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To: imardmd1
Oh my. Here we go.

First: To defend logismoi in some circumstances is not to say that syllogism provide ALL truth. So to concede that some perception of truth comes through means other than logismoi is not to abandon syllogisms entirely.

Now, syllogisms are about the relationship between assertions. Reasoning in general is pretty much the same. For example:

What God said is reliable.
"In the beginning ...." is a thing God said.
Therefore it is reliable.
That there is a syllogism. Your "God said it... That settles it..." conceals a syllogism.

I would hold that the primary assertions of the Faith are given by the Spirit.
The necessary insight and disposition to see their implication clearly and justly are given by the same Spirit.

I think the difference is that in our view the Spirit usually works with what we have. For example, He doesn't take the sex out of marriage, he sanctifies it and the relationship.

He doesn't take, in our view, the "syllogism" (and here we are using a kind of synedoche) out of faith; he sanctifies and directs it.

In Romans 2:15

οἵτινες ἐνδείκνυνται τὸ ἔργον τοῦ νόμου γραπτὸν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις αὐτῶν, συμμαρτυρούσης αὐτῶν τῆς συνειδήσεως καὶ μεταξὺ ἀλλήλων τῶν λογισμῶν κατηγορούντων ἢ καὶ ἀπολογουμένων, ...
Paul does not seem to condemn logismoi, though elsewhere he certainly makes an opposition.

It seems to me to deny the goodness of creation to say that reason is useless. And arguments in favor of the proposition will fail because they appeal to reason, whether they admit it or not.

29 posted on 09/01/2012 12:39:00 PM PDT by Mad Dawg (Depone serpentem et ab veneno gradere.)
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To: Mad Dawg
Paul does not seem to condemn logismoi, though elsewhere he certainly makes an opposition.

Genesis 1:1 is not an appeal to reason. It is an opening statement. It demands faith. It is not a logical proposition. It is not part of a debate.

Is the Holy Ghost there speaking to a blank slate? Were that so, as in the Garden. But the intelligent mind is already prejudiced by sin. The Holy Ghost imparts faith to the heart as he speaks, addressing the mind, but quenching and bypassing reasonings.

Romans 12:2, 2 Cor. 10:3-6

My opinion is that acceptance of Genesis 1:1 is spiritual discernment, not a logical conclusion drawn from other facts.

The point was that the Greek-educated Alexandrians brought a lot of philosopical methodology into interpretation of the Holy Scriptures that confounded the hermeneutics of the Apostles and their disciples, laying the ground for apostasy through following the world's rather than honoring, keeping, and transmitting Christ's commands without change.

With respect --

40 posted on 09/01/2012 7:25:43 PM PDT by imardmd1 (Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them NOT!)
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