Greg Bahnsen on Defending God's Word
Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: God's Word, Greg Bahnsen | Posted On Thursday, October 30, 2014 at 5:30 AM
“We must not defend our message (that Christ's Word is self-attesting and possessing ultimate authority from the Lord) with a method that works counter to it- by claiming an ultimate epistemological standard outside of Christ's Word of truth.”
Greg Bahnsen
I think I see a pattern in the quotes this week. :)
I truly appreciate you sharing these quotes from Mr. Bahnsen. They've definitely given me something to think about.
I am a Biblical Presuppositionalist but I still have questions about the practical application of this apologetic method--for example: when witnessing.
Earlier this year, when we were working at harvesting Blueberries, I had the opportunity to witness to a man while we were picking berries. In the course of our conversation he basically accused me of using circular reasoning because I was arguing for the Bible by the Bible. He wasn't unkind about it but I found myself at a loss for a proper answer.
And he also wanted to know what made the Bible distinct in it's claims to be the revelation from God since other so called "holy books" make this claim as well.
I tried my best to set forth the distinctiveness of God's Word and it's exclusivity and ultimate authority but once again I felt inadequate for the task.
I realize that it will take the the power of the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of this man, and I pray that he will do so, but I felt that I should be better prepared to defend the faith.
So if you could help me with this problem by your own answer and by sharing any articles or other resources that might be useful I would be very grateful.
For the honor of the King,
John
P.S. I understand if your not able to answer right away and if you prefer we can wait till we see each other again.
John: At the end of the day everyone who argues anything has an ultimate authority. It may be one person or many, it may be written or just heard. Interesting in this is to use one declares that source ultimate but to choose many for varying items makes the one choosing God. So to simply choose the one source that claims to come from the one that is the source of all truth is not much different than what others actually do but they do not see this. Even asking them how they know what they know is truth and explaining this too them will not work unless God opens their mind and heart.
This does not mean other proofs will not show what the Bible declares as truth. I would not use other proofs to prove the Bible but the Bible proves the truth or falsehood of other observations and declarations.
Also as I think you know, do not be surprised that others deny what you put forth. Those who are not God's sheep do not here His word (John 10:27 ).
As far as distinctiveness of the Bible it's internal consistency is distinct. Now I am sure this will be argued since many like to say they have found inconstancies. The issue is there is an answer for all those claims, whether they accept that answer is another matter.
I will see what I can find and send you some info on this.
Keep in mind that from what I have read one reason many did not like to debate Bahnsen, apart from his being a very knowledgeable and excellent debater, was that while he used other proofs his main source and final arbiter of truth was God's word and people do not like this even though, again, they did much the same but chose a different source for their truth.
Grace and Peace,
Tony