Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that survived eating a dozen Super Fire Hot Wings and didn’t even sign the release forms.
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Now on to the subject at hand.
Last week I wrote about the dangers of being dull of hearing.
Today, we’ll delve further into the conversation and talk about Aristotle and Jesus.
Aristotle. He’s been called the father of logic, the father of the scientific method, the father of rhetoric, the father of psychology, the father of biology, the father of Western civilization …
Geesh, why not just call him “the father of all things that move.”
Seriously though, the entire educational system in the West is based on Mr. Aristotle’s logic.
Even our seminaries and Bible schools are built on Aristotelian thought.
Aristotelian philosophy gave birth to systematic theology – something that would be foreign to any first-century Christian. (I detail this in the little red book in the chapter on Christian education.)
There’s a slight chance that the rest of this article will blow your mind. But at the end, I’ll be there to pick up the pieces. Of your mind, I mean.
Jesus was not an Aristotelian.
Let me ‘splain.
You do not have to read too far into the Bible to discover that it’s peppered with conflicting ideas and salted with apparent discrepancies.
Open it up and in the very first two pages you’re sitting in the presence of a glaring discrepancy.
In Genesis 1, God created the animals before He created humans. In Genesis 2, it appears that the animals were created after the creation of humans.
The Bible affirms that Jesus is completely divine, yet it also tells us that He is fully human. He was a walking paradox.
In addition, His teachings are full of apparent contradictions.
One example: He said “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” Yet He also said “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
Scripture is clear that God is sovereign and elects humans to salvation. Yet with equal force, it teaches that “whosoever will” shall be saved.
Jesus laid down His life for His friends and died for His sheep, giving His life a ransom for many. Yet Jesus died for all.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to die daily. But we are already dead.
We are perfect in Christ, yet we are in desperate need of transformation.
We are warned to “answer not a fool according to his folly,” yet in the same breath, we’re exhorted to “answer a fool according to his folly.”
(Incidentally, if you want the Scriptural references for the above, you’ll have to find them yourself. I’m not typing them out lest my wrists fall off. Yes, there are that many.)
Our Western minds exclaim in frustration, “Come on man, which is it?”
In light of the raft of apparent contradictions that fill the pages of God’s word, not a few critics have leveled the unjust charge that the Bible is foolish and irrational.
But much of the reason behind this accusation involves the oft-misunderstood nature of divine truth.
As 21st-century Westerners, we are trained in a Greco-Western orientation to truth. This orientation is linear.
Linear thinking is built on the presupposition that all truth emerges from a prior truth. In linear thought, one rational consequence causes another rational consequence.
Truth, according to this approach, is like a chain of facts that logically lead to each other.
The linear approach is fantastic for math and science. And the West has led in technology as a result. But this approach is deficient for apprehending spiritual truth.
Why? Because spiritual truth doesn’t function in a linear way.
While the Western mindset (thanks to Aristotle) has been shaped by linear thinking, the Hebrew mindset has been framed by non-linear thought.
As such, the Hebrew mind is characterized by its ability to hold simultaneously to two or more opposing ideas.
Because the Hebrew mindset violates the rules of Aristotelian logic, it’s repulsive to the typical Westerner.
According to Western thought, if two ideas run in opposition to one another, it constitutes a contradiction or a paradox. And paradoxes lead to paralysis.
Hence, when a Westerner confronts a paradox, he becomes intellectually stuck and mentally fixated. According to Aristotelian logic, if two ideas press against each other in opposition, one of them must be false. This is known as “the law of non-contradiction.”
By contrast, paradoxes and logical contradictions present no difficulty to the Hebrew mind.
Classic Hebrew thought sees reality as possessing opposite properties that compete with each other.
Thus the Hebraic mindset possesses the full capacity to hold two or more ideas in tension (which when put into practice, can explode the head of the typical Westerner).
It also has the unique ability to be propelled forward by these seemingly contradictory ideas, instead of getting stuck by them.
Because the Bible was written from a Hebrew mindset, linear thinking constitutes a brittle approach to understanding Scripture. (While the New Testament was written in Greek, virtually all its authors were Hebrew. Luke was one exception.)
For this reason, the New Testament documents are saturated with the non-linear Hebraic mindset that works underneath all its teachings. (See C.H. Dodd’s The Bible and the Greeks for details.)
In short, Jesus transcends our Western, linear mindset.
He was NOT an Aristotelian.
For this reason, to encounter Him in Scripture, one must learn to approach the Bible practically (with an intention to respond) and personally (with a view to discovering the Person of Christ).
When we do so, the discrepancies resolve and we are able to take a nap in the presence of contradiction.
Here’s a test.
Are you troubled by the apparent contradictions found in Scripture? If so, there’s a good chance that you’re a son or daughter of Aristotle and have adopted his mindset.
If you aren’t bothered by them, but instead you regard them as beautiful yet different aspects of God’s multi-splendored light, there’s an excellent chance that you’ve laid hold of the mind of your Lord.
For more on this subject, check out the following:
How an Insurgent Approaches Scripture
The Jesus Trilogy (testimonials from Francis Frangipane, Matt Chandler, Mark Batterson, etc.)
Until next Thursday,
fv
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Dull of Hearing
I just reread this article and I still love it. It was profound the first time I read it and it still challenges my reading of Scripture. It is a very different mindset that I am not used to. But it makes so much sense. I can also see how easily someone using Aristotelian thinking can take a passage and use it to prooftext whatever that person wants the Bible to say. Thanks again for writing this.
Where can I buy your books and articles ?
The book are in the “Books” link on the top menu. The articles are free. Just go to the top of the blog and scroll down and you’ll see them in order, from most recent to least. There are over 1,000.
Frank, I’ve read this twice and plan on reading it again and again! This may be one of the most profound blogs you’ve written. You may not think so, but I have read most of what you have written and this blog speaks volumes to me and my way of thinking. I am trying to train myself to think differently. I have always been a “black and white” thinker. That it has to be one way or another. If “A” is true, then “B” can’t be true. In this post you have helped to see the error in this way of thinking.
Your test at the end was so enlightening:
Here’s a test.
Are you troubled by the apparent contradictions found in Scripture? If so, there’s a good chance that you’re a son or daughter of Aristotle and have adopted his mindset.
If you aren’t bothered by them, but instead you regard them as beautiful yet different aspects of God’s multi-splendored light, there’s an excellent chance that you’ve laid hold of the mind of your Lord.
I am somewhere in between these to statements, so there is hope! I so want to “lay hold of the mind of my Lord.”
“..there’s an excellent chance that you’ve laid hold of the mind of your Lord.”
What beautiful words you have spoken to me.
Wow. What a privilege.
I didn’t see that coming…more than a resonance.
The Spirit wholeheartedly agrees.
This is new and runs along the same lines of I am in Christ. I am excited (eager expectation!) to WWJD with this confirmation.
So good! What an important message. Thanks so much Frank! I can feel some Aristotelian strongholds crumbling already. Are there any more resources you would recommend other than the 3 you listed?
The Jesus Trilogy is 3 full-length books. So there’s a lot of content there.
The other resource would be some of the Master Classes on The Deeper Christian Life Network.
Here’s one point I made in this month’s Q & A on the Network.
“God dwells outside of space and time. He also dwells within it at the same moment.
We, however, are fettered to space and time. So what’s already taken place in God’s eternal NOW hasn’t caught up to us yet.
So what is reality for Him doesn’t seem to be reality for us.
For instance, the world system and the old creation have been crucified from God’s viewpoint. But it doesn’t seem so for us because who are caught in space and time.
God chose us before creation, yet we also chose to follow Him of our own free will. Both ideas cannot be resolved if we view them from within space and time. It’s only when we understand that God lives outside of space and time that they resolve.
When we learn to eat from the tree of life (something I discussed in the Exquisite Passion Master Class) rather than from the tree of knowledge, these academic debates dissolve in the glorious face of Christ.”
Awesome! Thanks so much!
AMEN, AMEN, & AMEN !!!!!!! (seven ! intentionally) . In college I came to realize the difference between the Hebraic viewpoints and the Hellenism (Aristotelian) and have come to be hostlle it as well of the Greco/Roman view of men & women, etc.
The above Amens also apply to your teaching on coincidences that you wished to have incorporated in Jesus Speaks. I have never heard of this before in church.
You say the Bible was written from a Hebrew mindset. Well then, if all scripture is inspired by God and no scripture is of private interpretation, then are you saying the Holy Spirit has a Hebrew mindset?
The article is called “Jesus was not an Aristotelian” – and He still isn’t. And it makes that case.
That’s what “I’m saying.”
If you desire more on the subject, you’ll want to check out the 3 related resources listed at the end of the article.
There’s far too much ground to cover in a short blog post like this.
btw/ the way you structured your question is very Aristotelian. The Lord doesn’t think in those terms and neither do I. 🙂
This is a good answer Frank. I reminds me of how the Lord answered questions in the gospels which wasn’t direct on a logic plane but getting to the heart of the matter. A gracious reply. Thank you.
Ditto what Dylan said. Nice!!
Thanks Frank.
What you presented here is super insightful and interesting.
Blessings,
Caleb
This is right on. I have been reading a number of books by former dispensationalists who left their literalistic physical hermeneutic and have adopted an eastern symbolic approach which seems to eschew Augustinian doctrine (based upon Greek philosophy). One of them has a book full of diagrams illustrating the type of tension Frank describes above between “heaven and earth” “time & space” female & male” et al throughout the scriptures.
Another focuses on the significant difference between Western and Eastern ideas of verbal inspiration- the Eastern view appears to be very Hebraic per Frank’s comment above “By contrast, paradoxes and logical contradictions present no difficulty to the Hebrew mind.”
Excellent. At my age I should have known this. But apparently I did not. Clears up a lot of things for me. Thank you for the insights.
This is very timely for me, as I’ve been dealing with several questions about absolute truth, biblical innerancy, “good” vs “bad” bible translations and the like. Help me understand how or if there can be absolute truth, for example, in light of your statement “Hebrew thought sees reality as possessing opposite properties that compete with each other.”
“Absolute truth” is a human construct and so is “relative truth.”
Truth and reality is Jesus Christ. When a person receives a deep revelation of Christ, and not other things, these questions are wiped off the table. This is one of the goals of some of my books and spoken messages.
When someone asked me for an example of absolute truth recently, I told them Christ is Truth. It didn’t go over well. I think they wanted an answer like “gravity” as an example of absolute truth.You explain things so much more concisely, I’m going to send them the link to your article.
All of my articles and podcasts are meant to be shared. Thanks for sharing it.
This is great, Frank.
Wow! this makes so much sense. thank you.
Excellent article! Your stuff always resonates with me.
Excellent article. Many thanks!
Brilliant! And absolutely liberating.
I’ve slowly been learning this and it has been transforming. Thanks for sharing.
SO GOOD! I’m loving your new book too. It’s blowing my mind.
What a stimulating and insightful article! This clears up so much for me. Thank you!
Great! Ty
This all feels very pertinent since for some reason I got an Amazon books recommendation triumphing Mr Aristotle and his contribution to the Western Church. But sadly I thought that might be part of the problem. I don’t like that my university experience looks identical to my church experience. I don’t want to learn Christ according to Aristotle, that hasn’t saved me. Thanks Frank!
You bet. Thanks for “getting it.”
Dr. ____ was one of the hardest professors at my school in N.E Philly and his Basic Theology was required reading. It’s hard to break away from Fundamental Baptist, BJU, KJV only system but it’s freeing.