The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-15, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 1994 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

I recently have been studying apologetics and studied the "presuppositionalist" side and "evidentialist" side, and then I came across a book by Mark Hannah called Crucial Questions to Apologetics and he took a position called "verticalism," which made a lot of sense to me. But, I just wondered, what would your response be to a book like that, and also, how you came to your own personal convictions on an apologetics position?

Answer

Well, I am a presuppositional apologist--that simply means that I don’t believe you start from ground zero with evidence. I think you have to start with a presupposition and that is, God exists and He is the author of scripture, and that you affirm that by faith and that’s given by the Holy Spirit. I believe in God because God planted the belief in my heart. And I believe in the Bible because God gave me the belief in His Word. And, so I start with that. So, my defense of anything will be that God already exists--that’s the presupposition--and scripture is the Word of God. Evidential apologetics starts with nothing and uses philosophical arguments to postulate the existence of God and the authority of scripture. The most popular evidential apologist, the most widely known, would be Josh McDowell, who starts with nothing and does that.

Now, to be honest with you, I have not read Mark Hannah’s book. I have read some of his material, but that book on vertical apologetics I have not read. So, it’s hard for me to comment on it. And, maybe a good effort; I need to read it. Thanks for piquing my interest.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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