Let Us Reason Together

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Short Summary
The discourse emphasizes the importance of reasoning together to gain deeper knowledge of good and evil and to understand the character of the Heavenly Father. It highlights the challenges in acquiring knowledge, including human tendencies toward conflict and misunderstanding, and advocates for respectful, open-minded dialogue grounded in Scripture, humility, and a willingness to ask and answer questions thoughtfully. Ultimately, reasoning together is portrayed as a collaborative journey toward truth and spiritual transformation, likened to walking with a friend rather than engaging in conflict.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Discourse on “Reasoning Together” Based on Isaiah’s Words

Central Theme and Biblical Foundation
– The discourse is centered on Isaiah 1:18:
*“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”*
– This invitation by the Lord to “reason together” forms the basis for exploring how believers can engage in meaningful, constructive dialogue rooted in Scripture to deepen their understanding of God and His principles.
– Emphasizes the importance of collective reasoning for spiritual growth and transformation.

Beginning with the Knowledge of Good and Evil
– The discourse recalls God’s command to Adam in Eden not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17).
– Adam’s disobedience introduced human awareness of good and evil, a complex and difficult knowledge to acquire due to the prevalence of evil.
– The Hebrew root “yada” (to know) is foundational, illustrating the biblical understanding of knowledge starting from Adam “knowing” his wife.
– Knowledge acquisition is hard work but vital for understanding God’s character and creation.

Importance of Knowledge and Transformation
– Knowledge of God is essential for life and godliness, as stated in 2 Peter 1:3:
*“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.”*
– Knowledge leads to transformation of the mind; believers become new creatures continually modified by what they learn about God’s principles.
– Proverbs 4:18 is cited to show the progressive nature of the righteous path:
*“But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”*
– Apostle Paul acknowledged that human knowledge is partial now but will be complete in the future (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Challenges in Reasoning and Understanding Scripture
– Since Moses’ time, misunderstanding and misapplication of Scripture has caused confusion and discord, visible in the divisions among Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and later Christian sects.
– Even after Christ’s ministry, disputes over doctrine, such as justification by law and the resurrection, caused splits.
– Modern parallels include divisions among Christian groups and differences in scriptural interpretation across cultures and congregations.
– The drive for unity can be harmful if it demands infallibility, suppressing honest inquiry and discussion.

Dominant Thought Collectives and Argument as War
– Human conversations often adopt a combative language and attitude toward argument (“argument is war” metaphor), which hinders true reasoning and understanding.
– Examples of destructive debating language: “I demolished his argument,” “He shut down all my arguments.”
– This adversarial approach stifles open dialogue and learning.
– False lights and “pollution of the sky” are metaphors for false teachings and distractions that obscure true knowledge, akin to light pollution hiding stars.

The Biblical Call to Reason Together
– The invitation to “reason together” (Isaiah 1:18) is an encouragement to open, humble dialogue where all parties may be wrong or right, but together can approach truth.
– Reasoning together is a tradition among Jews, who require a quorum to study Scripture to maintain balance and diverse perspectives.
– Effective reasoning includes being willing to ask questions, seek clarifications, and accept correction.

Practical Recommendations for Acquiring Knowledge and Reasoning Together
Striving and Effort: Enter through the narrow gate (Luke 13:24) – knowledge and spiritual growth require deliberate effort and perseverance despite difficulties.
Asking Questions: Never fear asking questions; like the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:30-31), we need guidance to understand Scripture.
Mentorship and Teaching: Value mentors who help clarify difficult truths; personal examples include Moses and Nicodemus’ encounters with Jesus (John 3:1-3).
Avoiding Fear: God gives a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7), not fear, which can paralyze inquiry.
Clarity and Openness: State your position clearly, explain underlying reasoning, and be open to testing and inquiry.
Avoid Foolish and Contentious Questions: Apostle Paul warns against foolish questions and genealogies that lead to quarrels (2 Timothy 2:23; Titus 3:9).
Avoid Power Struggles: Questions about “who is greatest” or similar disputes can derail meaningful dialogue (Matthew 18:1-4).
Use Clarification and Permission: Abraham’s respectful negotiation with God (Genesis 18:23-32) models asking permission and clarifying intent to foster better dialogue.

Recognizing the Difficulty and Importance of Reasoning Together
– Reasoning is hard because of human nature, fear, passion, dominant cultural frames, and the presence of sin and error.
– Yet, it is a sacred duty to pursue knowledge, understanding, and transformation.
– The metaphor of the “island of knowledge” in the vast ocean of the unknown illustrates how learning expands our knowledge but also reveals how much remains unknown, prompting more questions.

Biblical Examples of Reasoning Together
– The Lord’s question to Adam, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9), is not due to ignorance but to provoke reflection and dialogue.
– Jesus’ questioning of the Pharisees (e.g., regarding the Messiah’s sonship, Matthew 22:41-46) demonstrates skillful questioning that challenges assumptions.
– The Book of Job shows God reasoning with Satan and with Job, illustrating that God welcomes difficult questions and debates (Job 1-2; Job 38-42).

The Ideal Metaphor for Reasoning Together
– The speaker proposes replacing the “argument as war” metaphor with “a walk with a friend or with the Lord.”
– Walking together implies mutual care, learning, warning, and enjoyment, fostering a cooperative rather than combative atmosphere.
– Jesus’ teaching: “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” (Matthew 5:41) encourages going beyond the minimum in fellowship and understanding.

Closing Thoughts and Blessing
– The discourse closes with a hymn expressing wonder at God’s creation and miracles, encouraging gratitude and the pursuit of knowledge through reasoning together.
– The speaker thanks the audience and shares the wish that they continue to walk and reason together in faith and love.

—

Key Bible Verses Referenced:

– Isaiah 1:18 – *“Come now, and let us reason together…”*
– Genesis 2:16-17 – Command to Adam about the tree of knowledge
– 2 Peter 1:3 – *“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him…”*
– Proverbs 4:18 – *“The path of the just is as the shining light…”*
– 1 Corinthians 13:12 – *“For now we see through a glass, darkly…”*
– Luke 13:24 – *“Strive to enter through the narrow gate…”*
– Acts 8:30-31 – Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch’s conversation
– John 3:1-3 – Nicodemus visits Jesus by night
– 2 Timothy 1:7 – *“God has not given us a spirit of fear…”*
– 2 Timothy 2:23; Titus 3:9 – Warnings against foolish questions and quarrels
– Matthew 5:41 – *“If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”*
– Genesis 18:23-32 – Abraham’s intercession for Sodom
– Matthew 22:41-46 – Jesus questions about the Messiah’s sonship
– Job 1-2, 38-42 – God’s reasoning with Satan and Job

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Summary Keywords:
Reasoning together, Isaiah 1:18, knowledge of good and evil, knowledge acquisition, transformation, Scripture interpretation, argument as war, questioning, humility, mentorship, avoiding foolish questions, Abraham’s intercession, Nicodemus, perseverance, narrow gate, mental contrasting, dialogue, dominant thought collective, passion, fearlessness, walk with a friend metaphor, spiritual growth, collective reasoning, biblical examples, faith, love, humility.

Transcript

And I hope that today this bond in Christ would be strengthened by us considering the lesson which relates to, as you probably guessed, the words of prophet Isaiah, who encouraged us and said, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they will be red like crimson, they shall be as wool, and this is really where this title of this consideration comes from, the encouragement from the Lord to reason together.

We will spend some time considering how to do it properly, to receive the greatest possible blessing to do that. We’ll start right in the beginning when the Lord God commanded Adam to eat freely from every tree of the garden, but not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die, and then when he did eat, the Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us. To know good and evil. To know good and evil is a very difficult task.

And while I acknowledge that we have seen around us so many different shades of evil, to learn and to know good becomes a very difficult task because evil dominates. But I really believe that reasoning together brings to light the good of our Heavenly Father and all his wonderful creation. So today I would like to focus our attention on the knowledge how to gain this knowledge, the mechanism, the methods, what the Scripture tells us so that we can learn more about the knowledge of our Heavenly Father, the knowledge of good and evil. This Hebrew term knowledge occurs in the very beginning of the Scriptures where the term da’ at coming from, the Hebrew verb yada really comes from. Yada means to know.

So Adam knew his wife, and all of this starts from the very beginning where acquisition of knowledge and knowledge becomes of primary importance. So today we would like to spend some time to consider with you. Why is knowledge important? Why is knowledge acquisition hard work?

And how do we acquire knowledge? Maybe some methods and recommendations of the Scripture to help us in this process.

Well, you’re all familiar that Scripture from Isaiah and from Habakkuk in different forms, they shall not hurt nor destroy. In all my holy mountain the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. I believe that the permission of evil is the time when we are filling the earth with knowledge of the Lord, and this is one of the most important subjects we have, and it takes a lot of time and hard experiences to learn that.

So why is it important? Well, we have no other choice. Mankind has to learn good and evil, and knowledge acquisition started in Eden and continues during the permission of evil. Now, because we do have to fill the earth with the proper understanding, I believe, of the character of our Heavenly Father.

Even more, as new creatures, we are subject to transformation of the mind, which is another term to describe knowledge assimilation. So be it for mankind, be it for those who follow Jesus.

Learning about the Lord, about His principles becomes the primary subject of all our efforts. Because if we do it well, they transform us. You know, we are the only creature known to me which has this ability to self modify. Every time we learn something new about his principles, the next day we become a different person. We are going to be acting differently.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. Did you notice? Through the knowledge of him we have everything, everything we need for life and Godliness. Because this was the provision of our Heavenly Father. This is the most important thing.

But it is hard. It is extremely hard, and in a moment I would like to show you why this is difficult and what to do, maybe to alleviate those difficulties. In the Book of Proverbs we find this scripture which you know well by heart. But the path of the just is the shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day.

This is the Scripture in the King James rendition. Here is another one which stresses, with slightly different words, the very same. The way of the righteous one is like the shining light, and the light progresses until the day is established.

What would the Scripture mean to us? I believe that it indicates that every day this path is shining brighter, that we have the sacred duty of learning more and deeper about the greatness and goodness of our Heavenly Father. We can never come and say we got it, and we know that because Apostle Paul told us that we only partially know. One day we will.

But now there is not much in front of us but to pursue relentlessly, to pursue deeper appreciation and understanding of his will, and this should not be a surprise to us because the Scripture indicated from the beginning.

Now in the writing of Brother Russell, we find very similar concept. Brother Russell, considering this stated, since we have not yet reached the perfect day, we cannot know how much more brightly our lamp may shine in the future. But we do know that it is now shining more brilliantly than ever before for all those who who are walking in the narrow way. In its light we can see as never before the glories of the Divine character, and yet all this light, this increasing light as we near the perfect day is coming from our Lord lamp which God provided.

The Bible please notice not yet reached the Perfect day.

We do know that this light is shining more today than it did in the days of Brother Russell. Even we can see, as never before, the wonderful miracles for which we are very thankful. The light is increasing, and this is what we want to stress, that we have this obligation to learn deeper. Because as a result of the search of the Scriptures, as we sang, we transform our characters.

Now, that’s not the only reason why this is difficult. I want to bring to your attention the phenomenon which existed, I believe, from the beginning of the world, from the creation. Speaking to the Pharisees, the Lord said, you pour over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about me. Your accuser is Moses, in whom you have put your hopes.

If you believe Moses, you would believe me because he wrote about me. We presume the Scriptures have wonderful words of life. These are the principles which we are studying. But from the very beginning, mankind suffered from the difficulty of not seeing those words properly and the difficulty of stressing maybe inappropriate aspects of those Scriptures, seeing not properly, and this is visible almost from the day of Moses.

So what I am going to show you here, that from the moment Moses gave the nation of Israel the law, the problems started showing up all over the place, and it was in the history of, during the days of Moses, later on, in the days of Kings, and when our Lord arrived on the scene, there were those who were called Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians and other sources talk to us as a knight, etc. So when you look at this, you may think, what a chaos. Yes, it is. It was confusing.

And that’s why we believe. The Lord admonished Isaiah, come and reason together. Let’s go and reason together. Now someone may say this is strange or undesired. To some extent it is true.

If you look at the history of mankind, of any science, philosophy, you will see the same thing. There were thinkers or thinkers. They were thinking different things all over the place. Even after our Lord came and delivered the message which was so wonderful, then the issues started popping up all over. Justification by law.

Did the resurrection take place or not? The Trinitarians appeared and then there were splits, splits and splits after split.

Why am I showing you this? Well, because this is not strange to us as followers of Christ. What I am showing you here is the same thing which happened after the ministry of Brother Russell. These are just a few groups which exists today and they continue existing, and the ecclesia differs from ecclesia.

The way we do things in Portland are different slightly than you do them, and you study the Scriptures in Chicago. The same goes for the French, for the German, Polish, etc. Now one may come and say, well, this is, this is all bad. We should unify that.

I would like to suggest to you that this overwhelming desire and drive for unity can be really bad, because you know how that was implemented. It is called infallibility. So yes, it is difficult. Yes, it exists everywhere and it has very undesired side effects. In science, for example, there were different ideas how to explain or.

Or not to explain properly the phenomena which we observe around us. We are all familiar with that. Some of those methods were better than others, and today, as you think about science and what it’s providing us in the form of artificial intelligence, we can see and appreciate other aspects of it, and some of those aspects become even less even dangerous.

What I want to tell you is that even in science this is a difficulty. Remember what happened prior to Copernicus. The church was taking the position that it must be this way. The Earth is the center of the universe and sun is running around it. Later on, Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler came and say, wait a minute, you were wrong.

And they had to take it back. This phenomenon continued for years. Not only this was a problem, but later on, when Newton proposed his wonderful theory of mechanics and the motions, etc. It turned out that it had to be corrected later on by the quantum physicists who uncovered the most wonderful phenomena. For the first time in the history of mankind, scientists came to a conclusion.

There’s not only we observe how the things work around us, but we can change what’s happening in the world, and brethren, this ability of humans to change what’s happening around us is of primary concern because for those who want to live forever, they have to understand, they have to know which changes are good allowed, which are forbidden. In all this process, there is an issue of dominant thought collective. Someone even said that for us to see is to recall at the appropriate moment the popular thought which exists among us, and it’s true in science and, and it’s true everywhere, wherever humans are, because we are creatures which created the dominant thought collective.

Now that by itself is not difficult and not critical, but it becomes an issue because it tends to stifle the conversation. Our reasoning together becomes difficult. Now, you probably heard me say that before, but I’m going to show it again to you. I am going to show you certain statements. So what’s going to be appearing on the screen in front of you are going to be excerpts of our human conversations.

Your claims are indefensible. He attacks every weak point in my argument. Her criticism were right on target. I demolished his argument. I’ve never won an argument with him.

Do you disagree? Okay, shoot. If you use this strategy, he will wipe you out. He shut down all of my arguments. I am besieged by his argument.

I surrender. You torpedoed all my arguments before I even launched my intellectual campaign. So when you hear words like this, what comes to your mind? I highlighted certain words. When we think about talking and reasoning together, what is the immediate reaction which you have?

I think you would agree with me. Argument is war. Argument is war, and this is an example of a dominant paradigm or even dominant metaphor, which in our reasoning provides for a very unhealthy result, preventing us from deeply understand what our Heavenly Father would like us to know really well, because it would transform our lives. The difficulties in talking with each other abound.

Satan changes himself into an angel of light. When you look at the picture like this, you see the difficulties. Because mudding of waters and blinding does not only happen when you don’t see light at all. It also happens when you see too many lights. These are the false lights.

You probably heard what astronomers designated. They invented even a term pollution of the sky. The amount of lights coming from street lights prevents us from even seeing the stars. We establish dominant frames of mind, binding metaphors. Unknowingly, no one knows or realizes that our language prevents us from reasoning effectively, learning deep truth of the Lord, because we are so used at work in school, to those arguments which are really describing war.

Add to this human weakness and you will see why this admonition from prophet Isaiah becomes so critical for all of us. Come on and let us reason together, and together, brethren, has a special meaning for us. I would like you to consider the following, which is really by some consider a definition of reason. I may be wrong and you may be right.

And together by an effort, we may get closer to the truth. Please notice, I may be wrong, you may be right. But together, by reasoning together, as Isaiah said, we may get closer to the truth. We cannot get there alone. Being alone, isolated and separated, voids us from the most wonderful benefit of correction and the ability to see a different perspective.

This is something which reasoning in the group among the Jews became a tradition. They have to have a specific number of people studying together in order to have this healthy balance. That’s the essence of reasoning together.

So now I would like to consider a few items which I believe would be Helpful to us to acquire knowledge, methods, and maybe tools which I found in Scriptures, which may be beneficial. First of them is to strive. Strive to enter at the straight gate. Our Master said in the Gospel of Luke, enter through the narrow gate, for the wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and may enter through it.

There are very few things which are fully responsible for, and that would be one of them. We have to have the desire, we have to strive, we have to make an effort. It’s not going to come to us naturally by itself. It is going to be an effort. Actually, there are some who believe that conversations are useless if they are not difficult.

Most of the critical conversations which takes place, certainly in science, certainly in other domains of lice, are the conversations after which people sometimes cannot sleep. When the scientists were uncovering what became new quantum mechanics, they could not sleep at night. What they observed was so disturbing that they were losing sleep until they finally understood one of those great truths of the nuclear, you know, ideas which quantum mechanics provides for the zoom today, for the gps, for all the wonderful amenities which we enjoy today.

Difficulties should not discourage us. It is our sacred obligation for which we are responsible. Hundred percent we may have difficulties, but to ask, to seek and to knock, it is our personal responsibility.

You know, some came with the idea that universities are famous places where people live together, eat together, talk together, because this is all about science. In our fellowship, when we meet for a meeting on Sunday for a family gathering, and I remember many of those, how we were coming together on Friday night or Saturday night, meeting with the brethren, every opportunity was a conversation to ask, to seek and to knock. That is our sacred obligation. But there is more to it in the events which took place on the road. When Philip joined the Ethiopian eunuch, he asked him, do you understand what you are reading?

Philip asked. How can I, he said, unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Tell me, said the eunuch, who is the prophet talking about himself or someone else? This story brings to our attention the fact that, that we should never be afraid of asking a question.

This is something which is absolutely critical, and we should also realize that in this process of learning and reasoning together, we are going to have those who are going to mentor us, who are going to explain to us. I remember those mentors from my younger days when I was at the weeknight meeting way back in Poland, and I said something which was going towards the fact that, well, we probably don’t have to die because, you know, as a Young man, I thought life was so precious, and then when I came home, my grandpa came to me and he said, you know, come here, son, I want to show you something. Blood and flesh cannot inherit the kingdom.

Grandpa said, you have to remember this. Those who open our eyes like it was in the case of Philip joining the men traveling are precious. We should value their wisdom and what they have learned for years. But then we have to be really aware how it was. Even in the days of the greatest of the teachers.

In the days of our Master, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night and said, rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him, and Jesus replied, truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

How can a man be born when he is old? Nicodemus ask, can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?

Fear is demotivating us and preventing us from reasoning together properly.

It has been always my custom, when in my professional life and in the work which I was doing, to tell people there is no such a thing. A stupid question. If you ask it with the intention of learning, I can only give you a stupid answer. But if there is something which is not clear, we should always encourage this to ask, because if it is not asked, it will never be answered. Fear, the atmosphere of pretending or being afraid or trying to look better prevents us from asking critical questions which can be a milestone in deeper understanding.

The spirit of fear should not be in our reasoning, in our conversations, for God had given us not the spirit of fear, but of power and love and of sound mind.

This is something which I think is very useful, especially with the young people, and I know that Chicago abounds in young people.

Here I am, sent me. You know these words from the prophet Isaiah, when the Lord asked, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And I said, here I am, send me, and he replied, go and tell his people.

Be ever hearing, but never understanding. Be ever seeing, but never perceiving. This is one of those difficulties that we get into, a vain repetition, sometimes not showing enough passion and willingness to go for it. We have multiple examples of this, and in a moment I will return to this little bit. But the willingness here I am sent me, the willingness to hear, to ask, is going to be an enabling factor in all our efforts of reasoning together with the Lord.

There’s another thing we can do, documented in Scriptures. Please, Lord, Moses replied, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. For I am slow of speech and tongue.

I have never been eloquent. I am slow of speech and tongue. Well, you may be thinking I shouldn’t be asking questions because I don’t know much. That’s not what this is all about. Remember what happened when the Lord answered Moses questions, who gave man his mouth?

Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, and I will help you as you speak, and I will teach you what to say. But Moses replied, please, Lord, send someone else. Let the anger of the Lord burn against Moses.

The Lord will help us to voice the question, to give an answer. He will teach us. There is no better way to learn about the Lord’s principles, about his wonderful plans and purposes, than through conversation. Conversation is everything. That’s why Isaiah said, let us come together and learn.

We cannot pretend that someone else was going to do it for us. We all have to participate.

His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was wary of holding it back, and I could not.

That could be wonderful passion. It could also be something which prevents us from talking with each other meaningfully and helping each other to open new perspective and new horizons. Passion is important, but when it is pushed too far, it may be also disabling, because we are so passionate that we don’t allow others to talk. But I want to dwell on the positive side of the passion. We all delight in the law, in the principle.

They are meditation of our days and hours.

Whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night is often a motive in the words of David, who was praising the Lord. This passion for the Lord’s cause and meditation is at the root of our desire to come together, to reason together, and to understand.

But often in those efforts, we are in danger of becoming like a ringing gong or a clinging cymbal. If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have no love, I am only a ringing gong or a clinging cymbal. What I am going to show you is related to the way in the ancient Hebrews, the contemporary English term blah blah, blah was termed. It comes from Isaiah and the words of the Lord will be to them Prophet said precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, In a moment I am going to play for you this passage from Isaiah pronounced by the Hebrew reader, and you are going to hear the words which really became the words which later on became the English blah, blah, blah.

So listen how he says it.

Did you notice? In the Hebrew language, Hebrew speaker will say sav la sav sav lasav kav lakav blah blah, blah, blah, blah blah. We are in danger when our passions are high to start using language which becomes almost difficult to understand, especially for the youngsters.

Do not use thoughtless repetitions as Gentiles do. This is the admonition from our Master, do not babble. Other translations like pagans do. Do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. These are all certain things which I would say they amount to the manner of expression or the style of reasoning which could become very disabling and preventing us from understanding better and deeper knowledge is the relation to what the Lord gave us.

And sometimes this relationship to understanding is broken by inappropriate style of response becomes the blah, blah, blah or the Hebrew term which you just heard. Probably the most important and critical in our efforts to come and reason together are questions. What I am showing you is probably the first, the shortest question which is in the Bible. It’s one word in Hebrew. Where are you now?

Think about this for a moment. Did the Lord God, who knows everything, did not know where Adam was? When we ask a question, we are really helping those who are with us to reason and to understand better. Where are you? Was what the Lord said not because he did not know where Adam was?

Where are you? Is the question which the Lord asked to help Adam.

We overly focus on answers and we do not focus enough on the skillful ways of asking good questions.

Questions are the best when they put us in front of the mental wall. In psychology they call it mental contrasting. Well, guess what? Psychologists did not invent it. When Jesus was speaking with his disciples and especially with the Pharisees, what do you think about Christ?

He asked, whose son is he? And then they said, David. How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord? For he says, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. If David calls him Lord, how can he be David’s son?

Here we have an example of the mental contrasting when the Lord put those who were listening to him in front of the mental wall. Can you explain that?

Those questions are the most fruitful if they are not considered as a personal assault or maybe inappropriate comment, but they put us into a Situation in which we have to answer somehow, hopefully, in those moments when we reason together, we just don’t walk away, but we think about what is meant by this question. Now I have to tell you about something which is not really a word. Quadestion. I don’t know if you ever heard about quad gestion. Quadration is something which we also encounter in the scriptures.

It’s when they know the answer and they just ask it because they want you to say it, and his disciple asked him, saying, master, who did sin? This man or his parents, that he was born blind? Did you see how they were asking? And you know what the answer was?

Neither one what quadruestion is. It is a question with the suggestion how to answer it, and it’s often used, especially at work. My boss would come and say, would the larger font be better? Here he was not really asking.

He was telling me, you have to be aware that good questions cannot be quadestions, because in those people will feel oppressed and not really able to understand how it really is. To enlarge their perspective, Apostle Paul paid a lot of attention to how we talk with each other. Avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions, striving about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain. Reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling. Or devote yourself to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculation rather than stewardship of God’s work, which is by faith.

Did you notice? Foolish questions, genealogies, contentions, speculations, these are all to be avoided, and Apostle Paul saved no time. As you can see, I just put here three quotes to avoid this type of reasoning together.

Then there are really bad questions, and please, by all means avoid those. They came to the Lord saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? A dispute also arose among the disciples as to which one of them would be considered the greatest. Well, the questions, who is the greatest?

Who is a winner? Who should be considered the one who is the best? Are really bad, bad questions. The Lord was suffering. These were his last moments and days on earth.

And the dispute at the table was, who would be the greatest among them?

It just happens that those issues of power and authority, as you can see in front of you right now, are derailing most of the useful reasoning together.

High Priest Caiaphas, you know nothing at all.

You do not realize that this is better for you, that one man die for people, that the whole nation perish.

Just think about this for a moment. Isn’t that the human sacrifice he Was proposing high priest, the most responsible and educated man, as a remedy for the nation proposes human sacrifice. To sacrifice someone on the behalf of the nation. This is what power does to us. It blinds us and it makes us even foolish.

But there are also good examples, and the one which I would like to quote here is the pre adventure. Remember how Abraham talked with the Lord? Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked when the Lord talks? When he asked about the 50 and then he said, lord, I am but the dust and ashes.

How about 45? And then, Lord, let’s not be angry with me. I will speak again. How about 30? I have taken upon me to speak again unto you, Lord.

20, and then finally, lord, do not be angry. I will speak once more. What do we learn from the friend of the Lord who was questioning and saying pre adventure? Well, here we can learn a really good technique when we come and talk together, Namely clarification and permission.

What Abraham is doing in here is he is explaining the Lord, I am concerned. The reason I talk to you, Lord, my intent and he’s clarifying his intent is to find out what would happen if there were 50 people who were righteous, and then he’s also asking the Lord for permission. Can I ask one more time if in our conversations, and you know, it does not have to be a conversation at the Bible study. It can also be at home, it could be at work, in school.

One of the things which helps us is to explain the intent to even say up front, you know, the reason I’m going to ask this question is not because I want to go against you or achieve any other goal. I want to clarify, I am asking with the intention of learning, can I do that? Asking for permission would do marvelous things for another human being who is disputing or arguing with you. Abraham did it, Moses did it. Before the destruction of the golden calf.

They interceded, they said to the Lord, they questioned and they even challenged the Lord that it would not be the right thing to do. But the clarification and the permission they asked for was very important and helpful in human reasoning. There are two trouble tendencies. One of them is to flight to a way to go away, to escape from the discussion, and the other one is to fight to win at any price.

Minimizing or fleeing the conversation is, I’m not eloquent, I do not know. Or we always say, yes, yes, we agree with everything. You know how people say, as long as the check clears in the bank, why should I argue? No discussion. This is dangerous.

Equally dangerous Are those power plays and escalation? You know nothing. It’s better for one man to die, and this conversational capacity, let me call it this way, has the sweet spot which we have to maintain constantly to have those conversations flowing properly. What is extremely good and helpful to counteract our tendency to have improper conversations is to state your position clearly, just like Nicotemus did.

How come? How can men be born again? Explain your underlying thinking, just like Moses did, Lord, if you destroy them, what would the other nations say? So if you state clearly your position, if you don’t hide it and you say, I don’t know, and if you explain your underlying logic, you clarify why you’re doing this, it’s going to be very helpful. Also, I would like you to notice that whatever we say, whatever theory or hypothesis or proposal we have for the brethren who talk with us, we can always test them and inquire about them.

This is an interesting point. Did you know that there is a difference between testing your own perspective? It is the prophet talking and asking versus inquiring into the perspective of others, maybe allowing other options. If the disciples knew this, they would not be asking the Lord who sinned him or his parents. They should have asked, Lord, explain what happened.

How should we interpret this? Way too often we do not test what we believe, and we certainly don’t inquire of other options how others believe what they want to explain, and I would again stress it, it is extremely important to do this with our young people.

The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as we reason together. I would like to bring to you another metaphor which I hope is going to be helpful in your reasoning together. It’s the metaphor of the island in the vast ocean of unknown. As we progress, we learn more. The path.

The light shines brighter. The path is illuminated. We expand what we learn in science and technology. We have artificial intelligence which did not exist. There are many things which did not exist in the days of Brother Russell.

As this thing happens and we enlarge and enlarge our knowledge, this island of what we know in the unknown becomes greater and greater. But noticed that in this island, in this ocean of the unknown, the island which represents our knowledge, there is also a shoreline. You know what the shoreline is? The shoreline is where we stop knowing, where we start having questions. As we learn more and more often, we come up with more and more questions because now we are aware how little we know.

And this is really how the island of knowledge metaphor works. Reasoning together is hard work.

If you look at the context of this quote from Isaiah, the Lord directs those words come and reason together, not to his prophets, but to sinners. Have a look and you are going to notice that this is an invitation for the people who are great sinners. In the context of Isaiah, the same is true in the Book of Job. I don’t know if you noticed, but it is repeated in the book of Job twice. There was a custom among the sons of God.

They would come to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came with them and they had the debate. This is how it all happened. Now, you are not mistaken. The Lord invited Satan to an argument.

The Lord invited Satan to an argument. Sometimes the difficulties in our reasoning is we don’t want to reason with those who not only are different, but who are great sinners. It wasn’t so in this call of prophet Isaiah. Come, let us reason together the book of Job, which gives us this wonderful custom of sons of God reasoning together with the Lord God himself. The book ends with the question which the Lord asks Job and his who is this who darkens my counsel by words without knowledge?

Our inability to reason and have difficult conversations may result in this admonition, who are you to darken my counsel?

Now we see through a glass darkly, but when face to face, now I know in part, but when we are on the other side, we are see it perfectly darkly now, partially now, but then we shall know far better.

I am going to end by asking you a personal question. Think for yourself. What would be a better metaphor for reasoning together than the metaphor of war?

Have a conversation during the intermission and I will give you my proposal. It’s not the only one. I hope that you come up with many proposals. My proposal is a walk with a friend or with the Lord. When you walk with a friend, be it walking the mountains or through the garden, and they show you, you see this plant, you see this flower.

Watch here, because there could be a poisonous snake. You’re learning and you’re enjoying it. The argument reasoning together could be a walk together.

And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Sometimes, especially talking with young people, walking them not one mile but two miles would provide for the miraculous outcome, and brethren, we say this not that we have a dominion over your faith, but are helpless of your joy. For by faith we stand.

Walk with the Lord, take an extra mile. This is the privilege. We have to reason together to fully understand his greatness and his goodness, and this is my wish and my prayer for all of you that walking together we are going to appreciate more the Lord’s goodness and you certainly did help us when we lived in Chicago to walk with you, and this walk in Chicago was for us a wonderful walk during which we learned a lot.

So thank you and just for your information. For closing, I am going to play a hymn which is not in the hymn book. The words would be on the screen. We set it up to words, even in two languages. You are going to see it in English and in Polish.

This is a poem and the music is the music of the contemporary composer. You know, it is that we often enjoy the wonderful music of the ancient composer Handel, etc. You are all familiar with Messiah, but this is a composer who lives contemporary. He composed the beautiful music which express the sentiments which are our wish from our family for all of you, especially as we enter into this man made holiday of thanksgiving. So please listen to the wishes from all of us here in Oregon.

Anya, Margaret, my sister and all the brethren. The title is look at the world and the wonders which we received about which we can also inquire by reasoning together. This is our wish for you. So give me one moment so I can set up the sharing of the sound and I will play the hem which is for you from all of us here in Oregon.

Sa.

Everything all around look at the world I.

Wonder so many miracles.

Ra.

Sat bringing our mer before the winter storm Everything grows, everything has a season.

All creation give us thanks for.

The gifts we shall.

Me.

Ra.

J.

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