16. A False Dilemma is created
when one offers two extremes as the only alternatives to a position, when there
are actually other options. In response to an article I had written on 1 Cor.
14:34-35,1 an anonymous critic accused me and other conservative
Christians of inconsistency, because Paul’s admonition for “women to keep
silent” in the assemblies and not “to speak” would prohibit them from singing
(cf. Eph. 5:19); so if we allow women to sing in our corporate gatherings, we
ought to let them preach. These limited choices form a false dichotomy, because
it’s really not an either-or option. In context, the silence (sigáō) and the prohibition to speak (laléō) are also enjoined on male
tongue-speakers (when there is no interpreter, v. 28) and on male prophets
(when someone else is talking, v. 30). That is, they were not to speak as to
lead the assembly. The silence here does not forbid singing (v. 15), saying
“amen” (v. 16), or public confession (1 Tim. 6:12). The admonitions concern public
speaking in leading the corporate assembly.2
17. Making a mountain out of a molehill is an
overreaction or an overstatement that makes too much out of a minor issue. It has been alleged that among the
surviving New Testament manuscripts there are up to 400,000 variations, leading
many to infer that the scriptures have been substantially distorted over
the centuries to the point they are no longer trustworthy.3 On the surface this may
seem quite alarming until it is reasonably assessed from an informed
perspective. The fact of the matter is, the vast majority of these variants are
so trivial as to not even be translatable. For example, the most common
occurrence is an anomaly known as “the moveable nu,” where a
word sometimes ends with the letter nu (the 13th letter of the Greek
alphabet) and sometimes it does not. Either way the word’s meaning is exactly
the same and the sense of the passage is entirely unaffected. But every time
it appears in the multiplied thousands of pages of Greek manuscripts, it is counted as a textual
variant. Most
other variations involve relatively minor details, such as spelling,
reduplication, and word order, but no fundamental doctrine of the Bible is in
doubt because of textual uncertainty (see Changes in the Bible Part 1).
18. Ad Hominem is an attack on someone’s character
or motives in an attempt to dismiss the person’s stated conviction rather than
directly addressing the argument itself. If one objects to female leadership
roles in the church, some will accuse him of patriarchal misogyny and oppressing women. To reject
gay marriage and to oppose the homosexual lifestyle makes one susceptible to
the charge of homophobia and hate speech. If, however, we could discuss these
issues sympathetically and fairly, we could see that it’s conceivable to love
and respect women while complying with scriptural guidelines on gender roles
(cf. Eph. 5:22-23).3 It is also possible to be concerned and
genuinely care about homosexuals without compromising biblical morality (cf. 1
Cor. 6:9-11).4 Since only Jesus could legitimately know what was in
a person’s heart (Matt. 9:4; 12:25), if a disputant attributes questionable
motives instead of addressing the issue at hand, he is guilty of an ad hominem
attack and not honest dialogue.
-- Kevin L. Moore
Endnotes:
1 Let the Women "Keep Silent" in the Churches. Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from the NKJV.
2 In 1
Corinthians laléō (to
“speak”) is used with reference to public speaking, particularly in the
exercise of a spiritual gift (cf. 2:6, 7, 13; 3:1; 9:8; 12:3, 30; 13:1, 11;
14:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 13, 18, 19, 21, 23, 27, 28, 29, 34, 35, 39).
3 Bart Ehrman, Misquoting
Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (San Francisco:
Harper, 2007): 7, 10, 89, 90.
Related
posts: Religious Dialogue Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Related
articles: Forest Antemesaris' More Bad Reasons to Reject Christianity
No comments:
Post a Comment