Nobody I know begins any kind of conversation in a vacuum. We open our mouths with some kind of suppositions and assumptions about what the world is and how the world works. As soon as I say, “God created the heavens and the earth,” I have let you know where I am coming from. And it is so important in all of our conversations with one another to know the assumptions and suppositions that we hold about what the world is and how the world works.

Many of our debates are about nothing more than differing assumptions and suppositions. If my starting point is that “God is” and this God who is makes Himself known in His world and through His Word the center of which is Jesus, then I am going to have a very hard time talking with someone about any subject who does not share those assumptions and suppositions. We can talk about the weather and the Braves. On second thought, we can talk about the weather. But when we start to discuss things that matter, we are going to miss each other because of our starting from different places.

I do believe that it is critical to know where we start from. And it is also critical to know that as conservative evangelical believers we do not need to apologize for starting where we do and believing as we do. But we do need to know why it is that we believe what we believe. I believe that some of the most serious questions are simple questions. And the simple question that what we believe must be able to answer is, “does what I believe explain adequately the world in which I live and my role in it?” That is the simple question to which every system of belief must give a serious answer.

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