The Illegitimate
Dichotomy of Apologetics and Evangelism
Recently, James White had a round table discussion at SES. I wrote about how that discussion carried on. In that post, I
admitted that I was unable to discern the identity of a particular professor
who had been, in my opinion, less than gracious in remarks he made about Ken
Ham’s apologetic. The mystery has been solved thanks to some work of a couple
of brothers behind the scenes. That professor was Richard Howe. In that
discussion, Dr. Howe mentioned that he had written a blog criticizing a
particular lecture Ken Ham had recently delivered on how to defend the faith. I
cannot say if Ken Ham is a consistent presuppositionalist. I have not read all
his materials. What I can say is that I have never read or heard Dr. Ham say
anything that would contradict the presuppositional method of apologetics.
Therefore, I am comfortable saying that from what I have heard and read Dr. Ham
seems to take a consistent presuppositional approach to defending Christian
theism. Admittedly, however, Dr. Ham is not a philosopher. He is a Christian
scientist. And most of Dr. Ham’s work is in the area of science, specifically,
the defense of the Christian claim that God created the world and all that is
in it in six literal days, contrary to modern philosophies and the unproven
hypotheses of contemporary science. Dr. Ham’s work, in my judgment, in this
field is pristine. Now, I want to turn your attention to Dr. Howe’s criticism
of Dr. Ken Ham’s apologetic method.
Dr. Howe titles his article, “It’s
Worse Than I Thought”. In his introductory remarks, he refers to a
colleague, whom he apparently respects, but who is also an old earth
creationist. This is not a fact that should go unnoticed. It just so happens that Ken Ham is highly critical of old-earth creationism and he is right in his criticism of this view. Howe begins with a
“strong objection” to how Ken Ham approaches the task of apologetics. He goes
on the call the method “bankrupt, if not self-defeating.” One thing is
certainly clear; Dr. Howe has little regard for Ken Ham’s apologetic approach.
Howe’s first objection is really quite puzzling coming from
an apologetics professor with years of experience in the field. Howe’s first
objection concerns Ham’s assertion that there are only two ways of
understanding reality. We either understand reality according to God’s word or
according to man’s word. Howe launches into a number of questions as to what it
could possibly mean to understand reality according to Scripture. Howe seems to
infer that Scripture provides no dogma of ontology. I must confess that I find
Howe’s questions puzzling. Surely he understands what Ham means when he says
that we can either understand the created order in accord with God’s word, or
in accord with man’s word, which is worldly wisdom, philosophy according to how
the worldly man reasons. In other words, there are only two standards by which
we arrive at truth about reality: one is right and the other one is the product
of man’s vain philosophical investigations. Howe implies he is familiar with
Van Til and Bahnsen, but one is hard-pressed to understand exactly why Howe
would characterize Ham’s view on this subject as far removed from presuppositionalism.
In this simple form, taken at face value, it most certainly accords with the
presuppositional approach. Van Til and Bahnsen both would agree that there are
fundamentally two ways of looking at reality and that a distinctly Christian
metaphysic would demand that Scripture would serve as the self-attesting
authority by which every Christian should see the world. Howe seems confused as
to what presuppositionalism affirms in terms of metaphysics.
Howe argues that by making God’s word the starting point,
Ham is reasoning in a vicious circle. Howe drives home his point:
“And if we are able to understand the part of reality that is God’s word
without any appeal to another (antecedent) part of reality, then why can we not
do that with the other parts of reality? In other words, if we need that part
of reality which is God’s word to understand the rest of reality which is not
God’s word, then how is it that we are able to understand the part of reality
that is God’s word in the first place? Why should the part of reality that is
God’s word be understandable by us if the rest of reality that is not God’s
word needs another part of reality (viz., God’s word) to understand it? It gets
worse.”
“Second, Ham never even acknowledged the issue of how does one interpret
the word of God? From where would one get one’s principles of hermeneutics
(i.e., principles of interpretation)? He cannot say that we get these
principles from God’s word, because we would need to be able to understand
God’s word in order to get the principles. But then, if we are able to understand
God’s word in order to get our principles of hermeneutics, then that would mean
that we were able to understand God’s word before we got our principles, which
would mean that we wouldn’t need the principles after all. This is a
contradiction.”
“I submit that the best way to view God and Scripture together is to
acknowledge God as a communicative agent and Scripture as his communicative
action…it follows that in using Scripture we are not dealing merely with
information about God; we are rather engaging with God himself – with God in
communicative action.” [First Theology, 35]
The close proximity of Howe and SES with Aquinas and Rome is hard to miss
and perhaps this explains his position better than any other factor. The answer
is located in the concept of the hermeneutical spiral. We begin with the first
principle that God is, and that He gave us His word and language as gifts so
that He could communicate with His people. Our view of God informs our view of
language and His word, and this moves us down the path to biblical
investigation, which helps refine our understanding of God and His creation,
and even the gift of language, which serves to inform our hermeneutic. With
each movement, the spiral moves deeper into an understanding of God and His
revelation all through the agency of the Holy Spirit’s work on the human heart
beginning with the miracle of regeneration. Without regeneration, it is
absolutely the case that we have no starting point.
Howe then criticizes Ham’s argument saying, “Instead of trying to defend
his faith by claiming that it only is according to God’s word, he should be
claiming that the Christian faith is true. By ‘true’ here I mean that the
claims of the Christian faith correspond to reality.” Apparently, Dr. Howe
thinks it is more appropriate to argue for the truth of Christian faith by
claiming that it corresponds to reality than it is by claiming it is what God
says is true. Does Howe think that everyone’s view of reality is the same? Are
the atheist and the Christian in complete agreement on the facts of reality? To
ground apologetical argumentation in ontological interpretations seems to me to
be the worse way to try to make the case for Christian theism. Ham grounds his
argument in the immoveable, unshakeable, self-attesting word of God and Howe
thinks a better place would be in the subjective interpretations of reality,
naively assuming that we all have the very same understanding of what is real.
Apparently Howe has failed to notice the competitors to his correspondence
theory, to name just three, the coherentist, pragmatist, and verificationist. Howe prefers to anchor the immoveable, unshakeable, self-attesting truth of Scripture in the ground of fallen, sinful, subjective interpretations of reality. I find this approach alarming to say the very least.
Howe fails to recognize that reality is not something that
is simply there for humanity to know and to understand without the necessary
process of interpretation. There is an indelible relationship between
epistemology and ontology that Howe seems disinterested in admitting. In other
words, there is no such thing as uninterpreted reality in the world of finite
beings. Contrary to Howe’s premise, there are no brute facts. Finite beings are
forever relegated to the ground of interpretation. That is, our knowledge of
reality is derivative. Derivative of what, you ask. That is exactly the issue!
There is only one way for humanity to truly know their world and that is by
divine revelation.
Howe closes his criticism of Ham with this final point:
“The unbeliever can be made to understand and apprehend the claims of
Christianity. Apologetics can serve to demolish skeptical arguments and
demonstrate the truths of much of the Christian faith (e.g., the objectivity of
truth; truth as correspondence to reality; sound principles of hermeneutics;
the existence and attributes of God, the historicity of the Bible) even if it
cannot demonstrate the truths of other claims of Christianity that must be
taken by faith (e.g., Christ died for our sins, Christ is coming again).”
Two things are wrong with Howe’s argument: first, his view that
unregenerate men can be made to understand and apprehend the claims of
Christianity is in serious opposition to the clear teaching of Scripture. For
instance, Col. 2:2-3 tells us that true knowledge of God is only in Christ, and
that all wisdom and knowledge have been hidden in Christ. Without Christ,
understanding and knowledge are impossible. John 6:45 informs us that everyone
who has learned from the Father comes to me. There is no unbeliever who really
learns the truth of Christianity, who gets it, and rejects it. Eph. 4:17-18
teaches that all unregenerate men walk in the futility of their mind. Their
minds are useless, futile, and empty concerning the things of God. Paul goes on
to say, they are darkened in their understanding, and excluded from the life of
God because of the ignorance that is in them. No unregenerate person can escape
this description. They are consigned to this state by God’s decree. Yet they
willingly embrace it, loving darkness rather than light. John 1:12-13 informs
us that men only understand and receive Christian truth as a result of being
born of God. John 3:19 tells us that men love darkness rather than light
because their deeds are evil. Men are not just blind and ignorant, they are willingly
blind and ignorant. 1 Cor. 4:4 says that the god of this world has blinded the
minds of the unbelieving. All unbelievers are blind in their minds. 1 Cor. 2:15
says that the natural cannot understand or receive the things of the Spirit of
God. He is both unable and unwilling to do so. Rom. 8:6-8 tells us that the
natural mind is fixated on the flesh. It is not neural toward God. The
unregenerate mind is hostile toward God in every way. It will not and cannot do
anything to please God. Eph. 2:1 says that men are dead in their trespasses and
sins. Being dead, how can they understand, evaluate, or comprehend God’s truth?
Rom. 3:10-18 describes the spiritual condition of men as bereft, contemptible,
and rotten. Here man is described as being totally depraved and unrighteous in
every part of his being. Rom. 1:28 informs us that God has turned them over to
a depraved mind. Howe is simply wrong to claim that the unbeliever is
in a position to evaluate the truth claims of Christian theism in an objective
sense and understand those truths when he sees them.
Second, Howe is wrong when he attempts to separate apologetics from
evangelism as if apologetics comes prior to evangelism. Nowhere in Scripture is
this true. In fact, apologetics, the defense of Christian claims always follows
evangelism. When Peter issued his famous apologetic imperative, it is clear
that this imperative followed from previous claims of the hope that is in us.
Everywhere we see apologetics taking place in Scripture it is always, always,
always a response. In Acts 17, Paul’s Areopagus address was a response. I would
challenge Dr. Howe to prove his contention that apologetics and evangelism are
recognized as different according to Scripture. There is not a shred of
exegetical support for such a claim. Finally, 1 Cor. 1:17 tells us that the
preaching of Christ is not done in sohia logou, cleverness of speech, or
in wise words. This sort of method voids the cross by emphasizing the
intellectual and focusing on our persuasive abilities. Men convert to the
Christian religion because it is intellectually and philosophically impressive,
but not because of heart-change rendered by the work of the cross. Hence
this is why Paul says it nullifies the work of the cross. But this is precisely
what many in American Christianity have done. Paul says in v. 18 that the word
of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. He says in v. 19 that
God has destroyed the wisdom of the philosopher. In v. 20, Paul points out that
not very many at all from the intellectually elite have been chosen. Rather, it
is the simple, the poor for the most part, the uneducated that God has called
to Himself. In v. 23-24 Paul says our gospel is a scandal, a roadblock to Jews
and absolute folly to Greeks. Nothing can change this.
Clearly, the gospel is intellectually offensive to the unregenerate. In
what sense could they understand it, could they really know it? Who could ever
really understand the beauty and power of the gospel and still find it
scandalous and offensive? To really know it and to really understand it is to
embrace it, to love it, and to proclaim it. Paul says the world does not come
to God through its wisdom. They do not evaluate the evidence using their
philosophical methods and then decide that Christian theism is the way. Paul
tells us that God intentionally, deliberately has chosen the weak, the poor,
and the simple, passing over most of the intellectuals, the rich, and the
philosopher. In v. 30, he says it is by God’s doing that we are in Christ
Jesus. It is not by our own decision or intellectual abilities. We are born
into the Christian community. We do not join it.
Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 2:1-4 that he came to the Corinthians, a Church not
far from Athens that his preaching was not with persuasive words of philosophy
and rhetoric. His preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. But
to those who are blind, ignorant, and hostile to God, it is utterly ridiculous.
It is completely illegitimate to drive a wedge between evangelism and
apologetics. I recognize that many in the Church view this approach as
acceptable. The idea finds no support in Scripture. Moreover, biblical
apologetics is not doing philosophy while evangelism is preaching. Biblical
apologetics is the defensive proclamation of the gospel to those who ask,
challenge, or even accuse us.
Eph. 2:8 informs us that faith is a gift of God. It is not given through
sophisticated philosophical argumentation or clever rhetoric designed to warm
the unbeliever up to hearing the real gospel. If we want unbelievers to change
their mind, to change how they think, there is only one way: the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Cliff McManis wrote, “Proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ is
the most potent, lasting, penetrating, life-changing, liberating thing a
Christian can articulate to any unbeliever, under any circumstances.” [Biblical
Apologetics, 91]
It is tragic to hear lettered men like Dr. Howe, men are who supposed to be
firmly committed to the Christian worldview, prefer the views of worldly
philosophy to those of the simple, certain, stable truths of Scripture. Yet,
this is mostly the case in modern, American Christianity. Today is resurrection
Sunday. Rather than write paragraph after paragraph trying to prove that the
resurrection actually happened, because of the glorious work of
the Holy Spirit in Scripture and in my heart, I am delighted that I can simply declare, He is
risen! He is risen indeed!
I had occasion last year to engage a particular disciple of Howe (who I consider to be an amiable chap in spite of his inconsistencies). I had a great exchange with him exploring apologetic methodology. Some of those articles can be located here,
ReplyDeletehttp://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/category/refuting-classic-apologetics/
(you can also scroll down to find some where I interacted with Howe).
At any rate, the Howe disciple sent me to his blog you highlighted where he blasted Ken Ham (Who I happen to know a little bit - He's not a "Dr." by the way, or a scientist. His study is in education). I had the same problems with his criticisms you seem to have and wrote about them here,
http://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/apologetic-dissonance/
If you go to his "virtual office" page, he apparently led a men's Bible study critiquing Ham. You can find the pdf outline to the study here,
http://www.richardghowe.com/Midway%20-%20Hot%20Topics%20-%20Young%20Earth%20Presuppositionalism%2001.pdf
Fred