Apologetics 101 (part 2)

Hey.

All right, so raise your hand if you did the homework who watched the one-hour video the atheist illusion. Many most of you okay good good awesome. You notice from the The movie that it was kind of a combination of what we call evidentialist and presuppositionalist apologetics.

So evidentialist means he gave evidence remember the book that he laid out there, and he said what are the odds that all the ink? There's fell on this page, and the words just happen to arrange themselves like this obviously that could never happen a book Indicates that there was a designer and that intelligent design then should be Considered for things like what DNA the DNA of a human being it's all encoded before or any kind of living creature is all encoded before a person is born and It's the blueprint for life, and could that have just randomly evolved and the answer is of course not.

So that was an evidence that he provided for the existence of God for an intelligent designer. But then the the guy's name is Ray Comfort. He moved more into a presuppositionalist Approach and began to use the scriptures almost as a sword to bring people to Christ.

And I found that to be a really interesting because did you notice in the movie that somebody would say okay? Yeah, I get it there has to be a designer, and then he'd say well Are you an atheist still and what they said?

Yes, and at that point he began to turn them turn their hearts by using the Word of God and the whole idea of a Law of God which exposes their need for Christ and so some of them it seemed like we don't know who got saved out of That but it seemed like many of the people Were being touched by that and maybe some of them did come to believe so it's really awesome.

Presuppositional Apologetics and the Planned Parenthood Exchange

So this this morning. I wanted to begin with about a two-minute clip. That's very clearly I mean a presuppositionalist apologetics, so here's the context of what happens. We're going to watch only about two minutes of it.

But what happens is? This man named Jeff Durbin is a Christian. And he's gone out in front of an abortion clinic and is preaching the gospel. He's calling people to repentance to faith and also offering love saying hey We will help you with whatever you need.

We'll take care of the baby. We'll take the baby. We'll adopt whatever is necessary and they and because of this ministry that they do. They've rescued 70 babies this one small church in Arizona has rescued 70 babies and many of those Babies are growing up in their church now and are part of that church family so it's an amazing ministry that they're doing but as he's doing this a man walks up and.

Proclaims.

Be quiet. Women have a right to do what they want with their body. So he makes an argument and so what Durbin does then is engages him graciously. But points out that there's no basis for making a moral argument like that if you don't have God.

So the presupposition that he has is that there's a God and because of that there's morality that flows from God. If there were no God you can't even make a moral statement, so let's watch this. It's a very interesting exchange.

This is Jeff Durbin, and you'll see the other guys.

Listen you can believe of course what you want. But what I'm saying is that I'm talking to you as a Christian with love saying That with your position of blind faith that you've granted with no basis for science or morality.

You can't really make an appeal to morality at all because you live by faith. You don't know you're an agnostic. You don't know right. So when you walk past here though. Like you didn't know when you walk past here when you walk past here.

You didn't act like you didn't know you actually said they should be able to do what they want with their bodies. So how do you make sense of that when you said that you don't have any way to justify morality or science?

You don't know you live by faith. Do you see. No I see.

Just.

Over here just so you don't you know. We love you. We care for these women. Over 70 babies have been saved through this work. That's all Carmelo Olivia Grace Cara like I can show you pictures. That's why we're here.

Do you care? We love these people. We want you just know something just last thing.

I'll say to you, and I really appreciate you stopping. Okay.

We're here because we're forgiven because we're saved. God loves us. He died for our sins and rose from the dead and the message is that all who turn from the sin to come to him Will be forgiven and that's what I want for you.

That's that's the message. I appreciate it. I appreciate you James. God bless you, man. You too. Thank you.

Yeah, he did he got that name wrong again. Did you hear the voice of a woman in the background heckling him saying you don't know. You don't know. I found that to Be very instructive to the worldview of someone who opposes Christianity in this case.

It was a Planned Parenthood supporter and as he's protesting there. And as he's calling for life and offering to help you have basically a cult of death in the background. That's calling for death so um and but the interesting thing is what she was saying you don't know.

The key to understanding agnosticism is what? You don't know. That's the definition of agnosticism, okay, so the guy who walked up to him wasn't agnostic he claims. He doesn't know but listen. Agnosticism is part of a religion.

It's part of a worldview even though They don't know oftentimes. That's with this much certainty as someone who claims to know. So whenever you are preaching the gospel if I were to walk up to a Mormon and say to this Mormon man Jesus loves you.

He died on the cross. What would he say amen brother? Thank you very much. Have a nice day. He totally Understands that within his own worldview, so here's why apologetics is so important because in order to engage someone with the gospel.

Oftentimes there's a clash of worldviews. Which means it's not enough just to recite our faith and to proclaim our faith although That's part of it there needs to be an understanding of what we're dealing with what is the worldview of the person?

We're talking to to reach a Mormon. You really have to know something about Mormonism now more important than that. You need to know the gospel you need to know the true biblical message. And you preach that and oftentimes the genuine thing will expose the lie to the Mormon himself.

But to really engage people with the gospel apologetics becomes a very useful tool now if we were to go out on the street and preach.

Today.

Everyone do it if we were to go out on the street and just start preaching. How many? Muslims do you think we preach to? One in a hundred maybe. Right. How many Mormons you think we preach to. And In New Jersey if we were in Utah probably 50 out of 100.

Maybe in Idaho 20 out of 100. In New Jersey probably one if one probably less than one out of 100. Maybe one or two Jehovah's Witnesses out of 100. But everybody would have a worldview. The majority worldview you probably have 30 Christian, but the majority worldview is what we're going to spend most of our time on today.

The majority worldview is secular humanism. Secular humanism, what is it? Where did it come from. We're going to spend a little time looking into that. Where did the religion of America today come from?

Well, I'd like us to start around the time of the Reformation because as we sit here today We believe that the scriptures alone are our source of authority. The scriptures came From God and so the world that we live in and all of our experiences and everything that we have around us.

That's what we see and we feel and we know. But there's something outside of this box.

God.

Who has spoken into this box to reveal something that's beyond us. Before the Reformation most people did believe that there was a God that intervenes into history that speaks into history and Tells us something that we couldn't know on ourselves.

So We as people were dependent knowers we depended on God to know things and Really that came through at least three means. Number one the Bible. Most people and we're talking about European history right now for the most part the West in the West Believed that the Bible was the Word of God.

They also believed in the authority of the church. To define things to tell truth that's beyond human reasoning that comes from God. And finally tradition. That the traditions of the church also speak to those things.

Now in the time of the Reformation There were abuses That people began to notice and of course Martin Luther is the most famous, right? He nailed the 95 feces on the church door in Wittenberg 500 years ago this year, right?

October of.

1517.

500 years ago the Reformation begins and the cry of the rest of Reformation were the five solas, right? You're saved not by indulgences. You can't buy it. You can't pay for you. Can't spring a soul from purgatory.

The only way is faith alone sola fide. And that faith is by grace alone sola gratia. And Where does the faith need to be placed in Christ alone sola Christus? Right and all to the glory of God alone sola to the glory of God.

I don't know the line for that. But the fifth of those was what?

Sola.

Scriptura.

So out of the Reformation you have this movement that says we know God Because we're dependent knowers and we know him from the scriptures and the scriptures alone. We no longer trust church tradition or church hierarchy a Pope or a council.

Rather we are dependent knowers because we know from scripture alone. When the Reformation began it swept through Europe, especially toward the north and Into Scandinavia, that's where the e-free church came from.

The Lutheranism that that came there has now come to us in.

Evangelicalism.

We're dependent knowers at the same time as the Reformation began. There was a second movement that was beginning in the 1500s. That is called the Enlightenment. Now the Enlightenment had a different set of presuppositions.

It said that we can know by reason. By logic how so well there were really two means one is rationalism. So by logic, I think. Therefore I am The cart before the horse right the cart said that I think therefore I am by logic.

With that starting point in fact by experience and that's the second thing so empiricism is called experience and Rationalism is the thinking the logic aspect by logic by experience We can know and We can discover absolute truth.

Right. Well that moved on through the you know The early part of the Enlightenment until a thinker in the 1800s by the name of Charles Darwin Brought another teaching. What was that? Evolution right when Darwin brings the theory of evolution.

There's no longer a need for an absolute truth that comes from God rather. The idea is that we are just evolved so instead of a knowledge of God God isn't even necessary any longer. So separate God from knowledge and the independent knower the person who can reason and think is Moving forward without God.

Yes. Yeah, and all I think the the philosophers of those of that day understood the nihilism that would come from that. But the common man didn't really get that yet not until now we're moving on to the 20th century.

What happens in the 20th century you have all this optimism of the Enlightenment man is making progress man can have knowledge man can discover Truth by reason and empiricism by our experiences what we see and what how we think.

There's an optimism until the mid around 1915 what happens before the first world war and then in the 1940s a second world war and out of those destructive events Europeans and then to some degree Americans are saying There's not progress.

There's not hope. And so what you find then is the failure of this modernism. The failure of modernism is Postmodernism. That's what begins to emerge after the world wars. What do I mean by postmodernism?

There's not an absolute truth. There is no truth. Yeah, truth is relative to you. So look at the progression that we have from the pre-modern days. In the pre-modern days you have a God who reveals.

That's how people know. Over time God is removed from the equation. Knowledge comes from your own reasoning your own experiences, and then with postmodernism. It's really simply defined by you. Truth comes from yourself.

So that's the religion of many secularists today many humanists today rather than having God on the throne revealing. Instead what you have is many little gods running around the world each one defining their own truth and the only thing That's unacceptable under that worldview is to say that your worldview is correct.

Because everything is relative. D .a. Carson if you look in the notes summarize That I'm not sure if I print the far from thinking in your notes. Okay, I'll just read this to you. Listen to d .a. Carson.

So does it sound like the religion of today and what it would say to us as Christians far from thinking that this loss of Epistemological certainty is tragic now timeout. Let me define terms here. Epistemological means how do you know the study of knowledge?

So d .a. Carson is saying it's far from thinking that this loss of epistemological certainty is tragic. So instead of thinking that it's a bad thing that people can no longer know things for certain. Postmodernism glories in the diversity of outcomes.

This is what they glory and they love the idea of a diversity of outcomes. It says epistemological certainty. In other words being sure, you know, something is Undesirable because it breeds absolutism that manipulates people and controls them.

Trampling on the splendid diversity of creeds and cultures and races that constitute humankind. Let the diversity flourish but let none of the disparate voices claim to be true or better. Let them all claim to be true.

But none in an exclusive or an objective.

Sense.

That is the worldview that you will encounter if we chose Princeton This afternoon to go and evangelize. We're not going to be running into 99 Muslims. We're going to run into 99 Secular humanists. You see that is a worldview that has evolved over time.

Dismissing God and here is the crucial question. The crucial issue is epistemology. How do you know? How do you know something is? There a God who has revealed now a deist kind of like some of our early founders of America.

Some of them were deists. They'll say yes, there's a God but he's distant. He created a world. So there's an intelligent designer, but then he spun it into motion. He stepped back and we're still all here to discover truth for ourselves.

So all we have is empiricism and rationalism. A deist that functionally is just like an atheist.

Following me.

But no, we claim that God not only spun the world into existence. But then he what spoke and that's the issue. The issue is revelation so there is a clash of worldviews in America today between those who believe in revelation a God who spoke and those who believe that he did not.

So finally the issue the dividing line that we're dealing with is the authority of the Bible. The authority of the Bible that's what these that's what evangelism comes down to that's what knowing is all about.

If you believe that God has spoken is the Bible it all comes back around to the Reformation sola scriptura. The secular humanist will never accept the authority of the Bible. They hate the idea that the Bible would have authority.

Now, they're fine. If you believe the Bible Tom. That's fine with them. What they cannot stomach is if you preach to them that they must repent and believe in Christ on the authority of God's Word. That God commands repentance and faith.

That to them is the most intolerant.

Bigoted.

Thing that you could possibly say and so if you say that I Was watching on YouTube yesterday. Did anybody see the the questioning that Bernie Sanders put to? The appointee. And he brought up an article that that the the appointee I forget his name bought or something like that.

That that he had written for a magazine called the resurgent and in that he discusses Islam and he says Islam's issue is essentially that they have rejected the Son of God and That therefore all Muslims are condemned by God.

Now Bernie Sanders presses him on that and he says so you're you're saying they're condemnable. And and he says listen all people Muslims Christians Jews all people are made in the image of God and need to be treated with respect and dignity.

That wasn't enough for Bernie that was not the answer he wanted to hear. Because that's that's how we treat people regardless of what creed or what race. But his worldview this guy Vought's worldview was that in God's eyes.

Because all people are sinners. Without the Son of God they stand condemned. Where do we get that? Romans chapter 1 perhaps. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the godlessness of men who suppress the truth in ungodliness.

So there's a wrath of God people are condemned. Because God has made through his eternal power and divine nature his his revelation is general revelation. Makes himself known, but people reject that truth preferring the lie to the truth.

That's Romans chapter 1. That's the worldview of this appointee so he rightly holds a Christian worldview but Bernie Sanders could not grant that this man could hold a Truly biblical worldview and let the Bible define what the Christian faith would be and so he presses him.

And he presses him and finally he threw his face turns red. Turning red against him for believing that Christ is the only way and this guy did a great job because he didn't want to get. In a religious debate, so he just kept saying this is this is the statement of faith that Wheaton College.

That's what I was defending. This is a Christian worldview. You know he didn't want to get into it. But at the same time his worldview was formed by Revelation and he was consistent with that. So there's a there's a complete clash of worldviews there.

So Bernie Sanders face turns red and at the end he throws up his hands. He says I could never vote for something. This is not what America was about. Never mind the fact the majority of the signers of the Constitution Believed that very thing in the authority of the Bible.

Okay, so this is what we're up against. Okay, understand the worldview of a majority of Americans secular humanism. Postmodernism now setting it now notice in America today. There's still a lot of modernism because you have to have modernism even to function.

Follow what I'm saying if you if you're completely postmodern in your thinking then you wouldn't believe in gravity. Why would gravity hold you down just jump off a building it might you might float you know you you recognize there are absolute laws that are governing this world and.

So you recognize certain morality well. That's a modernist view to say that there would be morality. A postmodernist can't even say that that anything is wrong. And yet they would agree that certain set things are sinful and wrong.

So most people still have a modern worldview, but there's a postmodernism setting in. That says nothing is certain. Postmodernism says you have your own private truth you define your truth because there is nothing beyond nothing that defines truth.

So that's where we are today, so certainty really is the enemy of postmodernism.

Certainty.

Certainty is only possible if God speaks. So agnosticism and atheism. Let's let's talk specifically about those things. What. What does the word agnostic mean? Not knowing. So it doesn't agnostic say that there is no God.

No, I can't know God. Yeah, well. They'll just say they don't know if there's a guy. They can't know what God is like. They can't have certainty.

The Latin equivalent of agnostic is ignorance. Is that right? Yeah, okay? You can say it's the same thing right?

Okay, so atheism then what would an atheist claim? No God? There is no God. There is no God. That's more of an absolute claim right. So a more of a modern way of thinking right so Postmoderns would tend to be more agnostic and a more modernistic worldview would arrive at atheism right to make a Definitive claim that there is no God, okay, so Robert Maury has seven leaps that atheists have to explain.

All of these I think are helpful apologetics. I got that from Robbie Zacharias his book he had quoted from these. I don't actually know Robert Maury, so I don't endorse him. I'm not sure who he is, but I took that from Robbie Zacharias.

Notice the new atheism is aggressively hostile toward Christians. There are atheists that are intent on proving us wrong. Atheists that are intent on proving that there is no God and will attack your faith.

So be aware of that that the new atheists are often on the attack. They're on the move. So now three things quickly. How would you? Speak to a postmodern that might crack through a Secular humanist. What are some approaches that you could take.

Answering the Fool, Exposing Autonomy, and Preaching Christ as Revelation

Number one? Agree with the nihilism of postmodernism.

Follow this.

Agree.

With the nihilism of postmodernism. Post the postmodern worldview. When they're honest with themselves. When they're falling asleep at night. When they Contemplate the universe and what is and what is not?

They're nihilistic.

There's no hope. There's nothing coming of this world. There is no God there. There's this world has no meaning. There's no purpose. There's no morality there's no basis for morality and the only Result of the worldview of Americans today is despair.

Proverbs 26 4 5 answer a fool according to his father. Begin your apologetic to a secular humanist by agreeing That in their worldview. It's nothing but despair. Because what ends up happening? I think is they arrive at that place and that's what their mind tells them.

There's no God. There's no morality. If there's no God there's no meaning to my life. There is no purpose. There is no plan. This suffering is only suffering and that's all this world has it's not redemptive.

There's no reason for it and ultimately they drift towards this despair. And then in their mind they circle back around to the beginning and they try to reason it through hoping that it'll end at a different Place.

They might do that for days and days at a time. But in their quietest moments They know that if there is no God it's hopeless. Point them in that direction. Answer a fool according to his father. Hmm show them that this is truly where their worldview leads.

You'll notice in Ray Comfort's video. Did you see living waters the atheist delusion? There was that man out on the pier who who is arguing against God vehemently and then Ray Comfort said Do you want to kill yourself?

He said yes, I want to kill myself. Where did that that nihilism come from in his heart, he knew that his worldview was empty and Meaningless and Ray Comfort then began to comfort him and say don't do that.

Please don't do that. There is a God there is hope but it begins by exposing the folly of the fool. Make sense. So lead people down that path. Yeah.

I think one thing that was very interesting is that the atheist and the agnostic are. Have those beliefs. Yeah, because they don't have to be accountable to God. That's right. Yeah. They don't want accountability.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

You could also say to them that you believe what Hitler did wasn't wrong, right? Exactly. Yep.

That's a moral argument that can only be defined by revelation. Hmm. Yeah, otherwise, it's just his subjective truth.

Versus theirs. Yeah, he believed what he did was right. Yeah, he did. Yep.

That's exactly right rich. So number one you answered answer the fool according to his father. Number two. Every moral evil evil goes back to who gets to define right and wrong. You have to address the intellectual sin of autonomy.

Genesis chapter 3. You go back to the garden. Did God really say? Who gets to define truth. And You point out to a person. Are you God? Do you speak? Who do you listen to? Who do you believe? Well an atheist will say well Degrassi says or Richard Dawkins says and you say.

Who gets to say what is true? I believe Jesus and Then you put them on the defensive and you say why should I listen to Dawkins? Why why does he speak truth? Why is he so reliable?

Why can't he air and.

Then you bring it back to who you follow who you believe. You would have to have the knowledge of God to say there is.

No, God exact. Yes, I can affirm a universal negative unless you have universal knowledge. Absolutely. True. Yeah, there's no authority.

There can be no authority there. It's just one other fallen person from their perspective from their little tiny bit of empiricism that they can gather. They say that me I can only capture about 25 frames a second.

So what can you even believe from the things that you see? How do you know that something wasn't slipped in and that that fraction of a time where you didn't see it? That's what sleight of hand is right so you can't even trust your eye.

So how can you base your worldview on what you see what you experience and what you rationalize?

There's and I find it intriguing. Intriguing. Contradiction self-contradiction, but my brother is a great example of that. He's agnostic. Yeah, but he's a lawyer. Right, and so there has to be absolute law for him to be a lawyer.

Absolutely, but there can't be absolute law for him to be an agnostic.

Correct. Yep. It's a point now answer the fool according to his father. They show the the inconsistency. This is I think presuppositional apologetics. It's showing where inconsistencies are. You defend the revelation of God?

And so the key to being a good presuppositional apologist is not actually to know everything about what everybody else believes. It's to know your revelation so well that you can defend it when you're on the streets in Kensington.

And the Muslim brings you a hundred contradictions in the Bible you can say all right, let's look at a pick which one you want to talk about and They go to that verse and you can show them why this is not a contradiction.

But if you really understood what was being said here, this is what it means in context. So you defend your revelation? You show the consistency of the Bible meanwhile showing the inconsistency of the other world view.

That's that's presuppositional apologetics showing where a worldview breaks down where you have you descend into incoherence the morality argument that happened at that Planned Parenthood. How did that descend into incoherence a man walks up to Jeff Durbin and gives him a moral command get out of here.

Why are you telling women can do what they want with their body? That's making a moral statement. And so what did Durbin do? He showed the incoherence of them even making a moral argument they have no basis to stand on.

He on the other hand can stand on the authority of Jesus Christ and The Word of God Psalm 139 that says God forms a baby in the womb or John the Baptist Lept in the womb when Jesus was in room. You mentioned death cult.

You said that was a death cult a death cult.

Proverbs 8 36 all those who hate me God says love death.

It's so true so true to see how vehemently they argue for nothing, but death. It's a cult of death. You're right. Yeah, and it makes sense from their worldview, you know. Their worldview ultimately is incoherent.

There's no morality there. There can't be any morale no basis for morality. Okay, so the first thing that you do you answer fool according to his folly, right? So you go with them down their train of thinking and you press them right to where they know they are hopeless nihilism despaired.

Go with that let them experience that and feel that and point them to that because ultimately the next thing is you do have something. Who gets the right to speak. Are you an autonomous independent knower or is there a knower?

Outside of the box who can speak into the box who gets to say and. Then you preach Christ. You say Christ said everyone on the side of truth listens to me. Jesus said I am the way I am the truth. I am the light.

You present Christ as the revelation of God. That God has come in the flesh and with him came light. Light has come into the world. But men love darkness rather than light. They refuse to come to the light.

But the light has come into the world got that light represents revelation. In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God and the word was God. You say God has spoken a word. He has given knowledge.

He has broke into the box in the person of Jesus Christ and then in the written record of his word. So it goes back to who gets to define right and wrong. Point them to Genesis 3. Genesis 3 the original sin.

Has God really said. That was the issue in the garden, and that's their issue, too. That was all of our issue until we submit to the authority of God's Word. Has God really said? So finally John, this is one.

I just started to mention the light has penetrated the box. In our evangelism we often jump very quickly to the cross right and rightfully. So we need to get there. We need to preach the cross. We need to explain that Jesus died and that he rose.

But focus on this idea of him being revelation from God. That's the third thing. Revelation that the light came into the world. That a word came here from God. Make sense. Focus on Jesus as being the revelation of the father.

He makes God makes himself known in the person of Jesus Christ. So this is presuppositional apologetics to an atheist or an agnostic a secular humanist. You answer them according to their folly. Go with them and show them the bankruptcy of their own worldview and that they should be despairing.

That suicide would make sense If there were no God, but then you point them to Christ. You show them that it's really an issue of who? Gets to speak not not what is right and wrong that comes from it.

Don't get caught up in arguing Homosexual marriage and all these things those can be side trails and then they're the reason that we hold what we do is because we. Listen to who we listen to and all the what comes from that.

But get back to the core of the who gets to say what is true. The who and for us, that's Jesus. Let them defend their their Richard Dawkins. Let them show us why that's so why he's such a good reliable source.

Right and then finally Jesus as revelation and then you'll get to the cross. You'll get to the sacrifice of resurrection, but talk about Jesus as light as the Word from God. Psalm 119 the psalmist for 176 verses.

I think it is each verse. Talks about the beauty of God speaking into the box that light comes in to our darkness. It's a lamp into our feet a light for our path. Each one is about the Word of God the law of God the commands of God the statutes of God.

It's God speaking. Psalm 19 has a similar thing the heavens declare the glory of God, but then it goes but your word. It's like honey to my lips. The word is special revelation. The only way that we can be certain that we can have knowledge that we can know things is because God speaks.

So in closing up this whole thing and we'll move on to the next one Islam the the only thing the dividing line is.

Revelation.

It's the Word of God God has spoken. According to all these other worldviews that people have around us. We're just out here based on our own experiences our own rationality. Essentially just making our own truth.

Believing what we ever want to believe. So it comes down to that. Yes.

So that's a suggestion in their writing that The law is written on their hearts. Yes. Yep. They knew and they didn't do they. In no instance. Did anyone say it wasn't true right. Where the commandment wasn't.

What an opportunity you have and I love that you use unbroken there to have the kids read that. Yeah. Yeah, that's yeah. They know it's really and that's Romans 2 so Romans 1 you have this general revelation.