From: gjm11@cus.cam.ac.uk (G.J. McCaughan)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Subject: Re: Security of Salvation?
Date: 13 Oct 92 01:46:29 GMT
Organization: U of Cambridge, England

In article <CHRISTIA%92101212534339@ASUACAD.BITNET> Jesse Carnes <NOTJIC@LSUVM.BITNET> writes:
>Replying to James Kiefer, he stated that plausibility on BOTH sides of a
>doctrinal issue may be the case.
>And so it seems.
>However, such plausibility is only ostensible, because Truth has only
>one interpretation in context.
>Using logic signs, something cannot be both "A" and "non-A" at the same time
>and in the same relationsihip.  This constitutes the "Law of Contradiction."
>I appreciate Mr. Kiefer's call to gentleness, but let the issue of Truth
>as it really is by definition be vindicated.
>
>If ONE and the SAME doctrinal question is being addressed and more than
>one plausible answer is the case, such plausibility is metaphysically real,
>but exegetically bogus.
>One of the modus operandi of sound exegesis is that when a writer states
>something, he is saying only one thing at a time, unless indicated by
>admission or blatant context.

You are making an unjustified assumption, namely that we always have enough
information to deduce which interpretation of a writer's statements is the
one originally intended.

It is a fact, though perhaps an unfortunate one, that we do not always have
enough information to make such deductions; not even with the Bible. There
are plenty of questions on which the Bible does not (much as we might like
it to) pronounce completely clearly and unambiguously.

If this seems a shocking assertion to you, consider:
  1. Does the Bible give starting and ending dates for World War II?
  2. Does the Bible give names and dates of birth for all who will be saved?
  3. Does the Bible tell us whether abortion is allowed when the mother's
     life is in serious danger?
The first of these is obviously silly. The second is too, but note that it
shows that the Bible doesn't tell us everything about God's plans for people's
salvation. The third (I suppose some people will say "yes", but there will be
disagreement over *what* it tells us...) shows that the Bible doesn't always
give clear answers even on significant moral issues.

None of this contravenes the "law of contradiction"; nor does it contravene
any principle of exegesis with which I am familiar.

Furthermore: Even if it were the case that every question for whose answer
we ever looked in the Bible really did have an unambiguous answer there, it
would still be the case that people could be in honest disagreement without
any of them being grossly stupid or terribly ungodly. There are Christians
who believe all sorts of different things; they are still Christians, they
have still thought carefully and prayerfully about their beliefs, but they
have come to different conclusions. In each case, at most one group can be
completely right (and in all probability all are wrong somewhere), but that
doesn't mean that the wrong ones are stupid, heretical or evil.

In other words: I completely agree that two incompatible things cannot both
be true. However, when we are dealing with a limited quantity of documents
about an infinite God and a very complicated world, there are many questions
whose answers are not completely clear from those documents. In some cases
there is enough information for us to work out the right answers, but only
with tremendous effort and skill; in others, we simply will never know them
this side of eternity. In any event, it is possible for different people to
approach a question, all in the right spirit, all carefully and sensibly,
and for all of them to get different results. In these circumstances, it is
best for us to accept that, at the very least, the question is a very hard
one; and to be polite to people with different views to ours; and to realise
that perhaps we are the ones who have made the mistakes. ("us" here means
-- 
Gareth McCaughan     Dept. of Pure Mathematics & Mathematical Statistics,
gjm11@cus.cam.ac.uk  Cambridge University, England.    [Research student]