It is the proclamation of the Gospel, not argumentation, that transforms minds. See Give Them the Gospel.
Human beings have spent a lot of energy trying to figure out how they can know what is real. The problem is that they are puffed up with pride. The human mind is not capable of independently thinking thoughts with any degree of certainty. People don’t realize just how flaky raw human reasoning (the reasoning of the human mind without the Intelligence of the Creator flowing through the human mind) is.
Fallen humans tend to think that they are capable of understanding things by using logic. Followers of Christ tend to, in their fleshly nature, think that God may reveal something to us from time to time as sort of a special thing. Yet, unbelieving Christians may deny the ever-present, ever-leading Christ Who is concerned about every one of our decisions and Who is unveiling His purpose constantly. They float off into a kind of religiously pious deism with a false vision of God as being far away and untouchable. Though this is not the God of the Bible, these Christians often claim to believe every word of the Bible. Satan can be so deceptive!
This is a type of naturalistic thinking. It isn’t even rational [sane].
In reality, whatever is not of faith is sin. That means that whatever does not flow from God in our thoughts, words, and deeds comes from evil by default. The fleshly nature is in bondage to Satan. Satan directs through the world [the ordered system and peer pressure], our own flesh [our unredeemed bodies and the part of our mind/soul/heart that is still in bondage under our bodies], and evil spirits that have an influence over us through our fleshly nature. We were created to operate our spirits, minds, and bodies in concert with God. The spiritual realm is so interwoven with the physical realm that we don’t even recognize that we are being directed, let alone discern what or who is directing us. Every thought, word, and deed comes from some spiritual source, either good or evil. That which comes from the Almighty Creator God is good. Everything else is evil and is ultimately directed by Satan.
At this point, the Atheist [it would be redundant to say materialist and naturalist] will disagree. The Atheist will claim that there is no revelation. The trouble with that [as explained in the paragraph below] is that the Atheist is dependent on a type of revelation. When you ask questions about their statements and keep asking until they run out of answers, then you find that they are either getting revelation [rationalism] or they are just making it up. Once they realize that they are just making it up, they will accuse you of also just making it up. In other words, they project their own experience on you. This is irrational [insane] on their part, but they will defend it, probably by getting angry.
Just supposing for a moment that the Atheists are correct and we are just making it up. If that were the case, which it is not, then no one could possibly know anything about anything. Science would be a waste of time. Logic would be a waste of time. There is no reason to argue because every statement is a vapor based ultimately on a lie that someone made up and called a presupposition.
The Atheist will say that he or she uses logic. When you mention their presuppositions, they are so unaware of the way they think their thoughts that they will argue that they have no presuppositions. Presuppositions are those made-up lies that every person has in their fleshly mind and they just accept them as true. Logic has made a phenomenal goof. When it offers proof, there’s no proof of the proof. So, the Atheist says that he or she knows that there is no God. When you ask how they know that, they give a reason. Perhaps they say that if there were a God, He would make the world better than it is. When you ask how they know that God would make the world better than it is [or many other questions that could be asked about such a statement], they give some reason. How do they know that reason? They give reason. How do they know that? And on it goes until they don’t know why they believe what they believe. Usually they will end up using circular reasoning. Sometimes, they will claim that their basic beliefs are self-evident. Those basic beliefs are generally materialism [all is material-no God, no demons, no angels, etc.], Naturalism [the best explanation is always one that does not include God, demons, angels, etc.], and uniformitarianism [the idea that there was not creation, no worldwide flood, and there will be no coming judgment]. Nothing is self-evident to the point that no one will argue against it. These things are certainly not self-evident, and they don’t just sit at the root of someone’s thinking by accident. These ideas have a source.
In the same way, fallen humans tend to think that everything continues as it does and remains orderly and predictable all by itself. When we hear about miracles, some of us think that once in a while God may intervene and force things against the norm.
This is a type of naturalistic thinking. It isn’t even rational [sane].
In reality, all things consist in Christ. That is the same as saying that Christ is holding everything together. God just happens to be very orderly and hardly ever varies from what we are used to. He is able to be consistent in His actions to a degree that we can’t imagine. That is the only reason we can do science. Under the concept known as materialism (there is no God), there is no logical basis for assuming that there is any order. In fact, everything ought to be random if materialism or Naturalism were valid points of view. The reality is that everything is a display of God’s awesome power.
