testimony.doc
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Nov. 16, 2005
of Jerusalem to the Babylonians.
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There was no way to handle all the data properly
without using Decision Tables.
The same is true of any non-trivial logic puzzle. I would challenge anyone to solve the
logic puzzle of Figure 1 without first learning how to use the grid that is included below
the puzzle. All puzzle-solvers learn how to use these grids. They are really Decision
Tables. If Decision Tables are necessary to solve logic puzzles, then how can we handle
the complicated chronological data of Kings, Chronicles, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel without
making use of a similar logical method?
This does not answer the question of why the data are so complex that it is necessary to
be very careful to use a logical methodology that includes Decision Tables in order to
handle them and to show which combinations are feasible and which produce
contradictions. One might as well ask why it is necessary to master the methods of
calculus to gain even a preliminary understanding of the motions of the planets, and
beyond that to master both Special and General Relativity if more exact refinements in
planetary and satellite motion are to be handled. Does anyone say that these laws are not
valid, just because it takes effort and discipline to understand them? Perhaps we would
have liked the Scriptures, in matters of chronology, to be easier to understand, so that we
would not have had so many interpreters declaring that the Scripture is in error simply
because these interpreters were incompetent in determining the methods of the Scriptural
authors. We know that in matters essential to our salvation the Scriptures are plain
enough that a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. But in other areas such
as the one we are studying, we can only say that God's ways are not our ways, and His
thoughts are higher than our thoughts. It was not in the Holy Spirit's design to make all
portions of Scripture easy to understand. It was in His design to make all Scripture so it is
without error.
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Rodger Young, When Did Jerusalem Fall? JETS 47 (2004): 2138. This and the Solomon paper are
online at http://etsjets.org/jets/journal/jets.html.