6. Introduction to the Doctrine of God

Question 0

Define presuppositionalist apologist

Answer 0

A person who tries to argue for the Christian faith within a context that pre-supposes the Triune God of the Christian Scriptures.

Question 1

Define evidentialist apologist

Answer 1

An apologist who tries to argue for the Christian faith from a common natural sense-experience of the world.

Question 2

Scripture evidence for there only being one true God

Answer 2

Deuteronomy 6:4 – ““Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”

Romans 3:30 – “since God is one-who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”

Question 3

Where is the Ontological argument first found?

Answer 3

In Anselm’s Proslogion – in the form of a prayer.

Question 4

What is the Ontological Argument?

Answer 4

If it is possible to conceive of a perfectly good God who exists, who is all powerful, then it is necessary that he must exist.

Question 5

Who criticised Anselm’s ontological argument?

Answer 5

Gaunilo, a French monk, in his rejoinder On Behalf of the Fool. (“I have an idea of an island…”)

Question 6

Where do we famously find empirical arguments for the existence of God?

Answer 6

In Aquinas’ Five Ways

Question 7

What is at the root of all empirical arguments for the existence of God?

Answer 7

An attempt to demonstrate from sense data alone without any a priori equipment the existence of God. But they may all be reduced to the cosmological argument or a variation on it.