Lesson 5 - Case for Presuppositional Apologetics

Question 1

What are the underlying principles to the presuppositional approach to apologetics? Be able to explain each principle and give Biblical support.

Answer 1

1. ) The No Neutrality Principle - no intellectual/epistemological neutrality in apologetics
   - - It is impossible to approach apologetics issues from a religiously neutral perspective.
   - - Matthew 12:30, Colossians 2:8, Romans 8:5-8
2. ) The No Autonomy Principle - no intellectual/epistemological autonomy in apologetics
   - - God’s mind (not man’s mind), as revealed to us, is the final authority and standard for human thought.
   - - Col. 2:8, Romans 12:2, 2 Cor. 10:4-5

Question 2

What are the implications for an apologetic method based on the presuppositional principles outlined in the lectures?

Answer 2

1. There must be no pretended neutrality in one’s apologetic method
2. There must be no epistemological double-standards in one’s apologetic method (We can’t have two approaches: Christian approach to theology, but neutral approach to apologetics)
3. There can be no appeal to brute facts or neutral facts
4. There is common ground in every apologetic encounter, but its not neutral ground
5. An apologetic encounter with an unbeliever typically involves a clash of entire worldviews
   - - Disagreement is not just a disagreement over facts (divorce rate, etc.)
   - - It’s a Disagreement over how we understand and interpret any and all facts/reality.

Question 3

What is a transcendental argument and what are some of its advantages?

Answer 3

1. Argument that aims to prove that certain presuppositions are necessary preconditions of rational thought and experience.
   - - Certain things must be the case for us to be rational in the first place
   - - The house of human knowledge has foundations in God
2. The Transcendental Argument contends that only the Christian worldview can account for the things we take for granted all the time and thus for our ability to make any rational sense of the world we live in

Question 4

What are some of TAG’s advantages?

Answer 4

1. It is a very powerful form of argumentation, both logically and rhetorically.
2. It offers a method of rationally settling disagreements over competing ultimate presuppositions without begging the question against either side or having to find a neutral standpoint for adjudicating between them.
3. It can undercut any evidential argument against Christianity.
4. It shows that unbelievers are dependent on God even for their unbelief.

Question 5

What are the advantages of the presuppositional approach to apologetics?

Answer 5

1. It closely connects our apologetics and theology.
2. It honors “no neutrality” and “no autonomy” principles
3. It recognizes that the common ground between the believer and the unbeliever is not neutral ground but rather Christian ground.
4. It points to the sovereign God on whom we depend for every aspect of our experience.
5. It allows one to argue for Christianity from any aspect of human experience. (Everything presupposes God)
6. It helps to show how arguments against Christianity often beg the question against it.
7. It enables one to show that even objections to Christianity must presuppose the truth of Christianity at the deepest level in order to be meaningful in the first place.
   - - Ex. Atheist arguments of evil
8. It confirms that unbelievers are suppressing knowledge they already possess.
9. It defends Christianity as a whole, as an integrated self-contained worldview.
10. It does not require one to have a detailed knowledge of every non-Christian worldview.
11. It can deal with postmodernist worldviews as well as modernist worldviews.
12. It avoids the pitfalls of naïve evidential argumentation.
13. It allows the use of presuppositionally sensitive evidential argumentation.
14. It underscores that for an unbeliever to recognize the truth and rationality of Christianity requires nothing less than conversion, which includes a wholesale change of worldview.