July 8, 2025 • 7 mins
One. Many, Logic, Language. Can't we just live our lives and not think about these things? Yes you could, but you would be missing out on so much richness and joy in understanding God and His created order.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
How do you solve this problem?
The one is a universal category.
I've already mentioned this.
It's the question of where doyou get a concrete, universal,
something that is absolute, sothat we can have absolute
knowledge, so that thecategories aren't always
changing and knowledge is alwaysslipping away from us and we're
just on the fuzzy edge of it.
The many is this particularidea in a category, and I'll
(00:31):
give an example.
Okay, but in order to thinkabout anything, we have to have
a universal category that thatparticular thing fits into to
make sense.
We just have to, as you'll see.
So where do you get theseconcrete particulars?
Now, example of logic Our dogin our house is a Morkie.
(00:54):
Now, that sentence states theproblem of the one and the many.
Our dog is a Morkie.
Morkie is a particular kind,it's one of the many in a
category, the one, the onecategory that we call dog.
Right, nobody has a problemwith this, right?
I know nobody thinks about this.
That's what I said.
You got to think about thinking.
(01:15):
Okay, I know nobody, we justtalk Our dog's a Morky, okay,
but you are bringing in auniversal category called dog
and a particular in thatcategory called a morky.
It could be a Great Dane,whatever.
Now, this example shows that weare always involved in this
problem.
If you don't have categoriesthat have certain
(01:36):
characteristics in which you canplace a particular thing, then
you can't talk, can you?
I can say our dog is a morky,but if you don't understand the
category dog, you don't knowwhat I'm talking about.
If you don't know what certaincharacteristics are of dogs, we
can't talk.
The only way I could explain toyou what a Morky was is I'd
(02:00):
have to say come here, let's goto my house if you understand
what I'm saying, and I'llactually show it to you, right?
So language is central here.
We all do this.
Guess what?
Nobody knows how we do it.
Nobody knows.
Nobody in the universe outsideof Christianity has ever figured
(02:21):
out how we do this.
That ought to strike you.
We do it All.
Right, here's a Morky.
Okay, this is a Morky, an11-pound bark machine.
Okay, also known as Morky.
Now, I've already givencharacteristics to the dog,
haven't I?
That's a characteristics of aparticular thing inside of a
(02:42):
category, now.
So, now that you've seen thiscute little pup who's probably
wanting a treat, I'm gonna usean example from logic, using
some more thing dog.
If we're gonna form a category.
We have to have this thingcalled language, right?
But it also requires logic todo this.
And here's the thing in oursociety and in every society, if
language is sloppy, guess what?
(03:06):
Our logic will be sloppy,because language and logic are
related.
If I say this, and this is asloppy example, but if I say all
dogs have four legs, then I goout I see an animal that has
four legs.
I conclude well, that's a dog,it's got four legs.
That's sloppy logic, right?
Because there are lots of otherkinds of animals that have four
(03:27):
legs.
Okay.
So what I have to do is I haveto isolate more categories of
dogs to narrow it down, so everytime you see a four-legged
creature, you don't say dog.
Okay.
Now this can get dicey, becausesome, like foxes, have a lot of
characteristics of dogs, and soyou have to come up with a
(03:49):
whole lot of characteristics soyou get this category.
Another problem in our logic isthis the word dog can have more
than one meaning in the Englishlanguage, and so you have to
know which meaning I'm using.
For example, I could say thatperson is a dog, meaning they're
a sorry person, right?
(04:10):
So our words have multiplemeanings and these are two
different categories, eventhough they're the same word.
As a society becomes more andmore illiterate okay logic
becomes less and less good.
It becomes sloppier.
That's what we're experiencingnow in our culture a decline in
(04:34):
literacy, and the result is adecline in logical reasoning,
where most things end upbecoming just a heated argument
between two people's egos.
And logic and reasoning hasnothing to do with which side
wins, it's who can throw morerocks at the other person.
In other words, this is sayingor signaling illiteracy in
(04:57):
society and people not wantingto have reasoned, rational
debate or discussion, and theycan't do it without becoming
heated.
They can't control themselves.
That's a result of lack ofliteracy.
In previous generations, booksI've read from the early 1900s,
sentences could be almost a pagelong.
Now you might say, well, that'snot good.
(05:20):
Some English professors may saythat's not good, but they know
what I'm talking about, right?
Some of you kind of thought alittle bit of English here and
there at the collegiate level,so I know.
Now it's more short sentences.
You know just ideas.
Now how do you solve thisproblem?
The Greeks knew this problem.
Remember Plato and Aristotle.
Remember Plato on the right orleft, sorry, left.
(05:42):
He's pointing up Aristotle onthe right.
He's pointing down.
What Plato is pointing to whenhe points up is the need for one
universals to over, ascategories, over everything.
And what Aristotle is doing,pointing down and saying no, no,
no, you can't forget theindividuals in these categories.
So one would be likeemphasizing Doug as a category,
the other be saying, no, we gotmore keys, great Danes,
(06:03):
colleagues, you know lots ofopposites and so forth and so on
.
That's's what they wereemphasizing.
Each was emphasizing somethingdifferent.
Okay, one was saying marriage,the other was saying, no, the
husband and the wife.
You know, it was an emphasisissue.
Now, plato knew there had to bethese universals, otherwise
there's no meaning, can'tcategorize anything.
Okay, it's just basic.
(06:23):
In Greek thought, though, andin thought that comes down to
our day, there is no concreteuniversal out there.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in
(06:54):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app, and until
next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
How do you solve this problem?
The one is a universal category.
I've already mentioned this.
It's the question of where doyou get a concrete, universal,
something that is absolute, sothat we can have absolute
knowledge, so that thecategories aren't always
changing and knowledge is alwaysslipping away from us and we're
just on the fuzzy edge of it.
The many is this particularidea in a category, and I'll
(00:31):
give an example.
Okay, but in order to thinkabout anything, we have to have
a universal category that thatparticular thing fits into to
make sense.
We just have to, as you'll see.
So where do you get theseconcrete particulars?
Now, example of logic Our dogin our house is a Morkie.
(00:54):
Now, that sentence states theproblem of the one and the many.
Our dog is a Morkie.
Morkie is a particular kind,it's one of the many in a
category, the one, the onecategory that we call dog.
Right, nobody has a problemwith this, right?
I know nobody thinks about this.
That's what I said.
You got to think about thinking.
(01:15):
Okay, I know nobody, we justtalk Our dog's a Morky, okay,
but you are bringing in auniversal category called dog
and a particular in thatcategory called a morky.
It could be a Great Dane,whatever.
Now, this example shows that weare always involved in this
problem.
If you don't have categoriesthat have certain
(01:36):
characteristics in which you canplace a particular thing, then
you can't talk, can you?
I can say our dog is a morky,but if you don't understand the
category dog, you don't knowwhat I'm talking about.
If you don't know what certaincharacteristics are of dogs, we
can't talk.
The only way I could explain toyou what a Morky was is I'd
(02:00):
have to say come here, let's goto my house if you understand
what I'm saying, and I'llactually show it to you, right?
So language is central here.
We all do this.
Guess what?
Nobody knows how we do it.
Nobody knows.
Nobody in the universe outsideof Christianity has ever figured
(02:21):
out how we do this.
That ought to strike you.
We do it All.
Right, here's a Morky.
Okay, this is a Morky, an11-pound bark machine.
Okay, also known as Morky.
Now, I've already givencharacteristics to the dog,
haven't I?
That's a characteristics of aparticular thing inside of a
(02:42):
category, now.
So, now that you've seen thiscute little pup who's probably
wanting a treat, I'm gonna usean example from logic, using
some more thing dog.
If we're gonna form a category.
We have to have this thingcalled language, right?
But it also requires logic todo this.
And here's the thing in oursociety and in every society, if
language is sloppy, guess what?
(03:06):
Our logic will be sloppy,because language and logic are
related.
If I say this, and this is asloppy example, but if I say all
dogs have four legs, then I goout I see an animal that has
four legs.
I conclude well, that's a dog,it's got four legs.
That's sloppy logic, right?
Because there are lots of otherkinds of animals that have four
(03:27):
legs.
Okay.
So what I have to do is I haveto isolate more categories of
dogs to narrow it down, so everytime you see a four-legged
creature, you don't say dog.
Okay.
Now this can get dicey, becausesome, like foxes, have a lot of
characteristics of dogs, and soyou have to come up with a
(03:49):
whole lot of characteristics soyou get this category.
Another problem in our logic isthis the word dog can have more
than one meaning in the Englishlanguage, and so you have to
know which meaning I'm using.
For example, I could say thatperson is a dog, meaning they're
a sorry person, right?
(04:10):
So our words have multiplemeanings and these are two
different categories, eventhough they're the same word.
As a society becomes more andmore illiterate okay logic
becomes less and less good.
It becomes sloppier.
That's what we're experiencingnow in our culture a decline in
(04:34):
literacy, and the result is adecline in logical reasoning,
where most things end upbecoming just a heated argument
between two people's egos.
And logic and reasoning hasnothing to do with which side
wins, it's who can throw morerocks at the other person.
In other words, this is sayingor signaling illiteracy in
(04:57):
society and people not wantingto have reasoned, rational
debate or discussion, and theycan't do it without becoming
heated.
They can't control themselves.
That's a result of lack ofliteracy.
In previous generations, booksI've read from the early 1900s,
sentences could be almost a pagelong.
Now you might say, well, that'snot good.
(05:20):
Some English professors may saythat's not good, but they know
what I'm talking about, right?
Some of you kind of thought alittle bit of English here and
there at the collegiate level,so I know.
Now it's more short sentences.
You know just ideas.
Now how do you solve thisproblem?
The Greeks knew this problem.
Remember Plato and Aristotle.
Remember Plato on the right orleft, sorry, left.
(05:42):
He's pointing up Aristotle onthe right.
He's pointing down.
What Plato is pointing to whenhe points up is the need for one
universals to over, ascategories, over everything.
And what Aristotle is doing,pointing down and saying no, no,
no, you can't forget theindividuals in these categories.
So one would be likeemphasizing Doug as a category,
the other be saying, no, we gotmore keys, great Danes,
(06:03):
colleagues, you know lots ofopposites and so forth and so on
.
That's's what they wereemphasizing.
Each was emphasizing somethingdifferent.
Okay, one was saying marriage,the other was saying, no, the
husband and the wife.
You know, it was an emphasisissue.
Now, plato knew there had to bethese universals, otherwise
there's no meaning, can'tcategorize anything.
Okay, it's just basic.
(06:23):
In Greek thought, though, andin thought that comes down to
our day, there is no concreteuniversal out there.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in
(06:54):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app, and until
next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.
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