Articles - The Bible

Some Introductory Matters

   The Bible teaches that men should “prove all things,” and “hold fast” to that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). This means simply that men should draw only such conclusions as are warranted by the evidence which the Bible (the word of God, 2 Timothy 3:16-17) provides. This means that men’s conclusions must be the conclusions of sound arguments: that is, men should draw only such conclusions as are a part of arguments which are valid and have true premises.

   There are a number of reasons why students of the Bible should recognize and honor the Law of Rationality: (1) the way the Bible is written demands that such be the case, (2) specific instances of Bible characters u sing the Law of Rationality demand that such be the case, and (3) the specific passages in the Bible (which teach in various ways) demand that such be the case.

As human beings, men, women, boys, and girls face many kinds of problems. Some of these problems are very important indeed. We want and we need not merely an answer to some of these questions; we need the answer—God’s answer to them! And we can all be thankful to Him that He has given us His answer to every really important question we face.

Logic is the science of valid reasoning. It is not mere wishing. It is not mere thinking. It is not mere wrangling. Logic has to do with inference—that is, the inferring of what is implied by explicit statements. It raises the question, "Do the premises of this argument imply the conclusion of this argument?" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Some people think very seldom—if at all—specifically about logic; that is, they do not say such things as, "Let me show you the sound argument which proves that Proposition X is true." However, every one who is intelligent enough to be accountable for what he does is a logician. And most people are "pretty good" logicians, even though they have never formally studied logic in any college or university.