Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 135:537 (Jan 1978)
Article: Contemporary Apologetics and the Christian Faith Part IV: The Limitations and Values of Christian Evidences
Author: John C. Whitcomb, Jr.

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BSac 135:537 (Jan 78) p. 25

Contemporary Apologetics and the Christian Faith
Part IV:
The Limitations and Values of Christian Evidences

John C. Whitcomb, Jr.

[John C. Whitcomb, Jr., Director of Postgraduate Studies, Professor of Theology and Old Testament, Grace Theological Seminary, Winona Lake, Indiana.]

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth and concluding part in a series of articles delivered by the author as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Memorial Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 8–11, 1977.]

Two Levels of Empirical Evidences

It may be useful to distinguish between two levels of empirical evidences which God has chosen to use in reference to the unregenerate mind. The first and most powerful of these may be designated as supernatural sign-miracles. The second consists of circumstantial evidences.

On the “higher” level, God directly confronts the human mind with Himself and His Word. Such confrontations would include all the spectacular miracles recorded in the Scriptures and experienced by men. Biblical testimony indicates that they were presented to human minds with such force and clarity that no one was able to deny them (cf. Exod 8:19; 15:14–16; 1 Sam 6:6; 2 Chron 32:23, 31; Ps 126:2–3; John 2:9–11; 3:2; 11:47; Acts 4:16).

A careful study of Scripture also indicates that such high-level empirical confrontations were exceedingly rare in Bible times, being particularly abundant only in the ministries of Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and especially of the Lord. It is the writer’s conviction that they are not occurring today, during what may be called the superstructure phase of postapostolic church history.1

The “lower” (and to some extent distorted and contaminated) level of evidence for the truth of God’s revelation from the standpoint of sense experience includes reports of conversion experiences

BSac 135:537 (Jan 78) p. 26

or answers to prayer as testified by true Christians, biblical prophecies that have been fulfilled or are seemingly being fulfilled today, archaeological discoveries that pertain to certain statements in the Bible, philosophical arguments for the existence of God, logical arguments...

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