As we discussed previously, God created the ability to reason and has chosen to give us information (Revelation) to exercise that gift. Both Reason and Revelation are gifts from God to equip us to know Him and serve Him.
Neutral Facts?
Some people speak about the "neutrality" of facts. The concept of unbiased fact is a central tenant in Rationalism. Neutrality, however, is a myth. While it may be fair to say that the facts themselves are neutral, the people who interpret them are definitely not. Humans always have a worldview, a grid, a set of colored lenses through which they see. People possess a set of preconceived ideas, notions, beliefs or assumptions about reality that taints and skews the information or facts they receive.
For example, let's say that you are with a team digging for dinosaur bones in Alaska. You come across some fossilized remains of a duck-billed dinosaur laying in a certain rock strata. An evolutionist on the team says, "Ah! This dinosaur is from the beginning of the Triassic period! That means this dinosaur is about 858 million years old!"
"How do you know?" you ask.
"Oh that's easy, you can tell from the rock layers. You date the fossil by the surrounding strata."
You turn to a creationist who is also part of the team and ask him for a second opinion.
"I'd say this dinosaur is less than 4,500 old and was probably buried during or shortly after the flood of Noah's day."
You scratch your head. "How can your assessment be so contrary to your evolutionary colleague?"
"Well, he is using General Revelation, and interpreting it through his worldview, which excludes Special Revelation, but I am using a mix of both observable facts and the recorded history of Someone who was around in the beginning. Namely...God."
I like the story I've heard of a farmer who was in a field helping his cow to birth a calf. The calf was born breech and was coming out hind legs first. A tourist who was driving by quickly stopped his car and ran over to the farmer. "Sir," he began, "I have just one question for you. How fast was that little calf running when it hit the backside of that cow?!"
So you can see that the "facts" do not always speak for themselves. Our presuppositions affect the way we perceive and interpret reality.
The Arrogance of Man
Because an unconverted man has a rebellious heart, he choses to reject the clear Revelation of God.Autonomous man has listened to the voice of the serpent and cut himself off from the only certain source of truth. In our apologetic method, we must remember that we will not be able to "reason" someone into the Kingdom of God. The problem isn't that they don't have adequate information or reasoning capabilities, but rather they have "suppressed the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18).
"And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2:4-8, NASB).
We use evidence, but ultimately the evidence itself will not compel the unbeliever. It is the Holy Spirit convicting his heart of sin that will cause him to repent and surrender to Christ.
Let us also remember that the purpose of doing Apologetics is not merely to help people to believe (or even do) the right things. The purpose of Apologetics is to introduce people to Jesus Christ. Truth is not an abstract concept. Truth is a person (John 14:6). God has given us the ability to Reason, and has given us General and Special Revelation for one exclusive purpose: that we may KNOW Him and serve Him.
"And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3, NASB).
Copyright 2008, by IsraelWayne. All Rights Reserved.
Israel Wayne was home educated and currently serves as Marketing Director for the national publicationHomeSchool Digest, and the site editor for www.ChristianWorldview.net. He is the author of the book, Homeschooling From A Biblical Worldview, published by Wisdom's Gate. Israel and his wife Brook (also a homeschool graduate) have five young children. Write to: Wisdom's Gate, P.O. Box 374, Covert, MI49043. 1-800-343-1943 or www.WisdomsGate.orgHYPERLINK "http://www.WisdomsGate.org/" www.WisdomsGate.org
Disclaimer: Worldview Weekend, Christian Worldview Network and its columnists do not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article posted on this site. We do however, encourage a healthy and friendly debate on the issues of our day. Whether you agree or disagree, we encourage you to post your feedback by using the feedback button.
No competent palaeontologist would say, "This duck-billed dinosaur is from the Triassic period, making it 858 million years old." There are 4 problems with that:
1, The scientific name for "duck-billed" is "Hadrosaur".
2. The Triassic period was 255 to 208 million years ago.
3. Hadrosaurs were not around in the triassic, only their primitive precursors like Plateosaurus.
4. Hadrosaurs first evolved around 150 million years ago, in the late Jurassic. Click here to reply to this post
Strawman Arguments
Posted On: 05/19/08 11:10:25 AM
Age 28, NY
"Well, he is using General Revelation, and interpreting it through his worldview, which excludes Special Revelation"
Classic fundamentalist tactics, misusing theories in an effort to make science seem random. The general theory of relativity and the special theory of relativity have nothing to do with biology, much less evolution itself. They are descriptions of how gravity and light operate. They can not be used to form a worldview unless, like the author, you are attempting to twist them into a flawed form to dispute them with "Goddidit". Click here to reply to this post
Re: Strawman Arguments
Posted On: 05/20/08 08:32:15 PM
Age 32, MI
I think you are misunderstanding the difference between "General and Special REVELATION" and "General and Special RELATIVITY." I didn't say anything about RELATIVITY in this article. I think your post on Strawman Arguments here is rather ironic. -Israel Wayne Click here to reply to this post
Holy Spirit reveals TRUTH
Posted On: 05/08/08 10:11:25 AM
Age 47, MO
Israel: When we have Jesus, we have all the truth that is revealed because Jesus is the creator and the Truth. Since Jesus is the creator, the creation reveals His truth. Indeed all creation leads to Christ. It is only our pride that prevents us from coming to Christ. Yet, in the arrogance of man, we think we have reason and can DECIDE what is true about a matter. But since we only have revealed truth, and not the whole truth, we don't really know squat. If we can only experience reality through our senses, then all we ever have is our experience, not the original. Since our experiences are varied and our perception of the original is painted by these experiences, how can we ever presume that the two are even comparable? Truly, there are two realities; the painted copy of reality we can experience, and true reality which truly exists outside our senses. Thus, all truth must be filtered thru the Holy Spirit, not thru reason. The Scriptures attest to this observation when Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 13: 8-13 ¡§...special knowledge will all disappear. 9Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! 10 But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear. 11It¡¦s like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now, we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.ƒn All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now. 13 There are three things that will endure¡Xfaith (believing), hope (achieving or desire), and love (obedience to Christ)¡Xand the greatest of these is love (Christ). John Click here to reply to this post
Limiting God
Posted On: 05/07/08 09:55:16 PM
Age 73, AR
Anyone who believes God created man, including the ability to reason, has to see this argument as limiting God. It thus is a self-defeating presentation. Click here to reply to this post
Your reasoning is futile
Posted On: 05/09/08 09:15:47 AM
Age 47, MO
Friend: Donald Rumsfeld brilliantly said: There are known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns." How true. Yet, because we know something we know, or know what is not known, or don't even know what is unknown, doesn't distract from the truth that they exist. What I'm saying is the fact that unknowns exist is proof that they are. Agreed? There are many things we know we don't know or don't even know we don't know yet we rely on our faith to coexist daily. Take for instance gravity, the sun rising, morality, decision making, fresh air. You said the dawn is from the east, really? Is our planet situated N,S,E,W in our universe or is this a man made idea to try to explain the unknown? Many of these things you accept as truth are barely understood or not at all, yet we rely on them and our interaction with them constantly. You think reason is enough to coexist in our world? That's unreasonable because your known knowns are miniscule compared with your faith in what is not known. Consider your faith in the material world and in blind evolution, (we're not even talking about the Spiritual yet) and get back with me about how reasonable it is that you even exist at all. John Click here to reply to this post
Sometimes the biblical lenses are tainted
Posted On: 05/07/08 02:05:04 PM
Age 53, CA
The problem with the example of the dinosaur is that the young earth creationist is is interpreting the fossil's age through his young earth lenses, even though the Genesis 1 account specifically contradicts his 24-hour interpretation of the "days." So, there are actually two sets of "facts" that one must be careful about, 1) the record of nature, and 2) the interpretation of scripture. One should not always assume that a person's interpretation of scripture is infallible. Click here to reply to this post
A Good Thing To Remember
Posted On: 05/02/08 06:52:36 PM
Age 40, NH
Facts themselves are not truth. Truth is the truth and contains the facts. Facts are neutral but the truth is not.
Grace and Peace,
Jim Click here to reply to this post
THE PEOPLE OF THE SCRIPTURES DID NOT SEE WHO JESUS WAS
Posted On: 05/01/08 11:37:09 PM
Age 64, OH
Israel was full of people who believed in God and the Holy Scriptures. But when God came down and was born of a woman He was in fact God and Man. But this fact was not seen by the people who professed to believe in God and the scriptures but Jesus went to many people in Samaria who did NOT even have the scriptures and the woman at the well and the whole town believed the fact that Jesus was God in the flesh and had come to save them. The same is true today, many people who do not even read the Bible have searched for truth about the creation and Jesus showed them the truth as he promised he would to those who would be humble and search for it. While many people who read the Bible, the same as the pharisees did, can not see the truth about many things because they profess to already know, even though they have not even asked Jesus about these things, or searched for the truth. Lou Click here to reply to this post
