Answering Cults that Claim to Believe the Bible

Many religious cults claim to believe the Bible and biblical inerrancy. A recent video discussion that included Sam Frost and Andrew Sandlin raised the question about how Gary would answer cults using only the Bible.

When Jesus taught he taught with authority and not as one who needed to depend upon the opinions of others (Matt. 7:29). So also we who teach the Word of Christ should not be compelled to submit it to the opinions of others in order to win for it credibility or acceptance. Our proclamation and defense come in the authority of God, not the wisdom of men. Everything we do in word, even our defense of the faith, should be according to Jesus’ name and authority (Col. 3:17); it must be based upon His authoritative Word. Hereby when we are required to give an account for our faith the Lord gives us a mouth and wisdom which all our opposers will not be able to withstand or contradict (Luke 21:15).

Hebrews 4:12 declares that the Word of God judges the thoughts of the heart. We must not surrender to the unbeliever’s desire to have things the other way around. Man, especially sinful man, is in no position to call God’s Word into question or assume that it needs intellectual bolstering and defense to give it credence. Instead it is the thought of man’s heart that is on trial, and the standard of judgment is the Word of God. If anyone does not receive Christ’s words, he will be judged by these very words (John 12:48–50). Hence our standard of judgment when analyzing any teaching must be this presupposed Word of God.

We are not to believe every spirit but to prove them by apostolic doctrine (which is received in Scripture) according to 1 John 4:1. Whenever a new prophet arises, even a prophet who advances miracles, he is to be tested by the verbally revealed Word of God (Deut. 13:1–4). The Word of God is the test standard—not historical or “objectively sufficient” evidences—and thus is self-attesting (not in need of being itself verified). For the Christian the principle to be used in judging any thought is, “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word surely there is no morning for them” (Isa. 8:20). The thoughts of man cannot be allowed to stand in judgment over God’s Word, for that is a reversal of proper roles; rather, the Word of God must be the standard by which the thoughts of men are evaluated and judged. Consequently, God’s Word must be presupposed rather than proven by independent human criteria; we do not work up to an acceptance of it by putting it through various tests, but we must begin by humble submission to it as unassailable.

Presuppositional Apologetics

Bahnsen’s magnum opus lays out the Biblical presuppositional method, provides rigorous Biblical proof, and defends the uniqueness of the method. This is the work we all longed for Bahnsen to write, yet never knew that he already had written! Now rescued from the dustbin of history, this monument of apologetics will provide must-reading for Christian defenders of the faith for generations to come. If there were only one resource for the exposition and defense of the Reformed presuppositional apologetic, this would be it—by far, its clearest expression by one of the sharpest Christian thinkers of the 20th century.

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Many religious cults claim to believe the Bible and biblical inerrancy. A recent video discussion that included Sam Frost and Andrew Sandlin raised the question about how Gary would answer cults using only the Bible. Their claim seems to be that creeds and confessions are necessary to defend a proper biblical interpretation, but Gary disagrees.

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