DEFENDING THE FAITH

You do not need an advanced degree in science and theology to defend the Faith. Anyone can do it. The debate ultimately is an issue of competing worldviews. We all have a worldview, a way of thinking about life and the universe that shapes our understanding of what we observe.

But not all worldviews are equal. Non-Biblical worldviews always have internal defects; because they reject the Bible at their foundation they end up being inconsistent, arbitrary and ultimately irrational. With practice anyone can learn to identify these flaws.

The Bible teaches that genuine knowledge begins with a reverential submission to God (Proverbs 1:7). So, to have a worldview that is consistently rational we must begin with God's word as the foundation by which we evaluate the facts.

Only God knows everything, so only He is in a position to tell us on His own authority what our starting point should be. Only the Bible provides a logical foundation for those things which are essential for knowledge, the requirements for knowledge.

In order for human beings to have any knowledge on any topic certain would have to be true whether we recognize it consciously or not. For example, the human mind has to be capable of rational thought. The universe has to be orderly and comprehensible. Our sensations of the world around us have to be basically reliable.

The Biblical worldview can make sense of all this. The Follower of Messiah understands that God created the human mind so that we have the ability to think rationally. God made the universe and upholds it in a consistent logical way. God created our senses so we could prove the world around us. Most people take these things for granted, they don't stop to think how humans have knowledge of anything. Most people just blindly assume that our senses are reliable, that the mind is rational and that the universe is orderly and understandable.

Few people stop to ask "why should knowledge be possible"? The answer is not as obvious as it may seem. In fact, without God we have no reason to expect an understandable universe. So although there is a place to discuss scientific details, it is good to remember that science itself is based on a BIBLICAL worldview.

We must patiently get the unbeliever to realize that he couldn't even do science if his evolutionary worldview were true.

If evolution were true would there be any reason to think the mind would be capable of rational analysis?

If the universe were just the aftermath of a big bang, why would we expect it be be orderly or comprehensible?

If the universe is just matter and motion then how could there be abstract laws such as mathematics and logic which are required for rational thinking?

If any alternative other than the collective Biblical account were true, then there would be no foundation for any of the things necessary for knowledge. This isn't to say that non-believers cannot know anything. Obviously they can. But this is possible only because they are being inconsistent, implicitly relying on biblical principles while simultaneously denying the Bible.

This is the important thing to keep in the back of your mind during any discussion about worldviews and the WAY (the ENTIRE Word of God, especially incarnate in Y'shua the Messiah) - in the end, we know that the WAY is TRUTH because if it were not, then we would not have LIFE and we couldn't know anything at all.

This can be a difficult concept since most people aren't used to thinking through such foundational issues. But it is something we need to explain if our defending the faith is to be effective.