Grandpa Lake’s Weblog

I have known people who have been Christians, sometimes for many years, who have rejected the faith in favor of some other religion. I have also rejected the religions of others. I have wondered why reasonings which seem so logical to some are illogical to others. I may have found my answer in the theological realm of “presuppositionalism”.

Presuppositionalism is a name given to a school of apologetics as an alternative to evidentialism. It is summarized in the article -A Short Explanation and Defense of Presuppositional Apologetics by Grover Gunn.

This school of thought argues that there is no neutral place from which to argue evidence, that god-awareness is built into all human beings and that some of us worship a god who has lied to us, thus giving us an inadequate orientation to the world we live in. Following are a few quotes from the article with my comments. I have edited a lot from the article, not because I disagree with it, but because I want to try to reduce it to as few words as possible.

“This third way, which avoids the opposite extremes of blind faith and rationalism, looks beyond logical and scientific axioms to life’s most ultimate presuppositions.” The reason is that “regenerate man and non-regenerate man cannot agree upon some common scales upon which to weigh evidence”. Our view of “truth” is founded upon our commitment, our covenant with our god, whoever he might be. “Totally depraved man has a more basic commitment, and he would accept an irrational and chaotic world where logic and science have no basis in objective reality before he would compromise his true ultimate commitment. His ultimate axiomatic commitment is not to logic and science but to his belief in the lie of Satan.”

This lie “is that man can be as God in the sense of being his own ultimate authority and do so successfully. Since there can be only one truly ultimate authority, the most ultimate authority cannot be both the Word of God and the word of man. If the Word of God is true, it is only because man has judged it to be true. And, says Satan, the Word of God cannot be totally true because God has said that man cannot do what is right in man’s own eyes and succeed. Man can be the measure of all things and the master of his own destiny and his world won’t fall apart. That is Satan’s big lie. And that is fallen man’s most basic philosophical commitment.”

“Fallen man’s commitment to Satan’s lie as his ultimate presupposition is the foundation of fallen man’s total life orientation. The result is that fallen man has a radical sin bias that blinds him to truth about God and Christ and Scripture…Fallen man takes the objective knowledge of general revelation and subjectively filters it through his sin orientation throughout the cognition process. The route from revelation to theology is interpretation, and natural man can only interpret in terms of his radical sin bias.”

The non-Christian’s “world view contradicts his own life experience. (bullet points not part of the quote)

• Man values logic, but apart from God, there is no reason why the mental laws of logic should have any true correspondence to objective reality.
• Man values science, but apart from God, there is no adequate basis for any real order and design in the universe or any assurance that man is really in touch with objective reality through his senses.
• Man values ethics, but apart from God, morals are merely changing conventions, and today’s abomination can become tomorrow’s virtue.
• Man values human personhood, but apart from God, man is but a higher animal or even an advanced machine, and personal existence is a temporary evolutionary fluke in an impersonal universe.
• Man values purpose and meaning, but apart from God, these have no real basis. If fallen man is right in his world view, then all in the world that is precious dies.”

“Even as the skeptic argues against God, he is using logic and language, which exist and have meaning only because of God.”

All that a Christian can (or should) do, after pointing out the irrationality of a non-Christian world view is to point the unbeliever “to the one solid Rock upon which he can build a valid world and life view. And of course that one solid Rock is Christ. The apologist presents Christ as the Sovereign Savior and Lord and proclaims His Word as ultimate, self-authenticating truth. In the final analysis, we accept the authority of God’s Word simply because it is God’s Word (Westminster Confession, 1.4). Just as God can swear by no one higher than Himself, there is also no higher authority than God’s Word upon which to base our acceptance of God’s Word. …human logic and science have no adequate foundation apart from the Word of the true and the living God. He cannot make human logic and science his self-authenticating authorities and then use these to prove God. Logic and science derive their authenticity and authority from God, not vice versa.”

“In our witnessing, we do present evidence but only in the defining context of the Word. (bullet points not in quote)

• We have the historical evidences of miracles, especially the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and fulfilled prophecy.
• We have the testimonies of changed lives.
• We have a basis for science in the God who created an orderly universe of design and gave man both senses that really are in touch with objective reality and rational minds with a logic that really does measure truth in the created realm.
• We have a basis for purpose, meaning and morality, for the ultimate reality is the personal God of Scripture and not an impersonal universe or impersonal axioms.

We accept God as God and we find flowing out of this a world that is the real world, and everyone in their heart of hearts knows it.”

Here we find the true common ground between Christian and non-christian. They both live in the real world created by God and covered with His finger prints. …the Christian and the non-christian do not agree on this common ground. Only the born again Christian has admitted to himself what all men in their innermost being know to be true. The non-christian … is blinded by his love for Satan’s lie.

Consider “the apologetic found in the children’s song: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And yet this apologetic is not mindless or arbitrary. It does not throw out evidence but acknowledges that evidence can have its proper significance and impact only in the context of saving faith. It defends the faith without idolatrously elevating human reason above God (rationalism) or abandoning reason altogether (irrationalism).

“…human reason is not a religiously neutral or independent realm that is philosophically prior to faith. …human reason need not be a futile and impossible task that is contrary to true faith. …the realm of true faith encompasses all and is prior to all, including logic and science, and only in the context of faith is a rational and orderly world possible.”