Saturday, 04 August 2007
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Greg Bahnsen -- "Presuppositional Apologist" and disciple of Cornelius Van Til at Westminster Theological Seminary -- wrote, "we come into this world cognitively "conditioned" or PREPARED to RECOGNIZE the indications of our Creator in nature and SCRIPTURE." (p222-3. Note: All quotes in this video are taken from "Van Til's Apologetic: Readings and Analysis" compiled by Bahnsen.)
So Bahnsen says unbelievers understand the Bible. Such a statement is not a slip-up. In fact, it is very consistent with his system. Bahnsen says that the unbeliever already knows God "deep down". If that's right, then it logically follows that unbelievers have the ability to judge the Bible.
For example, imagine a member of your family -- whom you have known all your life -- writes an autobiography. You would be competent to judge the reliability of the book, right?
Now, the Bible is God's autobiography. So if unbelievers have known God all their lives, "deep down" then they’re going to think they are competent to judge the Bible, right? "Why do we need the Holy Spirit to understand the Bible, when we already understand the Being who wrote it?", they can say.
The Apostles constantly battled people who thought they knew God apart from the Bible. They tried to convince men they did not know God "deep down" by nature. A man convinced he is ignorant of God by nature will know he is unable to judge the Bible. Paul declares, "the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God ... [believers] have received ... the Spirit who is from God, so that [they] may know the things given to [them] by God.." (1 Cor 2:11-12)
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