Lesson 9 – The Law of Non Contradiction:
Now we are going to review one of the most important aspects about truth. Formally,
this discussion is called the Law of Noncontradiction. I often describe it for youth as the
law of opposites. This basic, self-evident law of logic was discovered and documented by
Aristotle, a Greek philosopher from the 4th century BC. We owe all the fundamentals of
self-evident logic to Aristotle such as the law of identity, law of excluded middle and law
of noncontradiction. Let’s talk about the law of noncontradiction after our opening prayer.
You will learn about all this someday if you take a course in logic, which I strongly
recommend.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for everything you do for us and all our blessings. I pray that all those
who need to hear this message will find the truth, believe in you, and maintain that belief
for life. For those who do not know you yet Lord, I pray that you will open their eyes and
influence them to become seekers and find the Holy Spirit. Help us now to correctly discern
and accept an important aspect of truth – that two things that teach opposites cannot both
be true. Please bless this lesson and let your words speak through me that everyone needs
to hear. Amen.
A contradiction is something that contradicts or teaches or claims the opposite of
something else. We see this all the time in today’s world because there are many ideas that
differ. When something contradicts, it essentially teaches something very different and
opposite of the other thing.
So, the law of noncontradiction, or law of opposites, states that two things that teach
opposites cannot both be true, at least not at the same time, the same place or in the same
sense. I qualify it that way because for example the statement that it is hot today might be
true for today but for tomorrow that statement is no longer true. But that is a different
timeframe and weather fluctuates constantly. Or we might say it is hot today and we are in
the Sahara Desert but someone in Antarctica says no it is cold. The truth is not wrong, but
they are in different places. Or someone might say that outfit is hot even though it is a
swimsuit. They mean it is interesting or nice or beautiful not that it is a hot temperature so
that is truth in a different sense.
We all live our lives based on this self-evident law. If one thing is true, then whatever
teaches the opposite must be false. The opposite of true is false. Everyone over the age of
5 understands this and lives by it. It is not even a controversy and is a self-evident law that
we follow without question and automatically each day.
But there is powerful meaning and revelation in this law. If we can examine a statement
or belief and determine it is true, then any statement or belief that contradicts, or teaches
the opposite, must be false. That is just the way logic works, and this is a self-evident law for everyone, everywhere, at all times.
This universal law helps us to examine important beliefs and religions to answer
questions such as:
Could all religions be true? You see the issue here is that all religions contradict each other. The way you examine the core beliefs of a religion is through their doctrine. The key doctrines for any religion are the nature of God, the nature of man, nature of Jesus, sin, salvation, heaven and hell,
just to name the basics. Yet all religions contradict in these beliefs. In fact, only Christianity
believes Jesus is God and that salvation is through grace. So clearly, they cannot all be true.
Based on the law of noncontradiction (the law of opposites), they cannot all be true. This
means that the common idea that all roads lead to heaven cannot be true because they teach
opposites. If one is true, then the others are false. It could be that all are false, but they
cannot all be true. This is not being harsh or bigoted or narrow-minded. It is the way truth
and the law of noncontradiction work. All truth is narrow and exclusive. Truth itself is not
discriminatory or biased. It just is. Since Christianity has many truth claims, if we can
determine that Christianity is true, what does that mean for anything that teaches the
opposite? Yes, it is logically false.
Is it possible only Christianity is true? Christianity is often derided and criticized for having exclusive truth claims. But such claims are not made to hurt or shame anyone in any way. Either the Christian claims are
true or they are not. But if they are true, then as discussed and discovered how the universal
law of noncontradiction works, then anything that teaches the opposite is false.
This is one of the reasons why we are called by God to share the gospel; so that others
may have the truth, so that others may believe in Jesus. We do not make exclusive truth
claims to boast or be superior or hurt anyone’s feelings in any way. We make the claims
because they are true and we want to share this truth with everyone because all are God’s
children and equal in His eyes. We must present these difficult concepts carefully so as not
to turn them away or hurt their feelings. The gospel must be shared in love for others.
Thanks for listening. Take care until next time.
