G’day, my name is Matt Fradd.
Today I want to talk about argumentation, arguing; why it's a good thing.
You know, if you were to go right now and type in ‘Argument’ in Google and click ‘Images’...
Do it now, go on, don't look at me. Open up another window, see if I care.
Okay, what you're gonna see is a list of photos of people who are really angry with each other.
And now this has given ‘arguing’ and ‘argumentation’ a bad name.
It's important that we realize there is a distinction between ‘argumentation’ and ‘argumentativeness.’
They're not the same thing. So what is an argument?
So, a couple of years ago when my children were still young and we lived in San Diego,
I remember my children bursting into our bedroom around 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning
while my wife and I laid, you know , absolutely exhausted on the bed.
And I would say to my children, “Go, go outside and play.”
And they might go out for 20 seconds or a minute, and they'd rush back in.
And I said, “Go out! We'll play a game: whoever stays outside the longest, wins.”
Now — side note — some of you are judging me, and you're called a not-parent.
Wait ‘til you're a parent, then you can judge me, okay?
So, I would send them out.
One of the kids ran back in, they said “Well, what do we win if we stay outside the longest?”
My wife lifted her head up off the pillow and she said, “Candy.”
I said, “Candy?! We're resorting to candy? It's 5:00 in the morning.”
And she said “Well they're vitamins, vitamin candy. They don't know the difference.”
Okay. “You win vitamins...I mean, candy.”
And the kids would run out and play.
Well, they played somewhat peacefully for several minutes
and all of a sudden the bickering would start: “Did too!” “Did not!” “Did too!” “Did not!”
Many people in our culture seem to think that this is what an argument is.
But they would be wrong; This, this isn't arguing.
Arguing, very simply put, just means giving reasons to believe something to be true.
Or giving reasons to not believe something.
So if I'm arguing with you about the capital of Australia and you think it's Sydney,
I might pull out an encyclopedia and show you it's Canberra, right?
I'm giving a reason to believe something. That's all arguing is.
And that's why arguing is necessary — I would say — as a follow-up to evangelization.
‘Cause if you as a Christian are saying to somebody,
“God loves you; he wants a relationship with you. Jesus died for you...
He established a church,” or something like that,
they're probably not just gonna be like, “Cool! Awesome! Let's do it.”
They're probably going to ask questions, right?
They might say, “Well how do you even know God exists?
I mean so much bad stuff happens in the world, how could a loving God allow that?”
Or they might say, “Well how do I know the Catholic Church is true or not?
Why shouldn’t I just become a Protestant?” or something like that.
Some people are probably still listening and they're not impressed.
They're thinking to themselves, “Look, I'm a Christian but arguing is still bad.
As Christians we shouldn't be arguing with people. Rather we should just be sharing our story.”
And I think that's unfortunate for the reasons I've given, but also because it's just not biblical.
If we open the scriptures up to Acts, chapter 17, there's two very interesting verses
where Paul very clearly argues, and it says as much.
Verse 2 of Acts 17, we read, “And Paul went into the synagogue as was his custom,
and for three weeks he argued with them from the scriptures.”
Now if we have this sort of wrong understanding of argumentation, we might think,
“Oh my gosh, Paul was for three weeks in the synagogue just getting super upset.
Like, chill out Paul. Go take a break, have a Kit Kat, or something.
That's not what it means, right?
Rather, he was looking to the scriptures and he was giving reasons to the Jews
to believe that Jesus was the Christ.
Now there's another verse here in chapter 17 — I find this one funny.
It says, “So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons,
and in the marketplace every day with those who chanced to be there.”
Ah ha, I love that.
So there’s Paul just hanging out in the marketplace, *laughs* looking through...something.
and he's looking at you and you're just, you know, 1st century Jew buying your eggs and bacon and...
okay, not your bacon... [laughter]
and there's Paul and he jumps out and he's ready for an argument.
You see, arguing just means giving reasons to believe something,
and as Christians we should learn how to argue appropriately.
So in videos in the future, what I'd love to do is give you examples of good arguments and bad arguments.
So maybe in the comments section below you could ask some questions.
Put in #askMattFradd.
Maybe you've got a question about how to argue more effectively,
how to recognize and respond to common logical fallacies, and other such stuff.
It's really important, I think, that we keep 1st Peter, chapter 3, verse 15 in mind, okay?
And I’ll end with this, alright. St. Peter says,
“Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you.”
And then we can't forget that last part in verse 15. He says, “Yet do it with gentleness.”
And we do it in reverence. Do it in gentleness and with reverence.
So whoever you argue with this week, be sure to remember that this is a human person —
unless you're arguing with animals, which is just futile, so give it up —
this is a person who's been created in the image and likeness of God, right?
And that argument — your response to this person — ought to be gentle and reverent.
Thanks so much!
Look forward to chatting with you next week, thanks for watching.
It's important that we realize that there is a distinction
between argumentation and argumen —uh— argu — ahhhrgumentativeness...
argumentation and augument... argumented, argumentiveness...
Argument-ativeness. *whispers* Argumentativeness.
Argumentation and argument... son of a nutcracker!