Defending The Faith: How Do We Know Anything At All?

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So we're talking today about apologetics to the glory of God. Now I love that it was put that way because I think that's the distinction that we need to carry with ourselves into this conversation about Christian apologetics.

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In 1 Peter 3 .15 we consider that the charter verse of all Christian apologetics and the apostle

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Peter says in the first century in the context of lots of hostile perspectives and worldviews to the

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Christian worldview, he says to set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts. Now in 30 minutes we don't have time to begin to unpack that it really is glorious it really is a testimony to the the deity of the

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Lord Jesus Christ to set him apart really as Yahweh in your hearts and it says to always be ready to give a reasoned defense an apologia and a reasoned defense for the hope that's within you yet to do it with gentleness and with reverence.

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And it's interesting because we live in a time where there are even in the midst of evangelicalism lots of different perspectives about how to defend the faith or how not to even bother defending the faith there are all kinds of different perspectives many times

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Christians would take the methodology today that's so popular that we say you just needed to be liked by people you need to make friendships you need to you know invite people to barbecues and get close to them and sort of earn the right to preach the gospel to them and all kinds of pithy slogans that people have about the

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Christian faith and it doesn't need to be defended those sorts of things but we're actually given a command to set

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Christ apart as Lord in our hearts and to always be ready to give an apologia a reasoned defense that's courtroom language by the way apologia is courtroom language it's coming into the courtroom and it's reasoning for your case it's actually providing a defense and so we have the inspired apostle tell us as believers that we are to always be ready to give an apologia a reasoned defense for the hope is within us and to do it with gentleness of course and with reverence or respect now you see this in the methodology of the apostles they do not contain the truth of the

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Christian faith and the gospel itself and the lordship of Jesus Christ but between their ears and behind their eyeballs you see actually in the book of acts the apostles bringing the truth of God bringing the gospel itself and the command to repent and believe get that and you'll sort of understand the nuts and bolts of what i'm saying the command to repent and believe into the public square again in the short time we have before us today in this bible college we don't have time to begin to unpack all the instances where we see either the lord

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Jesus or the apostles bringing the truth into the public square but you see it as you unfold the book of acts you see it in what was taking place in the ancient church in the beginning of this glorious mission to win the nations to Christ you see the apostles bringing the gospel the claims of Christ the authority of Jesus Christ and the command to repent and believe into the public square whether you see it in the apostle

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Peter the apostles being commanded by the state to stop preaching in the name of Christ to stop bringing the name of Christ in the public square their response to that is we must obey

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God rather than men and they're commanded to stop doing this they take a beating they leave the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus and then they go about going house to house continuing to preach the gospel despite the command the authoritative command to stop doing so they say

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Jesus is Lord he has all authority and his authority is actually above yours so we'll obey him and not you the apostle

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Paul in acts chapter 9 we see his conversion story when the apostle Paul was knocked off his high horse or donkey or whatever it was and he comes to faith in Christ in acts chapter 9 it says that he immediately after the scales fall from his eyes and he goes into damascus goes preaching

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Christ where they were at the synagogue and it says that he's arguing with the jews reasoning with them proving that Jesus is the messiah and the result is interesting because you might often think in the context of modern evangelicalism well what was the fruit of that like how how did it go for you was it was it profitable was it good did did was it well received and it's interesting as you read acts chapter 9 he's going to the synagogues to reason with them and prove that Jesus is the messiah the result is actually rather interesting and a lot of modern evangelicals might say you might want to change your methodology paul because people aren't receiving this as well as we might wish so maybe you know changed up a bit do something different make sure that you're well received by others it actually says that the hellenistic jews in acts chapter 9 they actually wanted to kill him so he goes into the public square he's reasoning from the scriptures he's proving jesus is the messiah and the result was some people actually wanted to kill the apostle paul you actually have people and i don't think this has been done for me or for many of us yet that are actually taking oaths that they won't even eat anything until he's dead right how's that for successful missions right i'm not going to eat a thing until this guy is removed from the map but it's interesting because you see that conflict taking place in the public square the proclamation of truth in the public square you see it taking place you see it taking place faithfully and people want him dead but it actually says in the same text that the church was built up that they were multiplied and they experienced peace as a result of what as a result of truth proclaimed in the public square you see the apostle paul of course continuing that that we're skipping over a lot here but in acts chapter 17 you see the apostle paul at the areopagus you see the apostle paul at mars hill he's provoked within himself because of the idolatry that he sees he's brought up i actually believe in mars hill at the areopagus he's being brought up being questioned there's sort of a formal charge situation being taken place there in act 17 and he does what there he doesn't pretend neutrality he engages with their position with a firm footing on the word of god and the authority of jesus christ to the degree that at the end of the discussion at the areopagus he actually says and god commands men everywhere to repent no neutrality truth in the public square with a command to repent and to believe here's here's the point we see in the book of acts we see that the apostles the leadership of the early christian church the christians are going into the public square they are standing on the authority of jesus christ they are not neutral and they are coming with the command to repent and to believe in jesus christ and it results in what the church is increasing in number it's experiencing peace and there is this glorious transformation taking place in the world where you have jews and gentiles coming to worship yahweh in fulfillment of biblical prophecy but there are riots that break out riots actual riots there are beatings that take place and that was considered successful missiology riots and beatings they they would take a beating for jesus and their their response to the beating for jesus was what praise god that i'm counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of christ the apostle paul actually says as part of his testimony he says that he's been beaten times without number and i often ask when i get to that passage how many times do you take a beating for jesus in the gospel when you decide i'll just stop counting at this point because i actually don't remember now how many times i've taken a beating for jesus he says he's been shipwrecked he's been lost at sea he's he's constantly in danger he's in danger from false christians he's in danger from his own countrymen and this was successful missiology the proclamation of the truth of god in the public square that leads at times to people coming to jesus that's all to the glory of god and to taking a beating for jesus and persecution that's success i saw somebody the other day on a um on a community page i i think i got tagged in it somewhere and they they asked the question does anybody know how come apology of church has such a successful evangelism situation going on does anybody know sort of their secret now i saw it and i wanted to make sure that i encouraged mostly pastors to understand sort of what's happening in apology of church there's no glory by the way to us this is just all the glory of christ but what what is happening in a small church in the desert that is impacting the cults and atheism and all of this how is that working out how many how are so many people coming out of the cults to christ and coming out of radical unbelief to christ and humanism and atheism how is that actually happening how can we have ex -mormons and ex -jehovah's witnesses among us at apology of church people who are devout mormons i've got ex -mormon missionaries at apology of church how does that take place people want to know the answer is first and foremost fundamentally god is sovereign first and foremost but the answer i think is what we've tried to model an apology of church and again this is no glory to us is we look at the bible and we see the early church is actually engaging in evangelism and the proclamation of truth in the public square and they're standing on the authority of jesus they're standing on the gospel itself and they're proclaiming and believing that the gospel is the power of god for salvation that's the answer we see that the leadership of the church is actually leading by example by going into the public square they're leading the people of god into conflict with the world so i do believe that one of the answers to a question like that like what's god doing an apology of church the small church in the desert with people who are not very special honestly we're not i think the answer is trying to follow the methodology of scripture trying to follow what we see in scripture in terms of what were they doing to turn the world upside down for christ the world's turning the church upside down right now how come they were doing so well and the answer is the authority of god the truth of god the gospel itself into the public square bringing the gospel to where the world is and proclaiming the truth of god and that oftentimes leads to conflict it'll lead to persecution it'll lead to difficulty it really truly will it's not an easy thing but the fruit of it is so glorious see i actually think in two ways god is glorified through the faithful proclamation of the truth and defense of the gospel by standing on the authority of scripture number one god is glorified of course when he saves unworthy sinners people who are hostile towards him people who hate god who are enemies of god when he raises a dead person to life it is all to his glory of course that is glorious gift and blessing and success but i also think that is very very successful to go into a place to preach the gospel faithfully and a riot breaks out and you die that's successful missions both ways but when you think about foundations and i'm going to go super fast here and if you know me you know that i have sins in the area of time and uh i'm going to do my very best i haven't preached for about five weeks now and so um i'll try to hold all this together but i'll just point you to two passages i won't be able to read them in full right now because of time again but colossians chapter 2 in colossians chapter 2 this is the apostle paul talking in the context of gnosticism gnosticism was has been and is one of the greatest enemies of christian truth gnosticism does exist in the modern day and it does exist in actually evangelical churches gnostic beliefs we haven't been able to completely shake loose but he had the the apostle paul had to deal with the gnostics in the first century you see john writing about the gnostics and you see the apostle paul writing about the gnostics but in colossians chapter 2 i'll just read this portion he says verse 1 for i want you to know how great a struggle i have for you and for those in laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and knowledge of god's mystery which is christ messiah in whom that's jesus in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge you know let that sit because i think i think we're all guilty of this you'll see some grand truths some majestic truths coming from scripture in a single line oftentimes we don't allow that to impact us transform us and to see the world in a completely new way we don't often see just how majestic and grand this truth is and what it really means like what comes out of that truth that in christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge you want wisdom you want knowledge it's all in christ it's in jesus that's the claim of scripture and that's actually a pretty audacious claim when you think about it i mean we have universities right now all over the world that are studying epistemology the theory of knowledge how do we know how do we know how shall we live people are studying this people are teaching this and there's a variety of different perspectives especially amongst unbelievers because they can't seem to pin down how we can know what we can know and the apostle paul says through inspiration that in christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge you want knowledge you want truth you want wisdom you need to start with christ now he says this in verse six he says therefore as you received christ jesus the lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding and thanksgiving and here it is see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to christ so there's a warning from the apostle paul again in the context of the early church you have gnosticism they're dealing with and all kinds of different ways people can know and their secret knowledge and all these different things he says see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to christ so there is a philosophy that is not according to christ which would of course entail the idea that there is a philosophy which is according to christ there is a way to get at knowledge there is a way to get at wisdom there is a way to have understanding that is according to christ and of course there are philosophies that are not according to christ and paul says don't let anybody rob you of wisdom and knowledge don't let rob you by giving you a philosophy that is not according to christ if you want wisdom if you want knowledge it's all wrapped up in jesus christ and don't be robbed of these treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are in christ and not in these unbiblical and ungodly philosophies of the world so we talk about apologetics and the defense of the christian faith we're talking about giving a reasoned defense to somebody as to why we believe that jesus is the messiah why we believe he's the ultimate why we believe he's worthy of your entire life and i want you to consider for a moment very important thing about jesus we have today to deal in of course the evangelical west with a gospel that is not in accordance with what we see in the new testament itself we see people making pleas to strangers about will you just give jesus a try will you just give him a chance i can do no better than this because it it stunned me when i saw it many years ago i was it was christmas time i was spending time with the family and the television was on and it was a news it was a news report and rick warren was actually on this newscast and he was talking about jesus and i'll never forget what he said he was talking about jesus and he actually pled with people to just give jesus like a 90 -day trial or a 60 -day trial is i think what he said so he said just give give him a try give him a try for like 60 or 90 days brothers and sisters that's not the gospel that's not the gospel the claims of christ come like he's the foundation of wisdom and knowledge he has all authority in heaven and on earth and jesus actually calls people to come to himself in a very different way than we see today people playing with pleading with people to come to him jesus actually tells people when he has massive crowds around him he says to them he turns to them and he actually says to them if anyone comes to me and does not hate and that's loving in comparison to by the way not a moral sort of ethical evil sinful hatred of somebody but if anybody comes to him and does not hate he names the most important people in your life mother father sister brother wife husband and he says this not just this you have to love them in comparison to me less and he says and even your own life and he says he says you must take up your cross and come to die you see that's the call of the gospel that's the call of the authoritative christ and we talk about apologetics to the glory of god whatever your apologetic is it must be wrapped up in your call to come to christ as lord and savior and you have to remember that this isn't a try jesus out sort of a gospel this is a gospel that comes with authority the command to repent believe and this is a gospel that comes with the understanding that when i'm reasoning to defend the christian faith and i'm actually providing a defense of the christian faith it is already with christ set apart as set apart as Yahweh so before i even engage in this enterprise of defense of the christian faith of apologetics christian apologetics i'm starting with christ set apart as Yahweh that's how i start that's how i defend the christian faith to the glory of god it's not with neutrality it's it's with the goal to lead this person to jesus christ and how do i do that how do i do that with the assumption that maybe their philosophy that is not in accordance with christ is true do i do it with neutrality as i engage the world do i do it with the offer of the gospel that is a trial offer give jesus a 60 -day trial how do you think the apostles would have felt about that that kind of a gospel they're taking beatings for jesus how's that 60 -day trial working out for you right you got a hot back it's stripped it's it's bloody it's it's messy you got people who hate you you're shipwrecked you get everyone trying to kill you you got slander you got gossip how's that trial working out for you jesus wants you to be happy healthy and wealthy according to many modern evangelicals and that is not what you see in the book of acts you see the understanding that coming to jesus is coming to die and rise again when you come to christ you're coming to leave the old man the old woman behind buried and dead you're coming actually to christ and you're made alive you're made a new creation and you're leaving all of this world behind and you're understanding that jesus is the ultimate you see if you haven't come to christ in that way i don't know if you should have confidence that you come to christ that jesus is everything he's the ultimate because by the way that's exactly how he brings the gospel and and listen i know that can clear out churches it can clear out conferences if you haven't come to die then you haven't come and by the way jesus understands that and so when he preaches the gospel to this massive crowds that are finally building up we're seeing some success in this mission i suppose all these thousands of people he turns around and he calls the crowd he just cleans him out he brings it right back down again to a small group of disciples and the other ones turn away but what's interesting here is their response when they leave jesus the massive crowds leave jesus with his authority and his proclamation he turns around he says to his disciples something like well do you also want to go and what's the response of the apostle where are we going to go here's the answer you have the words of eternal life you see they understood of course that's a work of god god opens the eyes of the blind god gives new hearts to people they didn't have that understanding on their own jesus tells them things like that flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you right this is my father who's in heaven this is a work of god in the heart but what did they understand that the crowds didn't they understood that this is about eternal life this is about christ this is about me and god this is about reconciliation this is about peace where am i gonna go you're the one that has the way to life and you're the only way that's how the gospel comes when we talk about this question of christian apologetics we have to understand and again i'm trying to go as fast as i can here how much time do i have here i'm going to do more tonight so this will be a wetting your appetite so this is a advertisement for this evening's message we'll do some more application of this we talk about apologetics to the glory of god i want to just try to communicate at least these truths to you big word here not very special but epistemology it's a theory of knowledge don't know how to throw you it's it's not it's not hard to understand it's not very special it's a theory of knowledge how do you know how do you know that it's quite it's asked all the time it's it's a question that's a question of every day of your life how do you know how do you know that why are you doing that on what basis who says all the time all the time if i mean if you are driving down these country roads which are sketchy and you are trying not for me right now because i got the thing that's holding me in so i'm fine you guys are you guys are toast um you're driving down these roads watch here's here's what you're doing you're driving down these roads and maybe you're you're being careful you're turning a corner that you've never seen before and there's houses you know you're you're cautious as you turn that corner you're around the corner why why are you why are you cautious well maybe you have passengers in the car with you what are you trying to do you're trying to preserve their lives you're trying to love them and what else maybe i'm turning that corner this is on my mind i'm turning that corner in this very fast car and i'm recognizing i don't know what's around that corner there could be kids playing in the street now i'm not just fearful of punishment i don't want to kill someone's kid i don't want to harm my neighbor now why on what basis you see it's as simple as that it's such a simple thing we just take for granted all the time that we're taking we're taking caution we're being concerned as we as we round a bend we've never seen before with houses everywhere and we see some things that kids are playing on you're like i gotta be careful because there are probably children out here i could run into someone's child and take their life i could kill somebody what am i doing trying to preserve human life who says that's important why do i care about that you see here's the problem we we have so bought into the lie of neutrality and the myth of neutrality we haven't even understood all the glories of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in christ understands that that claim i need to preserve human life is a fundamentally christian claim alone justified only through the word of god and jesus christ god's special revelation you don't believe me take a look at the unbelievers system the unbeliever who has a philosophy that is not according to christ he has a theory of knowledge how he knows what he knows he says well on this basis rationalism or empiricism or this basis and you dig down and you start to go underneath and say what what are you standing on in your system and they say well you know human beings are just african apes human beings are cosmic accidents there is no good there is no evil there is only blind and pitiless indifference richard dawkins river out of eden there is no ultimate morality you live you die and you're gone you're absolutely gone when you die dr will provine he's dead now he's creationist but he's an atheist was an atheist and his worldview says nothing matters there's no ultimates you can take the worldview of the dialectical materialist today the trained marxist of blm and all the rest marks and angles and angles specifically says there are no absolutes nothing is sacred that's that's the worldview of the black lives matter marxists trained marxists they say nothing is ultimate nothing is sacred there are no absolutes first of all that's stupid if there are no absolutes is that absolutely true fools this is what the bible calls them but when you think about what their system is when they round a bend and they try to be cautious to not take human life what are they doing they're imaging god what are they doing they're abandoning their philosophy they're abandoning their principles they're not i don't believe for a moment that an image bearer of god who is an unbeliever even at war with god is rounding a bend and going slowly simply because they're fearful of punishment they're trying to preserve human life but why preserve human life in a system that says human beings are just the result of random mutations that our ancestors were ultimately bacteria and fish what what what what do i care what happens to other stardust we're stardust carl sagan do you see the point you see the point when we talk about what's underneath we have to point to that and not pretend neutrality as so many evangelicals do see epistemology can broken be broken down to a number of different sections how do you know what you know oftentimes the unbeliever might say well we know things in the basis of reason we got to use logic we're going to use the rules of reasoning it has to be rational so you have epistemological systems that'll say things like well we know what we know because of reason rationalism or you might have somebody that says no we know we know based upon empiricism we have to observe it we have to see it we have to test it it has to be testable and people will hitch those things up together and they'll try to bring together rationalism empiricism together or you might have somebody that says subjectivism i know what i know because i feel like it's true and my experience this is what i think is true based upon my own feelings my own understanding subjectivism or you can take apologetics to the glory of god and have an epistemology i think that is glorifying to god that is a revelational epistemology how do we know what we know god's spoken there's so many people have a problem with that today by the way if you start with a revelational epistemology you get empiricism the benefits of that you get the benefits of rationalism you get all the benefits that people want from those systems because you can only really have them in jesus christ but a revelational epistemology is as simple as this god said it that's how i'm certain that's how i know how do you know because god said it you have a problem with that we do today don't we i i guarantee you if you were in or this this this great american experiment we have if you were in the colonies in in not not very long ago people wouldn't have had a problem there with the puritans and the huguenots and all the rest saying well god said it and that's how i know because god has spoken by the way i just simplify this for those of you guys that have been in this discussion about apologetics to the glory of god and presuppositional versus evidential all that stuff um i think um well i'll save that for tonight whet your appetite some more um because that'll take me off um you see this throughout scripture revelational epistemology god has a self -attesting word self -attesting can you can you think about this for a second if god had to appeal to some authority or standard outside of himself to buttress his authority or his opinion then that would mean that god isn't the ultimate authority do you get it if god was to say something and then let's just say heretical hypothetical you challenge god well god how do you know that on what basis god are you saying that if god had to appeal to any other standard or authority outside of his own self -attesting revelation and authority then that other thing would be the ultimate above god it's it's it's a logical and biblical necessity god appeals to nothing above himself to nobody above himself and his authority is self -attesting it actually has to be if he is the one true and living god if there's none before him none after him if he's the ultimate it's simply this god said and that's how i know how come i don't eat my neighbor think about it how come how come we love our neighbors and we say you ought to love your neighbor rather than eat them how come because god said right god says here's what god says about the nature of man here's what god says about his holiness here's what god says about his righteousness here's what god says about justice here's what god says about his love and so god says love your neighbor as you love yourself i was on a radio program or show fairly recently with an atheist and in the discussion i'm trying to like bring him down to his foundations and what he actually believes i'm getting at his feet and getting at his feet and finally i brought up the issue of how come i i'm supposed to love my neighbor and not eat them and i i asked him according to his own system he's an atheist a naturalistic materialist how come according to his own system uh he believes you shouldn't eat your neighbor and finally by the middle of the interview he actually confessed actually no it's not ultimately wrong to to eat another human being to kill them and to dismember them and eat them he said basically i guess you would just want to do it in an ethical way where you cleaned your plate don't waste anything and there's a philosophy that's not according to christ because if human beings are just cosmic accidents if the the universe has no purpose and order and intention if this is just chaos in motion all of us are just descendants of bacteria then there is no difference between the human being who's sitting next to you and the rocks outside random results of evolutionary processes with no intention and no meaning so who says love your neighbor rather than eat them you know who does jesus how do i know god said see there's all kinds of different epistemologies how you know what you know but you see from scripture well let's just do it let's let's let's end the epistemology discussion just on this one because i think this this is pretty settled and strong and we don't often do this by the way in this discussion of revelation and epistemology in the book of genesis as our bible opens i want you to take you to that scene for a moment in your mind you've got god the eternal god creating everything out of nothing god creates everything and it's special creation there is there is artistry there is beauty there is purpose there is meaning all we get all that with god we get all we get meaning and art and truth and beauty and goodness and all that because of genesis isn't it awesome it's amazing all that belongs to us that's our inheritance because of christ but god actually creates everything and then he creates man in his image so there's something different see how beautiful this is there's something different between the human being and the rocks and the snails and the horses and the dogs and all the rest if you say you know i was talking to an atheist recently on the show and she's like you know well why would you why would why would you eat animals um you know if you believe they're god's creatures you know i don't eat animals i you know i eat plants and all the rest there's a distinction in the biblical worldview between animals and humans there's a chasm that can't be preached this is the image of god that's a beast image bearers of god are not beasts we're image bearers of god there's something special there but when god creates his image and puts his image in the garden he creates male and female they come together one god says take dominion subdue the earth be fruitful multiply now what happens in the relationship between our first parents and god this is the epistemological discussion this is how you know what you know what did god say to them about that garden he said this but not that simple right isn't that powerful i mean that's like rudimentary human experience but you have this beautiful world god's created face -to -face communion with god intimate relationship with god no stain of sin no stain of rebellion no separation and god has this powerful little moment where he says this but not that he says the day you eat of it you will surely die so this but not that now of course now we have a challenge to that claim of knowledge god says this but not that the day you do you'll die that's god's claim enter the serpent and what's his claim you won't die you see you'll be like god knowing good and evil that's really important we understand what that means it's not experientially knowing like experiencing good and evil you'll be like god he doesn't want you to be like him you'll be like god knowing good and evil in other words determining good and evil for yourself he's telling you this is wrong he says this but not that no the problem is is he doesn't want you to be like him he doesn't want you to be the determiner of what's right and wrong he says right and wrong no you can do it because then you'll be like him you will say what's right and wrong you'll be the one who has the origination of knowledge and the knowledge claim and what happens they eat and what happens that day they did die spiritually separated from god but god of course promises redemption there christ is all the way back there in genesis chapter 3 but here's what i want you to get at here's the question asked in terms of apologetics to the glory of god if we start with a position of neutrality if we start without a commitment to christ and his lordship and his authority and we're gonna be in trouble we're not gonna be able to make consistent knowledge claims we're gonna be robbed of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge but we'll also be in this particular position think about this for a moment in that first conflict in the beginning of scripture this is about knowledge god says this but not that and god says the day you do you'll die serpent enters says no you won't die he doesn't want you to be like him determining good and evil for yourself they reach out now here's the question you need to ask ready here it is brothers and sisters in terms of epistemology and a revelational epistemology and self -attesting revelation of god if eve had not eaten the fruit first if she had not eaten the fruit on the basis that she wasn't really hungry and she walked away from that challenge because she wasn't really hungry would she have been truly obedient you come on a

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Bible student Bible college students you can answer that question if Eve walked away from that tree that day during that conflict and she said yeah

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I'm I guess I'm not really hungry so I won't eat it would she have been obedient no externally she would have looked like she was obedient right but internally her motivations would not have been pure because she wasn't not eating to glorify

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God and obey him she just had another reason just not hungry or if she had gone to the fruit and said you know what if I eat that I might get fat and she decides not to eat the fruit on the basis that she doesn't want to get fat would she have been obedient here's the question on what basis should

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Adam and Eve not eaten the fruit God said that's it that's it you have two voices in the garden in that moment right if God says this but not that you'll die and another voice comes in the garden it says no not die you'd be like God knowing good and evil now on what basis ought these image bearers of God not eat the fruit should they reason through it well you know what how does

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God know I mean how does God know I'm how does he know that I'm gonna die maybe the serpent has a point let me work this out on what basis ought they to have obeyed

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God says do you see epistemology is at the very start of the Bible how do you know and what's amazing here is that when

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God comes in and confronts our first parents all of us when God comes in and confronts our first parents he does so with authority he does so with authority and he brings judgments on the basis of what

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I said this and you did that and so on the basis of my own revelation to you you will be punished so epistemology is wrapped up in that first section of Genesis I want to just point us to this

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I think if we do apologize to the glory of God we're gonna do it standing on the Word of God we're gonna do it standing on God's self -attesting revelation we're gonna do it without neutrality neutrality is a myth biblically

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Romans chapter 1 says everyone knows the true God they don't want him in their knowledge and says that they suppress the truth and unrighteousness they know the true

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God the problem isn't a lack of evidence for God it's not a lack of light of God it's all coming through to every human so much so it says that we are without a defense unapologetus without a reason defense that's how much every human being knows the true

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God so what's the problem there's always different religions out there people who reject God the problem is a suppression of truth people don't want the true

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God so they switch the true God for something that looks like usually them right every human being knows a true

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God nobody's neutral and Jesus says if you are not with me you are against me do you believe that do you believe it in science do you see how there can't be neutrality in science either right you understand that by the way the

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Christian worldview gave the world science modern science we did that you're welcome secularists

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Oxford Cambridge Harvard Yale Brown University these are all universities were started not with neutrality they were started with the name of Jesus on their pillars they were started as institutions to glorify

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God and to actually take dominion over the world and to expand the knowledge of God over the world they were started with an explicit commitment to Christ no neutrality we gave the world this stuff and now they're taking it over you see and it's interesting to just just something to think about in Scripture you have the

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Israelites leaving Egypt and they're actually taking gold from the Egyptians they're taking their gold and now we have the

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Egyptians taking gold from us taking our stuff but there is no neutrality biblically everyone knows

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God philosophically it's absurd to say that there's anybody's neutral everybody has a particular worldview everybody has a particular way that they view life ethics knowledge everybody has a worldview and that worldview impacts you everyone has presuppositions our presuppositions are supposed to be

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Christian our presupposition is supposed to be based upon this revelation God said that's how

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I know there is no neutrality you're either with me or you're against me and that counts by the way in the evangelism and apologetic encounter and so tonight

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I'll be talking about the twofold apologetic methodology but I'm gonna end with just this the condition for success my teacher is

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Greg Bonson he used to often say this as he ended this kind of discussion and say the condition for success is 2nd

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Timothy 2 24 if you wouldn't go there in your Bibles just so you can see it with your own eyes and we'll finish with this 2nd

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Timothy 2 24 here's what the Apostle Paul we can expand this by the way with a lot of other scriptures but here's a good one 2nd

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Timothy 2 24 he says and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil correcting his opponents with gentleness

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God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth so what's the condition for success

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God granting repentance so all these you know do the apologetics reason with people with gentleness and with reverence well how come you can be humble and bold how come how come how come

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I could be bold with God's revelation how can I can be bold with God's truth and humble how can I bring those two things that seem very different from one another how can

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I bring them together 2nd Timothy 2 24 you can endure all these things you can be patient when wronged you can do this in a way that is not overly contentious and you can do it because God may perhaps perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth same

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Apostle that wrote that wrote Romans chapter 1 verse 16 that says the gospel is the power of God for salvation you want people to know