by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Paul “reasoned” with the Jews for three Sabbaths (Acts 17:2f) from the Scriptures (their own Scriptures). Thus, he started with what both sides agreed was true. The Scriptures had long been settled as true and authoritative to both sides participating in the discussion. The Scriptures would have to be handled accurately. From this authoritative source, Paul was affirming, and the other side was denying that “the Christ<\/em> (Messiah prophesied in these scriptures) had to suffer<\/strong>.<\/em>” Paul could prove this point by appealing to Isaiah 52-54 and Psalm 22, and also many types and shadows of the Old Testament.<\/p>\n If a person is “reasonable,” he will not get mad. He will simply show by a reasonable process that the evidence presented does not prove the proposition affirmed. That is “reasoning.” Being “unreasonable” would mean that they refuse to consider and answer the proposition affirmed. Many people don’t want to face the facts. They have not prepared themselves to handle things objectively.<\/p>\n The other part of Paul’s proposition to these Jews was that the Scriptures also show that the Christ would suffer “and rise again from the dead<\/em>” (Acts 17:3). Did the Scriptures of the Jews affirm this? Yes! He was suffering for our sins (Isaiah 53), and then His days were “prolonged<\/em>” (Isaiah 53:10). Also, David affirmed that one would not be left in Sheol (the realm of the dead) nor his flesh see corruption (Psalms 16). Jonah served as a type. He was God’s messenger, swallowed into certain death and coming forth in three days. In a sense, Isaac was as good as dead for three days, and God gave him back to Abraham on the third day. So, Paul would easily have a strong case. Reasonable people would have attempted to answer this evidence. Instead, many of the Jews resorted to the mob reaction (Acts 17:5-6) because being reasonable was not their practice. But a “great multitude” (Acts 17:4) of Greeks saw the power of Paul’s evidence. They knew the Scriptures were a powerful testimony to Jesus being the Messiah.<\/p>\n Reason involves a willingness to hear evidence, test the evidence, and draw a conclusive verdict on its implications. The Old Testament is a Testimony that a Savior and Messiah is coming<\/strong>. The New Testament is a Testimony that the Savior and Messiah have come<\/strong> in Jesus and that we must get ready to meet Him because He is coming again<\/strong> to take true believers home to glory.\u00a0Have you been reasonable with the evidence?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Paul “reasoned” with the Jews for three Sabbaths (Acts 17:2f) from the Scriptures (their own Scriptures). Thus, he started with what both sides agreed was true. The Scriptures had long been settled as true and authoritative to both sides participating in the discussion. The Scriptures would have to be handled accurately.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1292,73,36],"class_list":["post-66482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-debates","tag-jesus","tag-reasoning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":66279,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/reasoning\/","url_meta":{"origin":66482,"position":0},"title":"Reasoning","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The exercise of thought upon ideas to sort the true from the false, the stronger idea from the weaker idea. It is thinking through the available evidence to reach a conclusion. The book of John sets forth a propositional statement that says God came in human\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67663,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-need-a-proof-text-dont-we\/","url_meta":{"origin":66482,"position":1},"title":"We Need a Proof-text, Don’t We?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Some may misuse a text, and if that text is not carefully examined, it becomes a \"proof-text\" that sounds, on the surface, to support the user's point, and that is not good because they have used the Bible to legitimize a point not made or implied\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2317,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/it-is-written-reflections-on-authority-ceni-and-grace\/","url_meta":{"origin":66482,"position":2},"title":"“It Is Written”: Reflections on Authority, CENI and Grace","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Those claiming to be Christians will make the claim on the basis of what they believe the Scriptures teach. This is so, regardless of how far right or left on the spectrum of thought they find themselves. This is not to say that all interpretations are correct\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47722,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-gentiles-allowed-to-go-into-the-synagogues\/","url_meta":{"origin":66482,"position":3},"title":"Were the Gentiles allowed to go into the synagogues?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Were the Gentiles allowed to go into the synagogues? Answer: Gentiles were allowed to come to the temple complex, but they were restricted to remain in the outer court, the court of the Gentiles. The question is whether some similar restriction forbade Gentiles from entering synagogues. We know that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5727,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/scriptural-silence-and-the-burden-of-proof\/","url_meta":{"origin":66482,"position":4},"title":"Scriptural Silence and the Burden of Proof","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford In my life, I\u2019ve had training in logic from two main sources: the church and my secular education. The further I progressed, the more I realized that the same principles were taught in both settings. I used the same canons of logic in formal debate and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29677,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-need-for-book-chapter-and-verse\/","url_meta":{"origin":66482,"position":5},"title":"The Need for Book, Chapter, and Verse","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Do we really need book, chapter, and verse? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Frequently practices are justified by the absence of Scripture. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t say not to.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The argument is taken so far as to say, \u201cThere is no book, chapter, and verse for having book, chapter, and verse.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The point\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}