By: Rev. Stephen Terpstra
This summer I had the privilege of taking a course on Covenantal Apologetics. That sounds like a big title (better than the more commonly known Presuppositional Apologetics), but it was so helpful and timely and pastoral. Metaphysics and epistemology were the big issues. Again, they sound fancy, but they are all simple ideas. Metaphysics is the study of being or existence. What are the basic things that exist? What is the nature of things – especially humans? Epistemology asks the simple question: how can we know? How do you know what you know about anything? Those are the principal items that all philosophy asks. What is the nature of existence? How can we know?
Cornelius Van Til, a CRC pastor who became a professor of apologetics at Westminster for many years, wanted to form those questions in line with the biblical Reformed teaching we believe in a more consistent way. He argued philosophically what we all know scripturally. God is the source of all being. God is self-existent, needing nothing and having everything. That is our metaphysic. The heavens display the glory of God, and the skies proclaim his handiwork. Humanity was created in God’s image in covenant relationship with him. God has revealed himself in the world and in our nature and in His word so that he can be clearly known. That is our epistemology.
“Every fact any human being comes to know they interpret either in recognition of God or in denial of God. There are no neutral facts because there is no neutral relationship with God.”
But that has profound implications for how we live, and especially how we see human nature. There is no neutral existence, no neutral area of study, no neutral rationality or logic or feelings. We exist as creatures of a creator. We exist as beings made in the image of God with a purpose and meaning and obligations. In sin, we deny that truth and try to live in rebellion as if God did not exist, as if God is not on the throne, as if we can determine our meaning and purpose on our own. In short, we decide in sin that WE determine how we will know things and what they will mean.
It is simply not the case that we agree with non-Christians on most facts and only have a small disagreement in religion. Every fact any human being comes to know they interpret either in recognition of God or in denial of God. There are no neutral facts because there is no neutral relationship with God, who made all things and reveals himself in all things and has a purpose for all things. There is a profound antithesis, a blatant opposition, between those in service to God and those in rebellion to God; between those who acknowledge and give thanks to God and those who deny and reject Him. That means that we should be, as Van Til would put it, epistemologically self-conscious. I hope we can work on that this year. That is, I want you to know the truth, and to know WHY it is true, and how you can be sure it is true, and therefore live truly in the world as it is, as you are, and as God is.
It also means that when we talk to anyone, particularly when we are defending or sharing the faith, we are talking to people who are in covenant relationship to God, though many currently on the wrong side of that covenant. They were made by God and for God–though they deny it. They have the law written upon their hearts–though they deny it. They clearly see God’s nature in the things that are made–though they deny it. They know they are sinners, and they know they need a savior–though they deny it. And the denial is conscious and powerful–though they deny that too. In a sense, when we defend or share our faith–we have everything in common with non-believers, and our task is not merely to remind them of what their soul already knows but refuses to acknowledge, but to challenge them at the very points that they are in denial. It also means that, in a sense, we have nothing in common with unbelievers. The entire orientation of their life is opposed to God. Every fact they know is wrongly interpreted. Their conclusions about the world and human nature and morality are in rebellion against God and in blatant denial of his existence and lordship. This doesn’t mean that common grace does not allow them yet to do some civic good, but it means their basic assumptions (their presuppositions) are fundamentally wrong, and so their conclusions are fundamentally flawed. They do not see the world as it is because they refuse to see God as He is.
“We don’t need to be experts, just speak the truth so the Holy Spirit can do His work. ”
This leads to a practical conclusion for us. It gives us great hope and confidence in defending and sharing the faith, because God is not foreign or unknown to anyone (though he is denied). All is there within them and around them. It is not ignorance but hard heartedness that is the problem, hard hearts that need to be softened by the Spirit through the Word, through the voice of ordinary Christians like you and me. We don’t need to be experts, just speak the truth so the Holy Spirit can do His work.
It also makes us self-aware. The only reason non-Christians do any relative good is because they are inconsistent. They sin against their nature when they are honest, kind, diligent, etc. When sin has finished with them, they will one day be perfectly consistent in their rebellion in hell, and it will be horrible. But Christians like you and me can also sin against our nature. We have been redeemed by Christ and filled with his Spirit. We are the bride of Christ the Righteous One, the children of a thrice Holy God. God is conforming us into Christ’s image from one degree of glory to another. Yet we insist on making foolish choices and decisions in denial of our nature and in denial of God’s goodness and reign and purpose.
I have been challenged in my own life, and challenged in my calling as pastor, to live and preach more and more so that we can live consistently. I want to live as who I am in Christ in all things, and I want you to do the same. God is on the throne from eternity to eternity. We are ever his creatures, and he clearly reveals himself to us. So be holy as He is holy. Proclaim your faith clearly and simply to whoever you meet, for they too have the same creator and judge. These things are not too high for us – they are our calling and destiny. God is our presupposition. God is our metaphysic. God is our epistemology. From Him and in Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.