Convincing With Reason

Acts 18:4 "...he (Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. 28 For he (Apollos) mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ."

These passages are from Paul from the beginning of Chapter 18 and Apollos at the end of Chapter 18. Paul was in Corinth and Apollos was in Achaia. There was considerable time between these two events, but their common theme is how to "convert" people to Christianity. Paul persuaded Jews and Gentiles. Apollos persuaded the Jews.

Let's look at four words in the process of salvation: reason, persuasion, convincing, and showing. Before we examine those four words, there are four words not part of the conversion process: intimidating, judging, name-calling and deceiving. Just look at the contrast!

The objective of any religion is to convert others to a new belief system. The belief of the Jews was Mosaic Law, The belief of the Gentiles was in pagan gods, what is called mythology today, but was very real then! The former was the practice of asceticism and the latter hedonism. The former is Stoicism and the latter Epicureanism. Paul spoke against both. Because Jews were religious didn't mean they were not also philosophers. Their religion is very much a philosophy!

Acts 17 mentions those two philosophies, and I believe that the Law implies one and paganism the other! Hence, there are two diverse philosophies, each with their version of "the unknown god", and both Paul and Apollos endeavor to convince them otherwise. The same process was used for all!

The original state was that two groups of people failed to understand and believe in Jesus Christ. The desired state was to be that both groups believe in Jesus Christ; not in his existence, but that he is the One True God in whom salvation is available! How do we get from state #1 to state #2? Truth! State #1 is deception, ignorance or a lack of understanding. State #2 is enlightenment. It's when a person has an epiphany: it's when truth is revealed!

Neither Paul nor Apollos threatened, accused, derided nor used deception. Neither resorted to anger nor name-calling! Think about it: when people fail to be convinced, deceived people resort to name-calling because their argument isn't convincing. Their "facts" are wrong and they have no other place to go, but toward anger! Using anger as a technique in the conversion process (or in any argument) is not effective. In fact in verse 6 when Paul failed to persuade some of the Jews, he merely went where he had "the biggest bang for his buck". He turned to the Gentiles because that field was the most fertile! Paul realized that some people aren't reasonable. Regardless of truth some people prefer to hang onto what's false because their position seems threatened. They have been wrong and pride prevents them from submitting!

Paul and Apollos used reason. For the Jews it was to show that their Messiah to whom they waited had indeed come. He is Jesus. All that they had to do is read and believe their own scripture. For the Gentiles it was only necessary to understand that their statues offered no hope; that only Jesus could save.

Previously I commented on "reason" (Link:THE CREATION STORY). Reason is of God, but it can be abused. It's a power which God gave his creation for truth, but was skewed through deception. Before the fall of mankind, reason was merely glorifying God. After that, with the new knowledge, Satan taught men how to use reason for evil. Today this is called "spin". In spin there is much truth, but it is tainted with falsehoods.

Well, Paul and Apollos used truth. They presented factual information. For the Jews it was using their own scripture to show that it was all about Jesus. Because they had ears to hear, but could not hear and eyes to see, but could not see; as they always had; their nut was hard to crack!

With the Gentiles, the shell was easier to penetrate because they had little confidence in what they already believed, plus Roman citizens were tolerant toward new thinking. They had a pantheon of Gods and all were welcome at that time except the God of the Jews who were dispersed from Rome under Claudius. (It turned out later that even Christianity wasn't welcome because Christ changes people!)

When reasoning with people the change results through "persuasion". That's merely using the facts against their false beliefs. It's replacing falsehoods with truth.  Satan is the roadblock between false and true and the arguments in favor of good must be 100% truth. For instance to persuade agnostics today, we can't present Christianity as valid through scientific proof. We must admit that God is not verifiable by scientific means, but he's a belief, requiring faith. But we can show them that their own scientific "proof" is not proof; that it's theory and as such requires the same degree of faith!

In order to persuade people, they must be shown the truth. For the Jews the proof exists right in their own scripture. Paul and Apollos only had to "show" them and then explain what they failed to understand. This activity is called "convincing". If you'll remember the eunuch "showed" himself the truth by reading scripture. However, Philip used what he was reading to "convince" him of the truth (Acts 8).

That is the process of conversion. If truth fails, people are absorbed in pride. Resulting to emotion can't cause change in anyone, only resentment and ridicule. It's reason that skeptics require, so use reason on skeptics! There is no branch of philosophy where they used name-calling, ridicule, threats and intimidation to convert. Those techniques belong to Islam. We are better than that because God is truth!

On the political front, it's not reason being used in this election. Each candidate should present the situation and the vision they have; then a realistic plan to get there. It's fine to use a person's record to convince the people who is the most qualified, but it's better to say "that was false" (then why so), than to call another candidate a liar! It's just not effective, especially when the candidate will eventually need the followers of those candidates they demean!