By C.L. Bolt
Presuppositions are held firmly at the very most basic level of thought and are what people use to make decisions regarding evidence. Not only do we all have presuppositions that we approach evidence with, but these presuppositions disallow neutrality. Putting together everything we have learned so far, we see that there are two worldviews, the Christian and the non-Christian, and that within the non-Christian worldview there are variations or manifestations which we label appropriately. All of these manifestations are simply variations on the one theme of the rejection of the Christian worldview. They are all predicated upon the negation of the Christian worldview.
No one is neutral. One either presupposes the Christian worldview or one presupposes its negation at the very most basic level of one’s thought. Since there is no middle ground between the two worldviews as we have already discussed, there is also no neutral ground between these presuppositions. They are “antithetical,” completely contrary to one another. No one can be neutral.
But many people pretend as though they are or can be neutral. Professors will say that the class needs to approach some topic “objectively” and this is usually taken to be almost synonymous with “academically,” but the type of objectivity demanded by these professors is usually of the impossible sort. How can a Christian, who believes that God is the ultimate authority and has revealed His Word to us, think that he or she is in a position to stand as the authoritative judge over God and the truth of His Word? Nonsense! The Christian not only cannot be “objective” in this sense, the Christian also should not be “objective”. Objectivity is often another word used instead of neutrality.
The Christian can still place his or herself upon the presuppositions of his or her opponent (or the contrary of Christianity) – that is, non-Christianity – for the sake of learning or understanding that system better or refuting that position in the context of “for the sake of argument,” but the Christian can never actually adopt that presupposition of non-Christianity if he or she is to remain faithful to the Lord of all.
Jesus Christ is Lord of everything, not just churches and the Bible, but mathematics and science too! One is either committed to Him or not in every thought and word and deed. God commands us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus. It is a war we are in, but our weapons are not of the flesh. They are powerful for the tearing down of strongholds; strongholds the devil has erected in this world and in the minds of men. When Eve pretended to stand as judge over whether or not the Word of God was true, she introduced an element of would-be independence of God into the equation of creation resulting in the Fall. It is sin to not wholeheartedly and immediately receive the Word of God as fully authoritative and true. Thus it is our goal not only in the garden but now in this fallen world too to submit to Christ Jesus as Lord. One is either for Him or against Him, there is no middle ground, and He is to be glorified in everything. We either glorify Him – do all to the glory of God; whether in eating, drinking, performing, arithmetic, philosophy, or apologetics – in each thing we do or we fail to do so and sin. Christ is Lord of all and above all and over all and is to be glorified as such. There is nowhere in this universe that Christ Jesus does not reign as Master and Lord.
So the Christian is not neutral, and neither is the non-Christian. Often non-Christians will want to pretend as though they are neutral. They want to seem like they are being fair and only rejecting the authority of God because they have stood as a fair and reasonable judge over God’s Word, but this is not the truth! Christians on the other hand should know better but sometimes pretend as though they are neutral as well. They should not for all of the reasons listed above and more. There is no neutrality, and the Christian should never fall into the trap of pretending that there is. The Christian should not adopt anti-Christian presuppositions and should not pretend as though there is some third position between Christian and non-Christian presuppositions.
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