Let us reason together

Now some of the Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Him, and they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should marry the wife and raise up seed for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; and the first married a wife and died childless, and the second and the third married her; and in the same way, all seven died, leaving no children. Finally the woman died also. Therefore, this woman—in the resurrection—whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as a wife.”
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. For they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living; for all live to Him.” And some of the scribes answered and said, “Teacher, You have spoken well.” For they did not dare to question Him any longer about anything.

Luke 20:27-40

Introduction

Many today will say that to be a Christian means rejecting logic, reason, and “science.” There are those who would pit faith against reason as though the two were in fierce opposition. These people assume that to have assurance of things hoped for and conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1) is foolishness. Skepticism reigns supreme in their minds (except where it does not, of course). In reality, Christianity is a faith rooted in reason. In fact, God frequently makes use of reason to drive home His point, like in Job 38 or Isaiah 1.

As Christians, we are expected to use the rational mind God gave us to draw rational conclusions about scripture and about the world. As an example, “Trinity” is not a word found in scripture, but we are able to easily derive the doctrine that God is three persons in One being from the things explicitly taught. Judaism carries a similar expectation. And during the second Temple period, many sects of Judaism arose. One such sect, the Sadducees, accepted the Torah (the first five books of Moses) but rejected the rest of scripture. That means no prophets and no writings. Of course they were aware of these works, but did not consider them to be holy scripture.

Because of the apparent lack of a promised resurrection (like prophesied by Daniel 12:2) in the Torah, the Sadducees denied such a truth, believing instead that Sheol (the realm of the dead) was the eternal resting place for deceased souls. And these Sadducees were every bit as capable as their Pharisaical counterparts at crafting complex arguments for their positions.

Reductio ad absurdum

The rhetorical tactic the Sadducees used is called “reductio ad absurdum,” a Latin phrase meaning “reduction to absurdity.” In this case, they begin with the underlying assumption that Moses’ command in Deuteronomy 25 are from God, good, and logically consistent in every scenario. This is certainly a good starting point, given the basis for knowledge lies in God’s own revelation.

After this, they temporarily adopt the assumption of a general resurrection and use that to apparently demonstrate that Moses’ command was foolish. That is: if the general resurrection is true, then Moses’ command for a brother to marry his deceased brother’s widow would create chaos and confusion. The reasoning appears sound, and their point is definitely made.

Reasoning truth from limited revelation

But subtly built into their argument was a third fundamental assumption: that life in the resurrection would be the same, or at least mirror, life before death. That assumption, unlike the others, is not supported anywhere in scripture. It is not present in the prophets, and it is most certainly not present in the Torah. Formally they have committed a category error here, assuming things which belong to one category (pre-death life) also belong to another (post-resurrection life).

That is why this hidden assumption is what Jesus attacks first. He exposes their faulty reasoning and explains their lack of consideration that in the resurrection we will be different (1 Corinthians 15:50-56). But He does not leave the argument there. If He were to do so, Christ Himself might have wound up committing an argument from fallacy – that is, claiming someone is wrong simply because they committed a logical fallacy.

And so, He proceeds to demonstrate with reason that even the Torah in its relatively limited revelation provides evidence for this future general resurrection. Using the same pattern the Sadducees did, Jesus’ first assumption is that the scripture is infallible when He quotes Exodus 3:6. After that, He asserts something else they all believe: that God is the God of the living. By conclusion, that must mean the patriarchs listed are not dead forever, but will live again. This impressive response even drew lauds from the scribes.

Those patterns used, which contain two propositions and a following conclusion, are called syllogism in formal logic, and are extremely powerful tools at demonstrating a point. As Christians and followers of Christ, we ought to commit ourselves to reasoning as He reasoned. After all, He has commanded us to be holy (distinct) as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16; Leviticus 11:44).

May the Lord bless you and conform you into the image of His Son.