The Maltese Fallacy

Acts 28:3-6 the Maltese fallacy

 

Old Testament Reading: Psalm 92

New Testament Reading: Acts 28:1-6

 

1. Introduction

 

Our New Testament lesson this morning is found in Acts 28:1-6. Here we find the Apostle Paul and some companions on a ship, being taken by soldiers from Israel to Rome for trial. On the way the ship meet with “no small tempest,” and they were so “violently storm-tossed” that “all hope of . . . being saved was at last abandoned.” (Acts 27:18-20) Nevertheless, under God’s providential care, they all survived the raging winds and waves. At dawn one day they found themselves within reach of land. The ship ran aground as they tried to beach the shore, and was broken up by the waves; but all aboard made it to the shore and were saved. They were on an island, and they learned that it was called Malta.

 

A Black Bird. Now I’m sure some of you, upon hearing of Malta, are thinking of a black bird. Mystery fans and movie buffs will no doubt have turned their minds to the great Dashiell Hammett character Sam Spade, as played by Humphrey Bogart, and his encounter with an artifact from Malta: The Maltese Falcon.

 

What I want us to see this morning is that though murder and mayhem may have been caused by the Maltese falcon; no less is mayhem is caused by what we may properly call the Maltese fallacy.

 

Consider Paul’s encounter with the people of this island.

 

1. Explication

 

1 ¶ After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta. 2 The native people* showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold.

 

3 When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. 4 When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice* has not allowed him to live.” 5 He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

 

Let us pray: Our Father, we pray that you would grant us grace, that the light of your Word would shine forth in our minds and hearts, that it would kindle a flame within us, and that we would learn to live well by that light. We pray this for the glory of the One who is the light. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

The Islanders behold a terrible irony. Here a man has just escaped the grip of a mighty storm and the wreckage of the ship, only to be fatally poisoned!

 

They reason together and conclude, firmly, “No doubt this man is a murderer.”

 

Murder was considered the gravest of crimes in the ancient world. Thus, they reason, the gods must be in hot pursuit of this fellow.

 

“Justice” is capitalized, because there is warrant for supposing that the islanders have in view something like the Greek belief in the virgin daughter of Zeus,  named Justice, who sits beside him and keeps him posted on acts of human injustice. The God’s were after Paul, so they conclude. But then Paul simply shakes the snake off, he does not swell up and die!

 

And thus the Maltese think again. They change their minds. Paul must be a god. Anyone who has such a prosperous circumstance must be so good as to be virtually a god.

 

Now Luke seems, in the presentation of the story, to be poking a bit of fun at the Maltese, the shift in their sensibilities from one extreme to another.

 

Foe or friend, woe or weal? The gods in pursuit, or a visitation of the gods. Luke’s emphasis throughout is on their reasoning, the conclusions they draw from the circumstances before them; and he expects his readers to see that their reasoning is faulty reasoning.

 

To these folks, Paul preached the good news that powerfully overcame their vain misapprehensions.

 

III. Doctrine

 

Thus, this morning I want to direct our attention to what I am going to call “The Maltese Fallacy.” I’ve always wanted to name a fallacy. Thus I stake my claim.

 

The fallacy is this: To conclude from the fact that Justice sometimes intercedes in this world, that this world must be the place of retribution and reward.

 

Now perhaps some of you are thinking, “Oh great, I didn’t come to church to hear a logic lesson!” I only ask you to be patient, and consider that the language of John 1:1, that Jesus is the logos, “the Word of God”, could properly be translated the “reason” or the “logic” of God!

 

In any case, don’t get me wrong. This fallacy does not especially belong to the Maltese. In fact this fallacy is alive and well today, alive, and well, even among Evangelicals. Let’s think together about it.

 

1. Exposition

 

1. First of all, to be clear on the term “fallacy”.

 

Fallacy: An argument in which the conclusion does not follow from its premises, though it looks like it does. It seems persuasive, but strictly speaking, it is a non sequitur; the conclusion does not follow from the premises.

 

Fallacies are quite ancient. People have been committing them for a long time. Thus most of them have Latin names! E.g., ad populem, an appeal to the people (why can’t I stay out until 2 in the morning, all my friends do). It seems to follow to the teenager; but the parents see that it does not follow.

 

 Or ad bacculem, an appeal to force (do this, or I will punch you in the nose). It may be persuasive, but not as an argument. The avoidance of nose-punching is not a good ground for believing something is true.

 

1. What the Maltese Got Right.

 

1. To commit the Maltese Fallacy, you have to get some things right, before you can go wrong! 3 points that are the sound presuppositions that make the fallacy possible.

 

1. That justice sits enthroned on high. There is an ultimate source of Justice in the world, and it is, in fact personal.

 

Psa. 89:14 “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne [O God]. . . .” (cf. Ps. 97:2, and many others).

 

The Maltese get it right: Justice sits enthroned on high.

 

1. That there is a moral government to the universe. Justice enthroned is not unsinterested in the world, but rather is actively engaged in the world.

 

Psa. 103:19 The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

 

Dan. 4:17 “the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’”

 

The Maltese get it right: Justice sits enthroned on high, and thus there is moral government over the world.

 

1. That retribution and reward break into the affairs of this world. The moral Governor of this world sometimes brings to bear pains against wickedness and sometimes brings to bear rewards for virtue.

 

Jer. 5:7 ¶ “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those who are no gods. . . . 9 Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?”

 

Calvin makes this point about the Maltese when he observes that the get some things right: “one might say that it sprang from a proper sense of piety. For in order to make the world inexcusable, God wished it to be impressed on the minds of all that troubles and adversities, but extraordinary disasters in particular, are examples of His wrath and just vengeance on sins.”

 

2. In other words, the Maltese get it right, that “naturalism” is foolishness. They avoided the impiety of naturalism. What do I mean by this term?

 

“Naturalism” is the view that the world is best accounted for by reference to material principles only. These principles include mass, energy, and other physical and chemical properties accepted by the scientific community. Naturalism holds that spirits, deities, and ghosts are not real and that there is no "purpose" in nature. On this view catastrophes are nothing but the fruit of impersonal forces at work.

 

Calvin cannot imagine such a view: “impiety never prevailed to such an extent that all did not retain this principle, that in order to show that He is the Judge of the world, God inflicts conspicuous punishments on the wicked.” Calvin.

 

This is still true in much of the world. But at least in the modern west, naturalism has gained currency. Things just happen. This is the fundamental interpretive principle of naturalism. All are in the grip of impersonal forces at work, forces in play without purpose or meaning.

 

Calvin has strong words for such: “those who try to pluck out of their hearts all awareness of God’s judgment are detestable monsters, since that awareness is innate in all of us, and dwells, in the minds of even ignorant and savage men.”

 

1. Naturalism is soul destroying.

 

1. We cannot bear such meaninglessness. We cannot live without a purpose.

 

[Buber illustration concern prison labor from I and Thou.]

 

1. We can’t live with the logic of such conclusions.

 

Illustration of Francis Schaefer in conversation with a student committed to Naturalism; the tea kettle demonstration.

 

1. We cannot endure difficult things without supposing there is some purpose for it.

 

1. In fact, though painful, retribution would be better than purposelessness.

 

Retribution brings a kind of health to the soul, at least to some degree, the feeling that justice has been meet and conscience is to some degree relieved, at least temporally.

 

It also means that there is one who, in fact, can be appeased, in relation to the guilt felt. But of course, with naturalism, there is no one to be appeased, and the deepest sense of ourselves, as guilty, is said to be a lie. The soul’s incurable agonies incurable are meaningless.

 

2. Naturalism is a profound threat to individual human good.

 

If these this-worldly troubles are signs of retribution, and we are taught to think of them as merely things that just happen, we cannot learn the critical lessons that are intended by such signs.

 

Prov. 13:24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.*

 

Prov. 23:13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. 14 If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.

 

Here is a principle of discipline, that it is instructive for the good.

 

Child does wrong. Mother spanks. She intends both punishment for the wrong, and correction. What if someone told the child, “that just happens sometimes: mother’s hands fly back and hit their children. You just have to learn to live with it.”

 

The naturalist teaches us that there is no rod at work in the government of this world, and thus makes our foreheads as brass with respect to the lessons of Providence.

 

3. This teaching is a threat to the community.

 

If God is dead, everything is permitted. The sense of some final accounting and retribution is critical to a sense of uprightness in this fallen world.

 

In the past, law courts required a belief in the after life, because it was thought that apart from a belief in divine retribution one could not have proper confidence in testimony in court.

 

Eg., PCA BCO 35-1. All persons of proper age and intelligence are competent witnesses, except such as do not believe in the existence of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments.

 

A sense of retribution is essential to the restraint of sin. If there no retribution, there is no final accounting; you might get away with your sins. If the stakes are high enough, it is worth the gamble.

 

A belief in God, and his ultimate justice, makes such gambling manifestly futile.

 

So, the Maltese got some things right.

 

1. The Maltese Fallacy

 

1. Where, then, do they go wrong.

 

In this context error typically creeps in.

 

1. 4 When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice* has not allowed him to live.”

 

What they get wrong is thinking that this world is, finally, the world of retribution and reward.

 

On this basis they suppose that they can judge who is worthy of retribution by the difficulties experienced in this life.

 

Thus the Maltese fallacy. If you suffer, you must be a wrongdoer, and God is showing his displeasure.

 

If you prosper, you must be doing well, and God is showing his pleasure.

 

Of course, there is a kind of comfort in this: they must deserve it; I have not done something terrible; QED: this will not happen to me.

 

In sum

 

John Dick: “The conclusion was such as would naturally occur to persons, persuaded that a moral government is exercised over mankind, but whose views were not corrected and enlarged by Scripture, or by accurate observation and extensive experience. They were right in believing, that God who knows the actions of men will recompense them according to their desert, and that he sometimes interposes, in a visible manner, to punish atrocious crimes. But, they erred in supposing such interpositions to be so regular, as to afford certain grounds for interpreting the design of every calamitous event. . . . They did not reflect that this world is not the place of retribution; that although there are occasional manifestations of justice, the exercise of it is for the most part delayed; that notorious transgressors sometimes live long, and die in peace; and that the lot of good men is often full of affliction and sorrow.” John Dick, Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles (New York, NY: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1857), p. 396.

Thus the Maltese Fallacy.

2. How can that fallacy be corrected. How can we get it right. Our thinking must be informed by Scripture.

The needed foundation for sound views the Maltese have missed altogether.

1. This world is justly under a curse.

All men and women are worthy of God’s just retribution.

In any event, there are two levels of interpretation necessary: 1. from God’s point of view, and eternal justice; 2. from our point of view and temporal justice, and relative good and evil, temporally speaking.

This is Jesus’ point in Luke 13.

Luke 13:1 ¶ There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? [There is the Maltese Fallacy at work!] 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

2 events detailed: one, the act of a wicked despot; the other a natural disaster

Jesus puts both in a transcendent moral framework. There may have been differences of relative good and evil among those who suffered. But Jesus first draws our attention to the fact that God is finally behind both acts; his purpose must be the question.

So Jesus corrects a misinterpretation of this providence: there is no one to one correspondence between calamity in this world and depth of sin.

Jesus insists that apart from repentance toward God, all will perish. That is, that all deserve this fate.

The whole world is under a death sentence, a judgment that God may bring to pass at any time, through any means that He is pleased to permit. From the vertical point of view, that is the condition of mankind, in its fallenness.

That is the first premise that is necessary to rightly interpret any calamity in this world.

1. God is now, generally speaking, withholding His justice. The final consideration of things has been delayed, in mercy, for the sake of repentance.

This truth, with our first premise, leads us to see that: “All calamities, rightly understood, call all men everywhere to repent towards God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” Keddie

2Pet. 3:7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.  8 ¶ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,* not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. . . .

Peter says that the day of judgment is going to come, and it is going to come suddenly. And its going to bring great destruction. But he concludes again,

  14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.  15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation. . . .”

This is not the world of God’s retribution; it is the world of God’s patience, showing forth his mercy.

1. Yet God is revealing that there will be such judgment now in signs of that judgment to come.

God does not, in this life, bring punishments according to what one deserves, strictly speaking. In order not to talk nonsense (Calvin), we must see that this world has only the signs of retribution.

Therefore we cannot make a judgment about person based upon their circumstances alone. Must look beyond that to a person’s way of life: is it according to the revealed will of God, or not. The Word must inform us first, before we can rightly contemplate the world.

If we see a lawbreaker suffer some temporal calamity, we may conclude that God is bringing the trouble as a sign of retribution. “God is pointing out His judgment as if with His finger.” Calvin

Rom. 1:18 ¶ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. . . . 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

“revealed,” a word emphasized in the original. “Revealed is the wrath of God. . . .”

There are some, sadly, who studiously reject this revelation. Psa. 92:5 ¶ How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep! 6 The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this: 7 that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever; 8 but you, O LORD, are on high forever. . . .”

The wrath of God is revealed, says Paul, from heaven. Catastrophes are a revelation of God’s just wrath, reflecting his curse upon this world. That revelation is given for the purpose of enlightening. It is not the final retribution; that is yet to come. But it is already coming to pass, in this world, with respect to the unrepentant.

But it is not retribution itself. The most terrible calamity in this world could not constitute the proper retribution against sin. It is but a sign of it.

Consider the murderer, one who has, perhaps, killed a dozen people. He escapes a terrible storm, and having been saved, he is bitten by a poisonous snake and dies. Would that be justice? One man dead by a snake, in relation to the 12 he has killed. Is that in any sense a proper retribution for the 12 lives he has snuffed out? Our most fundamental moral intuitions cry out, absolutely not. It is but a sign.

And God may yet have other purposes, e.g.:

John 9:2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

God has a variety of purposes in the ordering of circumstances in this world. Therefore believers must be patient and provisional in such judgments. God’s purpose will not finally be made plain until the final judgment.

E.g., 9/11. Many quick to judge: God punishing US for internal corruption? Maybe. Or perhaps, God is punishing the world by removing a force for good? Or perhaps, God is rousing an opponent to vanquish world-wide terrorism? A complex question.

In fact, always, in this world, the Lord is doing a two-fold work. Every interpretation must address this two-fold element: Calamities come as signs of retribution to the unrepentant; but those same calamities come as purifying and strengthening to the godly.

This perplexed the writer of Eccl. 9:2 “It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,* to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath.”

But this need not be perplexing to us. We know that there are some, by God’s grace in Christ, who have already been brought out of this order retributive signs; they don’t experience the wrath of God in them, though in precisely the same circumstances. Rather they experience them as God’s purifying fire.

Rom. 8:1 "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No one in Christ ever experiences God’s retributive justice against sin because in Christ that justice has been satisfied.

LC Q77. “[justification] does equally free all believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall into condemnation. . . .”

They are already enjoying that fact that in Christ there is no condemnation; but they have not yet been brought out of this world of curse, where they experience the sorrows and pains of a fallen order. But for them, all of those sorrows and pains are being translated into glory.

For believers, the same event signifies something else entirely. “those, who seem to be sharing in the same punishment in the eyes of men, are quite different in the sight of God.” Calvin.

The afflictions of the godly are to prove their faith and to purify their lives. Prov. 3:11 ¶ My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Heb. 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

And we are able to see that this means is nothing to be compared to God’s ends.  2Cor. 4:17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

 

1. Application

Thus, the Maltese Fallacy, and its correction, in light of the Word of God.

For those who profess faith.

It is this teaching that ought to inform our songs of worship! So we sang this morning, “O Father, You are sovereign!” Margaret Clarkson

O Father, You are sovereign The Lord of human pain,

Transmuting earthly sorrows To gold of heavenly gain,

All evil overruling, As none but Conqueror could,

Your love pursues its purpose—
Our souls’ eternal good.

O Father, You are sovereign! We see You dimly now,

But soon before Your triumph Earth’s every knee shall bow.

With this glad hope before us Our faith springs forth anew:

Our Sovereign Lord and Savior, We trust and worship You!

In the storms of life, let your soul rest here and here alone. “Lord, my weak thought in vain would climb” Palmer

When doubts disturb my troubled breast, And all is dark as night to me,

Here, as on solid rock, I rest,—That so it seemeth good to thee.

Be this my joy, that evermore Thou rulest all things at thy will;

Thy sovereign wisdom I adore, And calmly, sweetly, trust thee still.

Prayer: Our Father we rejoice in your goodness to us, that you’ve granted us minds whereby we can grasp the truth. And we pray that you would help us to use our minds well, as our Lord insisted, not to judge by appearances, but to judge righteous judgment. Protect us from foolishness and fallacy. And in particular, from this fallacy which is so much the besetting sin of those who understand, in general, the nature of the world right. Help us to act according to the truth, and in that truth to rejoice, we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.