Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Masters Seminary Journal
Volume: TMSJ 08:1 (Spring 1997)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

Greg L. Bahnsen. Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith. Edited by Robert R. Booth. Atlanta, GA: American Vision; and Texarkana, Ark.: Covenant Media Foundation, 1996. Reviewed by Eddy D. Field III, Adjunct Professor of Biblical Education, Philadelphia College of Bible, and an alumnus of The Master’s Seminary.

The editor writes that this book is “intended to introduce students to important foundational concepts essential to biblical apologetics.” It is a collection of some of Greg Bahnsen’s previously published works on “presuppositional” apologetics. His syllabus on apologetics makes up Sections One through Four; a series of articles he wrote on apologetic issues comprises Section Five; and the appendix is his exposition of Acts 17.

In the first section, Bahnsen discusses “The Lordship of Christ in the Area of Knowledge.” He reasons that since all knowledge and wisdom are hidden in Christ and known through His revelation, then the Christian should not be neutral regarding that revelation, but rather committed to it. Not only is neutrality foolish, it is immoral since Christ requires allegiance to Himself. Reasoning apart from this revelation results in darkened understanding. God’s Word, then, is the final authority in the area of knowledge and, as such, it is self-attesting.

In the second section, Bahnsen writes about “The Conditions Necessary for the Apologetic Task.” He refutes several objections to this apologetic, namely, that it is absolutist, that it implies unbelievers have no knowledge whatsoever, and that it means there is no point of contact between believer and unbeliever. He develops the biblical view of the believer’s point of contact with the unbeliever as man’s universal knowledge of God through creation. He demonstrates that common ground with the unbeliever is the entire universe because God created it and sustains it.

In Section Three, Bahnsen tells “How to Defend the Faith.” He writes that the believer must reduce the unbeliever’s worldview to absurdity, and show that Christianity is the precondition of intelligibility of human experience. Though Bahnsen advocates this method as the one that will leave the unbeliever with no excuse, he is careful to acknowledge that ultimately

conversion of the unbeliever will come by a sovereign work of God. He demonstrates that the conflict between believer and unbeliever is a clashing of worldviews, the only resolution of which is at the presuppositional level, and that the believer’s presupposition is God’s self-attesting revelation. He shows all worldviews to be founded on some presupposition, or logi...

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