All-Or-Nothing Mistake

The all-or-nothing mistake is one of the many smokescreens that are used to cover the fact that the reasoning is based on one of the three fallacies of Agrippa's trilemma. Whenever a logical fallacy is committed, the fallacy has its roots in Agrippa's trilemma. All human thought (without Divine revelation) is based on one of three unhappy possibilities. These three possibilities are infinite regress, circular reasoning, or axiomatic thinking. This problem is known as Agrippa's trilemma. Some have claimed that only logic and math can be known without Divine revelation; however, that is not true. There is no reason to trust either logic or math without Divine revelation. Science is also limited to the pragmatic because of the weakness on human reasoning, which is known as Agrippa's trilemma.

The All-Or-Nothing Mistake occurs when a continuum is stated as a black and white issue. There are things that are black or white. A switch is on or off. You have a car or you do not. But a person is not either gifted or non-gifted. This is a type of false excluded middle.

Examples of the All-Or-Nothing Mistake

One moment: "I'm a good person."

The next moment: "I'm a terrible person."

This problem springs from a misunderstanding of life and is not that uncommon. Got tells us that there is not one good person on the face of the Earth. Natural human goodness is contrary to fact. However, God loves every person and has a plan to bring every person out of this pit through Jesus Christ. God Himself came to Earth to pay the price, to buy us back to Himself. He came in the form of His Son, the Logos (utterance) of God. Jesus Christ died in our place and suffered all the condemnation of all mankind throughout all time. Whoever is willing to confess his or her sinful nature to God, to receive the gift of Jesus Christ, and ask for His mercy, is covered by the blood of Jesus. This does two things. It grants pardon, and it sends the sin away. Sin is stepping off of the Path that leads to the genuine and absolute fullness of Life. Jesus Christ is the Path and He is the Life. He is both the Way to get to the Goal of Life and the Goal of Life. As soon as we are born again by believing, Christ reveals Himself to us and we have an ever-growing personal relationship with Him. He is the Path in that He leads us, corrects us, and teaches us moment by moment. When we acknowledge Him as He speaks to us, faith comes (as a free gift) to believe what God just said to us. "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the rhema (utterance) of God." This gives us access into God's grace, which then does God's works through us. We still have an evil fleshly nature, but that is no longer who we identify with. We are new creatures. The Christ in us is the new creature, and He is our real identity. We don't deny that we have a sinful nature. As Paul says, "So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it." (Romans 7:17) Yet, we have the Christ nature, our real identity.

We are on a Path to a Destination, Life. No one who is following Christ is failing to make headway. The label, "Christian," doesn't apply here. This only applies to those who are actually following Christ. We are either growing in Christ or we are being disobedient to the Spirit of Christ. We grow through the experience of hearing His Voice and responding in submission by the grace which is through God's imparted faith. Growing in Christ is a growth into holiness (a change in what you are to be like Jesus Christ, to take on His nature) and redemption (setting free from slavery to the fallen fleshly nature, demonic influence, and the pressures of the society). Of course, water baptism, spirit baptism, communion, fellowship according to the pattern of 1 Corintians 14, Spiritual gifts, ministries, offices, and all the orders of the Called Out Body of Christ are part of this process. In the end, the entire process is laid out in the Letter to the Ephesians, especially the fourth chapter.

The point is that there is a continuum between whatever we once were and what we will be at the full manifestation of the sons of God. We are somewhere on that continuum. It does us no good to try to guage where we are on that continuum or to compare ourselves to others. In fact, since the Holy Spirit never leads us to make such comparisons or to consider such questions, it is sin (slipping or stepping off of the Path that leads to the genuine and absolute fullness of Life) to do so. "Whatever is not of faith is sin." At every moment, God is leading. We either submit to Him or not. Whatever God didn't lead you to do is sin, stepping or slipping off the Path. What we need to do is to be patient with the process and believe that God can get us to the goal. We just need to continue to learn how to hear Him and how to respond in submission.

"You never pick up your things after yourself."

This could be a true statement. More likely, there are times when you don't pick up your things after yourself.

Fallacy Abuse

Roxy: "An Atheist never has fully rational thinking."

Sandra: "Ha! Ha! That is the fallacy of all-or-nothing thinking."

Roxy: "Actually, it's not. If a naturalistic presupposition is any part of the foundation of thought, then Agrippa's Trilemma is in force. A chain of thought is as strong as its weakest link. This chain must begin with something that is absolute, but all that is available is infinite regress, circular reasoning, or axiomatic thinking."

Some things are all or nothing. God is absolutely holy. In Him is no darkness at all. It is impossible to be fully rational without Divine revelation. With a single assumption, a person can prove anything at all to himself or herself.