If They Cannot Defeat God, They Cannot Defeat Me
We avoid becoming careless in debate by meticulously listening to the arguments from our opponents, scrutinizing every word, every proposition, the relationship between every word and every proposition, every inference and every implication. We avoid underestimating our opponents by committing ourselves to use overwhelming intellectual force in dismantling every aspect of their worldviews, philosophies, and religions. We are satisfied with nothing less than the total intellectual annihilation of all aspects of their systems of thought. And we can do this because even the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and by God’s word and God’s Spirit, we indeed have the very mind of Christ. On the other hand, some believers expect such high competence from their opponents that they blind themselves to the glaring errors that pervade all anti-biblical arguments.
On the basis that God has rendered all non-Christians stupid and feeble, that divine wisdom is infinitely greater than human wisdom, and that I have received the mind of Christ through God’s Spirit and God’s Scripture, I engage every question, objection, or argument with the certain knowledge that there is no non-Christian in all the world who can defeat me or even give me a little trouble in debate. It does not matter whether he is an atheist or a Buddhist, a Muslim or a Mormon, a scientist or a philosopher. As long as his worldview is not identical to that of the Bible, there is no chance that he can defeat me. In fact, if all the non-Christians in the entire history of humankind were to band together against me, it would not make one bit of difference. If they cannot defeat God, they cannot defeat me. On the other hand, given the needed conditions — for example, that there is a sufficient amount of time and that both sides are willing and able to complete the debate — I will seize total and decisive victory every time.
We can also consider this principle from the perspective of faith or unbelief. If you are a Christian, then you ought to believe the Bible. If you believe the Bible, then you ought to believe that divine wisdom is greater than human wisdom, and that God has granted you some of his wisdom, that he has allowed you to see things from his perspective, and that he has revealed to you some of his thoughts, so that you have the mind of Christ. If you have the mind of Christ, if you think in line with divine wisdom, then provided that you do not deviate from this way of thinking, no non-Christian can defeat you in debate; instead, you will be able to see through and refute any non-Christian argument and position.
You can either allow unbelief to hinder you, or unleash divine wisdom to devastate your opponents by faith. You can say with the unbelieving Israelites, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:33). Or, on the basis that God has made all non-Christians stupid and feeble, you can say with Joshua and Caleb, “Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them” (14:9).
I know that I will win every time because my approach to apologetics depends wholly on biblical revelation. This confidence is not based on any unique intellectual endowment that I think I possess, but it is based on the superiority of God’s wisdom as revealed in Scripture, which is available to, and in principle affirmed by, every Christian. Therefore, if you learn to depend wholly on biblical wisdom as you defend the faith, you will also win every time. If you have been paying attention, and if you are receptive to the words of Scripture that I have communicated to you, then you are likely sensing a new confidence arising in your heart. This is not a confidence in yourself, but it is a legitimate and rational confidence in the greatness and superiority of God’s wisdom.
We do not claim to be intellectually superior to the non-Christians in ourselves; rather, we freely admit that, by human standards, many of us were intellectually inferior to the unbelievers before our conversion, and when judged by God’s standards, we were fools just like all the non-Christians. However, since then, God has sovereignly regenerated and enlightened us, and by imparting to us the very mind of Christ, he has made us intellectually superior to all non-Christians. Therefore, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
— Vincent Cheung, Apologetics in Conversation (2011), p. 11–12.
