If the user of the dialectic can get his opponent into a quarrel, the opponent may be led to return to the spiritual level of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14 and become angry. Though the user of the dialectic may not have won the quarrel, he has won in the sense that he caused - perhaps just momentarily - his target person to regress spiritually into the state of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14.
"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers," Romans 1: 28-29
Debate is from eris, number 2054, "a quarrel, wrangling, contention,debate, strife, variance."
The first definition of eris is a quarrel. Those who like to quarrel are probably in the spiritual state of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14.
Debate: "Origin: Middle English: via Old French from Latin dis-
(expressing reversal) + battere 'to fight'"
Quarreling is an accurate English word for eris. Some kinds of
statements invite a quarrel more than other kinds of statements. And
quarreling is an indication of a reprobate mind in Romans 1:28-29. And
a quarrel can go on without people overtly insulting one another by
calling each other bad names or trying to insult one another in more subtle ways.
In I Corinthians 1: 11, Paul says there were contentions among those
in this ekklesia. Romans 2: 8 says "..unto them that are contentious,
but do not obey the truth...indignation and wrath." I Corinthians 11:
16, says "If any man be contentious, we have no such custom." And look
at II Corinthians 12: 20. Here Paul says he fears that when he comes
back to his people at Corinth that he will find them in debates,
envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings,
tumults." The NIV has quarreling for the Greek word eris. This is one
of a few places where the NIV supports a doctrine that some other
recent versions diminish.
Paul uses another Greek word which also carries with it
contentiousness in I Timothy 6: 3-4,
logomachia, "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome
words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine
which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but
doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy,
strife, railings, evil surmisings."
This is an important and interesting text, because what Paul is saying is that those
who get off into doctrines that were not taught by Christ and the
Apostles tend to get into logomachia, or strifes of words." Lets see
what Strong's says about logomachia.
Logomachia is number 3055 in Strong's and is said to mean
"disputations, strife of words." Logomachia might be translated as
"word fights."
The doctrine given in Romans 1: 28-29, Romans 2: 8, I Corinthians 11:
16, II Corinthians 12: 20 and I Timothy 6: 3-4 says that to engage in
contentious quarreling is a trait of the reprobate mind. It is also a
trait of the person in the condition of the natural man of I
Corinthians 2: 14, who cannot discern the things of the spirit.
Now look at Acts 15: 1-2: "And certain men which came down from Judaea
taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the
manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined
that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to
Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question."
Luke did not use eris or logomachia in Acts 15: 2, which would have
carried a meaning closer to contentiousness than suzetesis.
But Paul and Barnabas did make strong disputation with the
Pharisees who taught that Christians must observe the ceremonial law
of Moses to be saved.
There is a possibility that some of the people here who seem to be defending Marxism are Catholics and are following the present pope, who is saying things that sound like he is a Marxist.