The Great Deception Called Synthesis.
There is no synthesis. Synthesis is a lie. It is the great deception. It is man ''justifying' his carnal nature, his flesh and the world, making himself righteous in his own eyes, convinced in himself that he can sin with impunity, i.e., without paying the price, i.e., without dying. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Proverbs 14:12 "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Genesis 2:17
Thesis is Knowing and Comprehending, i.e., Knowing that the Father just said "Thou shalt not." and Comprehending, by the Father saying "Do you understand what I just said?" i.e., His tone of voice telling you that you had better obey "or else." Antithesis is Application and Analysis. Application is you following after your "feelings" of the 'moment,' deciding to do what you want to do instead, disobeying the Father's command and Analysis is now Knowing how important it is to listen to the Father's command, as he takes you to "the woodshed." This is the thesis-antithesis conflict between the authority of the Father and the nature of the child, i.e., the Father's commands, rules, facts, and truth, telling the child what to do, i.e., to do what is right and not to do wrong and the child's feelings of the 'moment,' leading him astray. With the chastening of the Father, the child is restored to the Father, teaching the child to do what is right and not to disobey. (In the garden and following, our sin, i.e., our disobedience against the Father being only resolved by the Father's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, taking our chastening, i.e. taking our punishment of death upon Himself, 'redeeming' us from the Father's judgment upon us by His shed blood, 'reconciling' us to His Heavenly Father by His resurrection from the grave, imputing His righteousness to us by our faith in Him— that no man can boast in what he has done.)
Synthesis is Synthesis and Evaluation, i.e. someone (the facilitator of 'change,' as Satan in the garden in Eden) telling the child that he can set aside the Father's commands, rules, facts, and truth for the 'moment' when they get in the way of his "feelings" of the 'moment,' without fearing of judgment or death, i.e. negating the Father's "or else" (fear of God) in the mind of the child, allowing the child to Evaluate the situation for himself, according to his nature, according to his desires of the 'moment,' according to his flesh, finding that he can eat of tree of "the knowledge of good and evil," becoming like the Father, 'discovering' for himself, according to his own reasoning abilities (using dialectic 'reasoning, i.e. using the scientific process, 'justifying' himself in his own eyes, by sight—and "the woman saw") that the tree was "good for food," and it was, "pleasing to the eyes," and it was "desirous to make them wise," and it did, according to their own "feelings" of the 'moment,' that they could do as they pleased without fear of the death, i.e., that they could sin with impunity. While evaluation and synthesis, the scientific method, can be used on rocks, plants, and animals, all that which God did not breath the breath of life into the nostrils of, all that have laws established by God, it can not be used on man, allowing only his carnal nature to have its way, leading him to death (his soul, unlike anything else in creation, being created to last for all eternity, either spending it with God, i.e., having eternal life in His joy, peace, love, and glory or spending it without God, i.e., spending eternal in torment and death).
Those of dialectic 'reasoning' (using Bloom's Taxonomies in the classroom), i.e., having no fear of God, lead all children down the broad pathway of death, convinced in their deception (that they will not die in their sins) that it is the pathway of "life" instead. "(T)he ‘original sin' must be committed again: ‘We must again eat from the tree of knowledge." (Herbart Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A philosophical inquiry into Freud) "To experience Freud is to partake a second time of the forbidden fruit;" (Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History)
While those taken captive to dialectic 'reasoning' (puffed up in their pride, i.e., in their carnal mind) perceive it as being a process of gradual 'change' (synthesis becoming a new thesis confronted with an antithesis , etc., when all it is is man feeding, i.e., 'justifying' his flesh and his fleshy mind, with synthesis simply being a "resolution" to follow after the world only, 'justifying' the flesh over and against seeking after God, i.e., overcoming the "guilty conscience" for sinning, i.e., the antithesis condition between the spirit and the flesh, in his mind, deceiving himself into believing that he can sin with impunity), it is in fact a choice, an antithesis condition, with you having to chose between good and evil, light and darkness, flesh and spirit, life and death, with you choosing the esteeming of "self," i.e., accepting the approval of men, 'discovering,' 'justifying,' and using the "wisdom" of the world (enlightenment, aufheben) to "solve" your life's problems, i.e., your lust for pleasure and dissatisfaction with restraint (the restrainer), dying in your sins over and against the thesis, humbling and denying of your "self" before God, dying to your "self" daily, picking up your cross (enduring the rejection of men), and following Christ Jesus, doing His Heavenly Father's will, enduring to the end, inheriting eternal life.
Those of dialectic 'reasoning,' puffed up in man's "wisdom" (many calling themselves Christians) can only give you one path, the process of 'change,' i.e., that which is of the world, even telling you that you can follow down it "in the name of the Lord." God gives you two, one that is of His making, that leads to Himself, i.e., to life, and one that is not, that rejects Him, that leads to yourself and the world, i.e., that leads to eternal death. It is only God who offers you choice, i.e., a choice between the pathway of eternal life (which comes from and leads to Himself) and the pathway of eternal death (which comes from and leads to yourself, i.e., "of and for self"). In darkness there is no choice, only darkness. It is only when there is light that you can choose between light and darkness—darkness being you looking to yourself and the world for direction, instead of to the light, to the Lord and His Word. "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23
By man using his "wisdom" to 'justify' himself and the world, he "illuminates," "enlightens" himself according to his carnal nature and carnal mind, thinking that he has come into the 'light' when he is still in darkness, calling light, darkness and darkness, light, good, evil and evil, good. "Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness." Luke 11:35 "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools," Romans 1:22 "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." 1 Corinthians 3:18-19 "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 1 Corinthians 1:19-21
It is not how far down the dialectic pathway you have gone. It is that you are on it. One step on it ('justifying' yourself before yourself and men, by works) condemns you to death. It is only in Christ Jesus alone, i.e., "the way," that you have truth and eternal life ('justification' in Him, by faith). It is impossible to please God without faith. (Hebrews 11:6) It is impossible to 'reason' dialectically, practice synthesis with the world ('justify' yourself and the world), practice deception (thinking that you can sin with impunity), and keep your faith.
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 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. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." 1 John 2:15-17
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9
"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." 2 Timothy 3:13
© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2015