Doubting Requires God

Sye Ten Bruggencate is back! We praise God for His mercy and grace upon Him. Eli and Sye did a good job in this podcast. I am sharing some of my notes (non verbatim) here:

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The doubt that the Scriptures speak about is not about God's existence but about His providence. So to doubt God is to set your authority about God.

Constituents of doubt: What is necessary to be the case in order to doubt? You are doubting a fact or truth. When you doubt something you are employing logic, you are also depending on the uniformity of nature. Each of these elements requires God. You cannot doubt God without the foundation about God. 

Presuppositionalists are accused of simply making accusations. We should go beyond presuppositional platitudes (Without God you cannot make sense of anything).

ELI: The number one way to refute presuppers who say that everyone is certain that God exists is to say that you are not certain. SYE: The Bible says they do. State the biblical truth that the Bible says they know.

The proper apologetics should be a gospel proclamation.

ELI: Any philosophical argument that turns your stomach. SYE: God is a necessary precondition of intelligibility (period!). This is devoid of the authority of the Scriptures. It should be, "God is a necessary precondition of intelligibility according to the Scriptures."

Q: Is every debate with atheists worth having? SYE: I once told, "You didn't come to debate but to preach the gospel." I say, "Praise the LORD!" When you come to the debate, that is an opportunity to preach the gospel.

Men are educated to conclude God. We do not defend a generic god. But we must start with the foundational truth: God exists! We do not conclude with the Christian God. I start with the Christian God that the unbelievers know exists.

ELI: How do you encourage someone who says, “I believe, help my unbelief.” SYE: Get a Bible plan. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. I tell them to repent. Repentance is a gift of the Spirit.

I do not tell men how to defend their faith. I tell them how not to… I could do this all along. Just to about the LORD that I love.

Q: Why there must only be One that provides the precondition of intelligibility? SYE: There is only One according to the Bible. ELI: You run to the problem of metaphysical pluralism. You have two different competing accounts of reality both grounding knowledge. How is that possible since they are not the same? How are they giving foundation? You cannot have two because you will run into the issue of skepticism. You have two opposing visions of reality. If Christianity is one, then it follows that it is the only One.

To God be the glory!