Covenantal apologetics is an apologetical approach which, in its argumentation, presupposes the truth of the nature of God, his Word, and reality itself as revealed by God through Christ and in Scripture. Covenantal apologetics sits in contrast to an evidential approach, which seeks to use empirical observations or data as common ground in order to establish the veracity of Christian truth claims for unbelievers. The chief problem with the evidential approach is that it presupposes a greater, more ultimate standard of truth by which to measure the truth claims made by God in revelation. By the very nature of who God claims to be, only he can be the standard by which we measure the truth of his existence and his Word.

Biblically speaking, covenantal apologetics readily acknowledges the inerrancy, completeness, and sufficiency of Scripture for proving Christianity because of its nature as God’s divine revelation. God is self-attesting and therefore, so is must be his Word. The very nature of Scripture dictates that we read, understand, and apply it as the authoritative Word of God, and to use external standards by which to prove its veracity is to subject it to a human standard of truth. The Bible says, “all Scripture is God-breathed”, so we believe and act as if it is. The instant we grant that it is a man-breathed book, we have sold the farm, so to speak, and lost our foundation for any other truth claim.

From a  philosophical standpoint, covenantal apologetics builds on what philosophers call transcendental argumentation. Kant, among others, held that all knowledge and reason must be rooted in some greater, transcendent truth. The covenantal apologetical approach is similar to transcendental argumentation in that it readily admits that there must be an ultimate standard of knowledge, and that standard must be God and his Word. Transcendental philosophers are left rooting their thinking and reasoning in deeper, albeit still human, sources of authority.

Theologically (i.e. theology proper), covenantal apologetics grants the self-authenticating, self-attesting nature of God. The clearest example of this in Scripture is when Moses meets God in the burning bush and, as Moses said, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The god of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God replied, “I AM WHO I AM.” This passage shows the self-authenticating nature of God in that there was no other standard by which Moses could call on to authenticate the identity and nature of God. Similarly, if Moses had asked God why he is good or loving, God cannot appeal to any other standard by which to compare his nature. God is loving because he is Loving. He is good because he is Good. He is the very standard by which he is to be measured, and only he faces this reality. For believers, God then becomes the standard by which we measure our lives, our thoughts, our reasoning, our logic, and our truth. Any other ‘objective’ standard is just human authority with a mask on, but covenantal apologetics takes for granted—or presupposes—the only truly objective standard of all knowledge, being, and truth: God himself.