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  • Writer's pictureBible Brian

A hermeneutical Chess game


The demand for explicit statements is becoming an increasingly large problem. Where does Jesus say the exact words “I am God”? Where does the Bible say “God is a Trinity”? Where does the Bible say “God did not create over millions of years?” Where does the Bible say “the Big Bang didn’t happen?” Where does the Bible say “gay marriage is wrong”? Even where does the Bible say “God is not a woman”?


In the header image, you see a diagram of all the moves an unobstructed knight can legitimately make in a game of chess. A knight can only move in an L shape. Thus, on this board, a knight cannot go anywhere that isn't marked with an X. At least, not in one move. Now imagine there is an enemy queen sitting in any one of those squares not marked with an X. So far, I have not explicitly stated that the knight could not take that queen. What I have said, however, is that the knight can only move in an L shape. Therefore, though I have not explicitly stated it, the knight would not be able to take that queen.


The second law of logic is the law of non-contradiction. This law states that two opposing statements cannot be true in the same sense and at the same time. For example, let us take "where does the Bible say God is a Trinity"? Everyone with a minor education on Christian Theology knows that the Bible says there is only one God. Because it says there is only one God, we don’t need it to say “there are not 3 Gods”. One God excludes the possibility that there are three. And yet the Bible still calls the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, "God". If there is only one God, yet three individuals are called God, the only consistent view is that all three beings are one God. We don't need the Bible to say "God is a Trinity".


For the sake of the Church, it is vital that we cease to require specific statements to accept a doctrine and instead let the Bible speak for itself, even if it does not do so in the exact words we, in our stubbornness, demand of it.

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