How To Establish Religious Authority #17

A. This lesson is a Two Part Study. In it we want to study the question of how you establish Bible authority in terms of what we call “Necessary Inference.” What does that mean? The noun INFERENCE is related to the verb INFER. It comes from a compound Latin term which literally means, “To gather in.” It conveys the idea of going out and collecting, or gathering in something. When you apply this to the process of human reasoning, “inference” becomes a part of our everyday reasoning process.
1. There are various facts, truths, bits of information that you encounter that you have to put together. You combine all of these things together and from them you draw a conclusion. And the conclusion you draw is the inference. But, not all of the conclusions, or inferences that you make each day are
necessary inferences. Many conclusions and inferences are reasonable but they are not always
exclusive.
a. Sometimes you can explain your conclusions and inferences in more than one way. That is not a
necessary inference. That’s when you have to decide which of the two conclusion you want to
accept or use. You’re free to choose which conclusion or inference you think is more reasonable. And you are at liberty to exercise your choice in the matter.
(A) But, if after having gathered in all of the information on a subject, if there is only one conclusion or inference that can be drawn. If there is only one way to explain those facts, if there is only one logical conclusion, at which you can arrive, then the conclusion or inference suddenly becomes a “necessary inference.” You have no choice in deciding what your conclusion or inference will be. You are forced to conclude what are the facts. A forced conclusion is a necessary inference. Necessary inference is a part of Biblical interpretation.
(1) There are some people who want to be members of the Lord’s church, but they have a relative or friend in a denomination with whom they want to have religious fellowship.
(a) They want to have religious, Christian fellowship despite the fact that what that friend or relative believes and teaches is contrary to what the Bible teaches. To make that possible and justify that doctrinally, they reject the rule of Biblical interpretation called “necessary inference.” And they say, “A ‘necessary inference’ is only your opinion and you cannot bind your opinion on somebody else.”
(b) Well, they are partly right in what they say. They are right when they say, “You cannot bind your opinions on anybody.” But, are wrong when they say, a “necessary inference” is an opinion. A “reasonable inference” may be an opinion. But a “necessary inference” is NOT opinion. “Necessary inference” is based on, and carries with it, the force of absolute, factual information. Therefore , in the context of determining Bible authority, “necessary inference” becomes the equivalent of an authoritative statement.
(2) Look at a common example of this and then look at some Bible examples of establishing truth on the basis of “necessary inference.” If you woke up in the morning, and remembered that during the night you heard thunder. And now you look out and see that the grass, drive way are wet you could make an inferenct that it rained sometime during the night. That might be a “reasonable inference.”
(a) But that’s not a “necessary inference.” Why is that so? Because there may be a reasonable explanation for the wetness on your lawn and drive. Your sprinkler system may have come on and one of the heads was broken and blew water all over your driveway.

(b) By way of contrast: If you wake up, open the door, and there is snow all over everything you can see. You may “necessarily infer” that it rained and in the process the temperature dropped below 32 degrees. That is what has to occur for it to snow. You could draw a factual, undeniable inference, that the temperature dropped below freezing last night. We draw such inferences all the time.
(B) That process is correctly used to interpret the Bible. Turn to 2 Chron. 7:12, Solomon has completed building the temple and prays for God’s acceptance and blessing. “The LORD appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place
for myself as a temple for sacrifices.’” Question? Exactly HOW did God appear to him?
In the Old Testament God appeared to people in several different ways. To Moses from a
burning bush. Sometimes God appeared in a vision. In a dream. This says, “God
appeared to Solomon at night.” But, That does not say how.....only when.
(1) If I want to know how God appeared to him I have to look elsewhere to find out how God did that. When we go to a parallel passage in 1 Kgs. 9:2, “The LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.” How was that? 1 Kgs. 3:5, “At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream.”
(a) How do you draw a “necessary inference” from that? You put all the facts together and they say, ”God appeared to Solomon at night.....God appeared to Solomon at night the same way He appeared to Solomon at Gibeon......God appeared to Solomon at Gibeon at night in a dream.”
(b) Put all three passages together and I am FORCED to the CONCLUSION, I am forced to the NECESSARY inference that when God appeared to Solomon in 2 Chron. 7:12, God appeared to him in a dream. That is an undeniable conclusion. That’s why it’s called a “necessary inference.”
(2) There are many necessary inferences in the New Testament and from them we learn exactly what God is teaching us about how we find Him, respond to Him, establish a spiritual relationship with Him, how we maintain that relationship with Him, and exactly how we can worship Him in spirit and in truth so we can continue our relationship with Him.
(a) Next time we will begin to look at some of these “necessary Inferences” in the New Testament that formulate the religious doctrines that we believe. You will see why we believe what we believe, and why what we believe is sometimes drastically different from that of the denominations.
(b) Acts 20:32

Spur - 06/01/03 am