AFTER THIS, THEREFORE BECAUSE OF THIS

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

Critical thinking is the logical, systematic process of cognitive understanding. It is thinking about something without emotion and based solely on facts. Although critical thinking is solely lacking in our modern feel-good society, there is a logic theory of cause and effect that you may have never heard of. It is called Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc. That’s Latin for “After this, therefore because of this.” Here’s how it goes---A happens, then B happens, therefore A must have caused B to happen.” The Post Hoc theory doesn’t always happen the way it is explained, but sometimes you may logically wonder if it isn’t true.

James Martineau was an 18^th century English professor of moral philosophy and member of British high intellectual society. As a young man in the 1820s Martineau was a Unitarian minister who preached humanism while denying the virgin birth, deity, vicarious death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many years later Martineau wrote of a singular event that shaped his false belief. He called his metamorphosis moment “apotheosis”; the moment he believed he became a god.

Christian theology recognizes six theories of scriptural inspiration. One such theory is the Natural Inspiration Theory AKA the Intuition Theory. Natural Inspiration is a false doctrine that totally denies any divine supernatural element in scripture. Natural Inspiration teaches that the writers of the Bible were men and women of rare religious and moral genius possessing a unique spiritual insight, but that their works were as Shakespeare, humanly inspiring but not God-sent. James Martineau was a strong advocate for Natural Inspiration.

God is the Author of the Bible (Hebrews 1:1-2). True Bible inspiration was when God “moved” men and women in such a way so as to transfer His words on to paper (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). There have been many great works of literature written by human authors, but nothing compares to the Bible. It truly is the Word of God (Mark 13:31). James Martineau believed God had nothing to do with the Bible. He also believed he was a god. He was grossly wrong on both counts. Think about it.