Whitefield
Puritan Board Junior
Christian apologetics is a defense of religious faith, thus pertaining to the question of one’s ultimate commitment to life. Apologetics entails intellectual reasoning in justification of one’s beliefs, thus touching on the epistemological question of the final standard of knowledge. These observations make clear that the defense of the faith is unavoidably a presuppositional matter. Both the unbeliever and the believer operate in terms of certain espoused presuppositions or worldviews, aiming to develop their thinking in a way that is consistent with their respective ultimate commitments. The Christian apologist needs to argue with the non-Christian in an epistemologically self-consistent manner, which cannot happen if his reasoning and argumentation assume things that are actually contrary to his intended conclusion.
Therefore, the authority of Christ and His word, rather than intellectual autonomy, must govern the starting point and method of his apologetics, as well as its conclusion. He challenges the philosophical adequacy of the unbeliever’s worldview, showing how it does not provide the preconditions for the intelligibility of knowledge and morality. His case for Christianity, then, argues from the impossibility of the contrary. From beginning to end, both in his own philosophical method and in what he aims to bring about in the unbeliever’s thinking, the Christian apologist reasons in such a way “that in all things Christ might have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18).
Bahnsen, Greg L., Van Til’s Apologetic: Readings and Analysis. pp. 6-7.
Therefore, the authority of Christ and His word, rather than intellectual autonomy, must govern the starting point and method of his apologetics, as well as its conclusion. He challenges the philosophical adequacy of the unbeliever’s worldview, showing how it does not provide the preconditions for the intelligibility of knowledge and morality. His case for Christianity, then, argues from the impossibility of the contrary. From beginning to end, both in his own philosophical method and in what he aims to bring about in the unbeliever’s thinking, the Christian apologist reasons in such a way “that in all things Christ might have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18).
Bahnsen, Greg L., Van Til’s Apologetic: Readings and Analysis. pp. 6-7.