PHILOSOPHY
The search
for truth then becomes all-pervasive, drawing implications for the essence and
destiny of life itself. Even if not
overtly admitted, the search for truth is nevertheless hauntingly present,
propelled by the need for incontrovertible answers to four inescapable
questions, those dealing with origin, meaning, morality, and destiny-
connecting the what with the why. No
thinking person can avoid this search, and it can only end when one is
convinced that the answers espoused are true.
Aristotle was right when he said that all philosophy begins with wonder;
but the journey, I suggest, can only progress with truth.
This We Believe, Zondervan, 2000, p. 33.
Whenever a
Christian converses with a non-Christian about the truth of the faith, every
request of the non-Christian for the proof of Christianity should be met with
an equally serious request of proof for the non-Christian's philosophy of
life. Otherwise we get the false
impression that the Christian worldview is tentative and uncertain, while the
more secular worldviews are secure and sure, standing above the need to give a
philosophical and historical accounting of themselves. But that is not the case. Many people who demand that Christians
produce proof of our claims do not make the same demand upon themselves.
John Piper
Desiring God, Bethlehem Baptist Church, 1996,
p. 273, used by permission, www.desiringGOD.org.
Every
powerful movement has had its philosophy which has gripped the mind, fired the
imagination and captured the devotion of its adherents.
Philosophy
has always been the cause of the church going astray, for philosophy means,
ultimately, a trusting to human reason and human understanding. The philosopher wants to encompass all truth;
he wants to categorize and explain everything, and that is why…(philosophy is) diametrically opposed to the preaching of
the gospel.
D.M. Lloyd Jones
What is an Evangelical? The Banner of Truth Trust, 1992, p. 45.
A man sits in
front of a bad television program and doesn't know that he is bored; he joins
the rat race of commerce, where personal worth is measured in terms of market
values, and is not aware of his anxiety. Ulcers speak louder than words.
Theologians and philosophers have been saying for a century that God is dead,
but what we confront now is the possibility that "man is dead,"
transformed into a thing, a producer, a consumer, an idolater of other things.
Erich Fromm
The philosophy of one century is the common
sense of the next.
Philosophy
claims to be true but is utterly deceitful, like a fisherman who captures his
unwitting prey by concealing a deadly hook within a tasty morsel of food. The
fish thinks it’s getting a meal but becomes one instead. Similarly, those who
embrace a human philosophy about God or man might think they’re getting truth,
but instead they get empty deception, which can lead to eternal damnation.
John MacArthur
The
Quest for Something More from Our Sufficiency in Christ, 1991, Crossway Books,
a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p.
172-173.
The
one most valuable lesson humanity ought to have learned from philosophy is that
it is impossible to make sense of Truth without acknowledging God as the
necessary starting point.
John MacArthur
The Truth War, 2007 p. 6.
A Christian
has no need of human philosophy. It is
unnecessary and, more often than not, misleading. Where it happens to be right it will agree
with Scripture, and is therefore unnecessary.
Where it is wrong it will disagree with Scripture, and is therefore
misleading. It has nothing necessary or
reliable to offer. By nature it is
speculation, based on man's limited and fallible insights and
understanding. It is always unreliable
and always divisive.
John MacArthur
1 Corinthians, Moody, 1984, p. 36.
If we want answers
to what life is all about - answers about where we came from, where we are
going, and why we are here, about what is right and what is wrong - then human
learning cannot help us. If we want to
know the ultimate meaning and purpose of human life, and the source of
happiness, joy, fulfillment, and peace, we have to look beyond even what the
best human minds can discover. Man's
attempts to find such answers on his own are doomed to fail. He does not have the resources even to find
the answers about himself, much less about God.
In regard to the most important truths - those about human nature, sin,
God, morality and ethics, the spirit world, the transformation and future of
human life - philosophy is bankrupt.
John MacArthur
1 Corinthians, Moody, 1984, p. 39-40.