False analogy (continued)

• Romans 7:2-3 – Marriage, divorce, and remarriage

  • “Take two people and bind them with a rope. If you cut the rope, how many people are free? Both. So, if one is free, the other is free. Any divorced person can remarry.”

  • The rope is a false analogy. It does not accurately reflect the way God’s law works.

• Luke 15:18 – The parable of the prodigal son, or the older son.

  • “If my grown child falls away, I should not seek him out, appeal to him, study with him, etc. It’s his job to get up and come to me.”

  • The parable is about the response of the older son when his brother returned, not about how to reach out to a sinner.

  • Compare Galatians 6:1; Matthew 15:18; James 5:19. We should try to restore lost brethren.

Circular reasoning (begging the question)

• What is it?

  • A good argument provides a reason to believe that argument. Circular reasoning fails to do so – it simply circles back to the argument itself.

• Spiritual importance

  • Circular reasoning does not prove anything. We should be careful not to resort to this in spiritual studies and discussions.

  • Mark 2:1-12 – Jesus did not use circular reasoning to prove that He had authority to forgive sins. Instead, He offered actual proof by healing a paralytic man.

  • “That doctrine can’t be true because that’s what _______ teach.” (Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Calvinists, etc.)

  • “The Bible cannot be true because it contains miracles, and miracles violate the laws of nature!”

  • “The Bible cannot be true because it teaches that the earth is only thousands of years old; whereas, we know the earth is billions of years old.”

  • “Creation cannot be true because you would have to ignore all that scientific evidence.”