Presuppositional Apologetics is more than than just pointing out non-Christians have faith too

I have heard well meaning Christians tell me that they like Presuppositional Apologetics. Which of course I’m happy to hear as an advocate of Presuppositional apologetics.  They say that it is because we need to point out that nonbelievers have presuppositions.  That’s true but Presuppositional apologetics is more than just pointing out non-Christians have presuppositions too.

Or sometimes people object to Presuppositional Apologetics that all it does is say non-Christians have presuppositions but its not enough to just say people have presuppositions.  I agree its not just enough to say people have presuppositions; but that’s not the end goal of Presuppositional apologetics.

On page 52 of Cornelius Van Til’s book The Doctrine of Scripture he said:

In this whole approach it is forgotten that the question is not one of having or not having faith but of having the proper faith. Of course all men start from faith. But the point is that the non-Christian starts from faith in man as not a creature of God and as not a sinner before God, while the Christian starts with his faith in Christ. It is the object of faith that gives meaning to the faith one professes. There are only two alternatives. The object of the non-Christian’s faith is man as autonomous, while the object of the Christian’s faith is God as revealed in Christ and in Christ as revealed in Scripture. “There is no person on earth,” says Wolthuis, “who lives without faith of some sort.” 30 This is true, but it is not true that therefore the Christian’s faith stands on a par with the non-Christian’s faith as far as validity is concerned. It is the Christian’s faith in God as revealed in Christ that is true faith. It alone gives an intelligible foundation to scientific procedure. The Christian and the non-Christian position are never to be thought of as intellectually on a par with one another. The Christian’s faith is not a blind faith, as is the faith of the non-Christian. The non-Christian scientist may and does believe in the presence of order, but he has no warrant for doing so: His assumed philosophy of chance points to the opposite. The Christian’s position is not merely just as good as the nonChristian’s position. Christianity is the only position that does not per se take away the very foundation for intelligible scientific and philosophical procedure. Christianity is the only “rational” faith!

Notice its pointing out that the presuppositions of unbelieving worldview if it is assumed as true, is taken to its logical conclusion to show how the non-Christian worldview is false.

To make it simple as an illustration of say a chance driven worldview without God, check out

Apologetics Sermon Illustration #76: Accidental and Stolen Stop Signs and Source of Morals

Apologetics Sermon Illustration #36: Doing Math with Dice and Atheism’s Destruction of Knowledge

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