The Transcendental Argument
Introduction: Today we want to move on from traditional arguments for God, the ontological, the cosmological and the teleological to some new arguments advanced for the existence of God. Today we want to look at what is known as the transcendental argument for God. This is an argument implemented by Cornelius Van Til, perfected by Greg Bahnsen and is now widely used by Presuppositionalists, this is a particular brand of Reformed apologists. The transcendental argument as a type of argument was first used and named by Immanuel Kant. He proposed the transcendental argument to demonstrate contrary to the scepticism...
Read More
Traditional Arguments For God Part Two
Introduction: This is perhaps the oldest and most popular argument for God, it is the argument from design. The Greek word telos which means ‘end’ is used because if we are able to discern design because something is purposed for a particular end, this betrays an intelligent purposer, namely God.
Read More
Traditional arguments for God: Part 1
Introduction: I would like us now to begin to look at some of the traditional arguments put forward as proof for the existence of God. These are the ontological, the cosmological and teleological arguments for God. Let me say a few things about how we view them before we lay them out. Firstly, we are in no doubt whether God exists or not. We believe as Romans 1:19-20 explains it that all human beings have a knowledge of God from nature, ‘For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them....
Read More
Jesus Christ as an argument for Christianity
Introduction: One of the greatest proofs of the truthfulness of Christianity is Jesus Christ Himself. Once at a dinner party on St Helena Napoleon was part of a discussion on who Jesus Christ was. He sat silently while everyone else shared their opinions. Some thought him man others thought Him God, at the end of it all Napoleon declared, ‘I know men, and Jesus was no man.’ He is considered to be the most influential person in history. One author highlights the following: ‘We have no record of his date of birth, yet all the world’s chronology is linked...
Read More
The Moral Argument for God
Introduction: One of the most popular arguments against God is the problem of evil. We will be dealing with that later in the series. Today however we want to talk about an argument for God called the problem of good. The existence of morals and moral obligations points to a moral God who created us with this sense of obligation. Romans 2:14-16 gives us a record of this sense, ‘For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law....
Read More
The Bible: Part 6: Manuscripts of the Bible
Introduction: Several years ago now I had an email exchange with a Muslim in Saudi Arabia. It ended badly with him phoning me from Saudi and swearing at me for blasphemy and wishing cancer on me and my family. But during the exchange it was very interesting to see the ways in which he tried to disprove Christianity, he attacked the manuscript reliability of the NT, and put a question mark over the Canon of the Bible. It amazed me to see how intimate his knowledge was of the early transmission of the various manuscripts and his familiarity with...
Read More
The Bible: Part 5: Archaeology and the Bible
Introduction: In the 1800s when the budding science of Archaeology was burgeoning, various bold and confident claims were made about the past which contradicted the historical credibility of the Bible. The OT in particular has been constantly reconstructed to be myth and after the fact reporting. The insistence on approaching the Bible with an anti-supernatural bias has led many to try and debunk the prophetic and miraculous elements using late date theories and accusing the Ancients of a primitive mind-set claiming every natural thing they could not understand was supernatural. The constant underestimation of the Ancients and their culture...
Read More
The Bible: Part 4: Messianic Prophecy
Introduction: How do we know the Bible is the word of God? So far we have shown that it is because it says it is, and this is demonstrated in various ways. We have looked at the unique nature and impact of the Bible, and we have looked at the single united story that reveals a single author. Today we continue to demonstrate the divine authorship of Scripture by examining prophecy and in particular Messianic prophecy. The Bible is unique in its prophecies. Every religion has had so called prophets, very few have written down predictions to take place...
Read More
The Bible: Part 3: Unity
Introduction: Marcion was one of the early heretics in Church history. He thought that the God of the OT was different to the God of the NT. He saw the God of the OT as one of law and anger, but the God of the NT as one of love and grace. He took a pair of scissors to the Bible and came up with a Bible that only had a butchered copy of Luke’s gospel and 10 of Paul’s letters. He could not see the unity of the OT with the NT, he could not see the compatibility...
Read More
The Bible: Part 2: Uniqueness
Introduction: One of the greatest arguments for Christianity is the Bible itself. There is no other book like the Bible. Immanuel Kant who for the most part rejected Christianity said this of the Bible, ‘The existence of the Bible, as a book for the people, is the greatest benefit which the human race has ever experienced. Every attempt to belittle it is a crime against humanity.’ The Bible has fallen upon hard times and is seen as refuted, as a set of myths, as a collection of politically motivated books to suit the governing power, as merely a record...
Read More
The Bible: Part 1: Authority
Introduction: We are continuing to put forward positive reasons for faith, and today we start a mini-series looking at the bible as a ground for believing. The 1689 chapter 1 paragraph 5 reads, ‘We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church of God to a high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scriptures; and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, and the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of...
Read More
The Truth of the Resurrection
Introduction: The resurrection is the lynch pin of the Christian faith. If Jesus had died and not been raised we would be lost, 1 Cor. 15:17 (ESV) “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” There is much that we need to say about the significance of the resurrection but in this study we will be concerning ourselves with the fact of the resurrection. The resurrection has been denied from many sides. There are those who deny the resurrection on certain scientific assumptions. That because we don’t see dead people...
Read More
1 Peter 3:15-16: ‘…Being Prepared to Make a Defence…’
Introduction: Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor talks about these times of late modernity we live in as the twilight of the idols and the gods. Contrary to every prognostication and resistant to every attempt faith and religion continue to haunt us. The age of Christendom has come to end and the privileged position of unchallenged supremacy is lost to us. However, contrary to the hopes of the New Atheists religion is still with us. However, we now live in an age where there is no doubt without faith and no faith without doubt. This presents us with a double challenge....
Read More
Revelation 9:20-21: Hardness of heart
Outline Theodicy Idolatry Introduction The puritans used to say that our worst enemy is not the devil but ourselves, and the worst judgement we can receive is to be handed over to ourselves. This is the judgement of God upon those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness in Romans 1 and the judgement of God in Revelation 9:20-21, ‘The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or...
Read More
Romans 10:14: What about the unevangelised? Part Two
Introduction: Today if you ask someone, ‘What is your biggest problem with Christianity?’ The answer that often comes is, ‘Christianity is too exclusive.’ In other words, we are seen to be dogmatic, intolerant, arrogant and oppressive for trying to get everyone to believe as we do. In our age of secular materialism and humanism Christianity with its insistence upon truth and the exclusive need for salvation in Christ is at best and annoyance to be ignored and marginalised, at worst a poisonous enemy to be crushed. Timothy Keller in his book ‘The Reason for God’ outlines three reactions that...
Read More