In that he says, A new covenant, he has made the first old. – Heb 8:13
A Fallacy of Composition arises when a person assumes that what’s
true about one part of something has to be applied to all, or other, parts of
it. For example, it’s a Composition Fallacy to state that because atoms are
invisible, therefore all things made up of atoms are equally invisible.
It’s a classic logical fallacy outlined by Aristotle, the 4th
century B.C. philosopher much revered by secular sceptics. However, they seem
to hold a double standard on this fallacy when it comes to the Bible.
A perennial attack on the Bible is the listing out of the peculiar Laws
of Moses, the ‘Holy War’ narrative of the conquest of Canaan, the anarchic
stories in the book of Judges, etc. And claim that the Bible therefore, is
barbaric, cruel, and crude.
But the Bible itself clearly places a distinction between its Old and
its New Testaments (Heb 8:13) and the author of the book of Judges repeatedly
clarifies that “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did
that which was right in his own eyes.” (Jdg 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25).
The sceptics, though, would have none of that. To them, whatever the
Bible says in one place applies to all. This odd insistence of theirs is more
out of unscrupulousness than of naivety and would not hold in a secular court
of law.
Besides extracting words and narratives outside out of their original
contexts, they also cherry-pick the portions of scripture that best suit their
deprecatory agenda. They’d cite the curse of Eve’s subjection under Adam (after
the Fall), but conveniently ignore the fact that both were declared “one flesh”
in the previous chapter. They’d cite the 10th commandment and say it
places women on the same level as property; but ignore the unique protection it
offers them among women in such an ancient patriarchal climate.
Nevertheless the Bible itself is its bests defence. It is brutal in its
honest narratives, yet clear in the place each has in the grand overarching
story of our creation, fall and redemption through the birth, death and
resurrection of Christ.
AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not
miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
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