This Week In Sophistry
Welcome, once again, to This Week In Sophistry. Blondie has done another outstanding job ripping apart the words of a few false prophets to demonstrate their hypocrisy, deceit, presumptuousness, and counterfeit words. I try to provide a weekly exposé that focuses on one or two paragraphs and demontrates, in depth, the mechanics of how they keep so many fooled through sophistic reasoning.
One of the primary tools of the sophist is flattery. Often the flattery is not direct and it is usually hard to detect, because there is a price to be paid to qualify. A price paid in reason and logic. Before you can be deserving of the flattery, you must forego your own thoughts and adopt those offered by the sophist. This creates, in effect, a Pavlovian response in the readers of the sophist's words.
In my opinion, paragraph 16, in this week's article for consideration, provides an outstanding example of the effectiveness of this sort of reward conditioning based on false or misrepresented premise.
16 Jesus Christ wants us to keep faithful to our decision to be slaves of God. He said: "No man that has put his hand to a plow and looks at the things behind is well fitted for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62) Dwelling on what we have left behind is definitely not the right thing to do when slaving for God. Instead, we should treasure what we have gained by choosing to be Gods slaves. To the Philippians, Paul wrote: "I do indeed also consider all things to be loss on account of the excelling value of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. On account of him I have taken the loss of all things and I consider them as a lot of refuse, that I may gain Christ.--Philippians 3:8.
The WTS asks, in effect, do you want to please Jesus, do you want to do the right thing, do you want to prove that you appreciate what God has given you? Then agree with us, because otherwise you have answered, "No!"
But let us examine the basis for these questions, as provided. Jesus, we are told, wants us to be faithful to our decision to be enslaved to God. This presupposes we have already enslaved ourselves, it is now only a matter of proving whether we are going to honor our debt of servitude. Of course, this ignores many scriptures that directly state sentiments in agreement with the thought that if we are really God's children then we were called for freedom, not for slavery. That sort of argument is best left to another post. For now, we will simply dissect the sophist's words as presented.
What scripture is used to substantiate Jesus' desire for us? Luke 9:62. Let us examine the context to determine if "slaves of God" were even on Jesus' mind when he spoke those words:
Luke 9:49-62 49 In response John said: "Instructor, we saw a certain man expelling demons by the use of your name and we tried to prevent him, because he is not following with us." 50 But Jesus said to him: "Do not YOU men try to prevent [him], for he that is not against YOU is for YOU."
51 As the days were now coming to the full for him to be taken up, he firmly set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 So he sent forth messengers in advance of him. And they went their way and entered into a village of Sa·mar´i·tans, to make preparation for him; 53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set for going to Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this they said: "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and annihilate them?" 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 So they went to a different village.
57 Now as they were going on the road, someone said to him: "I will follow you to wherever you may depart." 58 And Jesus said to him: "Foxes have dens and birds of heaven have roosts, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay down his head." 59 Then he said to another: "Be my follower." The man said: "Permit me first to leave and bury my father." 60 But he said to him: "Let the dead bury their dead, but you go away and declare abroad the kingdom of God." 61 And still another said: "I will follow you, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those in my household." 62 Jesus said to him: "No man that has put his hand to a plow and looks at the things behind is well fitted for the kingdom of God."
Now, I readily admit that I am not the sharpest tack in the box. However, I cannot find a single indication in this scripture that Jesus was speaking of remaining "faithful to our decision to be [a slave] of God." I do not see the term "slave" mentioned here at all. I see the term "follow," and the term "follower." I would have to look up the scripture in an actual Bible and read it in context, which means considering the surrounding verses, to realize that the WTS application is a gross expansion on what Jesus is reported to have said.
From this initial misapplication, we see thw WTS take great liberty in the following sentence. The WTS version of the right thing to do (slave for God) is subliminally contrasted to the wrong thing to do (dwell on the things behind). This contrast is not supported by the scriptures provided. We are presented with two extremes and our minds automatically gravitate toward the one with which we most identify. We want God to like us, don't we? We have already been prepped to make the right choice in the preceding sentence. The WTS said Jesus himself wants us to prove ourselves faithful slaves by not dwelling on the things behind. The Bible did not say that.
Next, we are told that proving ourselves unfaithful slaves is demonstrating our lack of appreciation. We are only treasuring God's gift to us if we become slaves. Now, you may think that assertion is wildly paradoxical.
A quote from Paul seals the deal, because every true Christian should measure up to the example of Paul. For some reason, that seems to be the belief among Jehovah's Witnesses despite the fact that Paul replied like a madman that he was more outstandingly a minister of Christ, even in his own day (2 Corinthians 11:23-27) Paul did not say that only those who consider all things refuse can gain Christ. He simply stated his personal choice. The WTS implies that this scripture is a formula for gaining Christ. The Bible does not indicate that at all. Anywhere.
That's it for This Week In Sophistry. I hope you have enjoyed it.
Respectfully,
OldSoul
