Presuppositional Apologetics - 1 Peter 3:13-16

Kootenai Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

All right, if you were here for the conference over the weekend Friday and Saturday Then you know who our speaker is for those of you who may not have been here

00:07

Our speaker teacher this morning and the and he's going to preach in worship service as well as Paul Taylor He's from the

00:13

Mount St. Helens Creation Center in Castle Rock, Washington And he spent the last two days

00:18

Friday night and Saturday equipping us in creation Apologetics and young earth worldview issues, etc.

00:25

And so Paul is going to be here now to talk to you about Presuppositional apologetics.

00:30

So with that, please welcome Paul Taylor now,

00:41

I must admit I thought I was going to be speaking in a Sunday school room. So I planned this a little bit differently

00:47

I planned it to be a sort of seminar Okay, and as with most good

00:52

Christian churches half of you sat at the back So this is now your opportunity to get up and come into the first few rows, please

01:00

Because what I want to do, this is not going to be a lecture. Okay, or at least what it may be a lecture it depends how quiet you are and I will try and get you to respond and I If you want to ask questions during the

01:16

During the talk then please do so don't wait for the end if that means

01:21

I don't get through all the material It doesn't matter. I will have got some through some of the material. Okay, so that was my plan

01:26

This is not meant to be a sermon. This is not meant to be a talk like yesterday If you keep quiet, then it will become that but we'll see

01:35

Okay, well I wanted to talk to you a bit about apologetics and The reason why

01:41

I wanted to talk to you about apologetics is because I am concerned that a lot of people

01:47

Who refer to themselves as apologists are doing? Apologetics in a manner, which is unbiblical most of the well -known apologists that you find

02:01

Doing apologetics in a manner that is on biblical and you know, right as soon as I say that some of you might be saying

02:07

Well, what you're talking about? What is apologetics? Anyway, you know, are we supposed to be saying? Sorry that we're

02:12

Christians Apologizing for being Christians. Well When we're talking about apologetics and I will define the term so that you know what we're talking about There are a number of passages of Scripture which are helpful to go to but the most important one probably the main one is in First Peter chapter 3 and you may well be very familiar with this or at least you may well think you're very familiar with this

02:39

But I would like you to turn to it. Anyway, please first Peter chapter 3 and We'll read from verse 13

02:49

Now I have noticed That unlike yesterday's talks with this the

02:57

Few slides I've got here I have noticed that I have forgotten to change the scripture version in the slides from the

03:05

English Standard Version Which I normally use to the new and New American Standard Bible. I do apologize for that Okay, I know

03:15

That you think the New American Standard Bible is the only Received Word of God, okay

03:23

Please forgive me So that's why we'll turn to this now and we'll read it from the New American Standard Bible so that you know exactly what's there

03:30

And you can compare it and work out what what we need to learn so from verse 13

03:36

Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness

03:46

You are blessed and Do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled but sanctify

03:54

Christ as Lord in your hearts Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you

04:04

Yet with gentleness and reverence and keep a good conscience So that's in the thing in which you are slandered those who revile your good behavior in Christ Will be put to shame

04:17

Let's stop there. Okay, so I Did say 1st Peter 3 didn't I did I say 2nd

04:22

Peter? I said 1st Peter. Okay. I got it, right Then I was just worried then I thought some people were not finding it easily I thought maybe

04:27

I said 2nd Peter by accident because I do often use 2nd Peter chapter 3 for other things So that was 1st

04:34

Peter chapter 3 1st Peter chapter 3 includes the word defense.

04:40

I don't know what's happened to the picture there Is there anything we can do about that at all? It looks perfect on my computer

04:48

Is there anything we can do at the back there at all to make that right Okay, I'll try it again

04:57

Yeah, that looks okay that other area that's better Okay, just have a look please at verse 15 verse 15.

05:07

There is one particular clause there which apologists often quote

05:13

Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that's in you

05:21

Just stick with that particular phrase for many always being ready to make a defense

05:29

Defense of what what are they asking you to defend? What's Peter asking you to defend? The word okay, can you hear that the word the

05:41

Bible anything else? Anyone else the word the

05:46

Bible and Your hope your faith What you believe the

05:53

Christian faith which includes the words of Scripture there You're being asked to defend that Okay Who are you being asked to defend it to?

06:13

who unbelievers Well, although it's got the word everyone it qualifies it doesn't it so it doesn't mean everyone everyone it's everyone who

06:25

Asks you for that about the hope that's within you everyone With whom you are having a conversation

06:33

Everyone who is asking you to defend your faith. What hope have you got and You're being asked to defend your faith for that purpose and Of course there are other words there that ask you, you know, what means you're going to use

06:50

Now if anyone is reading Either the King James Version or one or two other versions at this point, you'll know that it says there that we should always have an answer an answer so it could be the word defense or it could be the word answer and Both those are correct because they are both giving you and The meaning of the

07:19

Greek word and the Greek word there is a apologia Apologia, I've written it in Greek there for those who recognize the letters.

07:29

I Said yesterday for those who were here. I'm not an expert on Bible languages

07:36

I know a little Greek not much and I'm completely self -taught I've never attended a seminary class on the subject, but I know a little bit

07:44

I know almost no Hebrew but I try and get these things a from computer programs and be from people who

07:49

I know I respect and I know That they know what they're talking about okay so just bear that in mind because if you're then going to button and ask me to Translate a

07:57

Greek phrase because I've just happened to introduce the Greek word. I'm not going to be able to do it So I'm not going to try and pretend to you that I understand

08:06

Greek I I can recognize those shapes and I have got it from a program and I know what they you know

08:12

I've looked on all my references and so on to do it. Is that okay? Okay, so please don't start going away thinking only that man this morning was a

08:19

Greek expert, you know, very well I am NOT. Okay, your pastor is I am NOT. Okay So ask him the difficult questions

08:29

Apologia is the word that apparently is best translated as answer or defense and It's from that that we get the word apologetics

08:39

And of course you recognize it as the word, you know where we get the word apology from But you've got to understand that the use of the

08:48

English word apology is not what it used to be It's changed its meaning slightly

08:55

Nowadays we think it we use it to mean saying sorry So, you know those of you who are parents will tell your children you must give an apology

09:05

You know you hit your little sister. You'd better apologize and What the little boy concern says is well, she did it first and You say to that that little boy.

09:20

No, that's not a proper apology You've got to apologize without an excuse and of course that's good parenting

09:29

But bad use of the English language Because actually in its literal meaning what the little boy did was an apology

09:39

You see what I'm saying? Because of course you we wanted him to say sorry and wanted him to say sorry unconditionally

09:44

But the word apology used to mean a defense and what he did was he defended himself He gave you a reason

09:51

He gave you an answer a reason a defense for why he had hit his sister that doesn't mean to excuse it

09:57

It doesn't mean it was a good reason It's not an acceptable reason. Please don't think

10:02

I'm undermining your parenting. Yeah, it's definitely not an acceptable reason, but it was a reason That makes sense.

10:09

So on the older meaning of the word apology That's what we would do and you still see that of course in academic terms

10:15

You see a really good argument in a book and you write an article Agreeing with that book defending the things that were said in it that article that you write is an

10:25

Apology for what has just been said that make sense You know your favorite politician has said something that's controversial other people disagree with that person

10:35

They put all sorts of comments on Facebook about that and you put a comment defending what your favorite politician has said

10:41

Your comment was an apology. You see you were not saying sorry for what they said

10:46

You were defending what they said and that is what apologetics means and it is therefore a biblical thing that we should be doing

10:53

We should be in that sense apologizing for the faith, but we are definitely not saying sorry for the faith quite the opposite this is a

11:04

This is something that we should be doing this is that this is a proactive But having said all that there are then some misunderstandings about how we do that because these might be the sorts of questions that you might get and These are really what we're thinking about in terms of apologetics

11:24

Okay, and we might be asking things like how do you know or we might be asked things like how do you know?

11:32

The Bible is true. How do you know that God is real? Okay There are a number of different answers to this.

11:41

Well, let me just see what what your answers are Please do not give me a long lecture. We haven't time for that. Give me a very very brief summary

11:48

How do you know that the Bible is true? What would you say if someone asks you that if I put you on the spot?

11:58

How do you know the Bible is true? And please I don't understand that anything you say well

12:04

You know that it's not gonna be adequate as I know because people have written entire thick books on this subject as an answer to this

12:10

I'm not expecting you to know to do that. Okay, how do you know the Bible is true? Historical evidence that might be one.

12:22

Is that what you think about when somebody is challenging you and saying well, that's something in the Bible. Yes, sir They changed heart that's good they've had evidence we've had a changed heart basically your experience of what's happened

12:39

How do you know that God is real? Yeah, complete silence.

12:48

I think it's not that you don't know. The answer is that you're frightened that I'm going to criticize you Please don't think that I'm gonna do that Because the

12:57

Bible says that God is real. I see Right, and so that's starting from a very firm belief that what the

13:06

Bible is telling you is true. Yeah, I like that Sorry, how do you know he's not real?

13:13

Yeah That's that's an interesting response I know that there are many atheists who will tell you, you know, your burden of proof is on you and you might say well the burden of proof is not on you and In fact,

13:27

I would say that the that you're right that the burden of proof is not on you But we need to understand why because many

13:34

Christians think that the burden of proof is on them And there are many books and even even movies that have been in the movie theaters recently

13:43

But assume that the burden of proof is on Christians and that they have to make the case for this or that or whatever

13:52

Actually, the Bible doesn't do that Here are some of the sort of answers that people might give which

13:58

I will go to but but I want to first of all mention That's many people will quote first Peter 315 without really fully understanding the context and the context is important This is the bit that people usually quote

14:09

Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that's in you But having got that in front of you, you know, that's not the full verse.

14:18

There's something at the big before it There's something after it which is in your hearts on a Christ as holy

14:24

Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that's in you Yet do it with gentleness and respect

14:32

The last bit is very very important. We're not to be belligerent We're supposed to be winsome in the way that we defend the faith.

14:40

So we must do it with gentleness and respect That's that, you know should go without saying, of course, it's not always the case

14:46

There are some Christians and I am one of them who can get very very argumentative There's something

14:52

I have to repent of very very frequently. Okay, and it's been crossing the line there

14:57

But we've also got to remember the first bit This is important because when you are defending the faith you should do so using an argument which honors

15:08

Christ the Lord as holy and That is a problem because there are people who defend the faith with great gentleness and respect

15:17

But I would argue that the way they do so is still not honoring

15:23

Christ the Lord as holy I'll give you I'll show you what I mean by that As we go through but it is very important that our

15:34

Apologetics honors Christ the Lord as holy and it's my opinion That there are many many apologists out there who are using arguments which they do out of Genuine belief that you know, they honestly think they're doing the right thing

15:53

But actually if you listen to their arguments their arguments are not Honoring Christ the

15:58

Lord is holy Okay, I would suggest then that there are four main classes of apologetics four different ways of Doing apologetics four different ways of answering those questions that I gave you

16:14

How do you know the Bible's true? How do you know that God is real? There are there's an experiential apologetics there's evidential apologetics there's classical apologetics and there's

16:29

Presuppositional apologetics. I want to show you very very fast in just a couple of minutes

16:34

How those work and why I believe that only one of those is biblical and that the other three are not

16:43

Okay So that's my aim in the next 10 to 15 minutes

16:50

Okay, let's start with every and with experiential apologetics Now this is really a label that one or two of us have put on this because I don't know that many people deliberately set out to use

17:02

Experiential apologetics, but here's how it goes. Obviously it's to do with your experience. In other words, you defend the faith according to your experience so the question remember is how do you know that God is real an

17:19

Experiential apologetics is often people's default setting So that a typical answer to the question.

17:25

How do you know that God is real is I was raised that way.

17:34

I was raised that way. Have you heard that argument? Okay, you're all frightened now because I'll be very careful.

17:43

I ask this question It's probable that may have some of you including me may have used that argument Because I was raised in a church home

17:51

I now look back and I think I was not raised as a Christian But I was raised in what my parents thought was a

17:56

Christian home Okay, and there are some good things about that.

18:01

Let's face it I did go to Sunday school. I don't think it was an adequate Sunday school, but I did learn a lot of Bible stories and So I did have a fair amount of knowledge by the time in my mid to late teens that I actually became a

18:15

Christian So the background there was of use and I'm not going to despise it My parents did what they thought was right at the time they've gone to be with the

18:24

Lord now and they have gone to be with the Lord because Subsequent to I was the first person in my family to be saved but not the last and my parents were both saved later, so I Was raised that way

18:37

But I hear this as a genuine answer. I was raised that way Okay, do you think?

18:44

This is where I'll answer ask quite a careful question so that I'm not going to put you on the spot Okay, do you think that is a satisfactory answer?

18:53

Okay, think about it. Is it a persuasive answer? No What about?

19:02

You've been from Britain there are many parts of Britain where you might meet people who've immigrated to Britain From different parts of the world, especially people from different parts of the

19:14

British Commonwealth So for example when I was in Leicester, you would have had a lot of people who came from the

19:21

Indian subcontinent People brought up in Pakistan as Muslims If you ask them, why do you believe in Allah?

19:33

They might say because I was raised that way What about them, you know if my friends there who were

19:42

Hindus Why do you go into the temple and put a saucer of milk at the foot of the statue

19:50

The elephant the elephant God statue. Okay his name. I've just forgotten momentarily Why do you do that?

19:58

Because I was raised that way Now it's not true.

20:03

Then if you were if you were brought up in India Think of this question if you were brought up in India where there were a lot of Hindu people and your parents were

20:15

Hindu Would you now be a Hindu? It's a tricky question

20:28

Good Well done. What a good because God's sovereign. Remember what's God got to say about this?

20:35

And here's the problem with the experiential apologetics. It's not Recognizing God a sovereign

20:41

It's not recognizing Christ as Lord and yet many people many

20:47

Christians would say Oh, yes, if I was brought up in India, I would be a Hindu to which

20:53

I might reply Well, are you a Christian only because you were brought up in America, is it cultural and Again without putting anyone on the spot.

21:05

Do you believe that there are cultural Christians who are Christians because they were raised that way

21:14

Yes quote Christians. Yes So the experiential apologetics and as I say, you wouldn't normally get a book with the title experiential apologetics

21:25

I'm saying it's just the default option. It's when people haven't really thought about it But if you're if you're on the spot, you're defending your faith

21:31

That may be the way that people say it and we just say it's not a satisfactory answer

21:37

Nor is it a satisfactory answer to say? Well, I'm a Christian because it works for me

21:43

Why is that not a satisfactory answer? It works for me a Lot of people like that answer, you know today.

21:50

Why do they like it? You know, why is that not a satisfactory answer? But why do they like it? You can answer either those questions.

21:56

It's a real question. Come on It's not It's not offensive that's true, though We don't necessarily understand we have to be offensive in the sense of taking the battle out there

22:08

But not offensive in the sense of putting people's backs up deliberately Hmm. Yes.

22:18

Why is it popular today? It is Everybody has their own thing and remember we're in a postmodern world

22:26

If you understand the times that we live in this of course is the prevailing view It's okay for you to be a

22:33

Christian. That's your truth. I've got my truth That's postmodernism, isn't it? The idea that everyone has their own truth now

22:40

That's of course is unbiblical because actually truth means nothing if there is no standard behind it

22:47

There has to be a standard Something is true Because it's true and why is it true because it's according to what

22:55

God says that's what makes it true there is only one objective pattern of truth and I should be pointing to a paper

23:04

Bible here, but I've got a program on my The Bible is there I can see the Bible there on my tablet. You can't see that but that's why it's true because it's in Scripture okay, second type of Apologetics is evidential apologetics

23:20

And this is where we get a little bit more problematic where some of you may wonder what I what case I'm trying to make

23:25

Here, what's the evidence that will prove things to be true? What's the evidence?

23:31

So you say why do you believe in God? Why do you believe in God what you might want to do then is give people evidence that God Exists or why do you believe the

23:43

Bible is true give them evidence that shows that the Bible is true Okay And I'm about to criticize this so I'm letting you in on that just go again

23:54

So that you don't have too much fear on this why what I want to do I give people evidence that will prove things to be true

24:01

Isn't that a good method of doing it because this is in fact a method that many many

24:06

Apologists today use in order to defend the Christian faith. God is real

24:11

Because I can give you the proof that he's real I Can make the case that he's real

24:20

Why would someone like me want to try and criticize that and the answer very much here?

24:25

Just as a clue is in the scripture passage that we actually read any ideas

24:36

Okay Let me give you a scenario and then maybe this will get you to the answer and I'm not letting you off the question because I'm Going to ask it again, but here's the scenario

24:45

Supposing you do this supposing you have some real winning Arguments and you're very eloquent in what you say and you're speaking to the atheist here and you're explaining some of the reasons

24:56

Why you believe that God is real You've given those arguments at the end.

25:02

They say yes, I can see then that there must be a God Are you going to jump up and down at that point and say praise the

25:10

Lord? Because they've said that they understand and accept that there is a God the demons know that Demons know that there's a

25:23

God Actually demons know a little bit more than that, but many humans only know that there is a

25:28

God If you use yes, sir, it faith that is true.

25:36

Did you hear that? It's an application of the wisdom of men and Therefore it fails to sanctify

25:42

Christ. How can it fail to sanctify Christ? Well, here's the here's the reason why I can fail to sanctify Christ. You've got them to believe in a

25:49

God what God? What God You know as a creation speaker it applies in creationism because there are a lot of people who say we should be showing people

26:03

We don't need to mention God we can take get people in schools and in public schools to learn intelligent design

26:11

That so, you know instead of believing that Organisms evolve we can show them that there are mechanisms which are so complex

26:20

They could not possibly have evolved. They must have been designed Intelligently so there is an intelligence that design them and many creationists think that is a wonderful thing to do

26:32

And by the way, I'm saying this you obviously have gotten the idea that I don't think it's a wonderful thing to do Can you see why?

26:38

You brought them to believe in a God a creator What's the point?

26:45

because if they believe in a God a Creator they are still going to hell

26:51

Just as much as the atheist who doesn't believe in a God who actually really does believe in a God believes himself to be

26:58

God Remember the Bible says that there isn't actually any such thing as an atheist anyway

27:05

Okay, knowing God they refused to accept him as God Romans chapter 1 read through that section

27:14

It's why Ray Comfort wrote a book called God does not believe in atheists Which is a brilliant title and absolutely biblically true, isn't it?

27:24

God does not believe in atheists He knows that there are no atheists because he knows that everyone knows that he exists But many people refuse to accept him because they prefer their sin

27:32

What Romans 1 says? So here's where many godly people whose intentions are very good

27:42

Try and give you arguments to prove to you that God exists and they bring you to believe a

27:49

God And if that God is only the end result of an argument

27:55

Then he's not the true God He's not the God of the

28:00

Bible and it does you know God no good at all Now there was a gentleman called

28:07

Anthony Flew Anthony Flew have you heard of him? He was a well -known atheist in Britain He wrote books and books and books on the subject of atheism

28:22

When the humanist manifesto number three was published he was one of the signatories to that He was a man who was quoted widely by other

28:33

Atheists who you will know of such as Richard Dawkins and others quoted him as being a well -known

28:40

Philosopher he criticized the idea of life after death

28:46

He criticized the idea of the problem of evil evil and any form of meaningfulness

28:53

It was in 2003 that he signed the humanist manifesto version 3 and the very next year 2004 he changed his position and he stated that he now believed in the existence of an intelligent creator of the universe

29:11

Atheists were horrified Many many Christians were jumping up and down for joy.

29:22

Can I rain on the parade? I'm afraid I wasn't jumping up and down for joy If any of you heard about Anthony Flew, I don't know whether you were or not.

29:32

He did not become a Christian He believe he turned his instead of being an atheist

29:38

He became what's known as a deist where he believed there was something controlling the universe But you couldn't really know who or what he was

29:48

How is that better than being an atheist an atheist really inside the heart?

29:53

Really knows that God exists and a deist inside the heart really knows that God exists and they actually know that the

30:00

God that exists Is not Allah Or an elephant God or anything else that the

30:05

God that exists is actually the God of the Bible But they refuse to accept that so the

30:11

Bible tells us so we shouldn't have been jumping up and down for joy Anthony Flew died a deist

30:22

We have no idea what he may or may not have done in his deathbed but if he did nothing else on his deathbed did him he did no repentance and putting his trust in the

30:33

Lord Jesus Christ the Savior then becoming a deist and acknowledging that being an atheist is wrong did not save him

30:40

Sorry if that depresses you but it's true. It's the truth what the Bible teaches So giving people evidence to prove that there's a

30:48

God Also doesn't exist Now there are many apologists who will take

30:55

This a little bit further and they'll say well after all seeing is believing isn't that well seeing actually is not necessarily believing

31:02

Try this for size for example. This is a place in Scotland called electric grey

31:08

Watch this car See if I can get it to work. There's a short video clip here.

31:14

It should be moving Whoops my computer is a just disconnected from It's not good.

31:26

Okay. Well, I'm gonna move beyond that picture and it's a YouTube video You can find it very easily.

31:31

Well this place called electric grey in Scotland You can get out of the car take your brakes off the car and allow the car to roll backwards uphill

31:45

You can see that you're driving downhill But you take your brake off the car of the car and the car rolls back uphill not rolling downhill why because obviously it really is going downhill, but the lie of the land is an optical illusion and It's a well -known spot in in in Scotland the town called

32:06

Bray, but more recently they started calling it electric grey Seeing is believing and people say that but actually your eyes are one of the yes

32:15

You're seeing sense is the sense that is actually the easiest to fool believe it or not

32:21

Your eyes are very easy to fool Well, my computer's saying it's connected, but it's not showing connected on the screen

32:30

Do we know why Do we know why it's not connecting at all.

32:39

I'm gonna try again. Okay magic is about to happen.

32:51

There we go All right, let's try again That's spirit.

32:58

That was sir. That's a picture of Spirit Lake Not the Spirit Lake here the Spirit Lake near Mount St.

33:03

Helens Well, we're still not getting what I want here

33:11

Okay, well I'm gonna have to do this without slides

33:17

I'm just straight from the notes because we can't see the picture and I hope you'll just excuse me doing that But seeing is not believing

33:22

Seeing doesn't doesn't work that way If you remember the idea of seeing is believing is something that was mentioned in Scripture because the

33:30

Apostle Thomas Mentioned it and he said, you know I'm not going to believe that Jesus has risen till I see the the nail prints in his hands and the hole and his feet and the hole in his side and Jesus very graciously when he next appeared and Thomas was in the room

33:46

Invited Thomas to prove for himself It's interesting by the way that Jesus only ever offered evidence to people who were already believers

33:55

Read through and you'll see that if there was somebody who wasn't a believer like for example

34:01

Jairus when Jesus once was going to heal Jairus his daughter the evidence that Jesus gave him was only believe

34:10

Only believe which is why when I wrote a book on the subject of apologetics. I entitled it only believe

34:16

Because Jesus throughout the Gospels you'll find this he never offers evidence to unbelievers

34:21

He only offers evidence to believers and that's a key point Evidence is not for unbelievers evidence is for believers

34:29

It backs up what you believe and it causes you to praise God Evidence given to unbelievers does not cause them to praise

34:36

God and therefore does not sanctify God as holy Does not sanctify Christ the Lord as holy

34:43

Classical apologetics is what many Christians want to go into this is the third type and it's evidential plus You'll use evidential apologetics with all the problems that I've just made and you'll try to prove to somebody that a

34:55

God exists And then you'll add a bit to that to say well the God that exists has to be the

35:00

God of the Bible Let's have a look at things like fulfilled prophecy and this is very popular and in some ways it might be a slightly better system

35:08

But it still is not immediately sanctifying the Lord as holy because even there the prophetic words are there for the believers a

35:19

Sign for believers to help them understand that what scripture is doing is pointing us to Jesus Christ So even then it's not really giving you much more than the evidential

35:30

Apologetics did and after all the bulk of your argument is the evidential method Anyway, trying to give them evidence to prove to them that God exists

35:39

So I would say therefore that although the classical apologetics looks a little bit better That is also really not what scripture requires so that brings us back to To our passage and just just a reminder by the way in 2nd

35:57

Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18 It says we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen

36:04

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal Evidence is things that are seen and you're trying to give to people to try and prove to them that God exists

36:15

You're trying to give to them things that are transient But it's the things that are unseen

36:21

That are eternal and that's what Romans 1 is talking about the things that are unseen They're the things that they already know because as I said all everybody already knows that God exists

36:34

But they're refusing to accept that Because they prefer their sin so that brings us then to the

36:45

The fact that many people would say evidence speaks for itself. Have you heard people say that?

36:52

Evidence speaks for itself Actually, that's not true Evidence doesn't speak for itself

37:00

Evidence is interpreted So, you know if I could have got that video working for you, you could have seen the car

37:08

Rolling up the hill a gentle slope uphill and you would have said well that proves that there's a different sort of gravity in Scotland Because the evidence speaks for itself

37:19

But of course then you look a little bit further and you see actually there is a different interpretation of the evidence

37:25

That relies on the fact that the way that the rocks are arranged and even the direction that the trees are growing has fooled your eyes

37:33

So that really what appears to be uphill is actually downhill The evidence should have been that if the car is rolling in one direction that must be downhill

37:41

That should have been the evidence. But of course our eyes have fooled that so evidence is not

37:48

Evidence does not speak for itself evidence is interpreted That's why in what

37:54

I normally do when I'm talking about things Giving people evidence and I will give people evidence, but in a different context evidence itself proves nothing if I show you how complex a cell is an

38:08

Evolutionist will say look at how well that has evolved and a creationist will say look how well

38:13

God has designed that the same evidence with different conclusions One of those conclusions is correct

38:20

In all cases if you think about it, if someone gives you the evidence They will interpret it if you've got two different interpretations, they could both be wrong, but they can't both be right

38:30

They can't because you can't have truth for you and truth for you and truth for you. There's only one truth

38:36

But although they can't all be right, although they can't all be right, although they could all be wrong One of them could be right.

38:44

And of course, it's the one that lines up with scripture. That's right and that brings us to presuppositional apologetics a

38:52

Presupposition is not necessarily correct. Of course, you could have a false presupposition So when

38:57

I talk about presuppositional apologetics, I have to tell you what presuppositions we actually need which is why we need to go back to the scripture on this, but here's an example of a

39:09

Presuppositional question and it's a famous one. You must have heard this question being asked many times Supposing I picked on someone at random one of the gentlemen in the audience and I said have you stopped beating your wife?

39:22

You've heard that question, haven't you? Think about it. If you've heard the question, have you stopped beating your wife yet?

39:27

How should that man respond? Should he say yes or no?

39:35

Exactly instead of answering the question You've got to challenge the presuppositions because the question has a presupposition that you were beating your wife at one time

39:43

Now you stopped or now you haven't stopped The question is not a fair question and the majority of questions that are being asked are not fair questions

39:52

And actually the questions that I asked you at the beginning were not fair questions unless you answer them presuppositionally

40:00

You know the question to say how do you know God is real is equivalent to saying how do you know that your wife is real?

40:09

You know, I go to places often when I'm speaking. I'm very privileged here because my wife's here on this row

40:15

Many times I would have to say well, my wife's not there She's not with me.

40:21

She's at home How do you know therefore that I'm married? How do you know that my wife exists?

40:27

I've shown you a photograph on the screen But people can use Photoshop can't they?

40:33

There are even such things as deep fakes these days where people are very very realistic looking people can be rented and even made to Move you can even mix up CGI Animations with real with real movies a strange world we live in.

40:48

How do you know? Well the point is So that to prove to you that my wife exists, I'm not going to give you very much evidence at all

40:55

I'm going to introduce you to her. That's the way we do it and I'm going to introduce you to God I know that God exists.

41:02

It's not a question of proof. I know God exists. Like I know my wife exists. He's real He's real and what's more?

41:10

I know God is real in exactly the same way that everyone else knows God is real if there's an atheist sat here and he

41:15

Says to me, how do you know God is real? I will say exactly the same way that you do You see you're challenging the presupposition.

41:24

The presupposition is that God might not be real The true presupposition is that of course

41:30

God is real because we know him everybody knows him So there's your answer. I know God is real in exactly the same way as you do

41:38

And I'm not going to waste time giving evidence to prove that Everybody knows

41:44

God is real and you're challenging their assumptions straight away. You're challenging their presuppositions

41:51

My second son Jack Once came running in I think he was

41:56

I must have been about let's see maybe about 11 years old came running downstairs and Came into the kitchen where I was sat where I was trying to arrange a meal and his question was

42:13

Dad have you got any of that stuff for filling in holes in a wall? What should have been my answer

42:26

Should I have said no, I'll go out and buy some Should I have said?

42:32

Yes, because actually that would have been the truthful answer. I did have some of that stuff. He must have seen it at some point Polyfillo was the brand name that we had in in Britain for filling in the sheet what the sheet rock holes in the sheet rock in the wall

42:46

That isn't the answer I gave Well as some of your parents if your if your son came to you and said that dad if you've got any of that stuff

42:54

For filling in holes in walls, what would your answer have been? What have you done? He had made a hole in the wall

43:04

He wanted to cover it up without letting me know But he wants to see if he could find some of that stuff for filling in holes in the wall

43:12

There was a presupposition behind the question. There is always a presupposition Okay, and let's look back at 1st

43:19

Peter chapter 3 verse 15 then in conclusion 1st Peter chapter 3 In fact just going before 1st

43:29

Peter chapter 3 verse 15 We read from verse 13 who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what's good?

43:35

Because the verse 15 has got the Greek word Apologo in for a defense or argument many people think therefore we should use

43:44

Greek Argumentation, but that's not true. And here's why and this is where I'll end.

43:51

Will you please turn to Isaiah chapter 8? Isaiah chapter 8 and In fact if I can find this right

44:02

I want you to look at Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 12 Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 12 here is what it says

44:13

You are not to say it is a conspiracy in regard to all that this people call a

44:18

Conspiracy and you are not to fear what they fear or in being dread of it

44:23

It's the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. He shall be your fear

44:29

He shall be your dread then he shall become a sanctuary But to both houses of Israel a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over Does that sound familiar to you?

44:40

It should do Because it's very very similar to in an

44:46

Old Testament version to what's just been said in 1st Peter chapter 3 and I did have a slide that put the two together and compared them and I'm going to leave this as your work go back and Compare these two passages.

44:58

It's very similar. In other words the arguments that we should use should not go to any form of Greek argumentation of giving people evidence of trying to prove by Logical deduction that God exists

45:12

No They should presuppose that God exists and that the Bible is true and you go back and you show them from Scripture What they need to know

45:22

Because that's what Peter was doing Peter might have been writing in Greek But he didn't think in Greek and that's why it's so precious probably that it was

45:30

Peter who wrote this rather than Paul Of course, it would have been equally true if Paul had written it if God had inspired him to write it

45:37

It's all inspired. But I'm just saying here's someone we know who would think in Hebrew is think in the in the

45:44

In the Jewish way of doing things and so his first response here is not Greek Of course,

45:49

Paul would have done as well, but Paul knew Greek philosophy Peter wasn't wasn't versed in Greek philosophy

45:54

So he is immediately taking you not to Greek philosophy, but straight back to the Old Testament scriptures

46:00

It's the whole of Scripture today, of course, but that's what we use that is to be our presupposition that God is real and that the

46:09

Bible is true and That's where we start from That's what presuppositional apologetics is about and everything else you might study on the subject

46:19

We'll be just fleshing that out and putting it into practice Let's pray shall we?

46:26

Thank you Lord God for your word. I Thank you Lord that it's true And I thank you

46:31

Lord that it speaks of you in every word and every page I pray

46:36

Lord God that we will sanctify Christ the Lord as holy in the way that we speak to people and the way that we defend our faith and The way that we point people to you for the honor and for the glory of your name