From Thales to Socrates to Plato to
Aristotle to Epicurus to Descartes to Kant to the Enlightenment, philosophers
have been attempting to construct a view of the world that satisfies man’s insatiable
appetite for understanding both, who we are, and what this state of affairs in
which we find ourselves, is exactly. Indeed, these philosophers have produce more intellectual fodder
than one can possible keep track of. As one might expect, Christians have been
exposed to these diverse philosophies as well. This exposure has produced some
good results but it has also had devastating consequences in numerous areas of
Christian belief and praxis. You see, these philosophies have been, for the
most part, entirely pagan, attempting to arrive at an answer to the question of
our world apart from, without relying on, God for their answer. And this is
exactly the sort of influence that the Christian must guard against according
to the apostle Paul: “See to it that no one takes you captive
through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men,
according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to
Christ.” (Col. 2:8)
Recently, I told a young man
studying philosophy at a local seminary that the basis of Christian belief is
not philosophical arguments, or historical evidence. He was stunned and I was
stunned that he was stunned. We both were stunned. He wanted to know what the
basis of Christian belief is if it is not those things. So the point of this
post that I want you to get if you get nothing else is this: the basis for
Christian belief, what makes it justified, rational, and warranted, in essence,
what makes it real knowledge, is the revelation of the Christ event in
Scripture. And make no mistake about it, the entire corpus of Scripture is
pointing us to the Christian event. If that is not what makes Christian belief
justified for you, rational for you, warranted for you, knowledge for you, then
there is nothing Christian about your Christian belief. Socrates, Plato, and
Aristotle cannot lay the foundation for Christian belief. They were not capable
of providing such a foundation for something so majestic, so spectacular, and
to be clear, so supernatural. Christianity is a supernatural belief, a
transcendent reality, and only a supernatural foundation can serve as the
foundation for such a thing as Christianity. This means that a supernatural
experience is required in order to impart the sort of knowledge necessary if
Christian belief is going to be justified, rational, and warranted.
Cornelius Van Til writes, “From
these considerations, it follows that if we develop our reasons for believing
that a true knowledge of God and, therefore, also of the world, is possible
because actually given in Christ, we have in fact given what goes in philosophy
under the name of epistemology.” [Survey of Christian Epistemology] The basis
of Christian belief is the Christ event that is Christian Scripture. If the
basis of Christian belief is something other than Scripture alone, then that
Christian belief is not a belief that is Christian. Rather, it is a belief that
is formed within the presuppositions of pagan philosophy. And pagan philosophy,
at its core, is antithetical to Christian belief. Pagan philosophy rests on a
foundation that is hostile to Christian belief. In fact, pagan philosophy, by
nature is antithetical to Christian belief. The apostle Paul tells us that
pagan philosophy is on par with “empty deception,” and is according to the
tradition or standards of men, rather
than according to, or in accord with
Christ. Christian apologists in modern Western Christianity have to a large
degree uncritically accepted the wisdom and philosophy of men like Aristotle,
Plato, and Socrates. And this explains why, when someone says to them that the
basis of Christian faith is not rational arguments, they are stunned. They
spend hours studying pagan philosophy and minutes reading Paul. This trend is
deeply disturbing because these men are filling our churches, becoming pastors,
youth leaders, and Sunday school teaches and they are passing on their
unbiblical methods to unsuspecting and poorly equipped Christians.
So what is a Christian to do when
someone challenges your beliefs? There are two types of challenges you should
prepare for: 1) De jure challenges the
rationality of Christian belief while 2) De
facto challenges the facts of Christian belief. I am dealing with the
former challenge that says, in general, that something is basically wrong with
Christian belief. The claim is that Christian belief is irrational or not
justified. There is apparently not enough evidence to not a good argument for
Christian belief. How does the Christian prepare to deal with such a challenge?
Let me say for starters that you do not run out and study The Organon in hopes that this will help you. It will not. What
then is the Christian to do? You are to stay true to your belief and here is
how you do just that.
First, you must remember what
produces Christian belief in the human person to begin with. Christian belief
is not produced by unaided human reason upon reflection about the events of
Scripture. And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one
can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” (Jn. 6:65) Jesus answered them, “To you it has
been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has
not been granted.” (Matt. 13:11) I could produce dozens of places in Scripture
that testify to this truth: Christian belief is granted to those whom God
regenerates and to no one else. Christian belief is for the Christian, basic.
To say that a belief is basic is to say that it is not believed based on some
other proposition or belief. It is self-evident. This is why Christian theism
holds that Christian Scripture is self-justifying. We do not believe the Bible
is “God speaking” based on an
argument but rather based on the inward testimony and the Holy Spirit we know
it immediately.
Alvin Plantinga says it well when
he writes,
“The deliverances of the sensus divinitatis are
occasioned by the circumstances; they are not conclusions from them. It does
not work by way of an argument. My apprehension and experience of the beauty of
nature of the moral guilt involved in the conscience are not evidences for God.
It is that I simply find myself with the belief that God is disapproving of my
behavior. It is in that circumstance that my belief arises, or better, is
revealed, uncovered, becomes obvious.”
The ability that a Christian has to
form Christian belief is not the product of natural cognitive processes. Those
processes are held in bondage to the curse of sin. Man cannot and is not
willing to see the truth of Christian belief so long as he is dead in his
trespasses and sins. It is only when the Holy Spirit comes rushing in to
instigate a rebirth that our cognitive processes are now able to see and know
the Christ who died for us properly. And this belief arises immediately, not
because someone made a great argument or preached a wonderful sermon but
because God has called that sinner out of darkness into His glorious light,
into His kingdom, indeed, into His family.
We should not worry that the
unbeliever is going to object to our model. He has his own model and that model
comes with its own set of presuppositions and standards. This is not to say
that we have an equal stand-off with the Christian having his system and the
unbeliever his own. The Christian can and should demonstrate to the unbeliever how,
on his own principles and presuppositions, his system, when all is said and
done, is reduced to skepticism or irrationalism. But that is not the purpose of
this post. The purpose of this post is to remind the Christian what is the
basis for Christian belief. It is the Christ event that is Scripture. We know
this because God the Holy Spirit regenerates our heart and mind, making it
known to us. Otherwise, we would never know that Christian belief is true
knowledge. We do not examine evidence and study argues and from these things
infer God. It is in within the circumstances of regeneration that Christian
belief arises in the heart by the sole work of the Holy Spirit. From that
circumstance we know immediate that all that the Scripture testifies about is
true. After all, the Spirit of God, God Himself, witnesses to the things that
are in His own word. What greater argument or evidence could anyone ever
present than the testimony of God?
Christian belief then is formed in
the heart by the Holy Spirit as He works the miracle of regeneration within God’s
elect. As a result, our cognitive faculties are delivered from the bondage of
sin, and regenerated so that now we can receive instruction, think correctly,
understand, and know the things which God has prepared for us. It is impossible
for the Christian to explain this in such a way that an unbeliever will not
object to it. Because the experience transcends human reason, the unbeliever,
so long as they are an unbeliever will reject this model. Some will give it lip
service, but in their heart they will not receive it because only God can make
them capable of receiving it.
In the end, the Christian has to be
concerned, not with the unbeliever’s de
jure objections, but rather with being faithful to the gospel, to basic
Christian theology. It isn’t the reaction of the world that should shape how we
deliver the truth or how we defend the faith. Our primary concern has to be
what says the Scripture. God regenerates through the foolishness of preaching.
Unless we keep this ever before us, we will always find the seductive methods
of pagan philosophy irresistible because of how they are received and how that
reception makes us feel about ourselves.
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