Point: Some Christians engage in apologetics in a piecemeal fashion. They give evidence here and there. They refute an objection here and there. They might not realize the importance of Presuppositional apologetics with its emphasis of going beyond the individual point and pursuing refutations at the level of presuppositions.
Picture: Have you ever have ants invade your home? Have you ever had a hard time getting rid of them merely by killing the ants that you are able to see? If so, what should you do? A better solution would be putting out an ant bait.
The goal of putting out an effective ant bait is that the worker ants would take the bait back to the colony. Having taken the bait the worker ants feeds the queen which also consume the poison. After a few days the queen and other worker ants within the colony start dying. By killing the queen it kills the source of the ants.
Here’s a video of the ant bait in action:
The use of ant bait can feel counter-intuitive. You see more ants at first since more of them come to consume the bait. You might even want to start killing the ants right then and there or kill individual ants here and there. But patience is required as you want to get rid of the ants at the source rather than superficially. Likewise when it comes to apologetics you don’t want to deal with someone’s objection that is lobbed at you here and there only, especially if they keep on making up new objections and new attacks against Christianity. You want to deal with their unbelief at the source which is the human heart. This requires the Gospel but at the human heart is also false presuppositions and these false presuppositions needs to be refuted.
POSSIBLE SCENARIO FOR EMPLOYING THIS ILLUSTRATION DURING APOLOGETIC EVANGELISM
OPPONENT: But I have another problem with Christianity.
CHRISTIAN: Wait real quick. I want to make an observation that this is the fourth objection you brought up. It is also the fourth objection that I have refuted from you. But before I address another objection I also want to examine your worldview that construct these objections. Tell me, in your worldview, how does your atheistic worldview account for man’s ability for knowledge?
OPPONENT: Wait. You can’t do that.
CHRISTIAN: Why not? I have been dealing with your objections this whole time but let us be honest, your objection is not done in a vacuum. Each one of your objections are somewhat like pests that needs to be dealt with, like ants. You are producing a whole lot of them! But I want to ask if the presuppositions and worldview that drives you to manufacture problems with Christianity when there are none can even account for the intelligibility and meaningfulness of those objections within your own worldview. Let me explain with an illustration. Do you know much about ant bait?
OPPONENT: Somewhat.
CHRISTIAN: <INSERT ILLUSTRATION.> Now when you have a problem with ants do you want to deal with the queen mother ant or the worker ants only?
OPPONENT: The queen ant.
CHRISTIAN: Likewise we should deal with the “mother” of all your objections. To confirm what you have been saying in our conversation, you don’t believe in God am I correct?
OPPONENT: Correct.
CHRISTIAN: So long as you think atheism is a good place as your foundation for rational dialogue, you will continue to reject and object to Christianity and roll out your arguments, since Christianity believes in the God of the Bible. Now then let me explain why your presuppositions destroys the very foundation of your own objections which you claim to know as true since your presupposition destroys the possibility of knowledge itself…
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Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Thank you Vincent for the reblog!
Yankee Whiskey Bravo 😎
You make some great points about getting lost in the weeds while witnessing to atheists and bringing the conversation back to the core problem. The videos were an entertaining supporting visual! This reminds me of outreach to Catholics. It’s easy to go down rabbit holes regarding such issues as Mary, purgatory, transubstantiation, the pope, etc. Not that these aren’t important topics, but the primary and most pressing difference between Catholics and Bible Christians is in regards to justification; how does a person get to Heaven? Once again, I’m going into the weeds regarding your post, but it reminded me that it’s so important to focus on the core problem rather than getting lost in tangents. Very helpful!
LOL I don’t think you were “going into the weeds” but you were giving another application of going to the heart of the matter. No worries at all Tom! If you will, I thought of another example from reading your comment. In dealing with Muslims and Islam I try to avoid discussing the topic of whether Islam is a religion of peace, etc. Now I am interested in the topic, but I would rather stick to issues closer to the Gospel. I’ve talked Muslims in the past where they start saying yes Islam is violent and I realized what needs to be dealt with is the bigger issue of authority (the Bible, the Quran, etc). So I rather focus on that as a way of pointing to the Bible and Jesus than particular points about Islam and violence. Gotta go to the root and not just the fruit if you know what I mean. My method is keep on preaching the Gospel and only when they bring up objections from their worldview do you go after the Quran’s authority by showing how it is self-refuting since the Quran teaches the Bible is authoritative and yet the Bible contradicts the Quran: https://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/witnessing-to-muslims-the-quranic-view-of-the-bible/ Any ways, I hope that wasn’t too long of a rabbit trail!
Good example with regards to getting sidetracked regarding Islam and violence. Yes, the violence of the RCC centuries ago is a similar scenario but not the prime discussion point. Whoops! There I go all over again. Who were we talking about initially? Yes, atheists!!! And I’ll be thinking about those ants going down their ant hole all night!
Awesome. We needed this. Thanks.
~ Bro. Jed
Great example of clear thinking. When solving crimes detectives look for motive. What is motive behind all of the objections. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. The motive behind objecting to the 5 solas or the 5 points of Calvinism is the personal desire to boast about ones own goodness.
Good analogy brother with detectives solving crimes brother!
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Please write more of these!
Good analogy!
Appreciate the analogy and makes me think about how to deal with the ant problem at my place