CA312

Christian Evidences LESSON 06 of 12

The Verification of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

Victor M. Matthews, STD

Former Professor of Systematic
Theology Grand Rapids
Theological Seminary

This is lecture 6 of the course entitled Christian Evidences. We are

considering the statement out of the Bible that Peter makes in 1
Peter 3:15, where it is said, “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts:
and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh
you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”

Last time we talked about the verification of Christianity, and I

want to continue that in this lecture. This is one of the important
facets of Christian evidences or Christian apologetics. It’s the
question as to how you go about giving an answer; that is, an
answer beyond your own personal testimony, which, of course, is
always so very important and always first, but then what do you
do with a person who rejects your testimony and rejects any belief
at all in God or in the Word of God?

In the previous lecture, I considered the a posteriori method of

apologetic verification. The a posteriori method is starting with
observations of nature roundabout us, and then on that basis
formulating an assumption about the cause of the effect that
we see about it. We considered the cosmological, teleological,
anthropological, ontological, and moral arguments. If we start
this way, as David Hume has shown, we can never rise above that
which we find within nature. Therefore, it becomes quite self-
evident that God cannot be infinite because the world is finite. He
may be infinite on this argument, but we do not know that He is
because of the principle of economy: since the world is many, we
cannot really show that God is one. Since the world is imperfect,
we are not sure about the perfection of God on that basis. And
there are many other arguments against the a posteriori method.

Not that the content of all of that is irrelevant. Why, not at all.
God has revealed Himself to us through nature. In Romans 1:20
it states that “the invisible things of him from the creation [or
by the creation] of the world are clearly seen, . . . even his eternal
power and Godhead; so that they [man] are without excuse.” And
in Romans 2:14–15, it states that non-Christians, all people, show

Transcript - CA312 Christian Evidences  1 of 9

© 2015 Christian University GlobalNet. All rights reserved.
Lesson 06 of 12 The Verification of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

the law of God written in their hearts. All of this is good material
for the verification of Christianity, but I do not believe that we
can utilize material like that adequately within the a posteriori
method.

A Biblical Way of Verifying Christianity

In this lecture, I come to the a priori method. This, the a priori

method in apologetics, is starting where God starts with us, and
that is with the revelation of God to us. That is, instead of starting
with observations of nature roundabout and then forming an
assumption on that basis, we start with the assumption. We start
with the belief in the true and the living God and His revelation
to us. Allow me to explain that. And I want here in this lecture
to present first of all by way of explanation a quote from the
book entitled The Verification of Christianity by L. M. Sweet. He
states, “The rational task of the apologist for Christianity is just
the natural task of the advocate of any great generalization of
science: To vindicate it on the basis of evidence as the most
reasonable hypothesis to explain undoubted facts.” Christian
apologetics, he goes on to say, is “the explication of the fact
that the Christian religion explains the world, man, and human
history more comprehensibly and more satisfactorily than any
other explanation which can be devised.”

Here is a good statement as to what I mean by the a priori method,

and that is it would appear to me from the study of the Word of
God that this is a biblical way of verifying Christianity. We start
as the Bible starts, with a belief in God and with a belief in the
revelation of God, and then on that basis, present the truth and
challenge people to explain the world, man, and human history
more comprehensibly and more satisfactorily in some other way.
If God has created the world, and He did, if man is God’s creation,
and he is, and if God has revealed Himself, and He has, then his
revelation would certainly be a better explanation of His creation
than any other kind of an explanation that we can find.

It would seem to me that when we approach the arguments

within the Scripture itself concerning apologetics or evidences,
it would appear that the disciples and even our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, used something like the a priori method
that I’m advocating in this lecture. For example, in the gospel
of John 5:36–37, the Lord Jesus said, “But I have greater witness
than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me
to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the
Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent me,

Transcript - CA312 Christian Evidences  2 of 9

© 2015 Christian University GlobalNet. All rights reserved.
Lesson 06 of 12 The Verification of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

hath borne witness of me.” What is the Lord Jesus Christ saying
here? He is stating you understand and see my works that I do.
He healed people. He cast out demons. He performed miraculous,
supernatural events and activities among people. He seems to be
stating in John 5, “If I am not the Son of God, how do you explain
these miracles that I am performing?” So He says, “I have a greater
witness than that of John: the works . . . bear witness of me.”

We have something very similar to that in John 10:37–38, where

He said, “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But
if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works: that ye may
know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.” Here
He is speaking to people who believe the Old Testament. They
believe that the Messiah would come to the world. On that basis
the Lord Jesus Christ is asking them, “If you believe in the Old
Testament, do not my miracles and my works conform to what
the Old Testament says the Messiah, the Son of God, will do when
He comes into the world?” Here we would seem to find in the
New Testament, and there are many other verses like this—let me
urge you to read the New Testament with this thought in mind—it
would seem that there are evidences in the New Testament itself
in what I would call the simple a priori method of the verification
of Christianity.

Science and the a Priori Method

This is not such an unusual type of argumentation for us. In our

day we are all the products of a scientific age, and we recognize
that science, in spite of many things that are said about science
and many things that are said by scientists, itself works with the
a priori method a good deal. Science is not based upon simple
observation of facts, as sometimes we are told. Science has to
work with certain assumptions that can never be proven by the
scientific method. For example, science has to presuppose the
uniformity of nature. How do you prove the uniformity of nature
scientifically? You can’t do that at all. There’s no way of getting to
the uniformity of nature. How do we know that it’s uniform? The
only way that we can accept the uniformity of nature is by stating,
If it isn’t, then all that we know by science is false. If nature is
not uniform, then science is an impossibility because science
presupposes that there is a regularity, a uniformity to nature.

Another great assumption that science must utilize is human

rationality. How do we know that the human mind is rational?
We don’t know. But if we take it as an assumption, then we can do
something in science. In other words, the very activity of science,

Transcript - CA312 Christian Evidences  3 of 9

© 2015 Christian University GlobalNet. All rights reserved.
Lesson 06 of 12 The Verification of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

the very product of science is the evidence of the truthfulness

of human rationality. The same thing is true for causation—the
cause-and-effect relationship. How do we know that there is
such a thing as a causal relationship within nature itself? It has
been clearly stated . . . that we presuppose this. Human causation
or human rationality, rather, and causation within nature and
uniformity of nature are assumptions that science must take into
consideration in its work, and there’s no way of directly proving
those assumptions.

Another assumption is that the sample that they [scientists]

utilize is a valid sample. No scientist can investigate exhaustively
in his area. He cannot turn over every stone in the universe. After a
while he has to be content with a certain number of observations,
a certain number of experiences, a certain number of proofs. How
does he know that his sample is valid? He has to presuppose this,
and he presupposes it on the basis that his assumption is a better
explanation of the facts than some other type of an assumption.

Now, my friend, this is really what we mean by the scientific method

of verification. When you read in the Introduction to Philosophy
textbook or when you read in any book on logic, you will find that
there are three basic philosophical theories for verification. One is
the correspondence theory, another is the coherence theory, and
another one is pragmatism. All three of these are saying the same
thing, and that is that once you start with the assumption, the
assumption is verified by causing all of the facts that we do know
to be explained more comprehensively and more satisfactorily by
this assumption than by any other.

A Practical Application of the a Priori Method

The third thing I’d like to come to in this lecture has to do with a
practical application of this. When we start out with the assumption
in an a priori way, when we start out with belief in the true and
the living God and believing in His Word as a presupposition
or as an assumption, then let’s ask the question, If Christianity
is true, what would we expect in certain areas of life that have
become quite clear to us? For example, let’s start out with such
a thing as psychology. This is a very popular science in the day
in which we live. First of all when we start with psychology, we
are confronted by the fact that man is really hurting in the day in
which we live. Man is alienated. He’s alienated from true value, or
perhaps we could say from God. He’s alienated from himself, and
he’s alienated from others. How do you explain this alienation
within man?

Transcript - CA312 Christian Evidences  4 of 9

© 2015 Christian University GlobalNet. All rights reserved.
Lesson 06 of 12 The Verification of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

If you start with the belief in the true and the living God and His
Word, then we do have a very good explanation: the fact that man
has been created in the image and the likeness of God, he has
been created by God with profound potentiality, man was created
back there in the Garden of Eden knowing and loving God without
alienation. He was created in righteousness, knowledge, and true
holiness. This is what it means to be created in the image and
likeness of God in that moral sphere, but the Bible says that man
is not only created in the image and likeness of God, but also man
is fallen. He has sinned against his Maker. He is a fallen person.
If we start out like that, if we start out with the assumption of
God and His Word and now apply the Word of God to man, and
if we start out with the realization that man has been created in
the image and likeness of God but now is fallen, then we have an
answer for the dilemma that modern man finds himself in today.
We have an answer as to why man is alienated from true value,
I would rather say from God Himself, and why man is alienated
from himself, and why man is alienated from others.

In some parts of our world today, looking at it naturalistically,

it can well be said that man has never had it as well as he’s had
it today. Why is it now that in those countries where provision
is made from man almost from the cradle to the grave, that the
suicide rate is the highest? Why is that? It’s because you don’t
solve the problems of man simply by a good bank account. You
don’t find ultimate fulfillment just by having your insurance
policies paid up and being able to clip the coupons and to drive
around in a status symbol. Not at all. We understand that since
man has been created by God, only God can bring satisfaction to
the heart.

So now, how do we give an answer concerning the genuineness

of Christianity? If asked the question if Christianity is true, what
would we expect to find among us as members of the human race?
If we have been created in the image and likeness of God and
are now fallen, we would find among ourselves such a thing as
alienation. We would find that man, no matter how fine he would
have it, could never find within that fulfillment or satisfaction.
It’s a wonderful thing, if I might bring in an aside, to remind
ourselves that within Christianity we not only have man explained
as alienated, but also we have the Lord Jesus Christ making a
provision for us that we might be reconciled to Himself. God has
entered into our space and time. The Son of God has become a
member of our human race. Man is reconciled, and by receiving
the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, He can come into our
lives, forgive our sins, reconcile us to Himself. It’s interesting on

Transcript - CA312 Christian Evidences  5 of 9

© 2015 Christian University GlobalNet. All rights reserved.
Lesson 06 of 12 The Verification of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

this basis, the Christian is commanded in Matthew 22 to love the

Lord our God with all of his heart, soul, and mind, and to love his
neighbor as he lives himself. Did you ever notice that Matthew 22,
the commandment about loving God, your neighbor, and yourself,
is a way of canceling out man’s alienation? We’re alienated first
of all from true value, that is, from God, and here we’re told that
we can and we must love God. We’re alienated from ourselves.
We’re told in Matthew 22 to love ourselves; we’re alienated from
our neighbors. In Matthew 22 to we are to love our neighbor. Yes,
there is within Christianity a redemption, a reconciliation to God.

Secondarily, if we start off now by way of illustration, if we start

out with the presupposition or the assumption that the true and
living God exists and that He has revealed Himself to us through
the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Scripture, now let’s apply that
to what we know about anthropology. It’s interesting that
wherever the anthropologist finds man, there are always two or
three characteristics of him. Wherever man is found, no matter
how far back seemingly we go, no matter how many thousands
of years, whenever we find man and have enough evidence
there of recognizing what kind of a civilization or what kind of
a culture he had, no matter how rudimentary, there are always
two or three characteristics of this. For example, there are always
characteristics that man is moral. He has an ethical standard in
some way.

It’s interesting when you approach this matter of morality from the
philosophical viewpoint that some of the greatest philosophers in
history have emphasized this element, this characteristic that man
has a sense of obligation. It was Plato, for example, representing
the best of Greek philosophy, who described man as possessing a
consciousness of a universal, decisive standard that existed apart
from himself into which he was subjected. For Plato, man was a
moral person, and he realized his potentiality only to the degree
that he responded to this moral law that was on the outside of
him. I don’t believe in the metaphysics of Platonism, not at all,
but Plato is correct when he pointed out in his philosophy that
man is subject to moral law.

And it was that famous philosopher, Immanuel Kant, who

described man in a very similar way to Plato. He said every man
possessed a consciousness of an “I ought” or “I ought not.” This
can be explained, Immanuel Kant went on to say in some of his
books, by the fact that there is a lawgiver who says “Thou shalt”
and “Thou shalt not.” We recognize that Immanuel Kant was not
trying to verify Christianity at all in his philosophy. He was simply

Transcript - CA312 Christian Evidences  6 of 9

© 2015 Christian University GlobalNet. All rights reserved.
Lesson 06 of 12 The Verification of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

attempting to describe man as he found him. Whenever you find

man, whenever the anthropologist finds man, no matter how
rudimentary his civilization or culture may be, there’s always that
sense of morality.

And wherever you find man, no matter how rudimentary his culture
may be, you always find that he is a religious person. There’s always
an element, some element of religion in his culture. How do you
explain this if God does not exist and if the Word of God, the Bible,
is not true? How can you explain the fact that man has always been
characterized by an ethic of some kind? I’m not talking about the
content of the ethic—that changes. That changes from one valley
to another. That changes from one continent to another, from one
geographical place to another, from one group of individuals to
another group, so it’s not the content we’re talking about. We’re
talking about the fact of ethics, not its content. Wherever you find
man, you always find him moral in some sense of the term; that
is, moral in his own eyes, but nevertheless with a well-developed
sense of an ethic. Secondarily, he’s always a religious person. If
we start out with God and His Word, then we can explain that. We
can explain it on the basis that man was created in the image and
likeness of God and that man was created in fellowship with God.
Now man is fallen, and therefore his standard of ethics has great
variety within it, and his religion is perverted and pulled all out
of shape. Man has become an idolater in every sense of the term,
but nevertheless if we start out with God and His Word, then we
can explain all of that.

If you start out without believing in God and His Word, how can
you explain this anthropological element, that man is moral and a
religious person? I was interested the other day looking at a series
of plates in the National Geographic of some of the cave paintings
in southern France. These are some of the oldest evidences of
human culture, and it’s interesting, as the article went on to point
out, that these paintings, cave paintings in southern France, of
ancient men indicate that his religion and how his religion was
tied in with the hunt, with the need for food. This is an interesting
thing. Does this mean on the basis of the anthropologist that
ancient man was characterized by the strong element of religion?
How do we explain that if we do not believe in God and His Word?

Transcript - CA312 Christian Evidences  7 of 9

© 2015 Christian University GlobalNet. All rights reserved.
Lesson 06 of 12 The Verification of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

This is what I mean by the a priori approach. If we start with the

assumption of the true and the living God and His Word, then we
can make sense out of the problems and the facts of the world. We
can make sense, for example, out of modern psychology and the
need that man has, and we can on the basis of Christianity solve
some of man’s problems. We can not only explain why he is in
the problem and the difficulty he is in, but also we can give some
answers to it. And we can do the same with anthropology.

We can make the same statement about science and philosophy

and perhaps sociology and a few other of the disciplines. For
example, in science we can explain why nature is uniform, why
there is a causal relationship. We can explain human rationality,
and we can explain why the scientists must work with certain
necessary systems of value. These are all pure assumptions as far
as science is concerned, but for the Christian who believes in the
true and the living God and His Word, we can explain uniformity
of nature and causation, human rationality and value systems by
the fact that God has made the world and made mankind.

When you approach philosophy, we recognize that within

philosophy there are these three great problems: metaphysics,
epistemology, and ethics, and these three great problems can
also be explained on the basis of Christianity. We have ways of
getting to these problems in philosophy. But then let’s turn the
coin around and look at the other side. There are not only such
things as ordinary facts like science, philosophy, psychology, and
anthropology about us; there are extraordinary facts, however,
just as factual and just as historical—such a thing as the existence
of Israel’s religion. How do we explain that if we do not believe in
God and His Word? I’ll say more about that in the next lecture. And
prophecy and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His profound
effect upon the world, the reality of miracles, the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Scripture, the existence and spread of
the church, the evidence for Christianity that’s been found in
archaeology, the psychological and beneficial implications of
Christian experience, and then the great material we have that
has been called early church literature.

Transcript - CA312 Christian Evidences  8 of 9

© 2015 Christian University GlobalNet. All rights reserved.
Lesson 06 of 12 The Verification of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

If you do not believe in the true and the living God, what do you
do with such facts as these? And these are just as factual as the
facts of science or philosophy or psychology or anthropology.
Don’t you see now that if we start out not in the a posteriori way
but in the a priori way, if we start out with the assumption where
God starts with us of His existence and His Word, then we can
make sense out of this world? It’s very interesting, if I might go
back to the quotation of Sweet where he states, “The rational
task of the apologist for Christianity is just the natural task of
the advocate of any great generalization of science: To vindicate
it on the basis of evidence as the most reasonable hypothesis to
explain undoubted facts. Christian apologetics is the explication
of the fact that the Christian religion explains the world, man,
and human history more comprehensibly and more satisfactorily
than any other explanation which can be devised.”

Christ-Centered Learning — Anytime, Anywhere

Transcript - CA312 Christian Evidences  9 of 9

© 2015 Christian University GlobalNet. All rights reserved.