The Problem of Unbelief - No Basis for Knowledge at All.

The greatest proof of Christianity is that without it, one can prove nothing at all.  Statements like this have lead me to love and embrace the presuppositional apologetic of Cornelius Van Til.  Though others have communicated the method more clearly (i.e. Bahnsen, Frame and others), I have found reading Van Til himself very beneficial.

I just finished his Christian Theory of Knowledge.  I must say that while I learned a ton, there were parts that left me scratching my head.  Allow me to share with you a comment that he made concerning the unbeliever's epistemology - that is, the theory of knowledge that answers questions like, "What is knowledge?",  "How is knowledge acquired?" and "How do we know what we know?"  Van Til writes:

If one does not make human knowledge wholly dependent upon the original self-knowledge and consequent revelation of God to man, then man will have to seek knowledge within himself as the final reference point.  Then he will have to seek an exhaustive understanding of reality.  Then he will have to hold that if he cannot attain to such an exhaustive understanding of reality, he has no true knowledge of anything at all.  Either man must then know everything or he knows nothing.  This is the dilemma that confronts every form of non-Christian epistemology...The only way by which this dilemma can be indicated clearly is by making plain that the final reference point in predication is God as the self-sufficient One.


This quote deserves much reflection both in its meaning, consequences, and outworking.  It simply states that in order for an unbeliever to know anything, he/she must know everything.  Everything is impossible to know, therefore they have no basis for knowing anything at all.  Another Van Til statement that I come back to often goes something like this, "without God there is no basis for predication whatsoever."

These things may sound a bit academic.  I would propose otherwise.  Embracing and understanding the presuppositional apologetic has given so much to my faith as well as fueling the evangelical flame in my heart.  While commonly accused of being unbelievingly narrow; it has only served to broaden my love for God and others.