Quotable Quotes Greg Bahnsen – Always Ready.
The unbeliever opposes the Christian faith with a whole, antithetical system of thought-not simply with piecemeal criticisms. His attack is aimed not merely at certain random points of Christian teaching, but at its foundation. The particular criticisms utilized by the unbeliever rest upon basic key assumptions which unify and inform his thinking. It is this presuppositional root which the apologist must aim to eradicate if his defense of the faith is to be effective.
Because the unbeliever has such an implicit system of thought directing his attack on the faith the Christian can never be satisfied to defend the hope that is in him by merely stringing together isolated evidences which offer a slight probability of the Bible’s veracity. Each particular item of evidence will be evaluatedby the unbeliever’s tacit assumptions; his general worldview will provide the context in which the evidential claim is understood and weighed. What one presupposes as to possibility will even determine how he rates ‘probability’”
An unbeliever is not simply an unbeliever at separate points; his antagonism is rooted in an overall philosophy which is according to the world’s tradition; thus is an enemy of God in his mind and uses his mind to nullify or obviate God’s word .
The Christian can then teach the unbeliever that all wisdom and knowledge must take Jesus Christ as its reference point . The believer’s thinking, just as the unbeliever’s is grounded in a self-validating starting-point. This ultimate truth must be an expression of God’s mind; He alone speaks with unquestionable authority and self-attesting veracity. Thus Jesus categorically claimed to be the truth
G. Bahnsen, Always Ready, pp. 67-69
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