Transcendental Argument

Everyone has a network of beliefs. This network of beliefs are what they believe about reality.

Everyone has assumptions or presuppositions on which their network of beliefs rest.

People do not prove their presuppositions by evidence, instead they decide what is evidence and interpret all evidence "by" their presuppositions.

So how then can two people with conflicting Presuppositions ever argue with one another?

Each time one person brings forth an "evidence" the other will merely wipe it away by his own presuppositions.

This is where indirect arugments come in.

A Transcendental Argument is an indirect argument.

It says that without the Christian network of beliefs you can not consistently explain anything.

The Transcendental Argument rest on the impossibility of the contrary.

It says that the explanation of all things rest upon the Triune God of Scripture.

If you deny Him then you cannot make sense out of the world He created.

The reason why Atheist do make sense out of the world is because they hold two very different network of beliefs.

The one they profess the other they live by [even though they surpress it].

They profess Atheism, but they live by the presuppositions that the Triune God of Scriptures exist.

They know the God who made them and they try with all their might to shut Him out of their world.

The only way they can deny God is to first presuppose Him.

Atheism presupposes Theism [Christian Theism]

Beheaded

Many Christians want to behead the Lord Jesus. Of course they aren't thinking that they are doing this. In their thinking they are saying its just me and Jesus, I don't need to belong to any earthly "club".

I don't need to go to Church!

But the Church is Christ's Body.

How can you have the Head without the body?

God's word says how can you love God, and not love those who are born of God?

Its easy to say "I want to do God's will" and then put ourselves in the drivers seat, saying that this is being "lead by the Spirit".

If you want to do God's will then submit to God's word, and belong to a godly church that teaches God's word. Submit yourself to the elders of the church. Submit yourself to other Christians.

Submiting to yourself is really not submission.

If your finger is removed from the body, can it exist by itself?

Jesus said that His people were part of His body, don't remove yourself from it, it will be to your everlasting peril.

Cling to Jesus Christ, the whole Jesus, Head and Body [Church].

Happy Birthday Bro

I want to wish my older brother Lewis a Happy Birthday. God has blessed him with 45 birthdays...may He grant you many more brother.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

I Just Don't Feel Like It

Have you ever struggle with doing something that God's word says...but you just don't feel like it?

Sometimes we put too much emphasis on our feelings.

We place our feelings as King.

If we don't feel like it, then we will wait until we do feel like it...that will make it good.

Jesus, in the garden, cried out to His Father to take away the cup.

He didn't feel like it.

But He showed His perfect obedience and faithfulness in submiting His will to His Fathers', even though He didn't feel like it.

He asked..."if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me"...and then went on to say,
"nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." [Matt 26:39]

Jesus is King...and not your feelings!

If you don't feel like it...too bad...do it anyway!

I'm sure that whatever it is your struggling with is dwarfed in comparison to knowing you are about to suffer the wrath of God [the wrath of the Lake of Fire].

Jesus was faithful...and His faithfulness is our salvation...and our strength.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith.

Brain Cramps

For those of you who like to feel the pain of stretching your brain, here is a little thought test for you.

Brain in a Vat

This is a test that my friend Tulip Man is giving.

Be prepared to put your thinking caps on.

Bumper Sticker Theology

For the most part I don't think that one can learn very much theology from the short sermons on car bumpers.

But...over the years here are three bumper stickers that I have seen.

1. He who dies with the most toys...wins

2. He who dies with the most toys...still dies

3. He who dies with forgiveness of sins...wins

I think the combination of these three teaches us not to place our hope in uncertain riches...but in the Living God and His salvation.

It is to our advantage

In John 16 Jesus speaks about His future death, resurrection and ascension...He does this in speaking of His departure. And He says it was going to be for His peoples "advantage".

Many Christians view the "end times" as things growing worse and worse until Jesus [in His glorified body] comes to save the day.

But Jesus speaking about His future glorified body said that it would be to His churches advantage that He goes "away"!

Why?

So that He could send the Holy Spirit to empower His Church to overcome the world.

The Gospel will not fail. It will bring the nations to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

We too often are like the Children of Israel. We want to believe the bad report of the 10 spies instead of heeded to true report of the 2.

A Good Calvinist

You can tell if a man truly understands the doctrines of grace by how he treats his wife. If a man treats his wife with neglect and lack of respect...then no matter how much head knowledge he has...he has yet to "know" the doctrines of grace.

The Apostates Prayer

Eternal gulf forever fixed and held fast there for me
I once knew truth...I tasted it and cast it back at Thee.

God Does All Things Well

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell,
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.


— Cecil Frances Alexander

Thinking God's thoughts after Him

Sometimes our thinking about God's thinking is very misguided. I talked to a fellow, years back, who spoke about all the new computers. He said that in time maybe man will be able to have as much knowledge as God!

HA! What a laugh!

This man's thinking on God's thinking was merely that God had more thoughts then man did. But this is woefully mistaken.

God's thoughts are Creator thoughts.

Man's thoughts are creature thoughts.

If I want to see if there is milk in the fridge I have to go look.

God doesn't.

And here is the big difference.

God doesn't have to look, and its not because He has x-ray vision and can see into the fridge.

God's thoughts make things what they are. God thinking about the carton of milk makes it exist.

Man's thoughts will never be like this.

Humbled yet?

He Shall Reign Forever And Ever

For those of you who don't really have a belief about the "end" take a little look at Dr. Bahnsens short but sweet article.

And for those of you who do have a solid belief, that a look anyway. The Biblical message about the victory of the gospel is very encouraging.

Victory in Jesus!

The Battle is the Lords

I used to believe that the world was going to continually grow worse and worse, but no longer. The battle is the Lord's! God is sovereign over the affairs of His creation, including the hearts of men.

Something to think about. If God can change one man's heart, then couldn't He change two, two thousand, two million, two billion...get my point?

God is the One who gives men new hearts, He transfers sinners from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His Son. In God's time, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord and the Nations will be discipled, and be brought under subjection to King Jesus.

The Great Battle

Many people think that the battle between good and evil is a close one. They think that both sides are fairly even. The Bible does not give us this picture at all.
The devil is on God's chain...and he can't even blink unless he has been given permission from the King of the Universe.

Why Me?

Have there ever been times when you looked at the absolute perfection and greatness of God...and then just wondered...Lord, why me?

You see yourself in all your weakness and littleness and just wonder at the love and mercy of God.

From all eternity God loved me, and He chose me to be His very own.

He loved me so much that He was willing to give His Only Son, to suffer for me.

Praise God for His excellent greatness. His mercy is everlasting!

Happiness

Adolf Hitler said that if you say something loud enough and long enough you can make the multitudes believe that heaven is hell and hell is heaven.

This is seen very clearly in the American Dream.

We are told that true happiness and wholeness is from having lots of "stuff".

The more you have...the happier you'll be.

People still follow this Nightmare, even though all the evidence points away from its truth claims.

People will pursue their "stuff" to the destruction of their health, marriages, and even their eternal souls.

If you ever want a small clue on whether the American Dream is true or not just watch people who believe it and live by it.

I have seen people who lived for the American Dream.

I have seen them get sick [terminally sick].

And I have watched as their eyes were opened. When they realized that they were going to leave this world...they also realized that the American Dream was a big lie.

True happiness and success are found in "seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness".

Branching Off

I cleaned my fireplace out the other day. It was about time...the ashes were really building up.

Notice I didn't say the branches were really piling up?

While the branches were on the tree, they were truly branches.

Even when they were broken off and lying by the tree you would have said that they were branches.

And even when I tossed them into the fire...I tossed branches into the flames.

But once the flames did their work...they were branches no more.

Evolution and Resurrection

Instead of merely using "evidence" to prove our point, we need to learn how to show that our beliefs [The Scriptures] are the only foundation that support even being able to have evidences [either for or against Christianity].

Until we learn this we will always leave the unbeliever his loop-hole for squirming out of our evidences.

Example.

A Christian comes to an atheist and begins to witness to him. He tells the atheist that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

The Atheist replies that he believes this. The Christian stands there dumb-founded, and then says that the unbeliever must then believe that Jesus was God.

The unbeliever smiles and says he believes that Jesus resurrection only means that strange things happen in the material universe that we haven't scientifically discovered the answers for.

Think for a second.

If in his "professed" belief system he proclaims that at some point in earths history all life started from non-life, then he has no problem in believing that it happened again later in history. Jesus dead body [non life] resurrected [life].

We need to learn how to do an internal critique on his professed belief system. And show that he doesn't really "live" according to this system.

What Does the Evidence Say?

There are many Christians who think that proving the Christian faith goes no further then pointing out all the evidence. And in many cases they are correct. The Holy Spirit uses the clear evidences to bring many unbelievers into God's kingdom.

But did they come into God's kingdom without a change in how they view reality also?

No one comes to the debate with a neutral mind.

No one comes into the discussion of God's existence as an unbiased observer.

As a Christian you are called to have Jesus Christ as Lord of all. This means you are to interpret reality [the evidences] according to how God's word says so.

As an unbeliever your heart is at enmity against God, you seek with all your might to run from God. You will actually use evidence, that God has given to clearly reveal His existence, to try and prove the exact opposite.

Both the believer and unbeliever have a network of beliefs in which they use to interpret the evidences before them.

So how does one debate with the unbeliever then?

As Christians we need to show that our network of beliefs are the only true explanation of why reality is what it is.

How do we do this?

We do this by showing that if you deny the Christian view of reality [as a whole] then you will not consistently be able to prove anything.

But the Atheist isn't consistant!

He has beliefs that he knows to be true, and lives by [That the Triune God of Scripture exists], and he has a set of "professed" beliefs that he uses to try to ignore or openly deny God's existence.

When we debate the unbeliever we need to gently show him that the beliefs he lives by and the beliefs he "professes" are two very different systems.


We need to show him that the unbelieving belief system he professes to be true, if consistently held to, can not explain reality around us.

At a later time we can look at how using evidences alone has many set backs.

Where art thou Mr. Atheist?

The world is filled with people who profess Atheism...and yet the world has never seen an Atheist.

End of the World

God uses hardship and suffering [due to sin, your own or other peoples] to take a person out of the world. This is called "Salvation"

Then once a person has been set free from Satan's [the worlds] power, God uses hardship and suffering to take the world out of the person.

This is called "Sanctification"

Number Your Days

Has there ever been a time, when someone was waiting on you, that you said, "Just give me a second", or "I'll be there in a second"? When we say this its usually a little longer then a second that we are asking for, isn't it?

God is amazingly generous. He has given us many seconds in an average human life span.

How many?

Roughly speaking...in a 72 year life...a little less then 2 Billion seconds.

Isn't that amazing! If you were to start counting to a billion [one second at a time] when you were 30 years old, you wouldn't get there until you were 72.

God is patient and longersuffering and He pours out His blessings on rebellious sinners to bring them to repentance.

But often sinners take for granted all the time they have before them. They look at all the years [millions of seconds] a head of them.

But they are not wise!

This life and all of its graces can end in one second. And then the sinner stands in eternity with a load of gathered up wrath to account for.

And an infinite number to seconds to suffer for his hard hearted rebellion.

God has promised eternal life to all who will bow their hearts to Him, trusting in His only begotten Son.

But God has not promised you will get your 2 Billion seconds.

Each second you live is a gift of God's great mercy.

I've fallen and I can't get up [Theological Rationalism, Part 8]

For those who haven't put some deep thought into it, the fall of Adam has an explanation. He himself had not sinful tendancy...but...he was tempted to do evil by Satan.

But this then leads us back a little further into history...

Before Lucifer's fall there was no evil in the universe...all was very good.

And yet Satan and some of the angels fell into sin and rebellion.

Todays posting isn't to try and explain how...more ultimately why.

Why did some angels fall and others remained faithful?

Satan freely chose to rebel and some angels freely chose to follow him.

Other angels freely chose to reject Satan and serve the Lord God.

God calls some of the angels "elect" angels.

If we ultimately want to understand the difference between the elect angels and those who were reprobate we can not do so by trying to look at their natures.

They were created with the same natures, and had the same abilities to choose.

There was no outward temptations for evil that came to some and not others.

In the end it takes us back to a great mystery!

God can do what we can not even imagine doing.

He can predestine men's and angels free choices.

If you have thought over this, at a glance, and it hasn't caused your brain to hurt [like when you think hard on God's eternality, or His Triune nature] then you haven't really thought on it.

God has predetermined that men and angels will freely make decisions. So free are their decisions that they are the ones who are responsible for them.

Fall in the Garden [Theological Rationalism, Part 7]

When Adam was created by God, God looked at him [and all that he made] and said it was very good. Adam did not have a sinful nature. He did not struggle with the battle that goes on in the regenerated man's heart today. There was no flesh warring with the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

Adam had no sinful taint in him. But God had created him with the ability to choose.

When one thinks about the fall of Adam it should cause his brain to hurt a little, like when one begins to stretch the tight muscles in his legs.

I can remember reading Saint Augustine years ago and he spoke of the mystery of the garden. He quotes the words of Jesus when He said "that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit" [Matt 7] and then asked how did Adam fall?

God made Adam upright, but He also made Adam with the ability to choose, and therefore with the ability to choose wrongly.

Adam was tempted to sin by Satan [who had just deceived his wife] and with no sinful taint to his soul, gave in to that temptation and plunged the human race into sin.

The mystery? Adam "freely" chose to sin against God. And God from all eternity foreordained that he would "freely" do so.

Now enters a man who is born again. His eyes have been opened, his mind freed from Satan's blinders. He can now see the glory of Christ. But we are told that he is not in a sinless state as Adam was before the fall. Even as a regenerate person he still struggles with the flesh and its sinful tendancies.

So why is it then that when he [the regenerated man] sees the glory of Christ he does not choose to reject God, as the fountain of every blessing, and continue to follow Satan?

Adam fellowshipped with God! And Adam didn't have the sinful taint! And Adam fell!

It is true that if a man is not regenerate that he will never choose Christ, because in his bondage he sees Christ and the gospel as foolishness.

But Adam didn't have on Satan's blinders and yet he fell.


Yes God must regenerate the sinner in order for the sinner to see Christ in all His glory!

Then the sinner must freely choose Christ as His Savior and Lord!

In the end, why it that every sinner, who is regenerated by God [and still struggles with sinful tendancies that Adam never had], chooses to cling to Christ as his Master, when Adam who did not have their sinful taint did not choose this end?

Mystery! Because every regenerated person has been foreordained by God to "freely" choose Christ.
And Adam had been foreordained to "freely" fall into sin.

What color are your eyes?

Most students look forward to the weekend to escape tests...but on this blog this weekend will be for tests. Fun Tests.

Test your eyes with the following test...click on the following Stroop Test

Have fun!

Weekend Test

I thought I would give us a break from our travels with Theological Rationalism, and instead would allow you an opportunity to see how consistent your thinking is.

Battle Ground God

Click on the above Words to go to the site to test your rational consistency.

I took the test and had to bite one bullet [you will understand when you play the game].

For my defense I still believe that I answered the question correctly. I believe those who made up the test need to put a little more thought into what constitutes evidence.

As a presuppositionalist I do not believe there is such a creature as a brute fact.

All facts are interpreted facts. And not all world views can justify their intepretation of "the facts".

Sounds like I am pretty bitter for getting one wrong doesn't it?