Giving a reasoned defense of the faith

Our church was blessed this summer to hear Mike Wittmer preach.  Mike recently posted some of his interaction with a skeptic.  In so doing, he models “presuppositional apologetics.”  If that wording throws you off a bit – – just read how he interacted with an unbeliever.

About a month ago I received a spirited email from a self-described skeptic whose friend had recommended that he read Don’t Stop Believing.  The reader said that he had been raised in a conservative Christian home, but now he thought that there was insufficient proof for the existence of God and Scripture.  He was singularly unimpressed with my arguments for both in DSB, and he suggested that I man up and mail him a refund.  I responded to him from a presuppositional perspective, which I have edited to conceal his identity.

Dear Friend:

Thank you for your email.  Regarding your questions, I was writing DSB from within the Christian tradition for other Christians, so I was assuming some basic starting points, or presuppositions.  You do not seem to share those same presuppositions, so let me say a word about them.

You are right that in some sense we all begin with ourselves.  If I believe in something or think that something is true, then it must be “I” who holds this belief.  So you and I both use our rational and empirical faculties asinstrumental starting points.

We differ in regard to our content presuppositions.  You seem to begin with yourself again, refusing to believe anything on insufficient evidence.  This would explain why you think that I am a fideist (claiming that “I know because I know even though I can’t prove it”) and why you say that you don’t know whether God exists or the Bible is his Word.

My content presupposition is that God exists and that he has revealed himself in Scripture.  I appreciate why you would not accept this starting point, but you should note that I am not claiming to be “an oracle channeling God” but rather a recipient of his revelation.  This is the important difference between us:  I believe that God has revealed himself to us and you do not.

The rest here.