Since the primary difference in this matter is postmodernism it may help clarify the matter by discussing postmodernism and its fundamental error. The theory of postmodern is a reaction to modernism’s endorsement of the inductive method. The thought here is that induction is never perfect, that some data have not been factored in merely because of the size of the data or the accessibility of the data. For instance, no one has had access to all space and all time where presumably there might be some data that run contrary to that of the sample used for an induction. In postmodernist thought no one can ever be sure that the data used for a particular induction is typical because the data is often inexhaustible.

Here is a postmodernist applying their methodology (nothing can ever be known with certainty). The passage is from a Harvard University book, published by a former head of the Modern Language Association and then a Professor at Duke University. She writes:

Relativism (literature’s word for postmodernist approach) in the sense of a conception of the world is continuously changing, irreducibly various, and multiply configurable, does not conceive itself as a logical deduction, or as an inescapable conclusion drawn from either personal experience or scientific experiment. Relativism in the sense of a contingent conceptualization that sees itelf and all others as such, cannot found, ground or prove itself, annot deduce or demonstrate its own rightness, cannot even lead or oint the way to itself. (Contingencies of Value, Harvard U Press).

 

In response to this growing postmodernist thinking, Princeton’s Kernan wrote his book entitled The Death of Literature, and California’s Ellis wrote Literature Lost. Both titles spell out the disastrous consequences of postmodernism applied to literature. When uncertainty enters, certainty leaves.

This same principle applied to the Bible leads to conclusions such as " we know these truths by faith, not by any empiric proof." But the Bible insists that reason is not captive to theory. Peter exhorts us to "be ready to answer any man who asks a reason for the hope that is in you" (1Pet.3:15).

The fundamental reasons are found in several areas: the startling precision of the physics of the universe, the stamp of divinity on the Scriptures, both as history and as prophecy.

Paul , speaking by the Holy Spirit, says in Romans 1:20 "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, so that they are without excuse." That is, the design of the universe calls for a designer. There are at least two dozen constants in the physical makeup of the world that if altered by but micrometric margins would cause the universe to either not function or collapse. For example, if gravity is off by one one thousandths of one percent, the universe would not function. Einstein said, "God does not play dice with His cosmos." The universe is not random or accidental but exquisitely fine-tuned and is sustained that way.

The Bible, likewise, carries the stamp of divinity in its form and message. Unlike the Koran whose author Mohammad could neither read nor write, the Biblical authors always get time and location right. (The Koran abhors narrative, times, and places) When we think that Shakespeare could not even get the contemporary Italian towns of Mantua and Padua correctly located, the Bible (written over 2,000 years and covering extensive geography) seems all the more remarkable in getting the concrete particulars of time and place correct.

But even more remarkable is the fact that over one fourth of the Bible, when written, was prophecy. No other holy book even comes close. Professor Jean Fisher’s brother, Dale, has put together an exhaustive list of these prophecies in a carefully researched work. He reminds us of the improbability of getting prophecy right by merely random means. He cites Peter Stoner of Pasadena City College calculating the likelihood of just forty-eight of some 300 prophecies concerning the coming of Christ as ten to the one-hundred-and-eighty-first power. That is ten with 181 zeroes following. The likelihood of arriving at that is so infinitesimally small that there is no known phenomenon even remotely like that. For example, Ross calculates ten to the 50th as equivalent to stacking dimes all over the north American continent to the height of the moon and then adding another billion such continents to the total. Such figures are quite unknown to human imagination.

But that is only for one set of prophecies In the Bible. When you consider that even the best analysts on Wall Street are happy with being right fifty-five percent of the time then ten to the one-hundred-and- eighty-first power is beyond the limits of imagination. The Bible is entirely unique in all the world in its predictive aspect. That is the stamp of divinity.

The Scriptures clearly relate that the evidence for the truth of Scripture is so clear that those who hold otherwise are "without excuse" (Romans 1:20).

Evidence unequivocally has trumped postmodern skepticism.

     Acts 17:2 …he reasoned with them proving…..

     Acts 17:17 …so he reasoned….

     Acts 18:4 …every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue …

     Acts: 18:19 …and he reasoned with the Jews…

    Acts 10:8 …arguing persuasively …

Added Nov. 6, 2008