Begging the Question of Authority

Begging the question is a term for the logical fallacy where one assumes to be true the very point that he is making an argument for. In essence, the person uses his conclusion as a premise. A commonly used example of this fallacy is meant to discredit Christianity. It goes as follows:


"The Bible is true because God wrote it. The Bible says that God exists. Therefore, God exists."


We as Christians need to be aware of this logical fallacy when we justify God's authority by citing the Bible. When we as Christians are confronted with this, however, we must be quick to point out that the Unbeliever faces the same problem about their ultimate authority, too.


For example, the rationalist (who believes human reason is the ultimate authority) will use reason and logic to justify their claim. In effect, they open their "bible" of human reason to justify reason as their ultimate authority. Furthermore, the atheistic scientist who believes that the emperical scientific method is their ultimate authority must first assume the scientific method to be true, and then cite emperical evidences derived from the scientific method to validate the authority of the scientific method.


The point is this: all ultimate authorities must validate themselves. This is true regardless of what you claim your ultimate authority to be. Whatever you use to test something is your ultimate authority. If most people (including Christians) are honest with themselves, they would find that their own autonomous reason is their ultimate authority. They will only accept certain Biblical claims as valid so long as it doesn't infringe on their personal view of God and morality. They will only accept logical arguments that come to the same conclusions that their "common sense" affirms. They will only accept emperical evidence that doesn't challenge what they already believe about the world. This propensity for man to be his own ultimate authority is innate in all of us and goes back to our ancestor Adam.


In conclusion, Christians are not alone when they beg the question and cite the Bible to justify God as the ultimate authority. To say Christians defy logic with this reasoning is to also admit the accuser does it as well. Everyone must do the same thing in regards to their ultimate authorities!

Personal Statement of Faith

Greetings! Thank you for taking time out of your day to visit my site! I look forward to sharing and interacting with you in the days to come. Since this is my very first post, I believe it is necessary to be upfront with you as to the worldview and philosophy which will be guiding all my future posts. As you can tell by this blog's title, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I repented and became a servant of Jesus during my junior year at Kansas State University, thanks to the witness of some fellow FarmHouse fraternity brothers. Since that time Christ has changed a lot about me, but He also still has a lot of work to do!

Without rehashing two millenia of Christine doctrine, in short the Apostle's Creed and Nicene Creed are excellent summaries of what I believe. One could summarize my theological beliefs as "classical" Christianity. I believe the Holy Bible is God's revelation of Himself to man. As I have grown in the Lord, I have become more Reformed in my theology. I also believe that the Holy Spirit operates in the same manner today as He did after Christ's ascension; i.e. I have a "charismatic" view of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, I also hold to a postmillenial view of eschatology.


At this point I must say, however, that we "know in part and prophecy in part" (1 Cor 13:9), so I confess that my understanding may be in error on some of what is stated above. There is room for Christians to disagree in matters of Reformed theology, gifts of the Holy Spirit, and eschatology, among other things. Such intramural debates have been a part of Christianity for centuries, and I am not going to say that I have it all figured out! Aside from the fundamentals of the Faith, I am willing to admit that I may be wrong on some of these minor points of Christian doctrine; all I ask is that you also be as sober in your assesment of what you believe as well.


From all of this I have developed a Biblical Worldview, whereby both implicit and explicit Biblical standards govern my interpretation of the world around me. All of my blogs, arguments, and Biblical commentary will stem from these presuppositions. I invite you to a reasonable and cordial discourse over these matters.



Until next time!

Chad