Can your worldview make sense of your experience?

Greg Bahnsen summarizes a central feature of our epistemology and apologetic method in this quotation:

If the way in which people reason and interpret evidence is determined by their presupposed worldviews, and if the worldviews of the believer and unbeliever are in principle completely at odds with each other, how can the disagreement between them over the justification of Biblical claims be resolved?  It might seem that all rational argumentation is precluded since appeals to evidence and logic will be controlled by the respective, conflicting worldviews of the believer and unbeliever.  However this is not the case. 

Differing worldviews can be compared to each other in terms of the important philosophical question about the "preconditions of intelligibility" for such important assumptions as the universality of logical laws, the uniformity of nature, and the reality of moral absolutes.  We can examine a worldview and ask whether its portrayal of nature, man, knowledge, etc., provide an outlook in terms of which logic, science and ethics can make sense.  It does not comport with the practices of natural science to believe that all events are random and unpredictable, for instance.  It does not comport with the demand for honesty in scientific research, if no moral principle expresses anything but a personal preference or feeling.  Moreover, if there are internal contradictions in a person's worldview, it does not provide the preconditions for making sense out of man's experience.  For instance, if one's political dogmas respect the dignity of men to make their own choices, while one's psychological theories reject the free will of men, then there is an internal defect in that person's worldview. 

It is the Christian's contention that all non-Christian worldviews are beset with internal contradictions, as well as with beliefs which do not render logic, science or ethics intelligible.  On the other hand, the Christian worldview (taken from God's self-revelation in Scripture) demands our intellectual commitment because it does provide the preconditions of intelligibility for man's reasoning, experience, and dignity. 

In Biblical terms, what the Christian apologist does is demonstrate to unbelievers that because of their rejection of God's revealed truth, they have "become vain in their reasonings" (Rom. 1:21).  By means of their foolish perspective they end up "opposing themselves" (2 Tim. 2:25).  They follow a conception of knowledge which does not deserve the name (1 Tim. 6:20).  Their philosophy and presuppositions rob one of knowledge (Col. 2:3,8), leaving them in ignorance (Eph. 4:17-18; Acts 17:23).  The aim of the apologist is to cast down their reasonings (2 Cor. 10:5) and to challenge them in the spirit of Paul: "Where is the wise?  Where is the disputer of this world?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (1 Cor. 1:20). 

In various forms, the fundamental argument advanced by the Christian apologist is that the Christian worldview is true because of the impossibility of the contrary.  When the perspective of God's revelation is rejected, then the unbeliever is left in foolish ignorance because his philosophy does not provide the preconditions of knowledge and meaningful experience.  To put it another way: the proof that Christianity is true is that if it were not, we would not be able to prove anything. 

What the unbeliever needs is nothing less than a radical change of mind—repentance (Acts 17:30).  He needs to change his fundamental worldview and submit to the revelation of God in order for any knowledge or experience to make sense. He at the same time needs to repent of his spiritual rebellion and sin against God. Because of the condition of his heart, he cannot see the truth or know God in a saving fashion.   (Always Ready, 121-122, emphasis added)

True spirituality means the Lordship of Christ over the total man

Despite our constant talk about the Lordship of Christ, we have narrowed its scope to a very small area of reality.  We have misunderstood the concept of the Lordship of Christ over the whole of man and the whole of the universe and have not taken to us the riches that the Bible gives us for ourselves, for our lives and for our culture.

The Lordship of Christ over the whole of life means that there are no platonic areas in Christianity, no dichotomy or hierarchy between the body and the soul.  God made the body as well as the soul and redemption is for the whole man.  Evangelicals have been legitimately criticized for often being so tremendously interested in seeing souls get saved and go to heaven that they have not cared much about the whole man.

The Bible, however, makes four things very clear: (1) God made the whole man, (2) in Christ the whole man is redeemed, (3) Christ is the Lord of the whole man now and the Lord of the whole Christian life and (4) in the future as Christ comes back, the body will be raised from the dead and the whole man will have a whole redemption.…

The conception of the wholeness of man and the lordship of man over creation comes early in Scripture.  In Genesis 1:26-27, we read, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."  From the very beginning, therefore, man and woman, being created in the image of God (both of them!), were given dominion (lordship) over the whole of the created earth.  They were the ones who bore the image of God and, bearing that image, they were to be in charge, to tend the garden, to keep it and preserve it before their own Lord.  Of course, that dominion was spoiled by the historic, space-time Fall, and therefore it is no longer possible to maintain that dominion in a perfect fashion.

Yet, when a man comes under the blood of Christ, his whole capacity as man is refashioned.  His soul is saved, yes, but so are his mind and body.  As Christians we are to look to Christ day by day, for Christ will produce his fruit through us.  True spirituality means the Lordship of Christ over the total man.   — Francis Schaeffer, Art & the Bible

Presuppositional commitments

Why do so many of our Christian young people lose their faith when confronted with the secularism of the university?  Greg Bahnsen offers an answer in the midst of an exhortation:

"One must be presuppositionally committed to Christ in the world of thought (rather than neutral) and firmly tied down to the faith which he has been taught, or else the persuasive argumentation of secular thought will delude him.  Hence the Christian is obligated to presuppose the word of Christ in every area of knowledge; the alternative is delusion." (Always Ready, emphasis added)

Creative reading

"I never remain passive in the process of reading: while I read I am engaged in a constant creative activity, which leads me to remember not so much the actual matter of the book as the thoughts evoked in my mind by it, directly or indirectly."       — Nicolas Berdyaev

The revolution continues

For the latest effort by the Obama administration to promote the homosexual lifestyle (it is still a chosen lifestyle!!) check out the article from Onenewsnow.

Bahnsen article on the Areopagus address (Acts 17)

Our reading from Bahnsen last week included his comments on Paul's address to the Athenian intellectuals in Acts 17.  I mentioned that his longer treatment of that passage was included as a chapter in his book Always Ready.  It is also available online from Covenant Media Foundation.  Here is the link in case you don't have the book, or would like to have the article in an electronic format (e.g., it's easier to extract quotations you may want to save).  Enjoy.  Read it twice.

Embryonic stem-cell research

     My good friend and colleague in the ministry, Pastor Paul Viggiano, continues to raise a strong public witness for Christ-centered, Bible-shaped social policy in his editorial on embryonic stem cell research in this week's online Daily Breeze.  Read his telling commentary here.  Thanks, Paul, for your faithful witness, and compelling argument.  Let us pray that God will open the ears and hearts of those who make these terrible choices…from the President on down.