“Argue
your case. Get together and decide what to say... For there is no other God but
me, a Righteous God and Saviour” – Is 45:21 (NLTse)
An “Appeal
to Emotion” fallacy occurs when the speaker is Manipulating an emotional
response in place of a valid or compelling argument.
Appeals-to-Emotion
include appeals to fear, envy, pity, guilt, etc. However, a valid and reasoned
argument may sometimes have an emotional aspect. The fallacy only occurs when emotion
is used to obscure or replace REASON.
A good example
of this is the Doctrine of Hell.
The core of
our evangelism message is an emotional appeal to sinners warning them of Hell. Yet, there are several ‘Christian’
organisations today that either preach that Hell does not exist, or that Hell
is not everlasting. When stripped to its bare essentials, their argument can be
reduced to one premise: “How can a loving God punish His creation for
eternity?”
While this is
nice emotional logic, it ignores the REALITY, both of Man’s wilful rebellion
and the deliverance from that Hell provided for in the Cross.
It also
ignores the implication of a Sin-infested Universe and presumes to wish away
Divine Justice by pulling at God’s ‘heartstrings’. However, reality tells us
that any society that bases its justice system on Emotion will collapse.
The
Appeal-to-Emotion argument against Hell is nothing more than the world’s effort
to stay in sin and snub God’s continued outstretched arm to it.
We, on the
other hand, use emotion rightly, by basing it on FACT: ALL have sinned; God
took the just punishment of our sins on Himself at the Cross; those who still
reject this solution have nothing left but eternal separation from Him.
“Knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;” (2Co 5:11).
AMEN.
More Blessings
await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
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