I was just listening to the latest episode of Stand to Reason, and it got me to thinking about something. There's a big feud in the world of Christian apologetics between evidentialism and presuppositionalism. The objection most presuppositionalists bring against evidentialism is that it somehow dishonor's God. One example is when evidentialists make historical arguments for the resurrection of Jesus without assuming the Bible is the inerrant word of God.
Tactically speaking, though, I think evidentialists are right to do this. It's not easy to build an argument for scriptural inerrancy. But it turns out that it's not necessary to assume scriptural inerrancy to demonstrate the resurrection of Jesus. A person who argues for scriptural inerrancy in order to demonstrate the resurrection is going to have a much more difficult time than a person who argues for the resurrection on historical grounds.
If you're arguing for the resurrection on historical grounds, and somebody starts bringing up contradictions in the Bible, you can dismiss many of them as irrelevent to your case. You don't have to get bogged down in each issue the other person brings up.
It seems to me that the object of apologetics ought to be to give a defense for the hope that we have. That's what it means to give an apologetic. A sound argument is a sound argument. If arguing for the resurrection on historical grounds without the necessity of proving inerrancy first is easier, then why not? It's not as if you have to argue from inerrancy to make the argument. You just have to say that the historical case is sound even if the Bible is errant. I don't see how that dishonor's God.
4 comments:
I agree with and appreciate your assessment. I grew up a very devout Christian and have had some intense doubts of late. Never have I been quite as disappointed as when I tried to get answers from an individual who claimed to have gone through the same thing at one time.
After a series of emails that got us nowhere, it came to light that he was a presuppositionalist. The discourse ended by him stating that I could choose to trust in human observation or the Bible. He had chosen the latter. Unfortunately, that doesn't get me any closer to why.
I agree with your point. I've experienced my own resistance to the idea, though, when I attempted to submit this article for publication. The area of concern came about halfway down starting with the paragraph that begins, "Now, while I am not suggesting the need to surrender inerrancy. . ." Without the ability to set aside the question of inerrancy, we lose a whole arsenal of apologetic tactics.
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Stay blessed.
Howdy Lu/Lucia/Lucy. I'm glad you found some of my stuff interesting. Y'all come back now, ya hear?
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