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Teacher:
I hope I didn't see you
looking at Maria's answers.
Jesus:
The Master
of
Critical Thinking
Have you ever considered Jesus Christ, the
thinker? Let’s dig into it in this Diving Deeper!
“Does not the ear test words, as the palate
tastes its food?” Job 12:11
It
is easy to overlook Jesus the Thinker! Much
has been written on Jesus
the Redeemer, Jesus
the Healer, Jesus the Miracle Worker, Jesus the
Messiah, Jesus the Lord, etc., but the topic of
Jesus as the greatest
thinker of all time doesn’t
seem to get as much attention.
Understanding Jesus, the Thinker, and his use
of powerful arguments can turn out to
be
invaluable in today’s hostile world. The gospels
dedicate an enormous amount of time and
space describing how Jesus engaged the
arguments and responded to the attacks that
were launched against his
truth claims. In doing
so, Jesus engaged in a reasoned defense of the
faith using critical thinking as one of his primary
tools.
As Douglas Groothuis so powerfully asserts,
“When Jesus defended the crucial claims
of
Christianity—He was its founder, after all—He
was engaging in apologetics, often with the best
minds of first-century Judaism.”(1) As
Christians facing hostile arguments and attacks
on our faith, there is
much to learn from a careful
consideration of those encounters.
Preliminary Considerations
Jesus’ engagements were under-girded
by the
desire to attract (not alienate) the lost. Above the
strategies
and specific critical thinking skills
Jesus employed, we find Jesus
gently and
respectfully seeking to persuade his opponents.
He was not
out to destroy them, but rather to
enlighten them. Dallas Willard is on
point when
he affirms that, “Jesus’ aim in utilizing logic is
not to win
battles, but to achieve understanding
or insight in his hearers.” This ought to be our
objective as well. We are called to demolish
arguments—not people! We must constantly
remind ourselves that we are
not trying to win
arguments, but rather win people over to the
truth of
the Gospel.
Jesus’ pedagogical strategy was very effective.
He was
able to engage his opponents in the
thinking process by making them
active
participants instead of passive listeners. As
Willard explains, “…he
does not try to make
everything so explicit that the conclusion is
forced down the throat of the hearer.
Rather, he presents matters in
such a way that
those who wish to know can find their way to, can
come
to, the appropriate conclusion as
something they have discovered—whether
or not
it is something they particularly care for.”
As an educator
As an educator I can attest to the effectiveness
of this strategy. Too
often we focus, almost
exclusively, on presenting strong arguments
and
lists of evidences without really engaging
those we are attempting to
persuade. Asking
questions was one of Jesus’ most successful
strategies
for getting his audience actively
involved in what he was attempting to
teach.
These questions were meant to allow his
opponents to reach
certain conclusions on their
own without him having to spell it out for
them.
We must learn the art of engaging people in
thought and not just
conversation.
Jesus was not concerned with being politically
correct,
especially when it came to unmasking
errors in the opinions and
arguments of his
opponents. Whether he was speaking to the
Pharisees or
the to a Roman governor, he was
quick to correct erroneous thoughts and
ideas.
1) Jesus’ Use of A Fortiori Arguments
Jesus often used a
fortiori arguments.
The latin phrase ‘a fortiori’ means, “from
something
stronger.” These are very persuasive
arguments that build the case for a
particular
proposition by showing that it has even stronger
support
than other related propositions
commonly accepted as true.
The structure
is as follows:
Premise 1: Proposition “X” is widely accepted.
Premise 2: Support for proposition “Y” is even
stronger than the support for proposition “X”
Conclusion: Therefore, if proposition “X” is
accepted, then proposition “Y” should be
accepted all the more. Consider
the exchange
found in Luke 13:14-16.
Jesus was continually attacked for
supposed
violations of the Sabbath. In this passage,
Jesus presents an a
fortiori argument in his
defense as follows:
Premise 1: Loosening
the cattle from their stall
to taking them out to water on the Sabbath
is
widely practiced and accepted by the
Pharisees.
Premise 2: This
woman, a daughter of
Abraham, (far more valuable than cattle) has
been
bound by Satan for 18 years and has also
been loosed on the Sabbath.
Conclusion:
Therefore,
if it is acceptable to loosen the cattle
on the Sabbath, then it should be even more
acceptable to loosen a daughter of Abraham.
2) Jesus’ Use of Disjunctive Syllogisms
(or Argument by Elimination)
This
type of argument usually consists of a
premise with two options, a
second premise
denying one of the options, and a conclusion
asserting
the remaining option. The idea is to
eliminate all of the options until
one is left as
the only possible answer. The structure is as
follows:
Premise 1: Either p or q
Premise 2: Not- q
Conclusion: Therefore: p
Consider
the words of Jesus in Luke 11:23.
Where Jesus confronts the Pharisees
with TWO
Disjunctive Syllogism in the same verse as
follows:
Premise 1: Either you are with me or you are
against me.
Premise 2: They were obviously not with him
(since they were attacking him)
Conclusion: Therefore: they were against him.
Premise 1:
Either you gather with me or you scattereth.
Premise 2:
They were obviously not gathering with him
Conclusion:
Therefore: they were scattering.
3) Jesus’ Use of Hypothetical Syllogisms
(or Chain Argument)
This type of argument consists of three
conditional statements linked together as
follows:
Premise 1: If p then q
Premise 2: If q then r
Conclusion: Therefore: If p then r
Consider
the words of Jesus to his disciples
prior to sending them out in
Matthew 11:40.
He uses a Hypothetical Syllogism to explain
the impact
that receiving their message would
have for those who believed.
Premise 1: If they receive you then they
receive me.
Premise 2: If they receive me then they
receive him that sent me.
Conclusion:
(implied) Therefore: If they receive you then
they receive him that sent me.
4) Jesus’ Use of Syllogisms
A syllogism is a three-line
argument in which the
premises lead to a definite conclusion. By using
deductive reasoning, the argument establishes
the conclusion without
question. If the premises
are true than the conclusion must also be
true.
A common form is known as Modus Tollens and
is structured as
follows:
Premise 1: If p then q
Premise 2: Not- q
Conclusion: Therefore: not p
Consider
the words of Jesus in John 8:47 where
he has been engaged in a long
series of
arguments with the scribes and Pharisees that
leads to this powerful argument.
Premise 1:
If you are of God then you heareth God’s words
Premise 2:
You hear them not.
Conclusion:
Therefore: you are not of God
Sometimes
the argument is easier to see in the
paraphrase versions of the Bible.
For example,
this verse reads as follows in the Living Bible:
“Anyone whose Father is God listens gladly to
the words of God. Since you don’t, it proves you
aren’t his children.”
5) Jesus Wisdom in dealing with the
Horns of a Dilemma
The
Pharisees were constantly trying to trap
Jesus. They plotted and schemed
to come up with
arguments that would trap Jesus, regardless of
his
response. This is known in philosophy as a
dilemma. The argument
presents two alternatives
as if they were the only options and
responding
with either option gets you in trouble. That is why
it is
often referred to as being trapped in “the
horns” of a dilemma. They
tried numerous times
throughout Jesus’ ministry, but were always
unsuccessful due to his mastery of logic and his
divine wisdom.
Consider
the passage in Matthew 22:15-22.
Matthew prefaces the dialogue with the
warning
in verse 15 that the Pharisees “took counsel how
they might
entangle him in his talk.” (KJV). The
present Jesus with a dilemma
regarding the
paying of tributes (taxes) to Caesar. The two
horns of the
dilemma are presented in verse 17,
“What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to
give tribute
unto Caesar, or not?” (KJV). If Jesus answered
that it was
lawful, then he was recognizing that
Caesar was a higher authority than
he was. If
Jesus answered no, then he would be declaring
himself an
enemy of Caesar.
However, they never anticipated Jesus’ response.
Jesus
presented a third alternative—“Render
therefore unto Caesar the things
which are
Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are
God’s.” (22:21
KJV). As was usually the case,
“they marveled, and left him, and went
their way.”
(22:22 KJV). Jesus’ intellectual brilliance was
enough to
leave anyone, even his most ardent
opponents, speechless and in awe.
Conclusion
We
are called to always be prepared to give an
answer to anyone that
demands a reason for the
hope that is within us, but how do we go about
doing that? I think here, as in other areas of our
walk, Jesus presents a
wonderful model to follow.
Jesus modeled for us the attitude with which
we
are to engage this world as well as the
methodology. As Geisler and
Zukeran suggest,
“Since reason and logical arguments were a part
of
Jesus’s defense, the apologist and all
Christians today should make this
an area of
study as they engage in the battle of ideas.”
As we
endeavor to engage in this dark world with
the light of God’s Truth, we
must be careful not to
skip the mind and focus only on the heart, as is
so often the case. God wants us to love Him with
all of our hearts AND
all of our minds. Only then
will we be truly stable in our walk with the
Lord.
This should be paramount in our strategies for
fulfilling our
mission.
“The mission
“The mission of
transforming lives and bringing
people to faith in Christ does not come
by moving
people emotionally; God does not bypass the
mind to speak to
the heart. Logic and well-
reasoned arguments are required to refute
false
beliefs and turn people in the direction of truth.”
Spending
time with Jesus, the Thinker, and
studying his use of critical
thinking, logic and
powerful arguments can be instrumental in
fulfilling
our calling as Christians to engage our
world with Truth.