Why Doubting Requires God!

Opening Announcements and Upcoming Episodes

Welcome back to another episode of Revealed Apologetics. I'm your host Eli Ayala and today if you saw the thumbnail that is correct I have my special guest with me Saiten Bruggenkate who has been missing in action for a while but he's gonna share a little bit about what's been going on with him and then we're gonna jump right into our our topic and of course we're gonna be touching on other more broader issues relating to presuppositional apologetics.

So as you guys know who follow my channel we talk about apologetics in general presuppositional apologetics in particular and today presupp is going to be our main focus. So if you've been blessed by the content of this channel please like the video, share the video, go on iTunes, write a positive review if you enjoyed the podcast all those things are super helpful for me personally and encouraging to know that folks are really finding the content beneficial.

I just real quick by way of announcement as much as I'm super excited about my guest today on February 16th I'm also excited about my guest Brant Bosserman who was on the show a while back but he is gonna come on with me to talk about the philosophical problem of the one and the many and so Bosserman is an expert in the area of the Trinity and how that relates to presuppositionalism and how that relates to like the transcendental argument and demonstrating how we know it is the triune God that we're demonstrating when we're using presuppositional forms of argumentation and things like that so you are not gonna want to miss that episode that is February 16th I believe 9 p .m. Eastern so definitely tune in for that.

Now real quick before I invite I invite Sai on the screen with me as always I'm going to be taking questions so if you have any questions put them in the comments and preface your question with question or cue something that will help me differentiate the questions and the comments so I know that folks who haven't seen Sai for a while you probably have a billion questions or maybe a couple of questions but he'll be more than happy to address them so without further ado we've got a few people watching now and let me invite Sai on the screen with me.

Sye Ten Bruggencate Explains His Return and Restoration

How's it going brother? Doing well brother. Okay so all right so you and Bigfoot hold the championship the title for hide-and-seek right can't find Bigfoot folks haven't seen you around either and I'm sure folks are super curious as to how are you how you doing you know what was going on you can share as much as you'd like or you know you don't have to go into too much details but why don't you tell folks where you've been how you've been and and then we'll take the.

Conversation from there. Well it's definitely been a roller coaster over the last year for sure and I'd first I want to start by thanking Eli for having me on today. I know that there's gonna be some people that are gonna be upset to see me and but by the response that I've been getting on Facebook and that the majority are very thankful to see me again and I want to tell people that through this ordeal I know that Facebook is and can be a cesspool but my Facebook friends most of whom I've never met have shown me a far greater support than people who have been close to me who I would have expected it from and you know when the news broke almost a year ago to the day it was my Facebook friends who came forward and at the time the support for me was 100 and they had no idea what had happened why I had stepped away from ministry and to this day many people have no idea why I stepped away and yet they supported me they trusted me and I'm so thankful for those people.

You have no idea I mean I saved all the comments before I deleted my page and I have them and I'm just so thankful for the support that people have shown. And one thing I want to preface like I have no qualms with people knowing exactly every to the minute detail why I stepped away.

But there are people who'll be very upset that I did and I really don't. You know I don't want to upset them but I am an apologist. An apologist gives a defense now one thing that I've found in this year of being away is that when you give a defense of things that are false that people tend to think that you're not repentant of that which is true.

So that's why I'm very reluctant to give a detailed account of what happened and what my defense is because then there are elements out in the society who say that well you know you're not not repentant what was actually the case but you know in a summary and some of this I've shared in my statements first of all I want to say that I am here with the full support of my session and my new pastor and when I say new pastor I've seen atheists and people online think that I left my church that I left my church that I'm under a new church now and that they're much more easy on me than my previous church was.

That's not the case. I am still attending the same church but the pastor and session have changed since then for reasons that right now will be unnamed but but they left and but as far as the details go almost a year ago I was contacted by people that I didn't know and they had brought up a relationship that I had which started five years ago and they said that there were things that happened in that relationship most of what they alleged was false and some of what they alleged was indeed true but what they had done is they took these false allegations and the true ones and they shared them with dear friends of mine who are quite influential in the Christian community and they said to me that if you do not end your ministry we will go public and these people are you know these friends of mine are fully behind this exposition of you of being whatever and if you don't if you don't step down immediately we're going to destroy you destroy your minute what you know whatever the case was and I said to these to this fellow I said look um you're not my authority.

The people that you have contacted are not my authority either. You have to get in touch with my pastor and I gave him my pastor's information and my pastor sat down with the pastor that I was dealing with in Texas and my session and they thought based on the accusation that they had heard which I hadn't even seen like the actual accusation from the person I hadn't seen and I didn't actually see it for actually over a month but they said that I should come home and the statement that I posted on Facebook was that I was disqualified from ministry and what I want to say is the statement that I posted was verbatim what my pastor asked me to post.

I wanted to say so much more but I was not allowed to and as much as that bothered me at the time. In retrospect I'm very thankful for the Lord you know he works wonderfully because one thing that I think that if I had said more then it would have appeared as though I was giving a defense against that which was true and that I was not repentant of that which was true and so the fact that I didn't say anything a lot of people came to my defense a lot of people who know the details and I know that you know the details as well came to my defense and that's why.

Again why I want to thank Eli because you have been there from the beginning I mean we've talked we've had conversations and it's been really wonderful but so this was about a relationship that I had now one thing I want to as well say to the people you know who have followed me who have loved me through this and I'm so thankful for that.

But I want to tell people and the reason that I want to give this little bit of detail it's not in defense because I am guilty of that which I'm guilty and I'm 100 responsible of that which I'm guilty of.

But you know there are people who thought that my sin occurred while I was out doing my apologetics work that I might be doing a talk one day or debate one day and then go and sin the next day. That was not the case this woman that I had met and many of you know and it was not my last relationship you know she was actually wonderful during this process although our relationship had ended prior to that.

But so this the accusation that this woman that I had met I had given up my apologetics work to marry her we were in a committed relationship that does not excuse our sin at all. It does not excuse our sin.

But we were in a committed relationship and we sinned we failed sexually morally we failed and we repented of it at the time in tears and that is not to give anybody license to sin. It was wicked and and and I think you know I can sympathize with people who think that fornication deserves a permanent disqualification from ministry.

I sympathize with that but one thing I want to state is that I'm not a pastor and I'm not an elder and I'm not a deacon and I submit that I want people to show me in Scripture why me as a and as somebody who answers apologetic questions or defends the faith in the public forum cannot do this after a sin that I've repented of and I I can sympathize with people who believe that that's the case.

But I submitted 100 to my session. My session called me back to Canada and the process was actually quite long. You know they were doing investigation they were looking into allegations and I think that they were satisfied that the allegation that the majority of them were not true but the fornication was indeed true and they wrestled with whether I was barred permanently from doing anything with apologetics and you know if they had said that from the beginning clearly people who know what's going on they didn't see the statement from my pastor or the session from the beginning that that that was the case so they wrestled with it and then sadly shortly after my session actually was removed from the church there was a statement made that I was no longer repented.

They don't. They'd already given the public statement that I had repented and there was a bit of a blow-up at my church and it was a really a sad situation still a sad situation. But then it was handed over to the new session and the new pastor and the blow up in my church had nothing to do with my situation but I sat down with the new pastor new session and they were very kind and you know they loved me and they they went through this as well and they affirmed that I was repented of this sin from you know however many years ago and so I mean I was already restored from the previous session and they they gave a statement recently and I'm actually on I have built a website in which I gave a defense of the false accusations but I haven't shared publicly and I have no intention of sharing that publicly.

If you go to Proverbs 1817 .com that's Proverbs 1817 .com slash statement you can see the statement from my pastor and session from the last meeting that I am restored now as far as how ministry looks going forward first of all the one thing about my denomination is that what I do is not technically ministry because I'm not ordained so I am just a regular member of my church.

I'm not a pastor I'm not a deacon. So the question is can you prevent regular members from going on YouTube and making a video or evangelizing and somebody pulls out a camera and making the video. Now there are some people who would argue that biblically that I'm disqualified from doing that and I sympathize with that.

I simply disagree with it and you know they might cite that the elder and deacon which I am NOT needs to be beyond reproach but I submit that that cannot mean without sin because then nobody could be an elder or deacon.

Now I'm one thing I shared with my previous pastor if that means I'm disqualified permanently from being an elder or a deacon although I would disagree with that I can sympathize with that. But so with my church now I'm a member in good standing and I asked my pastor specifically if I could have this conversation online about doubt and yeah he was actually enthusiastic about me going online now.

Eli you're a dear friend and a dear brother you might get people come out and say no sigh you should be out of the scene permanently. You know I sympathize that you might get you know even these friends of mine who have some influence might come out with a public statement.

That's fine. I mean they can do that. And I what I don't know people are what I shared with these people is to is that they will never be my enemy. Sure. And um and the thing is people cannot make me feel worse about myself than I already do.

You know that's what Spurgeon said when people speak ill of you don't be angry because you're far worse than anything they can allege. And I believe that to be the case. And people have said well what is your engagement with atheists gonna look like in the future when they bring up this sin of yours.

And you know even my pastor he said because they had a website they had a email address available for anybody to email and with any if there any other allegations which there were none. By the way it was this isolated incident and he said how should I respond to these people.

I said share the gospel with them. I said a wonderful opportunity to show what sin repentance and restoration looks like and I believe that's the case as well. So if I go to a university campus and engage unbelievers and they bring this instance up I have no problem with that.

I mean prior to my the this apologetic work I call it now absolute apologetics. Prior to that I used to call it sinner ministries and it was that I was engaging sinners is that I was the sinner and my logo was a big eye with a plank in it.

And then people said well you're not a sinner anymore and they said technically you're a saint who sins. And so I changed the name of the ministry. But I mean you cannot speak worse of me than I already feel about myself.

So you know that doesn't bother me. If people want to go online and say I'm this I'm that. But I have a passion for sharing my faith. I have a passion for teaching explaining to Christians how to share their faith biblically at that if they feel that you know because of my sin they don't want to hear from me anymore.

They don't want me to talk to that's fine. But most of my Facebook friends for example have been 100 behind me and I want to. I won't don't want to share the name of the family on whose property I'm now.

But they have been incredible for me they have been so loving and so kind and I really don't know what I would have done without them. So if they're watch end up watching this I want them to know how much I love them and thank them for this and a lot of this you know my patreon friends and my patreon friends actually they've supported me through all this and well 25 of them have and and I and the people who have left my patron support you know I I don't you know because one thing that I said from the beginning is I never want to be a charity case.

So when I do apologetics I want people to support me for the work that I do and the Lord has said no you're gonna be a charity case. So I hope that that's not the case for for the future. But my patron friends know that this is not the only struggle I have in my life that I looked after my mother for many years and after she passed away well she decided to leave the estate to me.

The estate you know that's just the name of it doesn't mean that it's a huge amount but four of my six siblings decided to sue me for my estate for it for my mother's estate. I should say okay that case is ongoing.

It was actually supposed to be heard last month and because of kovat pushed to October so you know it's it's been a roller coaster and it's been tough. But one thing I want you to tell I want to tell you is that God is good throughout all of this my faith never wavered.

And one thing that I want to share with people who said that the biggest struggle that I've had in my Christian walk throughout my life other than complacency is the idea that God loves me. And this struggle this this more than anything else has shown me that God does in fact love me because he could have left me alone he could have left me doing my apologetics talks you know around North America he could have left me with the support that I was getting but he said no.

So you're coming home and I and I'm gonna put you through this trial and I don't want to make it sound as though God is putting me through this trial. I'm 100 responsible for my sin that ended me in this trial.

Sure. And when I read scripture too I think of the trials of Job and people like that and I can't relate to that because they were righteous people. And I know what I am you know I just I just it did not affect my faith even the day that I got the phone call from these people that I don't know the day that I got that phone call it was filled with.

I believe were you know many false accusation of course some true ones I got on my knees that night and I thank God not only in the trial but for it. I don't know what he's doing and I don't I may never know what he's doing.

And it may be that I'm ostracized by the Christian community from now on doesn't matter to me. I love Lord. And for people who think that this has shaken my faith it hasn't it's only strengthened it and so um you know experientially as far as that goes I'm very thankful to God for you know allowing me to go through and like this was years ago and I think I already shared with you but I was not.

I gave up my apologetics work and I didn't resume the apologetics work until after this sin was dealt with. And one thing I want to share for with anybody who happens to be in some kind of sin I never shared it with my pastor.

I mean I was out of the country too but I never shared it with the pastor in the session because it's really embarrassing when you embarrassing and I grew up in a community where that wasn't done and I have a dear friend actually where they often speak of their sins publicly to the church and people are revolted by it and I'm thinking man how how much that would have helped me even not to fall into sin for one but to not have the problem four years later when this let this sin was brought up if I had already shared it with my pastor my session so if anybody's involved with it I know it's a very difficult thing but share it with your pastor and your session the session in the Presbyterian Church is the elders and the pastor so I don't encourage them to do that.

And I know I've been rambling for quite a while and I probably said more than I wanted to say but um I just want to reiterate again is that redundant. I think it's probably redundant. I want to reiterate online have meant so much to me and notes of encouragement have meant so much to me over this time and I love them.

And if I am ever able to get into the u .s. again and again it has nothing to do with my ordeal. My situation has to do with the fact that you have to show proof of vaccination to cross the border and I'm not one person who's gonna say that I'm on Vax or whether I'm Vax but I believe there's a right to privacy you know with regards that people can figure it out anyways you know what I am but currently if you cannot prove vaccination you cannot get into the u .s.

You know things are happening in Canada now with this trucker convoy and you know for people who are watching this it's it's been amazing but I encourage people not to put their trust in the convoy or in the government and put their trust in God.

I think God can and is using this but I have no idea where where it will turn but if it is the case that I can travel to the u .s. again in my current state without having to disclose vaccination status then I hope to go back to the US especially where it's a little bit warmer and started to do ministry not necessarily to do public speaking because I don't even know if the Lord has that in the future for me I don't know if that's something I'll do but what I want to do is meet people who have been with me from the beginning.

I want to be them and thank them for their continued support. Because part of it like I don't say that I have depression but I think that that because of this and the response of this that the way I felt is very akin to the symptoms of depression because I have patreon followers and friends have been supporting me and I haven't been updating them because I haven't felt like it sure no because it's very disheartening.

So the fact that you have me on here today is um you know one of the nicest things that has happened for quite a while. Other people have asked and I've kind of put them off for a while because Eli I wanted to be on your show first because because of your regular phone calls and your regular support and your trust and your understanding.

And I should add that for all of those who put their trust in me first of all you know that's a mistake. Don't you put your trust in man. But I want to apologize to you. I want to apologize to you for my failing and you know I hope and I pray that the Lord will keep me steadfast going forward.

And yeah and I guess that would my statement hopefully that gives people enough details and if people want to email me directly and and ask for more details or you know something that that would be fine but I'm hoping that after this that I can just refer to this video and people can watch it.

You know as far as my response goes because I want to put it behind me and if those who are against me want to make a big deal of it I hope and pray that I won't have to make a public defense of everything that's happened.

Because I will hmm I should I shouldn't say that I will. I would talk to my session and they were probably dissuade me from doing it but I would just prefer that that if these people just leave it alone let's go for and but I'm not afraid I trust the Lord.

You know in my future however that's going to look whoever's gonna have me speak or do anything. I trust the Lord in that and you know I respect those who think that I shouldn't and I just respectfully disagree with them but I'm open to the to the argument open to the discussion but I am under the authority of my session right now and.

I'm in good standing with my church. You think about it. Whether you know before this all this stuff happened you had people talking bad about you anyway before this happened. I remember I had you on.

You were like well come on. But if you want to lose some subscribers you're gonna hate. You might as well. Just roll.

With it man. That's something I'd come up with my session as well. They actually cited an atheist website who had said something. I said they said this stuff about me before. You know it doesn't bother me at all.

And you know the thing is I've shared this with you before. But I would go to a conference and I see the good-looking speaker get up there and up. You know they show a slide of their beautiful wife and their beautiful kids and they gush about it.

And I have no problem with that. But I'm also sitting there thinking why should I live in to you. Why should I listen to you. Your life is perfect you know. And and so you know if people engage me they could say well his life isn't perfect.

It's been tough. And you know I of course I don't share the same kind of trials that other people have. I have hope. There are people who have lost loved ones even you know because of the virus and because of the vaccine I get that and there's hope in Christ.

But there's people who have lost things forever. You know I trust the Lord going forward. But you know people can look at me and say well he went through all that and he still loves the Lord. You know.

And I'm not saying that. That's something that's gonna persuade them because always the work of the Holy Spirit. But you know yeah I used to think too if you get somebody who's speaking on drug addiction you got somebody who's never been on drugs.

You think why should I listen to you man. But the people have been through the trial and I hope when I talk to unbelievers as well. Unbelievers who are in unrepentant sin can know that there's a Savior and that they can be free of their sin.

Well thank.

You so much for sharing that I just looking at the comments there everyone seems to be in support of seeing you again and they understand and it's easy to understand because all of us have sinned all of us stick around brother.

Stick around see if they're all in support but like I say these people have been they've been wonderful. Yeah I'm not gonna lie people on this channel the.

Comments that have been pretty cool and you have every now and then you have you know a person take a jab here and there but for the most part I I want to say thank you for people who watch whether you're a believer and unbeliever.

Thank you for your engagement and being respectful for the most part and and even just having sigh on. I see a lot of people just giving so much support. So we're glad you're back. We don't know what that means as you said but you know hopefully God's will is that he will continue to use you.

I know that the reason why a lot of people support you is because you have impacted them by God's grace. Of course you've impacted them in powerful ways through your ministry. So I'm sure people are very appreciative of that and are ready to be open and understanding.

Hopefully. But I'm glad to have you on and thank you for sharing that. And so without without further ado then so you guys got you got all of the the info there and you can rewatch the the first 25 minutes of this video to get kind of the full-length explanation there as to where he's been and what he's been going through.

And if you want to you know share your support you can share them in the comments you can message him I'm sure he'd be encouraged by that but without further ado let's jump into some apologetics. Okay now I gotta be careful all right.

Because Sai is a very practical guy so I'll ask him a complicated question and I'm thinking that my question is gonna is gonna provide the foundation for this expanded conversation. You know. And sometimes he's just that's the answer and I'm like all right.

Okay kind of like how can I know that that God exists. Right. You would say what. How would you say Sai if someone said that. How can I know if God exists. I would say you do.

Know that God exists. I was thinking I was actually shared with the family that I'm with here the other day a story that I used to buy the book mere Christianity in bulk and you know there were some very good things and there's some things that I would now disagree with but I used to hand it out in bulk.

And I remember I was at work one day and one of the guy he's quite a clown and you know we had a lot of laughs together and I kept trying to give him mere Christianity and he would never take it. And one day I said to him well if you have a wobbly table just stick it under one of the legs and maybe one day you want to pull it out and read it.

And this guy like I say he always clowned around but he got real serious and he looked me in the eye. He said I will never take that book. And I said to him why not. And he said because I'm afraid it's true.

Hmm. And I wasn't a presupposition at the time but if I was I would have said no.

You know it's true. Hmm. Yeah. See you got those you drop those bombs bro. And it's like what do you. What do you say. It's like. Hey but but here but there is a main question that I wanted to address now first I want to ask you the the a question related to the main topic we want to discuss.

And then perhaps we can talk about how. Because because I've actually had private conversations with classical apologists I'm some good friends who are respectful of the presuppositional approach. They kind of see the value in it.

But then they're kind of a someone brought up to me what. Like how do you deal with people who are doubting. It seems like you have such a certainty that there's no room for sympathetic. You know people to be sympathetic towards people who are struggling with with doubt.

And so yeah it looks good when you're arguing and you have all this confidence and certainty. But how do you engage the Christian who is who is struggling. And we do know that people struggle for various reasons and things like that.

So I would like to address the main topic of the thumbnail and then maybe perhaps go into a more practical application as to how someone with a presuppositional mindset applies the biblical teaching to someone who is a believer but comes to you with these questions of doubt and things like that.

So maybe we can kind of take it from there. So the name of this video was why doubting requires God. And that sounds weird. But why is it the case if someone says you know I doubt that God exists. How would you show that the fact that they're doubting actually requires the God that they're doubting.

Doubt, Truth, Logic, and the Uniformity of Nature

Yeah I would say as far as a Christian expressing a doubt like that that's very problematic because if they doubt the existence of God then it turns out that they're the judge of whether he exists or not.

And so people who are true believers I think you know that they can be a plagued by something like this in which you know they still profess belief in God but that there's so much pressure from the outside that you know they might express a doubt that they don't really have.

And I think that when I share the fundamentals of doubt with them for some of them it's very comforting and for others I've shared this foundation of doubt with them it's not been comforting at all. I'm not saying that they are not believers but I find it very problematic when you know I share this with them and it does not provide some comfort because I would submit that the doubt in that scripture talks about is not about the existence of God it's about the providence of God.

So when people doubt the existence of God you know I would submit that that is problematic because they are elevating themselves over God that they are they are the authority on whether or not he exists.

But one thing I like to share with them I like to break down the constituents of doubt and I know it's a philosophical argument but I would say well first of all scripture says that everyone knows for certain that God exists.

I say what is necessary for doubt. If you doubt something you're doubting the truth of something or I guess the falsity of something you're doubting a fact you're doubting the truth of something. When you doubt something you're using logic you are employing logic to whether to find out whether or not this fact is true or not.

And you're also depending on the uniformity of nature if anything can happen then there's no reason to doubt anything because anything can happen. So you're so those are only three elements truth logic and the uniformity of nature.

And those who follow you know the work that I've done know that each of those elements require God. You cannot make sense of the concept of truth if you're if we're just evolved pond scum not make sense of universal abstract invariant laws of logic without God.

And you cannot make sense of the uniformity of nature without God the fact that the future will be like the past. None of those things can be made sense of without God. So the the constituents of doubt require God.

So when I tell people that if you are a doubting God do you know what you're doing. You're actually borrowing from God to doubt him. You cannot doubt God without the foundation of God. Now some people might suppress the truth about that foundation but it is there.

And when people realize that for some people has been very comforting and for some people it does nothing for so. Okay. So and now this is a big.

Criticism that I often hear and I have heard about you when you make those comments. Is that it's yeah well no well I mean I get criticized for no I'm.

Kidding just in my state. So a presuppositional list will be accused of.

Presuppositionalism, Philosophy, and the Bible

Making assertions so it's very easy. And I and I keep telling presuppositional we need to learn to go beyond this. I mean obviously we don't have time to go into the details and unpack every aspect of this.

But we need to go beyond the mere presuppositional platitudes. Like you know the truth of the Christian worldview is that without it you can't prove anything. I believe that but saying it doesn't prove it.

So how would you begin to unpack. Someone who says hey sigh I'm doubting. And then you say well the doubt what's required. The preconditions for the intelligibility of your doubting requires these other things.

How would you kind of unpack and connect the dots for someone who who's struggling with doubt and show that they are in fact borrowing from God to even engage in their doubting. How would you unpack what that looks like and why.

That's the case for the person as far as a Christian saying something like that. And I get emails along that line. Or I've gotten emails along that line. And what I often ask them I say well what does your pastor say about it.

Because I'm not a pastor I want to reiterate I'm not a pastor and I am unqualified to give pastoral advice. And a lot of these questions for Christians are pastoral questions. Okay and a lot of will say to me.

Well well I don't have a pastor. You know I just so you contacted a stranger online to talk about your doubt. I think your problem is not that your problem is that you need to find a sound church and you need to talk to your pastor about this.

But then I will share with them the constituents of doubt. You know I'll say first of all the scriptures say that you know the Bible says that everyone is certain that God exists. And then I was you know show them up.

But let's look at what doubt is. You're doubting the truth of something. You're using logic. You're depending on the uniform of nature. And I might explain those things to people. I say that all of those things require God.

And why that. That's my question. So okay for example truth. The very concept of truth I asked you know I'll ask people on the street where do you get truth from without God. And they'll say well I get truth from evolution.

And I get again this is philosophical because I think and I find that women are very good at this. Well this is what the Bible says. The Bible says that you need it. And the more that I do this especially you know what the trials I've been through the more I get away from the philosophy.

And I appreciate there are people that explain these things. And you know I but the more that I do this the less I'm likely to do. Because they're not gonna be on there with their head of their pillow thinking about the philosophy at night.