Directions: Presuppositional Starting Point

“I invoke as a witness against you today the heaven and the earth: life and death I have set before you, blessing and curse. So choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring, by loving Yahweh your God by listening to his voice and by clinging to him, for he is your life and the length of your days in order for you to live… (Deut. 30:19-20; LEB).

“Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life’” (John 6:68; BBE).

Begin Here:

Which way points north? How do you know to turn south? And, how do we find east and west? Without a map, without a compass, without something to direct us in the right direction we are utterly lost; like a ship without a rudder, like a boat being tossed around by the waves, or a kite in the wind. In order to know the right way, someone must show you, someone must teach you, someone must help you discipline your mind.

To some degree all humans admit this. There are a few that will claim that this is not necessarily the truth, there might be some other way. But in normal life experience, the type of life that you and I live, the truth is something that is taught not intuitively known.

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law became parents well over a year ago, and little Bo is growing into a bright, somewhat rambunctious, boy. He has learned to eat and is currently learning to speak. He knows who his daddy is, and when he has left the area. He knows who his mommy is, and when it is his mommy speaking to him. These are things that he has learned. These truths did not come to him naturally as if he reasoned them out and concluded them on his own (although, I am not denying that thinking and reasoning are a part of the learning process even at his young age), they were taught to him from the time spent in the womb, and now on the outside as he continues to grow into the man he will one day become.

Many years ago I learned about the apologetic methodology taught by Cornelius Van Til and later popularized by one of his brightest pupils, Greg L. Bahnsen. Preuppositionalism seeks to address the underlying commitments of the individual (or group) in question by identifying their ultimate standard. That is, what stands foundationally in their minds from which their biases and assumptions are formed. When speaking of apologetics many people will often point to 1 Peter 3:15,

"but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" (ESV).

What is the reader of Scripture to whom Peter was originally writing being told? Before Christians answer any questions regarding their hope, their faith, what are they supposed to do first? What is to be their primary commitment? Before all else? Before anything else? They are to “honor Christ the Lord as holy…in [their] heart” (order reversed for clarity of thought).

Jesus is to be the Christians primary commitment. He is to be the Christian starting point. Jesus is a priori to everything else.

Now, some may argue that this verse deals with apologetics. The term apologia the Greek word for ‘defense’ or ‘reasoned argument’ is there, but apologia is not limited to one minor branch of theology. Nor is it limited to its counterpart evangelism. To offer an apologia is to answer for the hope, the faith-commitment, the outlook held by person being questioned. And that answer points to the one set-apart in the heart of the believer—Jesus Christ.

When a Christian says, “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior” they are claiming that He is their starting point, their chief point of reference. He is the “hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15b) being spoken about by the apostle Peter. He is their king that gives them direction, and their deliverer who has saved them from their former life, granting them a new one under His dominion, within His domain. Even if such things are not clearly understood or articulated to the fashion that some would deem necessary, the fact remains that such are the convictions of all who believe in Jesus as the Christ of God. Our inabilities do not limit the nature of the case; even if they sometimes hinder us in our application of said truth.

Now I argue (and I have done this for a long time) that our starting point (Jesus Christ) is not concerned about one or a few areas of life, but every aspect of life. Jesus is the starting point of our apologetic methodology. He is the starting point of one’s evangelism. He is the starting point of our soteriology and our eschatology. Thus, He is rightly called (He addresses Himself by this moniker) the beginning and the last; the alpha and the omega.

Jesus is the Word made flesh. He was in the beginning. He was with the Father. He shared in the glory of the Father. He is the living image, the exact imprint of God in the flesh. He walked in line with the Holy Spirit step-by-successive-step. He was and is what we are to be conformed into. If we desire to see God, to enjoy His presence in eternity, then we must put on Christ inside and out. He sits on the throne of our heart and directs the setting of our feet and the work of our hands.

Jesus is the starting point of all that the believer claims to be, all that they claim to be invested in. When we read in the Proverbs that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…and of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10), the Christian understands that the primary reference is Christ, for “in [Him] are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden” (Col. 2:3; NHEB).

If these things are true, and I would challenge the one who professes Christ as their Lord and Savior to argue otherwise, then we must first look to Christ in all things.

Christians will readily agree (at least verbally) that Jesus is the starting point of our witnessing (evangelism and apologetics), but this is not where we should stop. How could we? Jesus is to be our starting point in terms of God’s Law (theonomy), our ethics, our politics, our economics, our education, our vocations and callings. Christ Jesus is to be our starting point in all of these things and more.

How do you know what is right versus wrong, righteous versus unrighteous, good versus evil? How can you know if you don’t start first with what God has said? His Word is to be the directional navigator for all our life. Not just our lives (personally), but all lives (corporately).

Why do we say that the only real and lasting change that will occur in the life of a person is brought about by the gospel and its application by the internal workings of the Holy Spirit? We cannot see or even be apart of God’s Kingdom unless we are born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our starting point in a new life, a new outlook, a new disposition. And this is the result of Christ being the starting point of a new creature-hood. And that is because of the Father’s sending the Son into the world, and the Father and Son’s sending the Spirit into the world. All things center on (that is are founded upon) the Rock unformed by human hands. The apostle Paul wrote as much when he said that what a person builds upon, if it is to be lasting, it must be built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, for there is no other rock upon which a person might build their life’s work on and hope to succeed.

Directional navigation is very important. Without which the person in question is hopelessly wandering.

And yet, what do many Christians struggle with? They will say that in Christ are all things. They, who are in Christ started with Christ, but then they will appeal to literally anything else under the sun so as to avoid the conclusion that Christ is Lord, and therefore the necessary starting point, in law and the penal sanctions associated with it. they will say, Christ must be first, but not in the arena of politics and public policy.

Can someone please explain what is wrong with the following statement by Greg L. Bahnsen in his book entitled, By This Standard, where he writes,

“The wise man will establish his moral perspective on the rock-foundation words of Christ in Scripture. Therein we are instructed that God is unchanging in His standards for righteousness, not altering them from age to age or from person to person. Since God’s law defined righteousness in the Old Testament, it continues to define righteousness for us today. God has no double-standard. Whether the Christian strives to imitate the holiness of God, to model his behavior after the life of Christ, or to be led by the Spirit, he will invariably be directed by Scripture to heed the law of God; the law is a transcript of God’s unchanging holiness, the standard of righteousness followed by the Savior, and the pattern of sanctification empowered by the Spirit.

‘The continuing authority of God’s law today is inherent to a biblically based theology. Time does not change or wear out the validity of God’s commands, and a change of geography or locality does not render them ethically irrelevant.”¹

What Bahnsen is pointing out is that God’s Law, which is Christ’s Law for He is Lord of the Covenant (Old & New) is the starting point for how the Christian ought to govern their own lives. This applies to the individual in terms of personal government, and it applies to every other institution ordained by God. All authorities are delegated authorities, and they answer to Christ Jesus the King. If not, then what other source should we derive our directions in these key areas of life from, and to what Lord should they turn us towards?

ENDNOTES:

1Greg L. Bahnsen, By This Standard: The Authority of God’s Law Today (Tyler, TX: Institute of Christian Economics, 1985), 86, PDF E-book.