Presuppositional Apologetics & Biblical Counseling

Presuppositional apologetics and biblical counseling are very similar on some very foundational levels. At their bases, both seek to make a connection between the living God and fallen humanity. God has revealed Himself in His word in order that we might begin to know Him and serve Him. When our hearts and lives are misaligned, we begin to serve ourselves instead of our Creator. Therefore, in both presuppositional apologetics and biblical counseling God is exalted, the authority of His word is acknowledged, and the focal point of change in the lives of individuals lies in the heart.

Presuppositional apologetics and biblical counseling begin with the understanding that God exists, that He is the Creator of the universe, and that all things exist for His glory. Man, part of the creation, has the capacity to worship, and indeed does worship. However, because of his fallen state, man by nature seeks to worship himself rather than God. Both counseling and presuppositional apologetics, then, seek to get to the root of an individual’s (or society’s) worldview, uncover the inconsistencies between their suppositions and the created realities, and realign them with the purposes that were instituted by God for His glory.

In order to do this, both the counselor and the apologist must rely on the authority and power of God’s word. In it God revealed who He is and how it is that man is to worship Him. In this word man has all things needful for salvation. This revelation of salvation was necessary because of man’s sinful and willful rejection of the Creator.

Since unregenerate man is corrupt in the very core of his being, the focus of presuppositional apologetics and biblical counseling is the condition of the heart. The goal, as Edgar points out, is to “[lay] bare the fallacies of unbelief in all its facets” and restore the individual (or society) into a right relationship with God, by “identifying the driving motives behind a society’s trends or a person’s lifestyle”, and invite them to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (21, 25).

Thus, the goal of biblical counseling and presuppositional apologetics is the same: to reveal the foolishness of man’s natural bent toward self-service, and, by the power of Spirit, seek to lead the individual to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God.