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Christians have found themselves in a situation in which they have put a meaningful defense of both the religion as well as the faith they profess. This has been the case since the very onset of Christianity when the non believers and others of different religions who do not believe in the existence of Supreme God began criticizing the same them. As such, there has been an upshot of apologetics methods that try to explain and defend the Christian faith and also prove to the non believers that indeed God exists and that the Bible is the foundation of their truth having been inspired by God Himself.[1] One of the modern apologetics methods is the presuppositionalism method. It uses transcendental arguments. It is thus opposed to other methods of apologetics which normally base their defense of the faith Christians do profess on the evidences which can be seen.. This paper describes the presuppositionalism as apologetics method highlighting the advantages and disadvantages that it offers to the apologist.
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Analysis of the Presuppositional Method of Apologetics
This method of apologetics is a recent addition to the many methods that Christian apologists have used to defend their religion, and particularly the Christian faith of the existence of the Supreme God.[2] Basically, presuppositionalism majorly obtains its inspiration from the Bible specially the point that believers of the word have a supernatural way of comprehending spiritual matters in a manner that is impossible with non-believers. This forms the basis of the method in that it assumes that the tenets of spiritual revelation are purely preserved for those who believe. Thus, God himself reveals things to them after giving them the “mind of Christ.”[3] Furthermore, the foundation of the method lies in the fact that God is the author of everything and therefore those who believe in the existence of the supreme power are only acting on the derivatives that God provides. On the other hand, non-believers are conforming to the worldviews as argued by their precedents. Because of the supposition that truth only comes from God, the presuppostional method concludes that non-believers are not capable of making sound conclusions in their argument against the Christian faith because they have no source of truth in them.
Additionally, presuppositionalism, as a method, deviates from the initial apologetics approach. Such traditional approaches were basically based on the evidences in their provision of the proof for the existence of supernatural powers. It instead advocates for the use of reasoning and logic to explain facts to the non-believers. This is seen in its argument that their disagreements over the faith of Christians are merely based on the worldviews without facts. Presuppositionalism thus requires that any argument concerning the faith that they hold must start with the fact of Christian theism which in itself holds the key to the knowledge, consistency in nature, as well as logic.[4] Generally, presuppositionalism has been used as a method of disapproving the inconsistency in the worldviews that non believers use to attack the Christian faith. Similarly, it uses logic and reasoning to demonstrate why apologists believe what they believe on with moral absoluteness based on theism as practiced by Christians.
Criticisms to Presuppostionalism Method
Critics of presuppositionalism have pointed to the fact that the method engages in a form of circularity especially when it requires that any logical and reasonable argument must start and end with Christian theism, the very idea that non-believers do not want to believe. Additionally, the fact that the method does not pay regard to the archeological evidences or any other evidences that have served apologists for the longest period also has been questioned by non-believers and believers who still conform to the traditional methods of defending Christian faith.[5] Another argument is that presuppositionalism disallows any additional method or argument especially from those who do not believe in Christianity to be used in criticism of its conclusions. It is thus criticized as lacking objectivity in its attempt to expose Christian’s faith. However, the method is lauded for exposing the unreasonable and illogical arguments of non-believer purely based on the worldviews.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, the contribution of presuppositional method to the apologetics’ field is immense despite the criticisms leveled against it appealing to many traditional believers who always found the evidence insufficient to answer some of the fundamental questions.