Hymnals & Presuppositionalism

“On Christ the solid rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand”

This chorus from the popular hymnal “The Solid Rock” is so simple yet profound. It is profound because it not only echoes a Christian truth, but it also captures the basic idea of the presuppositional method of apologetics in a simple yet beautiful way.

Christ is the Solid Rock not only religiously or morally but intellectually as well. Christ alone is the solid foundation upon which one can erect a coherent world-and-life view. All other ground - all other foundations - is sinking sand. Every attempt at building a worldview not founded on Christ is doomed to fail and the structure is doomed to sink. This message is passed across clearly in this chorus.

Van Til’s transcendental challenge to unbelief can be construed as a dilemma:

Either you submit to God’s revelation, or you forfeit all rationality. Either you accept Christ, or accept intellectual chaos. Either you build on the Solid Rock, or on sinking sand.

The Van Tilian transcendental approach is simply a philosophical variation of the dilemma presented by the Gospel:

Either accept Jesus or face moral/spiritual/epistemological destruction.

That’s the beauty of Presuppositional Apologetics.

The Bible tells us that it is the foolish man that builds his house on sinking sand. An unbelieving outlook on life is foolish because it ignores the philosophical solid ground revelation provides and chooses the sinking sand of epistemological autonomy. The Folly of Unbelief gives a clear illustration of the futility of non-Christian thought. Get it here.

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