Lesson Goal
Learn how to preach a sermon that disproves something.
Lesson Intro
In Matthew 12:1-14, Jesus presents a number of rebuttals to the Pharisees. What is a rebuttal? It is a counterargument to disprove the evidence supplied by another party. It is a process for establishing truth by revealing weak logic or uncovering lies. Proof may be in the eye of the beholder. Not everyone will be convinced by even the most logical of rebuttals.
Lesson Plan
We are going to discuss various kinds of fallacy which can be rebutted, the importance of researching logical fallacies, and a sample sermon rebutting a popular notion that can be useful in a church setting.
Lesson Body
5 Categories of Fallacy:
1. Fallacies of Structure
An argument contains three parts: cause, effect and rules for getting from one to the other. A violation of any of these three elements of structure is a bad argument.
2. Fallacies of Relevance
Any appeal to topics outside of the three parts of an argument is introducing an irrelevancy. A cause that does not produce the argued effect is irrelevant. A rule that does not have a direct line from cause to effect is irrelevant. An effect that is not from the argued cause is irrelevant.
3. Fallacies of Acceptability
Any argument that a reasonable person could not accept as logical is a fallacy. For example, wishful thinking is not proof that something will happen.
4. Fallacies of Insufficiency
When there is simply not enough evidence to draw a conclusion, the argument is weak.
5. Fallacies that Fail the Rebuttal Test
A good line of reasoning also tries to answer possible rebuttals. A bad argument leaves the door open. This is your opportunity to counter the argument. The only problem with this is that no one single sermon can close the door to all possible rebuttals. So, remember, when you are rebutting someone else's argument, you are most likely also leaving some doors open for your own sermon to be rebutted.
Presenting the Rebuttal
There are many examples of bad logic such as ad hoc, post hoc, ad hominem, equivocation, ambiguity, appeal to authority, anonymous authority, appeal to consequences, appeal to force, appeal to pity, appeal to popularity, appeal to emotion, appeal to ignorance, appeal to style, begging the question, burden of proof, cause and effect oversimplification, cause and effect reversal, deceptive emphasis, non sequitur, conjoined questions, fallacy of the exception, ignoring the evidence, excluding the evidence, the package deal, slippery slope, false analogy, false dichotomy, false deduction, hasty generalization, irrelevant conclusion, reduction to the absurd, the straw man, unrepresentative sample, vague terms and a host of other logical fallacies.
Go through the sermon on logic and see if you can find a logical fallacy that fits the criteria for rebutting the material. It is not an exhaustive list and there are many sources for studying logical fallacies. I recommend that any preacher worth his salt be familiar with good argument and logic, especially in today's anti-Christian and anti-orthodoxy rhetorical climate.
Example Sermon
Title: "Rebutting the Da Vinci Code"
Goal
To prove simply and in a few minutes that the popular book of fiction the Da Vinci Code is not serious history and not a threat to serious history of the Christian Church.
Intro
I have relatives and friends who have read the Da Vinci Code and now believe that Constantine was the first pope and that Jesus was secretly married. How do we answer such wild speculation?
Plan
Today will look at some of the major errors of a work of fiction that people everywhere are naïvely accepting as fact and compare them with the truth.
Body
Biblical and historical scholars are unanimous that the Da Vinci Code does not even deserve the classification of historic novel, because its historical facts are most often not true. The Da Vinci Code is so full of errors that we could waste a lot of time listing them all. An internet search will easily satisfy those who need more details. Here are just a few of its many fabrications:
Brown claims that there is a field of study at Harvard called religious symbolology. False! There is no such department and symbolology is not even a word. This is deceptive.
The Louvre pyramid has 666 glass panes. False! There are 673. This is a deception, a factual error.
Tarot was designed to pass on secrets banned by the Church. False! It was originally just a card game and tarot meant trump. Tarot cards were not associated with the occult until the 18th century. This is ignoring the evidence to the contrary.
Mona Lisa is an anagram of two pagan goddesses. False! It means Lady Lisa the wife of a silk merchant. This is excluding the evidence to the contrary.
The Priory of Sion was founded in 1099 by a French King. False! It was a 20th century hoax created in a novel by Pierre Plantard. This is excluding the evidence to the contrary.
The Knights Templar was the military wing of the Priory of Sion. False! The Knights Templar descended from a religious order created in 1118 during the Crusades to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land.
More than 80 Gospels were considered for inclusion in the New Testament. False! There were only about a dozen books which could have been considered. This is excluding the evidence from history. The Gospels we have today were widely recognized for several centuries and finalized after careful consideration in the 300's AD. Matthew was accepted because he was one of Jesus' first followers and an eye-witness. Mark was accepted because he was Peter's translator, reflecting Peter's eye-witness testimony. Luke was accepted because he was an associate of Paul's who was specially commissioned by Christ. Finally, John was accepted because like Matthew, he was one of Jesus' first disciples and an eye-witness.
The notion that Jesus was divine was invented by Emperor Constantine. False! This excludes the evidence that it was believed by the Church from the beginning.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are among the earliest Christian records. False! The Dead Sea Scrolls are totally Jewish. This is just plain false.
Early Jewish worship involved ritual sex in the temple. False! This excludes the biblical evidence, that it was in reality a forbidden Canaanite custom, not an Israelite custom at all.
YHWH comes from Jehovah. False! This is ignoring the plain evidence from history. It is the other way around. Jehovah is a 16th century German translator's attempt to assign vowels from the Hebrew word for Lord (Adonai) to the ancient Hebrew word YHWH.
Could the book the Da Vinci Code lead us to any truths? Is it something that a Christian could learn from, despite its many errors? No doubt, the Da Vinci Code does contain some truths. However, it is such a toxic mixture that the average reader would not be able to discern what is right history and what is not. Unless you are a history buff, who knows what is truth and error on the facts of church history, it will only serve to feed you with a false perspective, unless you are the kind of person who can assume that it is total fiction unless proven otherwise. John said that no lie is of the truth (1 John 2:21), and the Da Vinci Code is so full of lies that no legitimate view of Christian history can be gleaned from it.
Outro
Today we looked at some of the major errors of a work of fiction that people everywhere are naïvely accepting as fact. The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. Reliable historians, even non-Christian historians do not take the book seriously. We don't have to be in possession of great minds to see that the Da Vinci Code is a counterfeit. Its greatest logical fallacy is that it is just full of fictitious and deceptive information.
Suggested Assignment
Choose a topic that can easily be rebutted within your expertise. If you are not a scientist, do not attempt to give great scientific treatises, or present material which any high school teacher in your congregation could probably poke holes in. If you are not a trained theologian, do not attempt to go beyond your depth, and give arguments which any Bible college undergraduate in your church could poke holes in. On the other hand, if you are a witness to something God has done, which rebuts a false proposition, please do share you testimony to that. If you do have training in theology, and would like to rebut an urban legend, heresy or weak theological argument, please do give your expert testimony about the Bible.
Lesson Outro
We discussed various kinds of fallacy which can be rebutted, how to research logical fallacies, and gave a sample sermon rebutting a popular notion that can be useful in a church setting. The average education of the man on the street is increasing. People are more and more aware of what makes good and bad argument. Preachers ought to be able to present good arguments in favor of the most important message on the planet, the gospel.
