Some John Calvin on Apologetics

Here is a good quote on the subject of apologetics by John Calvin. His point is this: Our faith in the veracity of Scripture must ultimately lie in the Testimony of the Scriptures themselves alone. If we appeal to facts and truths outside of the Scriptures as proof of the veracity of Scripture, we have then devised an authority or standard higher than that of God himself and to do such a thing is a sin. If we can't appeal to and trust the Scriptures in matters of what they say about themselves, why should we trust and appeal to them in any other matters?

While anyone listening will immediately accuse such a person of “circular reasoning” for defending the reliability of the Scripture from the Scripture, this is the nature of Christianity and such circular reasoning is entirely Biblical. The unbeliever must be confronted with the authority of the word of God and his sin in not submitting to it. God’s Word must be the final and ultimate authority in everything.

"The nature of faith is acceptance on the basis of testimony, and the ground of faith is therefore testimony or evidence. In this matter it is the evidence God has provided, and God provides the evidence in his Word, the Bible. This means simply that the basis of faith in the Bible is the witness the Bible itself bears to the fact that it is God's Word, and our faith that it is infallible must rest upon no other basis than the witness the Bible bears to this fact. If the Bible does not witness to its own infallibility, then we have no right to believe that it is infallible. If it does bear witness to its infallibility then our faith in it must rest upon that witness, however much difficulty may be en­tertained with this belief. If this position with respect to the ground of faith in Scripture is abandoned, then appeal to the Bible for the ground of faith in any other doctrine must also be abandoned."

-John Calvin Institutes of the Christian Religion