“If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.” Proverbs 29:9
The key to understanding what the Bible means when it tells us that arguing with a fool is a futile task is to know who a fool is. Foolishness, you see, in Biblical philosophy, is a moral distinction rather than a mere intellectual one. The misunderstanding of this context is at the heart of quite a bit of Christian exasperation. Failure to fully understand it can lead us into meaningless argumentation that can compromise our witness and lead to sin.
The fool is the person who says that there’s no God (Psalm 14:1; Psalm 53:1) contrary to all the powerful evidence in nature and our moral conscience. Atheism is not a conclusion arrived at through logic but by the suppression of the obvious (Romans 1:19-20) and this suppression is enacted by a moral rebellion (Isaiah 32:6). The fool is the man or woman who says that there’s no ultimate moral authority in the universe and then can’t stop talking about issues of right/wrong. They’re blind to the contradiction – thus fulfilling the Scripture when it says that “professing to be wise, they become fools” (Romans 1:22).
The argument with a fool is, therefore, a grand exercise in futility for the simple reason that all truth must come down to a question of ultimate authority. This is the unspoken fact at the heart of all the nasty debates in our age. The fool plants his moral/intellectual flag on the ground of autonomy – that is, he/she believes that one’s own mind is the final standard of truth. Sure, they may “delegate” this to various “isms” but the foundation is still the same epistemologically. Nevertheless, all truth, since this is God’s world, has a moral aspect to it, so the application of any truth comes down to the question of authority. The believer knows that ultimate authority is in God and His word alone. This is the root of the issue. The heart of all argumentation is a clash of competing authorities and two parties that disagree about this fundamental issue will never reach an agreement.
Take, for instance, a political debate. Most people today, due to the statist education they got from the secular humanist centers known as public schools and universities, believe that government is a law unto itself. They won’t state this directly, of course. In fact, they’ll do everything they can to never talk about the subject of legitimacy of power and authority. Having forsaken God and His sovereignty, they embrace the false god of the state. Having accepted the lie that they can be as their own god, determining right and wrong on their own, they understand the terror of this principle when applied to 330 million other people. Thus, they accept, almost by default, the notion that ultimate sovereignty and moral authority resides in the state.
A Christian, on the other hand, knows that there is no ultimate authority but God. They know that all legitimate authorities in life are given and defined by God and His moral law. Thus, when a Christian speaks with a non-believer about politics, he/she should always be boldly theological because the foundation of everything the non-believer says rests upon the idolatrous foundation of the supreme state.
Where did the state get the power to rule? On what moral grounds might it do anything? If this is a purely materialistic world with no God, how does the unbeliever come to understand morality? When a person says, for example, that something is unfair and government ought to do such-and-such about it, what’s the standard they’re using to conclude all this? The problem is, you see, that life is always theological. Christians should be unapologetically Biblical in looking at life’s particulars. We often don’t press this issue (of ultimate authority) with others. We rightly perceive that it’s a bomb that will blow apart and challenge others at their very core. But trying to be nice to people should never replace being faithful to God.
The rule to remember is that no one is neutral in their thinking and we shouldn’t be either. We’re called to a life of discipleship. We’re called to live for our King, not to appease the traitors in our midst. We’re called, therefore, to challenge all thought at its foundation by checking its authority. This will prove to be the line of demarcation between someone who’s merely simple (uninformed and confused) or a fool (a hardened unbeliever). Christians commit a serious blunder when they think that the only way to share the gospel is to hand out a tract and talk about Jesus and sin abstractly, asking them to make a decision. This is all well and good in its context but the fool often has so many defensive barriers in his mind that he has no clue what sin means. He thinks it’s a single act here and there rather than a profound and total position of hostility toward God. By checking his moral foundations at their root, we can blast away his defenses and call him out on the position of ultimate authority. Are you god? Are you the final standard of authority in life? What is? By what right do you do this or demand that? Where’d you get the moral authority? How do you know that? This is what we are to ask the world. We’re to confront them at every point with their usurpation of authority and call them to repentance. Arguing about political ideas without reference to these types of questions is worse than useless for the Christian because to do so leaves in place the lie of neutrality. The burning question is always: is this God’s world?
At this point, when a person is confronted with the full scope and the root of sin’s rebellion, they will see the issue. Then they’re confronted with Jesus Christ and will come to Him as Savior, accepting all that grace, or they’ll hate Him all the more. The fool will hate you for shining the light of the truth on their dark, dark secret, which is their insistence on playing god. And it’s for this reason that they’ll turn to scorn and mockery. Insults and rage are their tactic when confronted with their folly because they can’t defend the morally and logically insane position that they know moral truth without God. After all, if there’s no God, there can’t be ultimate morality. As Dostoevsky said, “without God all things are permissible.”
So, when someone brings up some social problem or another (and almost always suggest either blatantly or obliquely that government fix the problem) we’re simply to bring up God’s law/word and apply it to that particular. If a person suggests that taxes should be higher or lower, he’s talking, in reality, about the ultimate moral authority over property. Only God has that authority and government may not assume it for itself. Government may only collect taxes in ways approved by God for things ordained by God (to punish evil criminals). This is the way to avoid arguing needlessly about Republican and Democrat things without ever going to the foundation of the issue.
A non-believer will, of course, bristle at this and say that God has nothing to do with public policy. Ah! See! There it is. That’s the key thing. Ask him then what is the moral standard for his position and where that moral standard is? Ask him how a material universe has these immaterial moral laws and how these laws can be applied to all men and women? Ask these things and you’ll notice that he’s not an atheist at all. No. He’s quite religious. He’s a secular humanist.
The fool will do everything in their power to never, never talk about this subject honestly and logically because to do so shows that the emperor has no clothes. They want to go on living in their make-believe land where there is no God but moral laws exist somehow. By bringing their attention to this, you bring their attention to the root of sin. There’s no need to be feisty or argumentative (nor should we be). Just stating the obvious will be quite a shock, so the Christian should be humble in this bold proclamation of God’s sovereignty. Only God has the right to issue moral obligations. If some person or entity has that authority, then they’re god, which is, of course, foolishness.
The very next verse tells us that scoffers set a city aflame (Proverbs 29:8). They do this by the violence that’s in their heart. This is no small matter. There is a great and deep antipathy unbelievers have toward God that they unleash toward their fellow man – especially His disciples. So, why is there so much acrimony on social media and in politics? That’s simple. Because little gods are always arguing and competing over territory. Little pretend gods don’t want to be told that they have a false authority to issue moral proclamation. Little pretend gods don’t want to be told that they’re accountable to the true God. In light of this, because they have no logical answer to where moral authority comes from, nor where it is on earth, they will verbally abuse those that disagree. It’s the only course open to them. And that’s why America has so many politicians and lawyers. If they go away…or go too far, there will be millions of soldiers instead because little gods will always fight with each other in ways great and small.
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