  Rationalism can counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit and may claim revelation status for the newly-built ethical system.

Beliefs are rationalized, that is, made up by the individual.  They are generated by the imagination of each person.  Each person may accept the rationalizations of others or even accept God's Word on the matter, but each person sets the rules and conditions under which the belief will be accepted.  Most often, each person will pick and chose from a variety of theologies and sources, often to include the Bible, to build a system they like. 

Many Christians have, either on purpose or by just drifting, inserted parts of Rationalism into their walk with Jesus.  They tried to make it compatible with Christ. The little changes, however, caused these followers of Christ to stop following Christ and instead they began following the deceptions of their own souls. This was the problem of all the false prophets.  They reasoned by rationalizing.  This is the source of all the divisions in the Church, all the denominations.  The human mind is corrupt and deceitful. 

God's plan for this hour is not to make all religions and philosophies get along. His plan is to have a people, a remnant company, who continue to discover Him, to walk with Him until they come into perfect unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to one totally complete man (the Body of Christ and the Head, Jesus), to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 

In contrast to Rationalism, followers of Christ receive Jesus Christ as the only Creator of the Universe, the God Who created them and their only Savior from bondage to sin. At the same time His love for those who have been deceived by Rationalism compels God to speak to them daily through His creation and through other means; they will not listen to Him. You know that you were created for more than you are experiencing. If you continue to think like you always thought, you will continue to get what you always got. Is it enough? Read more. Read even more. 

Called-out followers of Jesus know by revelation that Jesus is God. God is One, yet God is plural. There are three persons in One God. The unity between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is beyond what the human mind can comprehend. Jesus, Son of God, one person of the one triune God, so joined to the Father that His name is Father, yet in submission to the Father. He is Savior, Lord, and Anointed one (Christ). Eternal God and incarnated as man. In him is hidden all knowledge. Without Him, we can do nothing. He lives in the hearts of those who have received His redemption and gives them strength to endure all things and walk in holiness. Jesus is the Truth, and the Bible testifies of Him. If you have Jesus, then you have the Father. If you don't have Jesus, then you don't have the Father. Jesus is wisdom, and without Him, there is no wisdom. In the same way, God is love, so Jesus is love. He is peace. He is joy. All knowledge is hidden in Him.

The diametrically opposite to the teachings of Rationalism is the revelation that Jesus as the one and only unique Son of God Who is bringing many sons into glory. It is Jesus Christ Who reveals reality, not rationalistic processes. Christianity is based on knowing Jesus personally. Christians believe Jesus when He tells them that it is in Him alone that they can find life, peace, joy, fulfillment, love, righteousness, and every other good thing. They believe Jesus when He tells them that rejecting Him as their one and only God is the most serious sin that could be committed--the sin against the first commandment. Jesus said: He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. Luke 10:16 Jesus saith to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me. John 14:6

Unlike Rationalism, True Christianity is not a religion but rather a living experience with the living Jesus. It is a moment-by-moment experience of the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Christ) guiding and directing the Christian and the Christian either contending with God or submitting to the Holy Spirit. If the Christian contends, he or she becomes less mature in Christ. If the Christian submits, he or she has actually simply entered into the sabbath rest to let God do His work through them. When a Christian submits, faith comes. Faith is supernatural belief that God will do what He has just led the Christian to do. At that moment, the Christian has access into the grace of God, which is God's free gift. Righteousness is the free gift of God and the righteousness of God then flows to the Christian. If the Christian will submit his or her members to the Spirit of God, then God does His righteousness through the Christian. The Christian does the work, yet it is not the Christian but Christ in the Christian doing the work. When God does His righteousness through the Christian, this plants holy seed into the heart of the Christian. The old sinful person, the flesh dies a little bit each time. The Christ within is built up. This holy seed grows in the heart and brings more fruit, which, in turn, plants more holy seed. At the same time, the Christian is set free from sin in some measure--this is the meaning of the word, redemption. This is the relationship that God desires to have with every person. This process proceeds through the Body of Christ. Each member of the Body of Christ, each Christian, is a manifestation of the living Christ in the Earth. Each member is being fitted for a specific place of service within this Body, and the Body of Christ continues to grow until the full manifestation of the sons of God takes place at the end of the age.

In stark dissimilarity to Rationalism, true Christianity depends on the revelation that Jesus is God. Only God could pay the price for the sin of every person who ever lived or will live. A Christian's life is all about a relationship with the One Almighty Creator God, the God Who is Love. This relationship is very close and personal. It is a relationship of submission to the Holy Spirit. The human mind was never created to be operated without the Anointing of the Holy Spirit flowing through it with the human mind in complete submission. The same is true of the body. Spiritual death is defined as a condition where the human spirit, mind, or body is not in complete submission to the Holy Spirit.

As the opposite of the teachings of Rationalism as light is to darkness, God has revealed that He is a loving forgiving, but totally righteous, God. Christians have been forgiven for their sins because of the blood of Jesus. Jesus paid the price of the sins of every person. The Christian is required to see reality, that is, to have the humility to realize that they have fallen short of the glory of God and that they need the Savior to deliver them. And Christians no longer are forced to continually obey their own flesh so that even their own self-righteousness is as filthy rags. Christians can yield to the Holy Spirit and allow God to do His righteousness through them. God does not force Christians to yield, however. Many Christians are born again and remain as babes in Christ, but they will not be found among the faithful. Some Christians attempt in vain to establish their own righteousness, a self-righteousness, and so they are unable to receive the free gift of righteousness that comes from the throne of God, but they will not be found among the faithful. If Christians willingly abandon their self-righteousness and self-dependence and believe God rather than their own understanding, and if they stop contending against Jesus but rather accept Him and His free gift, then God will totally deliver them at the end of this present age. If a Christian dies in the meantime, they are together with Christ in glory and they join that great cloud of witnesses who have been faithful but have not yet obtained the promise.

Another thing that separates those who have been called out to follow Jesus from the teachings of Rationalism is that those who receive God's salvation are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Christians know that they have received the free gift (grace) of forgiveness of sins. Christians can know that they are going to heaven because of the goodness of God. All that is required is that a person not reject the free gift.