The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
- Hebrews 7:18-19
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
- Hebrews 8:13
As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said.
- Acts 17:2-3
This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
- Matthew 13:13-15
“‘Go to this people and say,
“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
- Acts 28:26-27
“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
- Isaiah 1:18
“Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t lie and it is obvious she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.”
- C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Yes, indeed, why is Logic not taught in schools? Frankly I think there are a great many people who are logically impaired. My wife measured her value system almost totally on her emotions, but she would surprise me with her logical reasoning at times. As an engineer, I tried to logically figure out how to fix things, but my emotional side would always take over if the problem was interpersonal.
But some people confuse logic with the law or rules.
I finally broke down recently after constant bombardment about a group of logic puzzles. I downloaded the logic puzzles and I enjoy them, but all the ads irritated me in one way or another. One young lady said that she was addicted to the game and you would not understand. If I would not understand, why bring it up? Does she really understand the game?
Another lady who speaks with an accent, could not speak precisely enough to explain the rules, but you could use logic to figure out what she meant. But she said something that the others never said, “No guessing.” Of the four different people that explained the game, she might be the only one that had the capacity to use logic.
But the title is reserved to the only male who explained the game. He explained the rules carefully and precisely. He got the grid halfway complete, and then he said that he did not understand the rules. This reminds me of Jesus when He quoted Isaiah 6, that they will hear but not understand.
But his first sentence was: “This game literally changes based on how you play it.”
First, people say “literally” the way a soldier in ancient times hid behind his shield. They do not understand what they are saying. If they did understand, the word is simply a wasted word, like simply was in this sentence. Using “literally” means that do not argue because the facts are unassailable. But these days, “literally” means that I have no clue how to defend what I am saying, and I do not wish to look like a fool, so I will throw up the “literally” shield to keep you from telling me where I am wrong.
“Literally” is becoming the fad space filler in modern language. Notice that I did not say it was literally the space filler. When I hear “literally” I immediately consider that the other person is insecure in their knowledge and is probably unknowingly wrong or they are lying.
But to the changing of the game? That is absolute garbage. The man explaining the game did so clearly and precisely. But he admits that he does not understand the rules. I think it is much like in the times of Jesus, he understands the rules, but he wants to cheat, to take shortcuts. He gets to an empty block that he has to fill with something, and he guesses.
The rules never change, so the game never changes. You need to use a logical argument to fill in the blank space.
But alas, too many people are logic impaired. They resort to guessing or they uninstall the game because it got too hard. A game with less than a half dozen rules is too hard? Yes, when you would rather cheat than think.
God does not change, but He had a change in the rules planned. The Law was impossible to purely follow with our sin nature. But when Jesus died on the cross, He paid for our sins if we believe and trust in Him. Before He was betrayed and sent to the cross, He told His disciples that He had a new covenant with them. One rule: Love one another.
Oddly, the loving of one another is expressed in the Law. But that is only seen when you think about what love is. And while we will fail, the more like Jesus that we become, the more we will show love to our neighbors.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
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