Why Presup? Part 3
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Last week we started talking about the concepts of knowledge, and how we know things. Knowledge is only possible because there is a God who has created all things. Logic only works because there is a God.
As I mentioned last week we are still laying a biblical foundation of key concepts and we are not yet into methodology. Lord willing in the new year we will discuss methodology for how we put all this into practice.
This week we want to explore the relationship between faith and reason.
Let’s define a few terms.
What is faith…and for the sake of this exercise, let’s avoid using the words trust, belief, or their derivatives.
The word I like is confidence or reliance. What are you confident in?
When you believe something is true, you are trusting, having faith in, placing your confidence in, that thing.
This is how the Bible describes faith.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Assurance....could be translated as confidence. It’s the substance or ground upon which we stand.
Conviction. It’s not superficial. It’s not merely something we affirm with our heads but it gets down into our hearts.
I was reading this week that some atheists and philosophers like to define what it means to believe as “to avoid knowing what is true” or “belief in something despite the evidence against it”
Is faith against reason?
By faith we understand…There is a relationship between our minds and our confidence convictions.
We all use faith when we reason. Especially as it relates to the origin of all things. None of us was there when everything was created. We are relying some fundamental assumptions or ---presuppositions — to conclude what we conclude about the origin of the universe.
By faith we understand....Because we believe that God exists and is an all powerful being, we understand, it stands to reason, that He is the one who created all things.
creaiton ex-nihilo (meaning out of nothing) is the logical conclusion. Matter is not eternal. It cannot be according to the law of physics. It cannot be according to the laws of logic, and honest secularists will admit to that.
Physics: everything is deteriorating.
Logic: Fallacy of infinite regress.
God wants us to have faith
God wants us to have faith
Example of the verb being used: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name,” (John 1:12)
15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
God wants us to reason
God wants us to reason
What is reason?
There are several words used throughout the NT to describe reason, thinking, and the use of our minds.
Verses on reasoning
Christians are to be reasonable: James 3:17 “17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.”
Some version states “ready to yield” and this is ready to yield to reason.Notice God approves of this, calling it “wisdom from above.”Being arbitrary (without reason) is not seen as a virtue: “Do not contend with a person for no reason, If he has done you no harm.” (Proverbs 3:30)
The Christian life is not to be arbitrary.
Is 1:18 “18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
Wrong Views of relationship of faith and reason
Wrong Views of relationship of faith and reason
Wrong view 1: Reason and faith are in opposition
Wrong view 1: Reason and faith are in opposition
I don’t believe we are called to have a baseless faith that throws logic and reason to the wind.
Wrong view 2: Faith does not need reason
Wrong view 2: Faith does not need reason
A popular way this manifest is the idea that faith can be irrational.
Scripture teaches otherwise: “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of things regarding the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3)
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
All the acts passages above
Wrong view 3: Reason does not need faith
Wrong view 3: Reason does not need faith
Some nonbelievers think that reason requires no faith since everything that is known can be established by reasoning.
However, even in order to do that you must accept the laws of logic on faith. You must presuppose that they are an acceptable form of thinking.
Scripture teaches otherwise: “He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.” (Hebrews 11:19)
The participle “considered” is from the verb λογίζομαι which earlier we mentioned that it means reasoning and thinking.It is fascinating that in a famous chapter on faith we see a verb referring to thinking and reasoning.
Also if you have to have a reason for everything you believe, this is logically impossible since there’s an infinite regress. So even with reasoning we have to rely on faith on certain things.
To even claim reasoning is the ultimate foundation for knowledge is itself an article of faith: “Faith is the very foundation for reasoning to the point that those who claim that reason is the foundation for knowledge must have faith that it’s so.”[10]
The Right View of Faith and Reason
The Right View of Faith and Reason
(Note: what follows summarizes all the verses and reasoning we have given above)There are some beliefs (what we have faith in) that depends on reasonReason also depend on the foundation of faithThose beliefs that is the foundation for reasoning we call Presuppositions.Presuppositions in normal use sometimes is use synonymously with assumptions. But we use it technically to refer to beliefs that are ultimate commitments that are foundational for other beliefs including beliefs about reasoning.For the Christian it is the biblical worldview that are the presuppositions that makes reason and other beliefs intelligible and meaningful.