(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see how)
Focus Question:
What is a “a priori” objection?
Intro:
Today I’m going to teach you a four dollar word, and I don’t actually care if you remember it. What I do hope is to help you sharpen your ear when you’re in dialogue with people. So sit tight, we’ll answer today’s focus question right after we finish up today’s OT segment in Isaiah.
We kick things off each day, though, in the NT, and today's chapter goes with yesterday’s where Paul is responding to a report that received. Now I didn’t call it out yesterday, but if you were listening closely, one of those reports was of a dude sleeping with his mother-in-law, something that was forbidden even by the ruling Romans (which is odd given the perversions they accepted and even celebrated). Today tackles both legal junk and more sexual immorality, and listen for the appeal Paul makes as to why they should knock this stuff off.
New Testament segment:
Passage: 1 Corinthians 6
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 20
Words: ~424
Did you catch that? Remember when Jesus was asked about divorce and he pointed back to God’s original design in Genesis 1 and 2? Paul does the same thing. In short, sex the way God ordained is is awesome. But outside the context of one-man-one-woman marriage, it’s a direct affront to God because it’s direct assault on the body He gave you that was made in His image.
So let’s talk about God. Yesterday, through the prophet Isaiah, we heard God declare that he would raise up the Persians to kick some Egyptian butt, but allow the Israelites return to their promised land. And today, you’re going to hear a continuation of that, including by naming — in advance — the Persian ruler by name.
Old Testament segment:
Passage: Isaiah 43:14-45:13
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 54
Words: ~1471
Now put on your thinking cap. We just heard a prophetic prediction that it would be a king named Cyrus. Imagine that…God stating in advance what would happen.
So if you were talking to someone and they objected to that, what might they try to say? “Oh, that passage in Isaiah must have been written after Cyrus did his thing.” If you heard this…what is a highly possible objection behind what they say? Probably that miracles aren’t possible, right? Doubting that there is a God who could act supernaturally, right?
The fancy Latin word is a priori — “relating to or denoting reasoning or knowledge which proceeds from theoretical deduction rather than from observation or experience: a priori assumptions about human nature.”
In other words, if you had a pre-existing assumption that miracles are not possible, you’re going to reject a virgin birth, a resurrection, an unexplainable healing, or the idea that God could state, in advance, something that was going to happen.
Wisdom segment:
Passage: Proverbs 14:13-15
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 3
Words: ~48
The bottom line:
Finally, I don’t care if you remember or don’t remember the word a priori. The important thing is that you learn to recognize pre-existing assumptions that rule out some possibilities. Like if someone ignores the significant historical evidence for the resurrection and accepts lesser-plausible explanations because they assume, a priori, that miracles can’t happen.
But as you often hear me say, IF there is a God who could create the cosmos out of nothing (and there is!), THEN it’d be a small thing for Him to speak through Isaiah to promise the Israelites that he’d deliver them through the Persian king Cyrus.
Love you!
Roger
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word., vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 269.
(2) Douglas J. Moo, “The Letters and Revelation,” in NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 2059.