Short Thoughts

This is an argumentative device in debate, and, I should add, an improper device at that. Ad Hominem is a Latin phrase that literally means, to the person. It refers to two different fallacies in argument:

1. Making an appeal to emotion or prejudice rather than to logic or rational thought
2. Attacking a person’s character rather than the substance of their argument

This is a favorite device of many politicians who play to emotions when pitching their plans rather than expounding the merits of their proposals. They also use ad hominem to discredit their opponents rather than rationally debate the merits of their opponents’ plans.

I will forego giving examples of ad hominem arguments in order to give time and space to our purpose in considering it: What concern should Christians have for ad hominem arguments, besides being careful not to use such a device? Note also that in this post I want to restrict the consideration to the second definition given above, though many good applications could also be made from the first.

Though personal attacks are technically out of bounds in good debate, evil men break rules (the law) because they are evil. It should not surprise us when the world does precisely that rather than answer the arguments we make for the truth of God’s Word. This is what Jesus faced when the people asked, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?” (Matthew 13:55-56). The disciples were likewise despised because they were fishermen from Galilee. We can be sure to be despised and attacked personally over something in our life, e.g. birthplace, nationality, education, lack of education, physical impediments, etc.

We can do nothing about many of our physical attributes for which we may be despised. Though it is bad form to attack one’s person and it may be inconsequential to the subject at hand, it may also be perfectly true that we are short, fat, bald, or whatever and we will have to bear all such reproaches patiently.

Additionally, the ad hominem response may take the form of accusations against us of wrongdoing. Say that a certain man is ably and eloquently setting forth the doctrines of grace to a group of people. And then, someone in the corner yells, “Yeah, God may be sovereign but you’re an adulterer.” You know as well as I do, if that accusation is true, everything the man has said is lost and the party is over. I realize that if he was speaking the truth, the fact he was an adulterer does not alter the truth he spoke and I will try to deal with that aspect in another post where I consider ad hominem in evaluation of an argument and its impact on a Christian.

What is our response to be to this sort of ad hominem? There are two things primarily that we must consider in this regard. First, we must ensure that the accusation is not true. In other words, we must ever seek to have a conscience void of offense toward God and man (Acts 24:16). Actually, through a godly life we will give weight to our words and put to silence our detractors (1 Peter 2:12, 15; Titus 2:7-8). Secondly, we should rejoice. That’s right, when we are falsely accused, we should rejoice, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

This post must begin with a worldview-rocking truth statement. Preachers are in fact human. They may not seem to be, for various reasons, but they are. It may also be that some people do not think they want them to be human. In reality, it is best for you that they are human, but that is a different tangent to the scope of our theme.

I realize that humanity can be plead sometimes as an excuse or a contrivance to escape accountability. Neither of these should be the case for the human preacher. On the other hand though, his humanity should gain him some room, particularly in regard to gaffes, or mistakes.

Allow me first to clarify. By mistakes, I am not meaning going into doctrinal error, e.g. changing his mind about the deity of Christ, etc. I am also not referring to the preacher falling into some sin or immorality. No, I am only referring to honest, plain mistakes and particularly those made while preaching. Hence the term gaffe.

Pulpit gaffes are of a few different kinds. Here are a few descriptions.

• Tongue-Tied—sometimes the mouth moves faster than the brain and words get jumbled up or mispronounced
• Memory Lapse—sometimes the preacher forgets why he started telling a particular story or giving a certain illustration. Sometimes he gives a quote or paraphrases a verse and cannot remember who said it.
• Mistakes—sometimes giving the wrong book, chapter, or verse reference or mixing up the characters or facts in Bible stories. There may be times when the preacher is trying to add up or subtract potions of time while preaching and may get the wrong answer.

You should have an idea of the sort of thing we are talking about. And that leads to the obvious question, Why talk about it? This topic may seem hardly worthy of a blog post and especially since we are considering relatively minor goofs that everyone makes from time to time. Well, I have seen people react in harsh and strange ways toward a preacher over these trivial slip-ups. I have also seen some church members form an ad hoc quorum over such a gaffe and discuss it with one another until they were all worked up about it. Finally, one of them approached the preacher to ask about it and found out that is was simply a mistake.

So, the point of this post is to help us handle this issue when we are sitting in the pew and witness a pulpit gaffe first-hand. First, give the benefit of the doubt to the preacher and let it go. Again, I am not talking about him denying the Trinity or such, but he may give the wrong reference or say a phrase backward. He may mistakenly say Elijah was swallowed by a great fish. You probably knew what he meant or could find the reference yourself with a little work. Second, in case the first option fails, simply go to him and ask him about it. This will cut down on the possibility of starting gossip and you may also have a good chuckle with him. As a preacher, I would much rather someone come to me to ask than go to someone else and say, “Did you hear what he said?”

As children, mathematics is one area where we begin to grapple with the concept of infinity. Negative numbers add a completely new dimension to our world and we realize that numbers go on without end in all directions. It is amazing what little minds can do with that.

I had already been introduced to the infinite before I ever encountered it in academic textbooks. I was taught from birth about the eternal God—He Who has no beginning and no end. Isaiah said that God inhabits, or dwells in, eternity (Isaiah 57:15). I cannot say that I am any closer to comprehending this today than I was in my youth, but this is what is revealed to us by God in His Word.

Being infinite, God has all knowledge. So, there is no new knowledge possible for God. He knows everything about everything. It is not as though there is some scenario that He has not pondered. It is not as though He could find out something that would change His mind. Well did the Apostle ask, “Who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counseller?” (Romans 11:34). I recall hearing preachers ask, “Did it ever occur to you that nothing ever occurs to God?” While perhaps trite, that statement is nonetheless true.

Man, on the other hand, is a finite being. His knowledge is measured and limited. For this reason, he has the capacity to learn and grow. Obviously, the finite can never fully grasp the infinite. Let us ponder for a moment some of the consequences of finite knowledge.

Finiteness means that no man knows everything. We could further clarify that no man knows everything about anything. Not even in one subject can any man claim full knowledge (not truthfully anyway). One consequence of this is that there are different levels of knowledge—one man may know more than another in a particular area. One may know next to nothing in a discipline and another possess a large body of knowledge in that field.

Another consequence is that our minds are not closed, so to speak. We do not know everything about anything and new information is possible. New information can expand our understanding and even change our opinion. I am using ‘new’ as a relative term. There is ultimately no new knowledge to the infinite God, but there may be new knowledge to us.

Another consequence is that we must trust God. Some have supposed that we should test the various religions, experiment with the diverse ways, and choose the best for us. This is an impossible task given the multiplicity of religions and ways. We could only ever gain a limited knowledge of a limited number of religions and we could never actually be certain that we have found the best one. However, God reveals to us not only the best way, but the only way (John 14:6). We must believe and follow the bare Word of God. This is demonstrated in the life of Abraham. When God called Abram out of Ur, He told him to go to a land that would be shown to him. Abram obeyed and went, not knowing where he was going. He trusted and acted upon the bare Word of God without personally possessing all knowledge and that is faith (Hebrews 11:8).

Finally, finiteness for the Christian means humility. Let us not equate humility with vacillating. There is a great difference between saying no one knows everything and saying that no one can know anything. The all-knowing God speaks the Word of Truth and we can have complete confidence in what He has spoken. Humility keeps a proper perspective of our humanity and humility sits at the feet of a teacher to be instructed. Humility knows it is wisdom to know that we do not know as much as knowing what we do know.