Durbin & Boot Answering Apologetics Questions

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Got it. Okay. So if we're arguing as the Bible being the basis for our argument, but somebody doesn't accept

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But that's true. What do we do? How do we respond to that? You start no, okay okay, so It's a really important question when someone says

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Well, you're saying the vibe you're you're making these claims about God God, you know says Say this ethical claim or that claim?

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I'm challenging that and when Christians say we know and we have certainty full assurance because it's revelation from God Somebody might challenge that say we're talking about the atheist here.

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They're militant atheist says well, I don't believe in God I'm challenging that and the

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Christian saying well my certainty my assurance is based upon God's own self -disclosure

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He's revealed himself and therefore I know and have certainty about say for example

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We did earlier that we should love our neighbors rather than eat them. I'm certain about that As a

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Christian, but if you say why are you certain about that? I say because God has said so then someone says well I am challenging this claim that God has said

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I don't I don't really I don't believe that God and somebody might say well That's circular, right?

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It's circular. Well, I would say that Circular reasoning is fallacious in particular context

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So if we're talking about peripheral things, you know small items here or there it circular reasoning is fallacious however, when you're talking about ultimates

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Ultimates all ultimates any self -attesting ultimate has to be by very nature of being the ultimate

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Circular in other words because God but what we're not doing is saying The Bible is

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God's Word because it says it's God's Word. That's actually an erroneous

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Way to explain what we're saying. We're not saying that the Bible is God's Word because God Says so the

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Bible says it's God's Word. We would actually argue that The Bible is the Word of God the testimony of God is true and we can know that through the impossibility of the contrary

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Through the impossibility of the contrary What we're saying is that God is a self -attesting authority and the

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Bible of course makes the claim that it's God's Word But we're not saying that it's God's Word because it says it's

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God's Word Of course because it is God's Word. It does say that it's God's Word, but we actually can

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Defend that claim on a different basis like from the impossibility of the contrary For example, somebody the atheist says

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I think it's irrational That you are going to this self -attesting authority

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God that's irrational I reject that because it's circular reasoning and circular reasoning is fallacious.

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Well push on the atheist Where'd you come up with this idea? The circular reasoning is fallacious.

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Let's get into your worldview You're borrowing capital right now from my God see in your worldview

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You are the descendants of as we said earlier highly evolved societies of bacteria

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You believe that all that exists is the material realm. There's nothing immaterial nothing spiritual.

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There are no universals in atheism There's no Abstract entities

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Necessary laws of thought No need to not contradict myself So what

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I would point out to the atheists is even when he challenges the biblical worldview about God's self -attesting Authority, he's appealing to things that he can't have in his worldview.

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He can only have in my worldview So I think it's important to understand that when we say that we can know based upon God's own revelation his own self -disclosure

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We're not saying the Bible says it's God's Word. Therefore. It's God's Word. There's actually a different argument beneath that So I would only sort of summarize that just a little bit by saying that You're the reason

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Jeff qualified there with ultimate when it comes to ultimate things Nobody can prove their most ultimate commitment directly

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Otherwise, it wouldn't be your ultimate commitment So if you can prove The truth of the

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Triune God of Scripture and his Word directly With something else the thing you prove

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God with would be your ultimate commitment Right, so you never prove your ultimate your your final ultimate criterion for truth directly

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You only establish it indirectly which is to say Unless this is true.

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There is no meaning there is no truth. There is no law. Yeah, there is no creation there is no rationality period hence the only reason you can challenge the

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Claims of the God of Scripture is by actually borrowing from the biblical worldview in the first place.

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Yeah Christian apologetics is about a conflict of worldviews

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So you can't so there's one sliver of evidence somebody brings out a sliver of argument You have to say does this sliver of argument work?

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In your worldview or does it work well in my it only makes sense ultimately in a

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Christian world only Everything else. It's not that Christianity is most probably right. Everything else must be wrong.

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It only works on the basis of one more thought Yeah, so one more interesting thing I really love just the way that you're thinking critically and you're wanting to argue and have rigorous thought

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I'm gonna say praise God for that because we need more Christian minds like that today. So that's praise

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God for that That's an honorable thing But I want to point out something to you that's that I hope you embrace and celebrate this is something to celebrate your desire for consistency of thought for rational dialogue for laws of logic for historical context for evidence all the all that you're doing with You're trying to think rigorous

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Christian thoughts only comports with a Christian view of the world So in terms of how you're facing this question and trying to give solid answers

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You're operating within a biblical framework where human beings matter where truth is something that we ought to embrace

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Where we ought to reason and have strong rigorous commitments and thoughts

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That's a Christian worldview and only a Christian worldview And so I want to point out to you that your strong Embracing of these things and your commitment only makes sense if you're standing on a biblical worldview, which you are

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But the person that you're talking to that begins to challenge you on these things

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I want you just to notice this thing and that's that he doesn't get to have those things

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Except if they're being borrowed, right? So what's important is to is to really recognize that and we're going to talk about this tonight it's important not to let the intensity of the conversation or the moment or the emotions of the moment to cloud our

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Visual of what's actually taking place in front of me is oh, wait a second this very intellectual atheist

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That's strong -minded atheist who loves reason and love science and love that loves evidence is not supposed to be talking like this

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Now he gets to if he's standing in my worldview. He's not supposed to have those things in his

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So for example from a Christian perspective if you and I were sitting at a table together We have a commitment to Jesus we're submitted to his

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Lordship we we we submit to his word we say that it's the truth, right? So if you and I are trying to hash out some question about the universe or a conflict we might see in the scriptures and we're not quite sure how to resolve that you and I have a basis to believe that sense perception is valid that Truth matters that we ought to look for something that's truthful and doesn't contradict because God cannot change

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Our God does not change God cannot engage in logical contradiction. God doesn't lie So we have a basis you and I if we sat at a table trying to resolve some

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Logical conflict or trying to investigate something in the universe you and I could sit down because of our commitments and understanding of the world

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Could sit down and work through those scientific discoveries or those laws of logic and those questions or laws of arithmetic because of the

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Christian worldview However, what's important to note is that we can do that only because we're Christians If the unbeliever wanted to step into our worldview and accept the personal sovereign

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God of the universe who ordains all things and governs all things through his majesty and power and might

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Who thinks rationally only thinks rationally is truth embodied?

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If the atheist wants to step into that position then he gets to have those things but the point of the conflict between say the atheist and Myself is not to hash out all the little details of laws of logic and everything else

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The point of the conflict is to expose the borrowed capital and to show the sinful suppression of truth

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He's not supposed to be doing what he's doing So what would cause somebody to deny

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God's existence and live in such a way that only comports with his existence?

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It could only be a simple simple suppression of the truth, which is what the Bible says is happening so my goal in talking to the

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Person who's in radical unbelief the atheist is to point to the borrowed capital to show the simple suppression of truth and to call them

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To repent and believe the gospel. However, and we'll probably get into this later last thing The conversation is different.

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This isn't a scripture learning which I think is so beautiful. The conversation is entirely different with the

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Mormon Because the Mormon accepts and they say God has revealed himself. God has spoken

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So it's not a question in there and they're quite in their parts It's not a question of whether God has revealed himself whether God maintains the universe whether God You know has some sovereign control now.

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It's a different discussion of a conflict of ultimates. It's the Word of God versus Joseph's voice

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Brigham's voice now it becomes a question of this ultimate versus that ultimate so it's a different Conflict in that context but with the atheist the point