Jesus and false antecedents

Since the Stoics first considered the truth value of conditional statements, there has been debate over whether a conditional with a false antecedent should be considered true, as modern propositional logic holds. Let me nudge the discussion forward by considering Jesus’ response to Pilate during His trial:

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight” (John 18:36)

Jesus speaks truth. Thus the statement “My kingdom is of this world” is false, being the negation of his first statement. But this false statement is the antecedent of the true conditional, “If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight.” 

Nudge.

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