“Affirming the Consequent” (also known as the “If-Then Fallacy”) is a formal error in reasoning. It assumes that an effect (a result) has only one cause, without the possibility of others. For example, if a broken lamp makes a room dark, then every dark room has a broken lamp. Another example is, “If the rain causes the ground to be wet, then all wet ground is caused by rain.” This is an oversimplified way of determining a cause.
The If-Then Fallacy was the mistake Job’s friends (Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar) made as soon as they opened their mouths to speak. They concluded that if God justly punishes the wicked, then Job’s experience was the result of God’s justice. It was a shallow and rigid way to explain why Job was at the center of so much tragedy. His “friend” Eliphaz said, “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty” (Job 5:17). For them, it was a simple conclusion: “all suffering is due to sin.”
That error in thinking led them to insist that Job repent of sins he had not committed. Then, friend number two, Bildad, cruelly alleged that the death of Job’s ten children (by a collapsed house) was the result of their own sin. He said, “Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children have sinned against Him, He has delivered them into the hand of their transgression” (Job 8:3–4).
It gets even worse when friend number three, Zophar, begins inventing sins with no basis in fact. He accuses Job of “mocking” God, of hypocritically hiding sins and of oppressing the poor. Without a shred of evidence, he implies that Job had “crushed and abandoned the poor” and that he “seized a house that he did not build” (Job 20:19).
One lesson from the account of Job is that it’s foolish to think so simplistically about why “bad things happen to good people.” It’s the same scenario the apostles put to Jesus when they asked about the horror of Jews being killed and their blood used for a pagan sacrifice. Their simplistic, “if-then” thinking led them to ask Him who was to blame. Jesus warned against judging others’ sins and instead urged them to look to their own!
And He answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Lk. 13:2–3)
A second lesson is that Christians should be very careful not to “speak for God.” The friends’ speeches were not only unkind toward Job but also sinfully presumptuous of God. It’s true that God addressed Job’s sin of overstating his righteousness, but not with the same severity as His judgment of Job’s friends.
After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to My servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And My servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” (Job 42:7–8)
Drawing hasty, oversimplified conclusions about others’ misfortune and then pronouncing an unsubstantiated judgment amounts to gossip and invites God’s condemnation. When you see calamity overtaking someone else, tell yourself, “I wouldn’t, if I were you.” Then remember the words of Galatians 6:3–4, “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.”
There is a time to restore others in a spirit of gentleness, but seek the Lord before making assumptions or declarations. Examine your own heart before speaking for God.
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (Jn. 7:24)