Logical Discernment Can Be Both
Positive and Negative
At The Same Time.
Or If You Prefer,
Discernment is Perception of That Which is Obscure.
True meanings of some Bible verses can be
made more manifest by using common sense and by
coming to a logical conclusion. However, there are verses with reverse meanings
that are sometimes not readily apparent. In some cases, those hidden
meanings can be made more pronounced by using negative logic.
For
example:
In 1Corinthians 10:16, St Paul had told us
that the bread of which we break is the Body of the Lord. The Catholic Church
teaches that the Body of Christ is truly present in the Holy Eucharist.
Then
he said:
"Because the bread is one, we though many, are one body, all of
us who partake of the one bread".
1Corinthians 10:17
That verse
sounds superficially simple enough, but by applying negative logic, can we also
say that those who do not partake of the one bread are not members of the one
body?
Doesn't that verse fit perfectly with John 6:53-54 where Jesus, gave
us his "true presence" discourse by saying, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh
of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day."
What about this verse?
"You are
my friends if you do what I command you."
John
15:14
Negative logic would say, 'You are not my friends if you do not do
what I command you'.
For some, by using negative logic, the verse may seem to
have a much deeper meaning. Do you agree?
As you wend your way through Holy Scripture, do so slowly and apply
negative logic to some verses that you have
just read. You may be
surprised to find that some verses do have a counter meaning if only you would
apply negative logic and find subtle additional meanings that you may have
missed completely. Holy Scripture in some verses does in fact have counter
meanings, deeper meanings, that you may have not noticed the first time
through and that you may open another door to deeper understanding of
it.
This is merely yet another useful tool in order to glean a whole new
world of understanding of Holy Scripture.
As I have written in another page of mine:
'In the Beginning,
there was a little acorn tightly packed with layer
upon layer of truth.'
For proper understanding of the depth of Holy
Scripture these layers can be peeled back
one by one using
various methods. In this page I have presented one method which
I have
used many times on The Catholic Treasure Chest and what I have
called Negative Logic.
Written by Bob Stanley, April 14,
1998
Updated, July 9, 2014