{"id":96467,"date":"2026-07-05T09:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T14:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=96467"},"modified":"2026-07-05T09:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T14:20:15","slug":"suppositions-without-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/suppositions-without-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Suppositions Without Support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by David Gibson<\/p>\n<h2>Jumping to conclusions<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>John the Baptist warned the Jews, &#8220;&#8230; <em>do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, &#8216;We have Abraham for our father<\/em> &#8230;&#8221; (Matthew 3:9). Simply depending on physical descent from Abraham without the faith and repentance God requires is a baseless assumption (see John 8:37-42, 44, 47; Romans 2:25-29).<\/li>\n<li>Jesus said, &#8220;<em>And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words<\/em>&#8221; (Matthew 6:7; see I Kings 18:26-29).<\/li>\n<li>Regarding those whom Pilate killed, Jesus said, &#8220;<em>Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish<\/em>&#8221; (Luke 13:2-5; also John 9:1-3).<\/li>\n<li>On the day of Pentecost, a huge crowd from many countries was amazed when they heard the apostles speak in languages they could understand. Some mockers in the crowd accused the apostles of being intoxicated. Peter explained, &#8220;<em>For these men are not drunk, as you suppose<\/em>&#8230;&#8221; He then cited Joel&#8217;s prophecy that the Spirit (not spirits) empowered them to speak (Acts 2:6-21).<\/li>\n<li>An angry mob in Jerusalem nearly killed Paul because &#8220;<em>they supposed<\/em>&#8221; that he had brought a Gentile into the temple, which he had not done (Acts 21:27-31; see Acts 24:5-6).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>And today &#8230;<\/h2>\n<p>Sad to say, many today base their hopes on false premises, such as infant baptism; salvation by faith alone; saying the Sinner&#8217;s Prayer; the doctrine of once saved, always saved; reliance on good deeds; acceptance of traditions and writings of human origin; dependence on one&#8217;s own subjective feelings; etc.<\/p>\n<p>The Bereans are highly commended for diligently searching the Scriptures to determine truth (Acts 17:10). They didn&#8217;t rely on supposition but rather on what God had revealed in His word.<\/p>\n<p>May that describe us as well!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by David Gibson Jumping to conclusions John the Baptist warned the Jews, &#8220;&#8230; do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, &#8216;We have Abraham for our father &#8230;&#8221; (Matthew 3:9). Simply depending on physical descent from Abraham without the faith and repentance God requires is a baseless assumption (see John 8:37-42, 44, 47; Romans&hellip;<\/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_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1527],"class_list":["post-96467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-assumptions"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2729,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-there-at-least-one-sin-worse-than-other-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":96467,"position":0},"title":"Isn&#8217;t there at least one sin worse than other sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You said that sin is sin in the eyes of God, but Mark 3:22-30\u00a0says there is an unforgivable sin. Isn't that a sin worse than forgivable sins? Answer: \"Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39069,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-i-believe-in-jesus-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":96467,"position":1},"title":"Why I Believe in Jesus Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bobby Witherington via Truth Magazine Vol. XLIV: 7 p3, April 6, 2000 More Than Just A Historical Being The fact that a man called \"Jesus of Nazareth\" actually lived upon this earth and died upon a cross is a matter of historical record. If we can believe that such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44064,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-support-people-who-are-shouting-fire-and-brimstone-on-campus\/","url_meta":{"origin":96467,"position":2},"title":"Should I support people who are shouting fire and brimstone on campus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wanted to ask you one more thing though, on my University campus today there is a preacher that stands in an area with heavy foot traffic and preaches to the campus walking by. Many of the students are very annoyed by him, and he is heavily ridiculed, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85542,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-was-manifest-in-the-flesh\/","url_meta":{"origin":96467,"position":3},"title":"God Was Manifest in the Flesh","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Tim Coffey via Guardian of Truth XL: 5 p. 8-9, March 7, 1996 Paul proclaimed, \"Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh\" (I Timothy 3:16). For those who saw Jesus in the flesh, the difficulty was not in believing that he was man, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56277,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-foolishness-of-hasty-judgments\/","url_meta":{"origin":96467,"position":4},"title":"The Foolishness of Hasty Judgments","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steven Harper The wise writer said,\u00a0\"If one gives\u00a0an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame\" (Proverbs 18:13). But how foolish men are in making hasty judgments, often without hearing the evidence - or at least\u00a0all\u00a0of the evidence. Daily - on local and nationwide radio talk shows,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32449,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-matthew-mention-the-exception-to-divorce-but-mark-and-luke-dont\/","url_meta":{"origin":96467,"position":5},"title":"Why does Matthew mention the exception to divorce but Mark and Luke don&#8217;t?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why is the exception clause \"except it be for fornication\" in Matthew 19:8 regarding the teaching of Jesus on divorce and remarriage not included in Mark's account of this teaching (Mark 10:2-10) or in Luke's account (Luke 16:18)? Answer: Each gospel account was written to different audiences with different\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96467","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=96467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}