The following is a reposting of an earlier article.
I am beginning a new series regarding Christianity in the realm of apologetics. Many Christians do not realize why the Christian WorldView is the only correct WorldView. This series will explain what Christians believe along with why they believe it and that it is the proper WorldView.
A presupposition is the absolute basis (the foundation) for a person’s WorldView. The presupposition should inherently possess, through the deductive reasoning process, a proper epistemology or the source of knowledge itself.
Your presupposition is where you begin, as is. The moment you step away from your supposed presupposition, your presupposition ceases to be a presupposition and becomes an argument (or lack thereof) for your new presupposition.
Vincent Cheung states it this way,
bquote “You START from the content of your worldview AS IS — that’s the very
meaning of presuppositionalism — and that’s how your opponent must handle you. The only way to defeat a biblical presuppositionalist is for the presuppositionalist to STOP being a presuppositionalist. Whenever you seem to be in trouble in a debate, check on this point first, since it is likely that this is the mistake you are making.”
The Christian WorldView is not merely asserting the existence of God but resting upon Scripture.
To merely assert “God exists” is only an assertion. How do you know God exists? A Christian who uses “God exists” as his presupposition still has no proper basis for his epistemology. This Christian ultimately ends up using something else (ultimately Scripture) as his source of evidence for the existence of God. His previous assertion ceases to be a presupposition.
Our interaction with God is through the Scriptures. “1 Proverbs 22:17-21 indicates that to trust the Lord is to trust his words.” Those who claim to love God also should demonstrate their love by loving His Words (Psalm 119:97, 103 Psalm 19:9-10). The love for God’s Word is the necessary foundation for the love for God. One’s love for God is only as extensive as his love for God’s Words.
If Scripture is the foundation of a Christian WorldView, how do we know the Bible is superior and reliable?
Answering this question properly is to explain the Bible’s Nature, Inspiration, Unity, Infallibility, Authority, Necessity, Clarity, and Sufficiency.
Scripture’s Nature
Scripture, in its very nature, is verbal. Pictures, illustrations, dreams, visions, and music do not possess content which produces the expected understanding of its content. Pictures of a cross tells nothing of its meaning to the viewer without a verbal explanation. Illustrations mean nothing without a verbal representation accompanying it. Jesus appearing before Saul of Tarsus without a word would have meant nothing. Saul understood Who was confronting him due to Jesus saying, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:3-6).
Scripture’s Inspiration
Paul explains in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” All of Scripture proceeds directly from God Himself. In fact, Peter claimed Paul’s own writings were inspired,
“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3:15-16)
Peter also affirms that Scripture is from God and never the will of man (2 Peter 1:20-21). Even Jesus Himself stressed the extreme importance of Scripture (Matthew 5:18). “God exercised such precise control over the Bible’s production that its content, to the very letter, is what he desired to set in writing.” (Cheung. This does not mean God “dictated” Scripture to the writers like an employer dictates to a secretary, but God used them as instruments expressing exactly what He wanted inscribed.
Scripture’s Unity
Scripture’s inspiration assumes its unity. The source of a single divine author is manifested throughout Scripture. Jesus even assumes Scripture’s unity:
“Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
(Matthew 4:5-7)
“Satan encourages Jesus to jump from the temple by citing Psalm 91:11-12. Jesus counters with Deuteronomy 6:16, implying that Satan’s use of the passage contradicts the instruction from Deuteronomy, and therefore it is a misapplication. When one understands or applies a passage of Scripture in a manner that contradicts another passage, he mishandles the text. Christ’s argument here assumes the unity of Scripture, and even the devil does not challenge it.
On another occasion, as Jesus deals with the Pharisees, his challenge to them assumes the unity of Scripture and the law of noncontradiction:
‘While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his
son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.’ (Matthew 22:41-46)” (Cheung).
The fact that Jesus brings up David’s inspired words calling the Christ “Son” and “Lord”, an apparent contradiction, speaks of Scripture’s unity. Jesus knew His audience believed Scripture possesses unity. If it did not, his point would be meaningless. Scripture does not contradict itself. Vincent Cheung speaks of contradictions this way,
“It is futile to say that these doctrines (speaking of the “hypostatic union of Christ” and the Trinity – among others) are in perfect harmony in the mind of God, and only appear to be contradictions to human beings. As long as they remain contradictions, whether only in appearance or not, we cannot affirm both of them. And how can one distinguish between a real contradiction from an apparent one? If we must tolerate apparent contradictions, then we must tolerate all contradictions. Since without knowing the resolution, an apparent contradiction appears to be the same as a real one, to know that a “contradiction” is only so in appearance means that one has already resolved it, and then the term no longer applies.”
Scripture’s Infallibility
John 10:35 says, “the Scripture cannot be broken” and Luke 16:17 asserts, “It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.” Vincent Cheung states it like this: “The INFALLIBILITY of Scripture refers to an inability to err – the Bible cannot err. INERRANCY, on the other hand, emphasizes that the Bible does not err. The former refers to the potential, while the latter addresses the actual state of affairs. Strictly speaking, infallibility is the stronger word, and it entails inerrancy, but sometimes the two are interchangeable in usage.”
Objections for Scripture’s infallibility refer to the fallibility of man. But even though man is fallible, he is still capable of producing documents which do not err. Scripture is infallible and inerrant. It is correct in whatever it asserts regarding not only spiritual realm but the physical also. Scripture’s statements regarding both historical and spiritual facts can not be separated. If Christ’s resurrection did not happen the way Scripture says it did, then its spiritual significance can not be true. Denying the infallibility and/or inerrancy of Scripture also nullifies any epistemological position because there are no real grounds for knowing what is true and is falsehood within Scripture.
Scripture’s Authority
The writers of Scripture used God and Scripture interchangeably:
“The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
“The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” (Galatians 3:8)
“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me…But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth…’” (Exodus 9:13-16)
“For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Romans 9:17)
God is the ultimate authority. The Scripture is what God has said, and Scripture is equal to God in its authority. Scripture, therefore, is the ultimate authority for the Christian.
Scripture’s Necessity
Paul proclaims in 2 Timothy 3:15, “the holy Scriptures…are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Paul also asserted earlier in this book that all men know God exists from birth. Although this knowledge is enough for the rejection of God culpable, it is not enough for salvation. As a bi-product of Scripture’s proclaimation of salvation, it refers to and uses illustrations, circumstances, and facts regarding life in general. Without God and the Scriptures, knowledge is impossible.
Scripture’s Clarity
Although Scripture is straightforward in its proclamation of Salvation, it is not always understandable by all in all matters. Scripture is not so easy to understand regardless of passage that no training in hermeneutics is necessary. And Scripture is not so difficult that only the “elite” can understand its meanings. Both positions on Scripture’s clarity are dangerous.
Acts 8:30-31 says, “Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.”
Although someone can read and understand Scripture for salvation, the proclamation (or preaching) of the Word is necessary for further understanding. Philip explained the more complicated passage for the man for mere reading of the passage was difficult to understand.
Although the clarity of Scripture allows for every person to read and interpret Scripture, the need for teachers and preachers to proclaim and explain the Scriptures is not negated either.
Scripture’s Sufficiency
Paul explicitly states, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Individuals may say the believe Scripture is sufficient, but their practical application of this belief negates their assertion. Instead of resting upon Scripture alone, some may look elsewhere for “divine” instruction such as astrology, divination, spiritism, and other avenues of unbiblical practices. Proverbs 3:5 & 6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Scripture asserts that Scripture is sufficient for everything in life for the Christian.
No other document or “holy book” can meet these characteristics that only Scripture inherently possesses. This is what the Christian asserts. This is what we believe. This is what is true.
Much of this study is taken from Vincent Cheung’s Systematic Theology and other sources. I highly recommend further reading on these subjects.
