Transcript Presuppositional Apologetics PPT

Presuppositional Apologetics
and
World View Apologetics
John Oakes
ARS
2015 ICEC
York College, York, NE
Apologetic Strategies: John Oakes

Defending the Faith
– History and
Archaeology
– How We Got the Bible
(including response to
form criticism, etc.)
– Science
– Contradictions in the
Bible

Creating Faith
– World View
– Prophecy
– Miracles/Resurrection
– Claims of Jesus
Schools of Christian Apologetics

Classical Apologetics (two-step)
–
–
–
–

Emphasizes arguments for theism
Miracles make no sense unless prove God exists.
Rationalism
Thomas Aquinas, William Lane Craig, Norman
Geisler
Evidential Apologetics (one-step)
– Emphasizes history, prophecy, miracles,
resurrection.
– Habermas, McDowell, J P Moreland

Cumulative Case Apologetics
– Like Evidential but makes legal-type arguments.
What is the most reasonable conclusion, given the
evidence?
Feinberg, Strobel
Schools of Christian Apologetics


Presuppositional Apologetics (World View
Apologetics) Cornelius Van Til, Greg Bahnsen
Reformed Epistemological Apologetics
– It is rational to believe without evidence
(induction). God revealed by experiencing him.

Fideism You just have to believe. Faith is a blind
leap. Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth
Presuppositional Apologetics
A type of World View Apologetics
Chief proponents:
Cornelius Van Til Dutch 1895-1987
Greg Bahnsen American 1948-1995
Argues for the rationality of the
Christian World View but highly
influenced by Calvinism/Reformed
Theology
Augustinianism in Disguise
Because of Original Sin/Total Depravity, the
mind of the unbeliever is so depraved that no
logical argument will be an effective means to
create saving faith. Presuppositional
Apologists, strongly emphasize the
sovereignty of God (over and above his love,
for example) The apologist’s method is to
demand the unbeliever to accept by formal
presupposition the Christian world view
because only under the Christian World View
does reality make sense.
Presuppositions of the Presuppositionalists
Use Colossians 2:3-8 to demonstrate that
every single thought of the non-believer is
foolishness.
Bahnsen:
All wisdom and knowledge is deposited in the
person of Christ—whether it be about the War
of 1812, water’s chemical composition, the
literature of Shakespeare or the laws of logic.
Every academic pursuit and every thought
must be related to Jesus Christ, for Jesus is
the way the truth and the life.
Christianity Owns All Knowledge
Bahnsen:
“One must be presuppositionally committed to Christ in
the world of thought… or else the persuasive
argumentation of secular thought will delude him.
Hence the Christian is obliged to presuppose the word
of Christ in every area of knowledge; the alternative is
delusion.”
Michael A. Robinson:
“Everything that opposes the truth of Christianity will
be false. Everything.”
Augustine: A man must believe in order to understand.
Reason without conversion avails nothing.
The Foolish Unbeliever
Van Til: “The struggle between Christian theism and its
opponents covers the whole field of knowledge.
Christian theism’s fundamental contention is just this,
that nothing whatsoever can be known unless God can
be and is known.
We defeat the unbeliever in argument by walking away
from the argument.
“The fool-oriented question is to be put aside.”
Use Proverbs 26:4-5 to show that our opponents are
foolish and therefore we should not engage in
arguments with them.
How to Do Apologetics?
Bahnsen:
“By attacking the unbeliever’s position at its
foundation.” “The pseudo-wisdom of the world must
be reduced to foolishness.”
Robinson about the unbeliever:
“He despises biblical morality and desires sin. He is an
intellectual criminal because he is a moral criminal
first.”
Important Terminology for Van Til and
Bahnsen
“The myth of neutrality”
No common ground
Antithesis
The Myth of Neutrality
Van Til: “There is no neutral middle ground
where the Christian and the unbeliever can
agree.”
Robinson:
“The Christian who strives after neutrality in
his thought… is reduced to apostate thought
patterns and absorbed into the world of
unbelief.”
“Neutrality is nothing short of immorality.”
No Common Ground
Robinson:“No demilitarized zone exists between the
camp of unbelief and the forces obedient to Christ.”
Bahnsen:
“Any common ground is ‘owned’ by the believer. The
best we can have is formal agreement.”
Van Til:
The only “common ground” is found in the sinner’s
sense of deity that lies within because he/she was
made in the image of God. (in other words, the only
reason we agree is that they are unknowingly hijacking
Christianity)
Points of Vulnerability (Bahnsen)
1. It is dogmatic and absolutistic. (His
response: “It appears dogmatic and
absolutistic because it is dogmatic and
absolutistic”)
2. The presuppositionalist is claiming that
non-believers know nothing.
3. The presuppositionalist argument would
prevent any meaningful discussion with the
unbeliever.
Conclusion
We can agree with the presuppositional
apologists that the Christian world view is the
only one with a consistent rational basis, but
to deny common ground to other world views
is to speak untruthfully and to defeat our
evangelism before it starts. Total depravity is
not a good presupposition on which to build a
Christian apologetic (and it also is not true).
B. Christianity: The Christian World View
►
One's world view is the
perspective one uses to process
and interpret information
received about the world.
►
James W. Sire put it this way, "A
world view is a set of
presuppositions (ie. assumptions)
which we hold about the basic
makeup of our world."
►
A Jain World
View
James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door
(InterVarsity Press, 1997)
A “Good” World View Defined
A. It is true.
It is consistent with reality.
It is consistent with what we know to be true from experience. It works.
B. It answers satisfactorily the questions people really want
answered.
What is the nature of external reality-the world around us?
What is a human being?
What happens to a person at death?
Why is it possible for us to know anything at all?
How do we know what is right and wrong?
What is my purpose?
What is the value of a human being?
C. It causes those who hold to it to be better people than they would
otherwise have been if they held to competing alternative world
views.
Definitions
►
Animism: Anima = spirit. A religious system which includes the
belief that spirits inhabit inanimate objects and phenomena.
►
Polytheism: Poly = many. A belief that the universe is
governed by many gods.
►
Pantheism (monism): Pan = all. A belief that a spirit fills the
universe. God is the universe, and we are part of God.
 Panentheism: God is in everything (stoicism)
►
Dualism: A belief that the universe is governed by nearly
equally matched forces of good and evil. (Zoroastrianism,
Manichaeism, Taoism)
Definitions (cont.)
►
Deism: A belief in a distant, uninvolved God who is creator,
but does not interact with his creation. (Epicureanism)
►
Monotheism: A belief that the universe is created/governed
by a single omnipotent/omniscient/omnipresent spiritual
being.
Other World Views
1. Animism/Polytheism
2. Pantheism
3. Dualism
4. Materialism
5. Deism
6. Theism
The Bible and Other World Views
►
If Genesis 1:1 is true, then animism, polytheism, pantheism,
dualism, naturalism, deism, postmodernism and every other
ism is false.
►
Conflicting world views cannot be accommodated with one
another. Biblical theism is incompatible with all these other
world views.
Hindu World View
►
Maya. The physical world is an illusion.
►
Brahman. Universal soul.
►
The goal: Nirvana; oneness with the universal soul which
is within yourself.
►
The Hindu world view has man looking inward, not
outward.
The Hindu World View
“There is no holy life. There is no war between
good and evil. There is no sin and no redemption.
None of these things matter to the real you. But they
all matter hugely to the false you, the one who
believes in the separate self. You have tried to take
your separate self, with all its loneliness and anxiety
and pride, to the door of enlightenment. But it will
never go through, because it is a ghost.”
―Deepak Chopra
Hinduism and Time




Time is cyclic. There is a “wheel of time.”
World is cyclically created by Brahma,
sustained by Vishnu and destroyed by Shiva.
Creative/destructive cycles called Yugas
A universe lasts for one Brahma day =
4,320,000 years
– Satya yuga (Krita yuga):- 1,728,000 Human years
(already past)
– Treta yuga:- 1,296,000 Human years (already past)
– Dwapar yuga:- 864,000 Human years (already past)
– Kali yuga:- 432,000 Human years (5,110 years have
passed; 426,890 years remain). Kaliyuga started in
3,102 B.C.; CE 2008 corresponds to Kaliyuga year 5,110
Hindism and Time (cont)


One full cycle =
100 “Brahma
years” 311
trillion years.
Then Brahma
himself dies and
is reborn
Hindu Cosmology
Many different levels of
heavens/worlds/hells
 These levels are horizontal (flat)
 The physical world is illusory and it is
evil
 Lower levels are even more evil than
ours

Angkor Wat: Mount Meru
Is The Hindu World View a Good One?


Is it true?
– Hindu cosmology (cycles of creation,
destruction and rebirth, eternal universe)
is patently false.
– The physical world is real and it is good.
– Evil is NOT an illusion
Does it answer the important questions?
– It does better than postmodernism or
naturalism!
– Purpose: To cease to exist.
Is Hinduism/Pantheism a Good World View?
Does accepting this world view make one a better
person?
Better than naturalism.
Self-focus and dispassion are not helpful.
Suffering is not real.
Christian groups do the majority of benevolent work in
India
Evil is not real. What is the effect of this belief?
The Buddhist World View
The Four Noble Truths:
Suffering is not getting what one
wants.
The cause of suffering is desire
which leads to rebirth.
The way to end suffering is to end
desire.
The way to the end of desire and of
suffering is the eight-fold path.
The eight-fold path to bodhi/dharma/nirvana/lack of
suffering
Right
► Right
► Right
► Right
► Right
► Right
► Right
► Right
►
►
viewpoint (the four noble truths).
values.
speech.
actions.
livelihood
effort
mindfulness
meditation
Hard to argue with these values.
Other Buddhist Ideas
Buddha claimed to be agnostic, but his world view
was clearly pantheistic.
Physical things are illusion.
Evil is not real.
Buddhist Cosmology




Like Jaina, Hinduism, a vertical cosmology,
with multiple levels/earths/heavens/lokahs
31 planes of existence, each with 3 realms.
Higher ones more blissful, lower ones more
like hell.
Endless cycle of time
Cosmic wheel.
Buddhist
Cosmology
Borodbur in Indonesia: A Buddhist concept of the world
Is The Buddhist World View a Good One?
Is Buddhist Cosmology true?
Is matter illusion?
Purpose of life: To lose oneself and to become
dispassionate.
A better person?
Christians do a majority of the benevolent
work in Buddhist countries.
Islamic Worldview:
Monotheistic, of course
God is very distant from mankind
In Islam, Allah determines everything, even
who will choose to follow him.
Sura 2:142, 6:39 6:125
Inshallah God willing. It is God’s will that
people suffer.
.
Islamic Theology
“Surely good deeds take away evil
deeds” (11:114).
Salvation by own effort
(40:9, 39:61, 7:43)
Charity atones for sins
(2:271,277)
► Earn
► Earn
► Earn
► Earn
grace.
favor of Allah.
salvation.
paradise.
Salvation by own effort
(40:9, 39:61, 7:43)
Charity atones for sins
(2:271,277)
►Earn
grace.
►Earn favor of Allah.
►Earn salvation.
►Earn paradise.
Sura 23:102-103
Those whose balance of good deeds is
heavy, they will be successful. But those
whose balance is light will be those who
have lost their souls
Islam: Salvation is earned through the
efforts of those who were pre-selected by
Allah to inhabit a very sensual paradise.
Christianity: Salvation is granted by
the grace of a loving God to those who,
through faith and repentance and
baptism accept that love.
A Question: Who reaches out to whom?
Initiative
Human approach
God
Mankind
Truth
God
Mankind
Works Salvation: Man
reaches out to God.
Salvation by Grace: God
reaches out to man.
Islam
Judaism
Hinduism
Christianity
Jaina
Sikkhism
Gnosticism
New Age
Buddhism?
The 5 Pillars of Islam
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Recite the profession of faith: “There
is no God but Allah, Mohammed is his
prophet.”
Pray five times a day
Pay the tax for the poor
Fast during Ramadan
Do the Hajj (the pilgrimage)
Is the Islamic World View a Good One?
Is it true?
Like Christianity, it is in reasonably good correspondence
with reality.
Does it give satisfactory answers to the important
questions?
Better that pantheism, dualism, naturalism…
Does it make one better than other world views?
Alms only for Muslims
Fate/Predestination. God is the source of suffering and
even evil.
The Christian World View
1. The physical world is: a. real
b. created out of nothing (ex
nihilo) and c. essentially good.
2. There exists an unseen spiritual reality which is not limited to or
defined by the physical reality. Human beings have a spiritual
aspect to their nature.
3. The creator of both the physical and spiritual realm is the God who
reveals himself in the Bible.
4. Human beings have both a physical and a spiritual nature, The
spiritual nature is more essential as it is eternal.
5. God is not easily defined but he can be characterized by certain
qualities. God is a person. God is love, God is just, God is holy, God
is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.
The Christian World View (cont.)
6. Although all God’s creation, including the physical world is
good, evil does exist. Such evil is the result of freedom of
will given to created beings and their subsequent decision
to use that freedom to rebel--to “sin”
7. Because of God’s justice and his holiness, those who choose
to rebel against him will ultimately be judged and separated
from God for eternity.
8. The solution to evil, to sin and its eternal consequences is
provided by God through the atoning substitutionary
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The Biblical World View
►
The physical world is real and it is good. Genesis 1:31
 Only Islam agrees with this conclusion.
►
This world is not our home.
►
But, compassion…
►
Christian groups are responsible for virtually all the world’s
efforts to deal with poverty and human suffering in general
and to work for social justice.
James 1:27 Micah 6:8
The Christian World View
1. Is it true that the universe was created, that evil is
real, that there is both a physical and spiritual reality?
2. Why? Because of God
Purpose? To know and be known by God
Value? More than the entire world
3. Are we made better?
Evil is real and is to be rejected.
Suffering: Compassion!
What Does the World Owe to
Christianity?
Science
Abolition of Slavery (Wilberforce)
Civil Rights (Locke, Martin Luther King Jr. )
Women’s Rights
Christian groups do a majority of all benevolent work
in the world (James 1:27, Micah 6:8)
How, then, should we interact with members of other
religions?
►
Find common ground.
►
Give respect where respect is due.
►
Acknowledge the good and do not make personal attacks—
especially toward revered people.
►
Highlight distinctions in world view/theology and introduce
them to Jesus Christ.
►
This is EXACTLY what Paul did in Acts 17:22-34
The Bible and Other World Views (cont.)
►
Acts 17:16-34 Paul shares the gospel by arguing
for the Christian World View.
 v. 22-23 Paul finds common ground.
 v. 24-28 Paul argues for the superiority and the truth of
the Christian world view as opposed to
Epicureanism/pantheism and Stoicism/deism
 v. 28 Paul quotes from Aretas a Stoic philosopher. “ For we
are his offspring.”
 v. 29-31 Having laid the groundwork, Paul points them to
Jesus.
 v. 32-34 Some, but not all were converted.
Acts 17:16-34 Paul confronts Greek World Views
►
God is Creator. He exists outside creation.
 Disproves pantheism/Stoicism.
►
God is close to us.
 Disproves deism/Epicureanism.
►
God is personal and has given us an individual
purpose.
►
God will bring all of us to judgment. Evil will be
defeated
 Disproves dualism/Gnosticism.