Greg Bahnsen - Later Life

Later Life

One of the original pillars of Christian Reconstruction, Bahnsen was a leading proponent of theonomy, postmillennialism, and presuppositional apologetics. He lectured to a broad range of evangelical Christian groups at many colleges and conferences, not only throughout the United States, but in Scotland and Russia. He published numerous articles and has over 1700 audio tapes, videos, articles, and books to his name.

Greg Bahnsen's vocal advocacy of Christian Reconstructionism and theonomy was highly controversial during his lifetime, and a public disputation pertaining to theonomy led to his dismissal from the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. In addition, he was known for his public debates on apologetics, theonomy, religion (such as Roman Catholicism, Islam, and Judaism), and a variety of socio-political issues (such as abortion, gun control, and homosexuality).

Bahnsen is perhaps best known for his debates with such leading atheists as George H. Smith, Gordon Stein, and Edward Tabash. The debate with Stein marked one of the earliest uses of a transcendental argument for the existence of God (TAG).

In 1994 a controversy emerged after atheist philosopher Michael Martin cancelled a debate with Bahnsen, because he "refused to allow the debate to be taped and sold to support a Christian organization." Martin maintains that he has since adequately responded to Bahnsen's use of TAG in that debate, doing so in his own debates with Michael Butler, John Frame, and Douglas Jones as well as in essays posted on the Secular Web.