Starting Point: Presuppositional Understanding Of The Resurrection
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, February 26, 2026 (Donate)
Far too often in today’s culture, we want to sit back and
judge God and His Word as if we are some sort of an authority over God. Imagine
the audacity of someone who tries to elevate themselves above God! Oh wait,
that is exactly what Satan tried to do (Isaiah 14:12-15) and exactly what Adam
and Eve did when they elevated their own thoughts to disobey God Word (Genesis
3).
As a reminder, it did not work out well for Satan—who will
be punished eternally—and Adam and Eve—who were in a position to live forever
in a perfect world—died (Genesis 2:17, 3:19, 5:5). This is not how we should
approach God and His Word.
Instead, we need to humbly let God be God and take his Word
for what it is—the supreme authority on all matters. In doing so, the
resurrection happened—100% because God revealed that to us.
This approach is called the presuppositional or transcendental
approach. It simply means we start with God and His Word to look at and
understand all things, mimicking the way God looks at and understands all
things. God is always right, so if we want to be right in our thinking, we need
to align our thoughts with God’s thoughts. His thoughts are far higher than any
of our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
A presuppositional approach to the resurrection begins not
with “neutral” reasoning, but with the authority of God’s Word. In other words,
we don’t put the resurrection or God’s existence or the Bible itself “on the
stand” and judge it by our fallible, imperfect beliefs. Instead, we kindly
recognize that we are not in a position to judge God’s Word, but God’s Word is
the standard that will be used to judge us by Christ Himself on Judgment
Day.
Scripture establishes the proper starting point for
knowledge, truth, logic, and so on. These things exist and are predicated God
and His Word. We know these things exist because God reveals them to us in His
Word. When we look at the concept and basis for knowledge, this is called (in
fancy terms) “epistemology”.
Epistemology is simply the study of why knowledge exists and how we can know it. Knowledge isn’t material—you can't trip on it in the night or see it fly by your window.
We, as mankind, can know knowledge exists because
an all-knowing God (omniscient) made us in His image in Genesis 1:26-27. Rocks
are not aware of knowledge. Neither are comets, paper airplanes, glass of milk, or a volleyball! Rocks don’t carry on
intelligent conversation with us. Even animals are not capable of knowledge the
way man is. This doesn’t mean that
animals weren’t designed to attain a level of intelligence but not the way man is.
The fear of the Lord is foundational to knowledge (Proverbs
1:7). Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not first evaluated by
autonomous human reason (reason apart from God by leaving the Bible out of it),
but by submitting ourselves to God’s divine revelation in the 66 books of the
Bible.
God, through the apostle Paul and Sosthenes, says that the
gospel itself—including the resurrection—is revealed truth:
“For I delivered to you first of
all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day
according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4, NKJV)
Notice the repeated phrase: “according to the Scriptures.”
The resurrection is not an isolated historical anomaly detached from
revelation; it is the fulfillment of God’s previously revealed Word. When we start with a presuppositional framework and acknowledge that God, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2) and has spoken authoritatively, then we need to trust that information completely.
Jesus rebuked unbelief not as an intellectual shortcoming
but as hardness of heart toward Scripture:
“Then He said to them, ‘O foolish
ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought
not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And
beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the
Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:25–27, NKJV)
The issue was not lack of evidence. The issue was failure
to believe what God had already revealed.
Maintaining the presuppositional view, means that there is no neutral ground. All reasoning rests on foundational commitments: God or man. The unbeliever presupposes naturalism (no supernatural God—the man-made religion of naturalism) or autonomous human authority (man is supreme in all matters—i.e., the religion of humanism).
The Christian should presuppose the triune God who speaks infallibly in Scripture. Therefore, when examining the resurrection, the believer does not place God’s Word in the dock for judgment; rather, God’s Word judges all claims. Thus, humanism and naturalism is false.
Furthermore, the resurrection is predicated on the existence of the supernatural God already revealed in the Bible. If one begins with the assumption that miracles cannot occur (humanism), then the resurrection is excluded because it is assumed to have been impossible to occur before any consideration—this is a vicious circular argument and therefore false.
You need to understand that this assumption that God is not powerful enough to do miracles is not neutral but is bias that comes out of the false religion of naturalism and humanism. Of course, God is easily powerful enough to do miracles.
Scripture presents a God who created all things, upholds all things into existence, and governs history. He can do all His holy will. If God created life, raising life is not difficult for Him.
The resurrection is therefore not merely a historical claim
to be weighed probabilistically. It is the climactic act of redemptive history
revealed by the sovereign Lord of history. A presuppositional approach affirms
that the ultimate authority for the resurrection is God Himself, who has
spoken. All historical evidence properly interpreted will confirm what
Scripture declares (when properly understood), but Scripture remains the foundation.
For a more detailed treatment of the resurrection from a
presuppositional viewpoint, see here.
Bodie Hodge, Ken
Ham's son in law, has been an apologist since 1998 helping out in various
churches and running an apologetics website. He spent 21 years working at Answers
in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding
news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight
Council.
Bodie
launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal
website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken
on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
Mr. Hodge earned a
Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale (SIUC). Then he taught at SIUC for a couple of years as a
Visiting Instructor teaching all levels of undergraduate engineering and
running a materials lab and a CAD lab. He did research on advanced ceramic
materials to develop a new method of production of titanium diboride with a
grant from Lockheed Martin. He worked as a Test Engineer for Caterpillar,
Inc., prior to entering full-time ministry.
His love of science
was coupled with a love of history, philosophy, and theology. For about one
year of his life, Bodie was editing and updating a theological, historical, and
scientific dictionary/encyclopedia for AI use and training. Mr. Hodge has over
25 years of experience in writing, speaking and researching in these fields.
