Introduction
1) As we have studied, we can see that we have a good reason for the Christian faith.
2) It is the only world view that is consistent, non-arbitrary, and can account for
reality.
3) A few things to clear up first
A) The claim that the Christian faith needs no defense
B) Evidence first verses the Bible first
4) Does the Christian faith need to be defended?
A) Many claim that the faith needs no defense. It is only a matter of belief and
that is all that can be said.
B) Yet I find it strange that many people never consult the Bible for an answer
to this question.
1) If the Bible is our ultimate authority and we know that it is the source
of truth, then we should be able to find the answer within its pages.
2) II Peter 1:3 informs us of the truth that God has given to us all things
that pertain to LIFE and GODLINESS.
C) This position is not consistent with God’s revealed truth
1) I Peter 3:15 tells us that we are to always be ready to give a defense
of the faith that we have.
2) Those who ask us if we have a reason for our faith ARE TO BE
GIVEN AN ANSWER.
3) This indicates that we should indeed have a reason for our faith.
4) Throughout our study, we see that we indeed have a very good reason
for our faith. Without the Biblical God, we could know absolutely
nothing.
5) Our reasoning presupposes Biblical faith.
6) The notion that Christianity cannot be defended is not consistent with
the teachings of God.
5) Evidence first
A) If we are to be ready at all times to give a reason for the faith that we have,
What kind of reason should it be?
B) We have already seen that the evidence first approach will not rationally
resolve world view issues.
C) Everyone interprets the evidence in light of their world view
D) Evidence can be very useful when we agree on how it should be interpreted
E) But when the question is “How evidence should be interpreted?” the evidence
first approach will always fail.
F) This approach also commits the pretend neutrality fallacy.
6) The Bible first approach
A) Since we are told to be ready to give a reason for our faith, and the evidence
first approach does not answer the underlying question, what options are
left to us?
B) The Bible first approach is what we have been studying in this class.
C) We could restate the ultimate proof as such “The Bible must be the ultimate
standard because no other standard can make knowledge possible.
1) The Bible must come first, it must be presupposed before we can
properly evaluate the evidence.
2) Notice that this approach does not make use of evidence per say, but
since all evidence must be interpreted through an ultimate standard,
we must always start with the Bible when we look to the evidence.
D) This simply means that the Bible is foundational in all our thinking, it is the
ultimate standard.
1) When we argue for the truth of the Bible, we must begin our argument
by presupposing the Bible as our supreme criterion for evaluating
all the facts.
2) We will be accused of circular reasoning, but we have already
shown that such reasoning is logically necessary and not fallacious
if done properly.
3) Everyone must appeal to their ultimate standard even when defending it
4) As we have seen it is only the Bible that can do this successfully!
I) The Bible’s Standard for Reasoning
1) This idea that we cannot know anything apart from God is not a modern claim, it
is contained in scripture
A) Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: but fools
despise wisdom and instruction.”
1) We must begin with a reverential submission to God as revealed in
His word in order to have knowledge.
2) If on rejects the instruction and wisdom of His word, they are reduced
to foolishness.
B) Romans 1:18-23
1) Everyone has an innate knowledge of God
2) This is why everyone knows about the laws of logic, uniformity, and
morality.
3) But, as indicated, they suppress this knowledge in unrighteousness
4) They do not acknowledge God as the foundation of knowledge, and as
a result, their thoughts are reduced to foolishness
C) Colossians 2:3 “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
1) All wisdom and knowledge is deposited in Christ (Verse 2)
2) We cannot have knowledge apart from Christ.
3) Verse 8 warns us about being robbed of these very treasures by
accepting secular standards
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world,
and not after Christ.”
4) Our way of thinking, our philosophy, must be according to Christ
and therefore according to His revealed word.
5) Any other standard is merely empty deception
D) I Cor. 3:19 “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is
written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.”
1) The evidence first approach is really a secular position in that it states
that man is able to come to correct conclusions about evidence without
God.
2) Again we can see that this is foolishness.
E) Eph. 4:17-18 “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their own mind, having the
understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”
1) We are not to think as those in the secular realm think.
2) We cannot start with the presuppositions of the world and expect it
not to have a damaging effect.
3) This approach would have us attempt to show that the Bible is true by
starting from another standard. The neutral standard.
4) If it were possible to prove the Bible from another standard, then the
Bible could not be true!!
a) Prov. 1:7
b) Col. 2:3
5) I Cor. 1:21 “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe.”
F) If we argue that the Bible is true on the basis of some piece of scientific
evidence, then we are teaching people that the Bible is less foundational
than human understanding of scientific evidence.
G) We would essentially be teaching that man’s ability to understand the evidence
is the ultimate standard and not the Word of God.
I) This kind of thinking can and does have serious consequences
1) Using this kind of thinking, we are raising a generation of people who
do not accept the Bible as the ultimate standard!
2) They only believe the Bible if it fits their own personal interpretation
of the evidence, and if the Bible does not fit, the Bible is the one that
gets reinterpreted and not the evidence.
3)This is the main reason that so much incorrect doctrine is being allowed
into the church.
a) Instrumental music
b) Woman in roles of authority
c) Homosexuality
d) Fellowship with denominational groups
4) Eph. 4:12-15
J) Examples of
1) Gen. 3:1-7
2) Luke 16:19-31
3) II Peter 3:1-10
II) The Apologetics of Christ
1) Christ constantly used the Bible first approach when dealing with those around Him.
2) He seems to never use evidence to show who He was.
3) In all aspect, Christ presented the Biblical world view when encountering those
who questioned Him.
4) Christ never once attempted to first establish the truth of God’s word by an unbiased
evaluation of the evidence.
A) Matt. 4:1-11
1) When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Christ’s approach was
scripture first
2) Satan tried to tempt Jesus using the 3 lines of temptation that he uses
on all individuals, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the
pride of life.
3) In all three of these attempts, Jesus never gave up the surpremecy of the
Scriptures in His thought process.
B) Matt. 12:24-29
1) Here we find Jesus using the strategy that we have been discussing
that of “Don’t answer, answer”.
2) He did not accept there foolish standard, but then He showed them the
silliness of their position by showing what would happen if it were true.
3) He pointed out that a kingdom that is divided against itself could not
stand.
4) He showed them the inconsistency of their position.
C) Matt. 21:23-27
1) Here we find the chief priests asking who gave Christ His authority to
teach the things that He was teaching.
2) Jesus knew of their foolish standard so He did not answer them
according to it, but showed them the inconsistency of their position.
3) He asked them a question “The baptism of John, whence was it? from
heaven, of men?”
4) By asking them a simple question, Jesus exposed the error in their
thinking.
5) If they answered ‘from heaven’, Jesus could simply ask them why they
did not believe what John was saying about Him
6) If they answered any other way they knew the reaction of those that
believed that John was a prophet of God
7) This one simple question neutralized their position and left them
unable to answer Him.
D) Matt. 22:23-33
1) The Sadducees had the world view that there was no resurrection of
the dead
2) This was an attempt to ensnare our Lord or try to confuse Him in
order to show that He was not who He said He was.
3) Jesus did not accept the error of their thought process, instead
He answered with the Bible first approach
4) He indicated to them that they did not know the scriptures nor
the power of God.
5) He then shows them their error by quoting from Ex. 3 Which shows
that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive somewhere even though
they had been physically dead for a number of years.
6) This shows the error of their thinking in the fact that if they are still
alive somewhere, which gives credence to the resurrection.
7) Verse 34 indicates that given this response, the Sadducees were
silenced they could not make a defense of their position .
a) If they denied what our Lord had said, they would be going
against plain scripture.
b) If they accepted His answer, they would of necessity have
to change their world view which they were not able to
do, hence they were reduced to being foolish.
E) Matt. 23
1) This entire chapter shows the inconsistency of the scribes an Pharisees
2) Christ never tried to show that they were wrong by the force of evidence
a) the things that they were doing has a bad outcome.
b) Showing the statistical data and comparing different things.
3) He used the Bible as His standard in His reasoning.
4) In doing so Jesus showed them the foolishness of their world view.
III) The Apologetics of Paul
1) Acts 17:16-34
2) Paul also used the Bible as his ultimate authority just as Christ did (I Cor. 11:1)
3) He presented the Christian world view, internally critiqued the secular world view and
used the strategy in his response
4) Here we find Paul reasoning with the people and not employing the “pull at the
heartstrings” approach.
5) Paul begins by analyzing the world view of his critics (17:22-25)
A) He notes that the Athenians were religious in the sense that they worshiped
idols.
B) One was to the unknown God
C) He uses this concession to begin presenting his world view by going back
to Genesis and explaining to them that God is the creator of all things.
D) He then corrects their erroneous view of deity by pointing out that the
creator would not dwell in temples or need to be served by humans hands
since it is God who gives life and breath to all.
6) Verse 26-28
A) He continues to present the Christian world view by showing that we are all
descended from Adam and indicates that God has been sovereign in human
history and that He is not far from us.
B) He also points out that in God we live and move and exist which is a fact that
the Athenians already knew.
C) Paul also points out the fact that the Athenians world view cannot account for
this.
1) Their world view was one in which the gods were made of gold and
silver.
2) They were made by human hands
3) Their world view could not make sense of this fact.
4) Paul is showing here that it is only the Christian world view that can
make sense of this fact.
D) Paul really drives this fact home when he uses the Athenians own poets to
confirm what he was saying. The implication here is the fact that they already
knew this to be true (Roms. 1:18-21)
7) Verse 29
A) Paul here points out that it is only the Christian world view that can make this
intelligible.
B) The Christian view states that God made man in His image.
C) Yet the Athenian gods were made of gold, silver, and stone. They were
created by man. How could we be their offspring?
D) Paul is showing the inconsistency within their world view.
8) Verses 30-31
A) Paul continues his presentation and teaches that all should repent and turn
back to God because God will judge the world through Christ.
B) He ends his speech with the Resurrection of Christ.
1) Notice that Paul does use the Resurrection of Christ as evidence of
Christ’s deity, but only after he had given his listeners the proper
frame work im which to interpret that evidence.
2) He had already shown their world view to be incorrect and that it
is only the Christian world view that is correct.
3) He showed them that the Christian world view is the only world view
that can make sense of the things that they already knew to be true.
9) Going back to the beginning
A) Paul provided the Biblical background to understand the theological
implications of the resurrection.
B) By going back to Genesis, he showed that God is the sovereign Creator and
thus had the right to set the rules.
C) Many today start with the crucifixion and resurrection in their communications
D) This is not effective if the person does not have the correct interpretive frame
work.
E) Sometimes we must go back to Genesis and explain Christianity from its
beginning.
IV) The War of World Views
1) There is a war going on all around us today
A) It is a battle of ideologies
B) It is a battle of competing authorities
C) One says that mankind is the final authority
D) One says that God and His word are the final authority
2) The problem with world view is that they are all based on autonomous human
reasoning.
A) Unfortunately the human mind is not up to the challenge
B) We have limited experience
C) We do not always think properly
D) Apart from God and His word, how can we be certain about anything?
E) With finite knowledge, how could we ever know for certain that there is not
some undiscovered fact that refutes what we think we know?
F) If we invent our own ultimate standard for truth, how could we ever know that
it is correct?
3) God’s nature
A) God’s nature is quite different.
B) He does not observe and learn about the universe the way that we do because
He does not have our limitations.
C) God, by virtue of His nature, already knows everything(Col. 2:3), and thus
only He is in a position to be absolutely certain about anything on His own
authority.
D) Since this is the case, we must learn to base our thinking on God’s word and
refute those who would challenge their maker.
4) II Cor. 10:3-5
A) The key is to submit our thinking to Christ
B) Our apologetic is not merely a defense of the biblical world view, but an
application of it.
C) Knowing that a reverential submission to God is the beginning of knowledge,
we can expose the absurdity of rejecting God and reduce the critic to
foolishness.
Conclusion
1) This is the ultimate proof of creation.
2) The bible is not proved externally by some greater standard of knowledge, It proves
itself.
3) Only the Biblical world view is able to provide a rational foundation for all human
experience and reasoning while passing its own criteria.
4) Other world views turn out to be mere idols, failing to provide a basis for knowledge
and refuting themselves in the process.
5) Biblical creation is proved by the fact that if it were not true, we could not prove
anything at all.
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