Are you reasoning from knowing (didactic) or 'reasoning' through feelings (dialectic)?
(Are you evaluating your "self" and the world around you from the truth that you have been taught, i.e., that you have heard preached and accepted by faith—making you subject to the Lord God your creator—or are you evaluating your "self" and the world around you according to your carnal desires of the 'moment,' i.e., according to your love of pleasure and your hate of restraint—making you subject to the world only.)
by
Dean Gotcher
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." Hosea 4:6
While man is prone to sin, i.e. his "natural" actions (approaching pleasure and avoiding pain, seeking "oneness" with nature, i.e. being at-one-with the world in pleasure, in the 'moment') being of the flesh, his belief in Christ is his salvation, changing his actions (the Lord changing his heart and therefore his actions). This is called belief-action dichotomy. Dialectic resolution (dialectic 'reasoning') is the negation of belief which inhibits or blocks action (praxis) by turning belief (reasoning from faith) into an opinion ('reasoning' from sight, from "sense experience"). All opinions—which engender dialoging about personal "feelings" and "thoughts," i.e. 'justifying' the flesh, i.e. making' "human nature" the foundation for 'reasoning'—are subject to the flesh. Dialectic 'reasoning,' while mentioning faith, negates faith. Dialectic 'reasoning', while mentioning reasoning from knowledge, negates reasoning from knowledge. Dialectic 'reasoning,' while mentioning faith in God, negates faith in God, making man, i.e. his "feelings" and his "thoughts" God.
With God there is only one right answer: of Himself, i.e. of the spirit (what God says, i.e. from His Word). All other answers (which question God's answer, i.e. which question God's Word) are wrong, only being of man, i.e. only being of our flesh (how we "feel" and what we "think," i.e. only being of sight, i.e. "and when the woman saw" Genesis 3:6, only making sense to our carnal nature). Didactic reasoning is when only one answer is right and all the rest are wrong, i.e. when a command, a fact, or truth, preached and taught as is, is accepted as a categorical imperative, i.e. accepted as being universal and unquestionable, i.e. established for all times and in all places, requiring man to live by faith (according to the spirit) and not by sight (according to the flesh, according to man's "sense experience" alone). All that is of the flesh is of sight, condemned by the law of God, condemned by that which is of the spirit. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." Romans 7:25, 26 "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Romans 3: 20-29 While the law was delivered by God to man to be obeyed by man, condemning man in the flesh, Christ came to fulfill the law, doing that which no man could do, 'redeeming' him from eternal death, 'reconciling' him to His Heavenly Father, according to His Father's will, according to man's walking by faith instead of by sight, by the spirit and not the flesh.
By turning to "human reasoning," i.e. turning to dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e. depending upon how we "feel" and what we "think" to "know" the "truth," we turn to that which is only of the world. By turning to our ability to think through our feelings, we end up 'justifying' our flesh, i.e. 'justifying' "human nature," we end up living according to sight (including our imagination)—since all our five senses are (our carnal sensuousness is) only tied to the physical environment around us, subject to its influences. By turn to that which is only of the world, i.e. "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," we make the plurality, i.e. the spectrum or continuum of the flesh (between the variableness or 'changeability' of our perception of pleasure and pain) the only standard whereby we come to determine right from wrong, good from evil. "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." 1 John 2:16 By 'justifying' ourselves, our sensuousness, i.e. our feelings, as the only means whereby we can come to know right from wrong, good from evil, we end up 'justify' "situation ethics," thereby making the ends, i.e. "human nature," the means whereby we can come to know the truth, loving the world rather than the Father, loving pleasure rather than God. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15
By turning to dialectic 'reasoning" we turn to Genesis 3:1-6 (the first praxis of dialectic 'reasoning,' where 'reasoning' was used to 'justify' the flesh, i.e. used to 'justify' the sensuousness of man over and against the righteousness of God). Genesis 3:1-6 was the first synthesis of man with the world, the use of dialectic 'reasoning' to find the solution to life's problems, i.e. to resolve the tension of the flesh against a command restraining it from its "natural inclination" to be at-one-with the world, i.e. the use of dialectic 'reasoning,' to overcome the antithesis by negating the tension, i.e. negate the antithesis between the spirit and the flesh, between God and man, between the Father and His children, by making the plurality of the flesh, i.e. the plurality of approaching pleasure and avoiding pain, the tension to be overcome instead. By negating the duality between God and man, i.e. between the commands of the Father and the "feelings" and "thoughts" of His children, and therefore the conflict between the spirit and the flesh, man dialectically redefined "spirit" as being 'reasoning,' i.e. his 'reasoning' ability to 'justify' that which he has in common with himself, i.e. "human nature," i.e. the flesh, and the world, thus making 'spirit.' i.e. the "divine spark," i.e. dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e. 'changeable' knowledge, i.e. "experiential knowledge," i.e. knowledge adaptable to 'change' the 'reasoning' of reality. By making 'reasoning' sensuous based, man was able to become as "one," uniting himself with himself and the world upon a "feeling" of "oneness," with "oneness" between mankind and the world becoming the 'purpose' of life rather than man being subject to the Father, subject to that spirit which is not of the flesh, i.e. not of man, i.e. not of the world, i.e. not of the carnal 'moment,' i.e. being instead of didactic knowledge, established knowledge, knowledge above or greater than the creation, greater than and therefore above nature, it's laws dividing man from that which is of the world—creating men who, while living in the world, are not of the world, no longer being directed by the world's ever 'changing' influences upon the flesh. Those of dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e. facilitators of 'change' seek to 'change' man from seeking after the spirit of God to 'discovering' that 'spirit' which he has in common with all men, i.e. "human reasoning," that which he can use to 'justify' his own "human nature," i.e. his "natural inclination" to become at-one-with the world in pleasure, in the 'moment.' As Kenneth Benne, in his Transformational Marxist teacher training manual (used by the NTL's), wrote: "We must develop persons who see non-influenceability of private convictions [who see persons with a conscience, who are obedient to their Father's commands, i.e. dedicated to their constituents principles, recognizing and supporting the inalienable rights of the citizen under God] in joint deliberations [in a consensus meeting, i.e. in a meeting seeking "oneness" with the world in pleasure in the 'moment,' i.e. in a meeting engendering "human rights"] as a vice rather than a virtue." (Kenneth Benne, Human Relations in Curriculum Change)
By turning to Hebrews 12:5-11 (the duality of right-wrong thinking, the duality of didactic reasoning, i.e. by accepting the Father's authority to give commands to His children, commands to be obeyed without question, i.e. with the children living according to faith, accepting their Father's chastening of them when they disobey him) we overcome the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, i.e. we overcome the conflict of Romans 7:14-25, i.e. in Christ overcoming antithesis, i.e. overcoming the conflict between the Father, i.e. thesis (doing right and not doing wrong according to the Father's will, serving that which is of the spirit, that which is above "human nature") and the child, i.e. antithesis (approaching pleasure and avoiding pain according to "human nature," serving that which is of the flesh, i.e. seeking after that which is of the world, i.e. the 'spirit' of "human nature" only), in the Lord Jesus Christ being 'redeemed' from His Heavenly Father's wrath upon us for our sins (for our praxis of dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e. for 'justifying' our "human nature" as being "good," i.e. 'justifying' ourselves as being "good" in our own eyes, i.e. living according the spectrum or plurality of our "natural inclination" of approaching pleasure and avoiding pain, seeking to become at-one-with the world in pleasure, in the 'moment,' thinking and acting in disobedience to our Father's commands, i.e. resisting His will), in His resurrection (the Father raising Christ from the grave) being 'reconciled' to His Heavenly Father, so that we can partake in His Holiness for all eternity.
By making knowledge subject to this world below (revolution knowledge, that which is of men's opinions, i.e. mystical and secular Gnosticism, "truth" being subject to our life's "experience," therefore subject to "human reasoning," i.e. subject to human "feelings" and "thoughts") we reject that knowledge which can only come from our Lord God, and the Lord Jesus Christ above (revelation knowledge, that which is from God's Word, which speaks to our soul, for our souls sake). Through our use of dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e. 'justifying' our "human nature" with "human reasoning," we turn good into evil and evil into good. If you continue to use dialectic 'reasoning,' i.e. 'justifying' yourself in your pride of life, you will die in our sins. "And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Luke 16:5 "Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil." Proverbs 16:5-6
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Romans 6:16 "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Matthew 6:24
"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4 Why then are you turning to the opinions of men, i.e. to synthesis (to be at-one) with the world in pleasure, in the 'moment' (seeking "the approval of men") rather than the Word of God (to the Lord God, and the Lord Jesus Christ) for the solutions to your life's problems (seeking "the approval of God"), i.e. overcoming antithesis, not by sight, not by synthesis, i.e. by turning to the world, i.e. by becoming at-one-with the world (which leads to death), but by faith, by turning to thesis, i.e. by turning to your Heavenly Father, i.e. accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior (who is life). "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 7:21 "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Matthew 12:50
The Father sent the law to condemn man (exposing man as not being God, i.e. thinking and acting as though he was, i.e. thinking and acting as though he was righteous in and of himself), the law showing him that he is not God, i.e. righteous in and of himself. Only through faith in Christ is the righteousness of Christ imputed by God to man, with the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit to bear witness of His work to, in, and through us.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Romans 8:1-10
"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you." John 16: 7-15
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Galatians 6:4 "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Galatians 5:24; 6:8
"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." 1 Corinthians 2:12-16
"For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters [that which is from above, of the Spirit, hearing and receiving the Word of God by faith], and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns [that which is below, of the flesh, perceiving the things of the world, leaning to their own understanding], that can hold no water." Jeremiah 2:13
© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2013-2015