Lesson 3 | Support by Distinct Statement
What We’ve Learned
As we saw in this lesson, God's Word is built—one brick upon another—until a structure begins to emerge.
Take heart, for just as God’s Word is built, so are you being built by it. With each new passage learned, your mind is being built until a new worldview begins to emerge. And with each new passage appropriated, your heart is being built until a new set of emotions and relational responses begin to emerge. As you see the glory of the Lord more distinctly in Scripture—statement by statement—you, yourself, are being undergirded with new structural supports!
What We Now Know
- In a distinct statement relationship, we are presented with a new idea that serves to give logical support to another
- There are three closely related distinct statement relationships:
- Ground — a second statement gives an argument or reason for the conclusion in the first (order is important)
- Inference — a second statement gives a conclusion for the argument or reason in the first (reverse order)
- Bilateral — two conclusions sandwich a reason or argument for both of them (3 pieces are necessary)
- There are five remaining distinct statement relationships:
- Action-Result — one statement is the consequence or natural result of the action in the other
- Action-Purpose — one statement is the intended result of the action in the other
- Conditional — one statement is a potential result that depends on the condition of another being fulfilled
- Temporal — one statement describes the timeframe in which the other is true or can occur
- Locative - one statement describes the location at which the other is true or can occur
- Ground and Action-Purpose need to be distinguished
- Ground answers a “why?” question by looking back to a cause
- Purpose answers a “why?” question by looking forward to a desired end
- Action-Result and Action-Purpose need to be distinguished
- Action-Result emphasizes the outcome of an action
- Action-Purpose emphasizes the intent of an action
- On Biblearc, restatement relationships are represented by the color red
What We Don’t Know Yet
We don’t yet know the last two relationships. But take heart! This means there are only two more to go.
Upon completion of this lesson, you have passed the precipice of the mini-course. The bulk of information is behind you. The two relationships remaining will cover the final category of core logical statements we find universally across all languages. The category is called Support by Contrary Statement. It is natural to be quizzical when first hearing this title. How can a contrary statement, usually calculated to weaken an argument, be turned into support for that argument?