Journal: Bible and Spade (Second Run)
Volume: BSPADE 25:4 (Fall 2012)
Article: Ready To Reason
Author: Greg L. Bahnsen

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BSpade 25:4 (Fall 2012) p. 91

Ready To Reason

Greg Bahnsen

A surge of pious agreement overcame me the first time I heard someone confidently assert that “The Word of God no more needs defense than does a lion in a cage. Just let the lion loose, and it will take care of itself!” There seemed something very right about that sentiment. It almost appeared irreverent to disagree with it.

Well, something about that assertion is indeed right. God is certainly not in need of anything—much less the puny efforts of any particular man or woman to defend His Word. He is the Creator of heaven and earth, almighty in power, and sovereign in controlling all things. The Apostle Paul, when reasoning with the Athenian philosophers, made that very point: he declared that

God is not worshiped with men’s hands “as though He needed any thing, seeing that He gives to all life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:24). If God were ever to hunger, for instance, He would not need to tell us since the fullness of all creation is His (Ps 50:12)! He depends upon nothing outside Himself, and everything outside of Him depends upon Him for its existence, qualities, abilities, accomplishments, and blessings. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

So it is obvious that God does not need our inadequate reasoning and our feeble attempts to defend His Word. Nevertheless, the pious-sounding remark with which we began is still mistaken. It suggests that we should not concern ourselves with efforts

Carl Rasmussen - Holy Land Photos

View looking down (west-northwest) on the hill of the Areopagus from the acropolis of Athens. The barren rock hill in the center of the image is the “Areopagus.” Here, the Apostle Paul reasoned with the Greek philosophers in Acts 17:16–34. In this famous apologetic encounter, Paul established the historical and theological facts of biblical revelation as the only rational basis for all human thought. The universe and all human activity are entirely dependent on the sovereign will and power of the Triune God.

BSpade 25:4 (Fall 2012) p. 92

at apologetics because God will directly take care of such matters Himself.1 The remark is just as mistaken as saying that God does not need us as evangelists (He could even make the stones to cry out, couldn’t He?)—and therefore efforts at evangelistic witness are unimportant. Or, a person ...

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