Embrace Dialogue –
Fighting for the Saving Virtue of Biblical Reasoning
2/27/08; 8/25/09; 8/31/09; 11/30/09; 4/14/10;
4/17/10; 4/27/10; 6/19/10; 1/24/11
Note 1: This particular Bible study is designed for people who have forsaken everything to obey all of Jesus’ commands, and are potentially facing persecution from it. It is the last in the series of three Bible studies:
Note 2: This unfinished work is a companion Bible study with the Bible studies entitled, “Absolute Truth” and “Repent of Words” (unfinished).
Note 3: This Bible study is e-Sword Compatible (which means that you can use this free software to very quickly look up all of the references)
Contents
Part 1 – Biblical Reasoning Means Dialog
Unreasonable (Without Word, Negating
Logos)
Reason is Not Always Available
Prolonged Waiting, Opens Doors and
Defeats Cheap Shots
Jesus’ Example of how to Deal with Dishonest Questions
Consider all of the times Jesus had to be silent in His life
Satan’s Questions of Interrogation
Part 1 – Biblical Reasoning Means Dialog
They Reasoned
·
In Greek, logos
means “word.”
· In the following cases, “reasoned” comes from a compound that includes logos.
· In most of these references the word is, “διαλέγομαι” (dialegomai).
·
The implication of this word is, “To speak
back and forth or alternately, to converse with, reason, present intelligent
discourse,” (Word Study).
Act_17:2 -
Act_17:17 -
Act_18:4 - in synagogue... persuaded
Compare: Jas_3:17 - wisdom is easily entreated
Act_18:19 -
Act_19:8 - 3 months... bold
Act_19:9 - leave church to have reason
Act_20:7 - Dialog in teaching/ preaching
Act_20:9 -
Act_24:12 -
Act_24:25 -
Unreasonable (Without Word, Negating Logos)
The idea in the following references is a Greek negation (a) plus logos. This teaches that it is evil and bad if people negate
talking through things because this is “unreasonable” (literally, without word).
Act_25:27 - common decision-making
2Pe_2:12 - False brothers/ prophets*
Jud_1:10 - False brothers/ prophets*
* 2Pe_2:12 / Jud_1:10 – “brute beasts” (KJV) / “unreasoning natural animals” (CAB) = ἄλογαG249 (áloga): without word
Compare:
2Th_3:2
- Delivered from (ατοπωνG824)
Reason is Not Always Available
You can't always
access the rationale of a person, so there are times where you cannot enter
into dialog because a person's rationale is not accessible.
You can see from
passages in the next section:
Biblical reasoning
starts where people are at with basic facts and standards that are agreed upon
and then progresses into the matter at hand to bring out the true conclusion.
If someone is an
atheist, their rationale is inaccessible, and it is impossible to enter into
meaningful dialog. In these cases, don't play games with people who care
nothing for truth but only want to play with other fools in meaningless and
evil vain talk. Don’t play games with people that are committed ahead of
time to do nothing but glory in spewing foolishness from their mouth.
In so many cases
people don't want truth, but they simply want to take cheap shots...
Part 2 – Fighting Cheap Shots
What to do when Dialog is not righteously Available
Prolonged Waiting, Opens Doors and Defeats Cheap Shots
If someone asks questions and is truly curious, open,
and hungry for truth, they will ask and listen to pry answers out of you that
they would happily and seriously consider, while showing you gentleness and
acknowledging your integrity.
A
“cheap shot situation” is when a person interrogates you and
pretends that they are asking for an answer, but they deceptively present the
questions in a way to not give you a chance to properly respond. Interruptions
and “short-changing” chances to explain your answers are obvious
giveaways of this.
Striking at
various unrelated targets and using “straw man arguments” are
obvious giveaways that people do not desire truth. When they direct attacks at
your character instead of the reasonableness of what you believe and represent
before you have even been permitted to state your stance or explanation, then
you know they are playing games, and you ought to abstain from such dishonesty
“so that they may feel ashamed” (see 2Th_3:14).
Many times
we have to foresee, as Jesus did, that we are in a “mock trial” and
be sure that we do not play along with the lie. We wait for open doors and use
the occasion of their deception to speak the truth and expose their game at the
same time. When there is perseverance on
their behalf, and well-mannered persistence in questioning, then even a hard
heart may deserve the rebuking answer that it is unwilling to accept.
So when do you speak? The principal is this: When you
have to fight with them to speak, keep quiet. When you have to fight with them
to keep quiet, then you may need to speak.
Keep resolutely quiet, and wait to speak the Word of God with certainty
and boldness in the height of the opportunity, and don’t let God’s
message be defamed by associating it with their mock trial of deceptive
questions.
In short, Proverbs says:
Pro_26:4 CAB Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him.
Jesus’ Silence!
Jesus’ Example of how to Deal with Dishonest Questions
Mat_26:59-66
Mar_14:55-64
Luk_22:63-71
Joh_18:19-24
Joh_18:33-38
Consider all of the times Jesus had to be silent in His life
Isa_53:7; Act_8:32-33; Mat_26:63, Mat_27:12-14;
Mar_14:61, Mar_15:5; Luk_23:9; Joh_19:9; 1Pe_2:23
We may also include with this the fact that Jesus mostly did not teach or do much of anything public for the first 30 years of His life! Think about all of the synagogues He went to and all of the filth and non-sense He heard for 30 years, and all of that without being allowed to say a Word!
Compare: Luk_2:1-52
with Luk_3:23; Joh_2:11
Wise Vocabulary
·
Determine
beforehand to always return the conversation to the Scriptures
·
[“we know
no one according to the flesh” (2Co_5:16)]
·
What they think to do: If they can take the eternal mandates of God that
are “established in the heavens forever” and make them rest upon a
fragile human then they can annul the potency of the Word of God and release
themselves from its demands.
·
They will focus
on “you” and
presume their questions as if this is obviously the bases of your actions,
rather than acknowledging your integrity for doing what you find in the Bible.
But on the Contrary…
·
I'm committed to
doing whatever the Bible says, even if I have to change.
·
If someone can
show me where the Bible says different, even now, I am willing to change.
Satan’s Questions of Interrogation
·
"Are you
saying we are all in sin?"
·
The question
itself is deceptive, and implies lies
·
It pressures you
to step out individually from under the Bible
·
It suggests that
you did this from yourself, but you did not volunteer for this, but you
surrendered unto it.
·
Being threatened
by a truth they are not keeping, they despise the messenger and invent false
and unreasonable motives for them to clear themselves from responsibility.
·
So they ask,
"Are you saying we are all in sin?"
·
I'm saying the
Bible is true. We ought to obey
everything it says. Whenever we don't obey the Bible, it is sin.
Copyright © Josiahs Scott, All rights reserved (see below)
The only reason I put this here is to avoid people misusing this work with bad motives. This is officially copyrighted to protect it from those with money in mind, and to preserve it for free distribution, especially in the unlikely event that someone might think to make money off of it rather than maximizing its distribution. You are permitted and encouraged to freely copy and redistribute this work in its entirety, via standard copy machine or electronic documentation as long as you make no money off of it. If you wish to reproduce this work on any larger scale, please contact me at Josiahs@trueconnection.org. You may also quote this document, by citing the reference as:
“[Name
of Bible Study]” By Josiahs Scott, www.TrueConnection.org
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