Presuppositionalism in Principle

For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light. 
Psalm 36:9

There are lots of approaches in apologetics, that is defending the Christian faith. But I am confident that what exalts Christ the most and the approach that is consistent with the authority of the Scripture is Presuppositionalism. Presuppositionalism is an apologetic methodology that focuses on presuppositions.

Mike Robinson writes,

The prefix "pre" in presupposition... is... a position of preeminence, superiority and importance. It concerns a belief that takes preeminence, the most ultimate criterion or standard providing the conditions for intelligibility; the ultimate presupposition is the triune God as He supplies the a priori essentials to make sense of human experience. (Greg Bahnsen: The Man Atheists Feared Most)

We show through this methodology that the unbelieving worldview does not and cannot provide foundations for anything: science, history, logic, human experience, etc. Unless you start with God, you cannot make sense of anything. It establishes that the Christian faith is the only basis for any rational thought and argumentation, neither worldly philosophy nor science. It is a reasoned defense faithful to the fact that the Scripture is God-breathed and an attempt to demolish and expose the absurdity of other worldviews.

Presuppositional Apologetic is a school of thought that says that the truth of the Christian Worldview alone provides the precondition of intelligibility (more on this on our next blog). It is an apologetic methodology that takes the superiority of God and His Word. It is an approach that bows down to the absolute authority and the Lordship of Christ. That’s why some calls it Lordship Apologetics. Dr. Greg Bahsen states this clearly,

As God makes a total demand upon the lives of His covenant people they recognize that the words of Scripture are logically primitive, the most ultimate authority. So if our apologetic is to be a Christian apologetic it must be presuppositional in character and method. (Presuppositional Apologetics: Stated and Defended)

We should never fail to honor Christ as LORD over all in the defense of and when we contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (1 Peter 3:15, Jude 3). Our vindication of the Christian faith over against Atheism should depend upon God and His revealed Word alone. This is a worldview level approach since we believe that all evidence points to God and every unbelieving person has his own presuppositions that he takes to the evidence.

It is the abandonment of autonomous thinking that makes this approach an apologetic to the glory of God. We live in a day that exalts autonomous human reasoning, and the believer who cries Sola Scriptura must be consistent in his defense when he take the faith to the streets, to the people of this wicked world that hate God and rebel against Him in their hearts and minds.

This apologetic methodology is premeditated evangelism, and it provides a direct path to the gospel. We do not present a generic god, but the triune God who has spoken in His revealed Word. We do not make them the judge to decide whether God exists or not, but we expose their sinfulness and rebellion in their exaltation of autonomous reasoning against the God that they know (Romans 1:18). Then we point them to the gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ whose blood and righteousness alone provides cure for this disease called sin.

As a Christian saved by grace, what is your precommitment? The Scripture or your own autonomous reasoning independent from the wisdom of God revealed in the Scripture? How do you defend your faith? Do you give up your commitment to the revealed Word of God?

SOLI DEO GLORIA!