ThomasCartwright
Puritan Board Freshman
Am just preparing a simple tract "Is there a God?" for students here and would appreciate some constructive suggestions/criticisms. One of the major problems with the endless philosophical/theological disputes on Presupp vs Evident is that almost nothing in the way of practical apologetics seems to result. This board in many ways typifies this trend.
So, may be we can reverse the trend and produce something collectively. In this tract, I have sought to keep it presuppositional (to my knowledge). I set out a basic framework below:
IS THERE A GOD?
All men know that God exists from three sources:
INTERNAL
(1) Conscience - Law of God in their hearts
Rom 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Rom 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.
(2) Intuitive - Eternity planted in their hearts
Ecc 3:11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
EXTERNAL
(3) Creation (Rom 1:19-20)
(a) Teleology
- Macro - planets (Psa 19:1;Isa 40:22 )
- Micro - e.g. cell, brain (Psa 143:5
(b) Cosmological - First Cause based on evidence for beginning of univese e.g. 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
Heb 1:10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
Heb 1:11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
(c) Morality - Objective Moral Lawgiver needed by universal objective moral norms.
(d) Consciousness - life is more than materialism.
(e) Meaning of Life - without God there is no meaning or purpose
As Donald Barnhouse says, "Will God give man brains to see these things and will man then fail to exercise his will toward that God? The sorrowful answer is that both of these things are true. God will give a man brains to smelt iron and make a hammerhead and nails. God will grow a tree and give man strength to cut it down and brains to fashion a hammer handle from its wood, and when man has the hammer and the nails God will put out 'His hand and let men drive those nails through it and place Him on a cross in the supreme demonstration that men are without excuse."
So, may be we can reverse the trend and produce something collectively. In this tract, I have sought to keep it presuppositional (to my knowledge). I set out a basic framework below:
IS THERE A GOD?
All men know that God exists from three sources:
INTERNAL
(1) Conscience - Law of God in their hearts
Rom 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Rom 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.
(2) Intuitive - Eternity planted in their hearts
Ecc 3:11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
EXTERNAL
(3) Creation (Rom 1:19-20)
(a) Teleology
- Macro - planets (Psa 19:1;Isa 40:22 )
- Micro - e.g. cell, brain (Psa 143:5
(b) Cosmological - First Cause based on evidence for beginning of univese e.g. 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
Heb 1:10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
Heb 1:11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
(c) Morality - Objective Moral Lawgiver needed by universal objective moral norms.
(d) Consciousness - life is more than materialism.
(e) Meaning of Life - without God there is no meaning or purpose
As Donald Barnhouse says, "Will God give man brains to see these things and will man then fail to exercise his will toward that God? The sorrowful answer is that both of these things are true. God will give a man brains to smelt iron and make a hammerhead and nails. God will grow a tree and give man strength to cut it down and brains to fashion a hammer handle from its wood, and when man has the hammer and the nails God will put out 'His hand and let men drive those nails through it and place Him on a cross in the supreme demonstration that men are without excuse."