In The Mouth Of Madness
So believe it or not, we consider ourselves to be philosophy nerds. Well, Tony is a professor in it so I think he earns the title by default. With me (Patrick), I get to take it up on my mantle.
So here’s where the “Cave” in our name comes from. And this short video will do better than reading a wall of text:
The Cave allegory isn’t just one about being educated among the ignorant masses and attempting to set up a Utopia like Plato tried and failed at envisioning let alone establishing. We take it as an allegory of our walk in faith.
Strangers In A Strange Land
Before salvation, we were in bondage in our chains of sin. We saw the shadows on the wall as proof of God’s existence. However, instead of coming to understand this truth, we suppressed the truth in our unrighteousness. And if any of this sounds familiar it comes right from our favorite passage as presuppositionalists – Romans 1:18-23
When God, by His grace alone and predestined before the foundation of the world, chose to free us from our shackles of sin. We were free! Our hearts of stone were changed to hearts of flesh and we recognized the shadows not as proof alone but as declaring in a loud voice that God has made all creation and we are made in His image. This change of heart changes our worldview. It makes us live more consistently in what we see in the world around us.
We have a justified reason for believing that the universe is orderly and able to be known (science); for believing in universal, constant logic (reason); and why we say we “ought” or “should” or “must” do ethical claims (morality). All of these find their source in the very nature of the biblical, Christian God. He is the “sun” in Plato’s allegory. It is God who provides the shadow, the releasing of the chains, and the source for all things for His glory.
So we go out from the cave by the road of salvation and kneel at the foot of the cross that freed us.
The Cry In The Dark
But then what? Well, like in “The Cave” we go back to our community and tell others the Truth. We communicate it in our witnessing and in our readings and in this show. We show people that they are living inconsistently in their beliefs that the shadows are all they are. There is a source who is able to break the chains. When all they see are shadows we testify that the source (God) is what allows for those things to be known. Also, when they attempt to make any justification to their claim of knowledge they actually borrow beliefs from the Christian worldview.
A Thief In The Night
Want to do science? You believe that a purely random chanced universe that is constantly changing allows itself to be known with universal truths that are able to be known? The Bible says that God upholds the universe and gives it its consistency (Colossians 1:17).
Want to use reason? You believe you’re just stardust and the mind is just a certain level of chemicals floating around in meat. There is no mind as something nonphysical can’t interact with what is physical. 2+2 somehow always equals four and the law of noncontradictions somehow is relied upon. You have no justification for believing what today is like will also apply to tomorrow. The Bible says that we are able to believe in and use reason and logic is because that is how God thinks. We are able to rely on logic like noncontradictions but of God’s character (Hebrews 6:17–18).
Want to tell others that they ought to do something? Want to pass judgment on things like murder and rape and theft as wrong? Mass killings of innocents are evil? What does a careless universe full of meat sacks of stardust have any moral truth claims that aren’t just subjective preferences? The Bible says that God is God and there is no one he appeals to. He is not arbitrary and gives out decrees on a whim. Yet it is out of God’s very nature He decrees what is good and what is evil and establishes universal constants (Isaiah 24:1-5).
When those who do not process faith in Christ believe in the things listed above, they steal from the biblical worldview. They do not offer a consistent worldview that offers the conditions of intelligibility or anything along those lines. And so, they remain shackled in the cave and believing the lie rather than the truth.
A Call To Arms
On top of speaking truth to unbelievers (1 Peter 3:15), we also believe that apologetics holds benefits for believers as well (2 Timothy 3:16). Christianity is painted with a false coat of paint. Faith is just blind trust and it’s always faith over evidence. That’s not the biblical message, faith is not blind trust, and it establishes the foundation for evidence along with having a great track record of evidence.
We want to help others experience the joy of God (theology) and His created world (philosophy). So we invite you into our book club on the road from the cave as we site at the base of the cross where our Savior makes it possible to know the Creator and Sustainer of the whole universe.
