Liar, lunatic, Lord
Liar, Lunatic, Lord, also known as Lewis's trilemma, is a Christian argument commonly attributed to C.S. Lewis, although the argument predates him by about a century. It can be succinctly presented as, "Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. The Gospels do not depict him as a liar or a lunatic, so he must be the Lord." The argument has many known flaws in both its formulation and logic.
Contents
History
Arguments attempting to defend the accusation that Jesus was a liar are as old as Christianity itself, and are even included in the Gospel of John, but the formation of this trilemma didn't appear until the 1800s.
Mark Hopkins, 1846
In his book, Lectures On the Evidences of Christianity Before the Lowell Institute, published in 1846 and based off his lectures from 1844, the Christian preacher Mark Hopkins describes, with a rather lengthy appeal, the idea that, if Jesus wasn't one with God, he was either a liar or insane:
William Knight, 1870
William Knight, an acolyte of Christian preacher John Duncan, wrote down many of the preacher's words while he was living with him from 1859-1860. Ten years later, after Duncan's death, Knight compiled his notes into the book Colloquia Peripatetica: Deep-sea Soundings ~ Being Notes of Conversations With the Late John Duncan, published in 1870. Knight's account of Duncan's argument is the first clearly-presented version of the trilemma:
Others, 1900-1940
Over the years, many other Christian preachers used this same argument, each formulated in their own way. Some of the more famous accounts include:
- Christian preacher Reuben Archer Torrey, Sr. in a sermon titled, "Some Reasons Why I Believe The Bible To Be The Word of God," c.1918.
- Presbyterian preacher William Edward Biederwolf in an essay titled, "Yes, He Arose," 1867-1934.
- Writer and lay theologian Gilbert Keith Chesterton in his book The Everlasting Man, 1925, which inspired C.S. Lewis.
- Christian preacher Watchman Nee included the trilemma in his book, The Normal Christian Faith, 1936.
C.S. Lewis, 1942
In a BBC radio lecture, writer and lay theologian C.S. Lewis invoked the trilemma. Later, in 1952, he published a book about his lectures titled, Mere Christianity. He described the trilemma thusly:
Obviously, countless preachers have put forth their own version of the argument since, but this is the most famous attribution, so I won't list them all.
Argument
An informal construction of the argument is as follows:
P1: Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord.
P2: He does not appear to be a liar or a lunatic in the Gospels.
C1: Therefore, he is the Lord.
P1: Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord.
The Gospels describe Jesus as claiming to be able to perform miracles, and quote Jesus with many fantastic statements like, "I am the way the truth and the light
P2: He does not appear to be a liar or a lunatic in the Gospels.
C1: Therefore, he is the Lord.
Criticisms
False Dilemma
Or, in this case, a false "trilemma." The fact that so many of the earliest arguments
• This flaw in logic is called a false dilemma. It assumes that Jesus can only be three possible choices, a liar, a lunatic, or the son of God and ignores a fourth option, Legend. In fact, there are infinite other possibilities like, the biblical account of Jesus is inaccurate, Jesus was misquoted, the authors of the bible confabulated Jesus’ words, pious fraud led the bible’s authors to alter it, the bible exaggerates the life of Jesus, Jesus’ life is an amalgam of many other prophets, etc. • Much of what Jesus said was crazy. See Table 3.1.3 A. • It is impossible to show that Jesus wasn’t a liar because almost thirty years of his life is omitted from the bible. Jesus could have became a pathological liar during that time. • The gospels weren’t written until over 50 years after Jesus supposedly died. How did a culture made up mostly of illiterates maintain detailed records of his life for that long to accurately portray his life?