Necessary Inference Is Absolutely Necessary

by Terry Wane Benton

It is truly amazing that we have brethren who actually deny that proper reasoning on the scriptures always involves the use of necessary inference. It is the most basic plank of common sense reasoning, and yet, some brethren draw an inference that they don’t use inference and reason from implications.

Anytime we reach a judgment or conclusion about anything we are of necessity using the tools of common communication that involve drawing from available evidence a necessary inference. We may not consciously think we are using this thing, but we do every day. When there are no more shirts in the closet to wear, but the laundry basket is full, we draw a necessary inference from this evidence that we need to wash a load of clothes in order to have clean shirts to wear the rest of the week. When we think about what to eat for supper and look in the refrigerator and pantry for food choices and find nothing, we draw a necessary inference that we need to make a trip to the store. It is the most basic form of thinking and decision-making. In a court of law, the prosecuting and defense attorney’s present and test the available evidence before the jury so that the jury can reach a “verdict,” which is the conclusion or necessary inference they drew from considering all the available evidence. There is no part of life where we do not use the logic of necessary inference.

Consider just a few cases of necessary inference in the scriptures.

• “We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they” (Acts 15:11). That was a necessary inference. When the evidence was considered on the topic of whether Gentiles need to be circumcised to be saved, they considered the available evidence and “judged” from that evidence to the necessary conclusion. James said “therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15:19). This was drawing the evidence to a necessary conclusion. The evidence inferred the conclusion or judgment.
• I Corinthians 14:34 and I Timothy 2:11-15 show Paul drawing from the order of man being created first and then the woman, that this shows the priority of man over the woman in the divine arrangement. This brought the inspired apostle to the logical conclusion that a woman is not to teach over the man but to be in subjection.
• Matthew19:3-12 shows Jesus drawing a necessary inference from the fact that God made the first couple “one flesh”. The implication is that what God joins together as one flesh, man is not to put asunder. That is not stated but is the necessary implication of the original one flesh arrangement.

Since the Bible does not specify that I have sinned and need salvation, I must look at the evidence and draw the necessary inference that I have sinned and need to be saved. To deny necessary inference as an essential part of biblical reasoning is to prove oneself to be unreasonable or unable to draw common sense deductions! That assessment too would be a necessary inference drawn from the evidence shown in such a person.