Setting apart Christ as Lord in our defense of the faith
December 31, 2009
"Where Peter commands us always to be ready to set forth a defense of the hope in us, he also specifies the condition under which this must done: 'Set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts' (1 Peter 3:15). In all our apologetical endeavors we must honor Christ as Lord over our thinking and argumentation. He alone must occupy this unique position of lordship in our minds, for He must be 'set apart' for that function. That which dictates what we think and present in defense of the faith must not be the theories, inferences, and assumptions of secular learning. The content and logic of our apologetic comes from the Word of Christ our Lord...
"Exclusive loyalty belongs to the Lord, and hence His Word must never be doubted or tried. Consequently, when Peter commands us to defend the faith by honoring the lordship of Christ, this means that we must never assume an uncommitted or neutral stance with respect to the veracity of God's Word. Scripture is not on trial, but must always be presupposed as true. To presume to work up to a recognition of its truth by independent argumentation would be to honor some other lord than Christ (whether it be empirical discovery, logic, some scholar's opinion, one's own rational abilities, or whatever). Christ alone must govern our thoughts, and His Word must not be brought into question. In setting forth our reasoned account for the Christian hope in us we are obligated by the word of our Lord to do so without casting doubt upon Scripture's veracity. The Lord's word must be presupposed and obeyed in everything we do--even apologetics. Like faithful Abraham, we must never waver in unbelief (Rom. 4:20). The Word of God should not be treated as a hypothesis to be proved by rational-emperical testing; it must never be reduced to the level of probability. It is the unquestionable Word of Christ our Lord; we begin with its veracity and argue accordingly. It is the thinking of the rebel sinner, not the Word of the Lord, that must be brought into question. Our defense of the faith does not work toward an honoring of Christ's lordship; it works under that lordship!"
- Greg Bahnsen from Presuppositional Apologetics (pp. 26-27)
The final two sentences devestate me: "It is the thinking of the rebel sinner, not the Word of the Lord, that must be brought into question. Our defense of the faith does not work toward an honoring of Christ's lordship; it works under that lordship!"
It saddens me to think about the biblical scholars who, in the classroom and their books, attack the veracity of God's own Word. It's remarkable really. As one Old Testament scholar said to me, "There is not a single page of the Bible that does not bear the taint of human error." His own presuppositions and conclusions have taken on a greater level authority than the Word of God. This is idolatry and rebel thinking.
It should be no surprise then when Christian students, attending "Christian" colleges, reared to believe the Bible as God's Word end up departing from the faith after one or two classes with such unbelieving Bible teachers.
