The holiday season is over so it’s time to keep pressing on with the key topic of Presuppositional Apologetics – PA. Today is Part 4 but don’t be mis-lead by the new title. The original, Eviscerating Evolution Via Evangelism, was shortened for space  reasons. Revisit Parts s 1, 2 and 3 as you can and continue to consider using this series, when completed, to create a personal reference outline of your own. It will be valuable in evangelizing and in defending the faith against those good folks who may oppose it. 

When the term “presuppositionalism” is seen for the first time, it might look overly daunting. But, it shouldn’t. Disciples of PA are simply stating that faith-defending apologetics and evangelism are based 100% on two things: The existence of and the fact of God and the Bible. Together, the two represent the zenith; the definitive standard for all thought and knowledge. If true, (which it is) this belief is the only possible place from which to launch a search for a concrete epistemological base. “Presupposing” simply means this: When a PA adherent stakes a claim to the “ultimate truth belief of God and the Bible only,” he gets there by pre-supposing it, by pre-assuming it or by taking it for granted right up front. He states: “Apart from the two-way truth of God and the Bible, no one, including even non-believers, could possibly make sense of human experience.” Why? Because, there’s no place else for us fallen earth-creatures to go. This belief is famously and often put another way: “There is no neutrality,” That is, out there in “thought land” there are no worthy, outside-of-the-Bible, “neutral,” assumptions, facts or human opinions with which to reason with non-Christians or even with oneself! 

However, while engaged in evangelistic or faith-defense chats, it’s more than likely that you won’t plunge right in with the PA concept. Take your time going there. You might start instead with your own testimony. You can ask about their spiritual beliefs, or who Christ, as a proven historical figure, is to them. Use such topics as death and meaning. Or speak of heaven and hell. Do they think they’re going to one place or the other? Etc. But, whatever your preliminary paths on the way to PA are (if it’s needed), you’re always aware you won’t be setting aside, “temporarily for argument’s sake,” your presupposed base. That is, you won’t allow the “neutral” possibility that God or biblical revelation are not or might not be true. In the first place, as we’ve said, you couldn’t even if you wanted to because of the impossibility of the contrary. Second, because the goal of all this is for your friend to reach the same understanding you’re committed to. And you don’t want to waste too much time getting there either. In our “too busy” culture you may run out of time.

Many believe that PA is the best method for evangelism and defense of the faith. But at the same time they would not imply that other methods such as evidentialism, experience or even subjective feelings couldn’t be involved in reaching a belief conviction. All have their time and place as directed by the Holy Spirit. But in hard-core resistance cases, PA will often be the best. (But you never know.) That’s why it’s used increasingly by thoughtful Christians. Remember, too, that PA is no tougher than memorizing the 50 state capitals or the 43 presidents. These tasks are easy enough, but you have to work until the details are second nature, which is the way it needs to be. In this day and age PA is often your best “weapon” since more of your fellow citizens doubt God than ever before, even church-attending youth. This is not good and you need to be there to help.

Though it’s time to continue with “thought province # one” of three, we must first weave the routinely under-emphasized topic of evolution into the Epistemology and Knowledge picture. Your friend may have given a lot or only a little thought to the creation puzzle of “how life came from non-life.” Either way, your proficiency with evolution will be important. That’s because all your “debates” finally come down to just two creation-related positions: Either God created man or it’s all explained by evolution. Whichever anti-Christian worldview your friend holds, whether it be Atheism, Humanism, Islamism Marxism, or others, evolution will be his only life-creation option. That’s because there is no other widely and generally accepted “third” way. This is strategically good for you because evolution is not that hard to refute and it leaves your presuppositional, “God and the Bible only” position as the only one standing in the end. Why is evolution easy to refute? Simply because it’s not repeatable, observable, testable science! And for many other easily-learned reasons that you can study on your own. This easy-refutation; “the emperor has no clothes,” factor helps you directly in highlighting your own position. 

Evolution and the wholly fictitious Big Bang theories are nothing more than anti-God political correctness run amok. And, down deep, your friend knows it. But his awareness, combined with your gracious review of evolution’s absurdity (using details found in the paragraphs ahead) may make him “go on the defensive.” He may try to come up with an alternate life-creation option (such as “maybe it all started with hydrogen,” or similar) to try and get you off message. Or he’s simply trying to avoid the inevitable truth about evolution he senses you’re going to make him see. But, if he offers any spur-of-the-moment, evolution-overriding “alternates” don’t blink. Insist he prove that his made-up option is widely and generally accepted. Having to waste time trying to debunk any  hastily-invented escape routes may create needless discussion dead-ends. However, since there are no “third ways,” this means that the debate can always be moving steadily toward the God-only vs. evolution-only end point that you’re after.

While taking your evolution-only friend toward your “presuppositional inevitability,” the next step is to let him see that he’s “stuck” (but only temporarily, we hope) with all the nationally popular but nonsensical myths regarding “evolved” man. First off, and by the other side’s own definition, this “evolved” creature is nothing more than an accidental sack of molecules; a biologically pre-determined, self-propelled bio-system; a bundle of genetic information (DNA) acted upon by time, the environment; “favorable”/chance mutations of DNA and wholly random chemical-electrical events within the accidental sack. This ritual creed/mantra of theirs forces evolutionists to deny or to withhold from their “primitive” beast any semblance of thought-power, logic or reason. That’s who we are according to the God-deniers, believe it or not. The creature is a mere instinct-bearer who is “interested” only in survival plus occasional sex; just like your average fruit fly. 

And so there the myth is, in large part, right out there in the open for all to see. And upon what is it based? Faith, and faith alone. Why? Because it’s not repeatable, observable, testable science and therefore it’s not science at all. I don’t apologize for spending much of today’s time on evolution plus an additional two or three paragraphs to come next time in Part Five. That’s because the weak reed (actually non-reed) of evolution is the only “reasonable answer” your target has as a defense against presuppositional inevitability and against your biblical view of epistemology and knowledge. That’s why you need to be at ease with and reasonably well versed on the evolution challenge.