Circular Reasoning in Christian Thought

A true Christian will always base his spiritual views on the Scriptures. This is both proper and necessary. If I believe in God, then I must believe what He says. That seems obvious to me.

However, the atheist responds with an accusation of circular reasoning. That is, the Christian's knowledge about God is based on the Bible, and His trust in the Bible is based on his knowledge of God. And, as far as it goes, the accusation is true.

However, there is an unstated premise in the atheist's attack. That unstated premise is that the atheist does not use circular reasoning. Is that premise true? In order for a conclusion to be true, then its premises must be true and organized according to the objective rules of logic.

Here is the atheist's argument, in the form of a syllogism:
     Truth is based on logic.
     Logic does not produce a belief in the bible.
     Therefore, the logical person does not accept the Bible as a standard of truth.

Do you see the problem in this argument? Actually, there are two problems, one stated and the other not.The stated problem is that the conclusion is a restatement of the first premise. That is called "begging the question," a logical fallacy. The second problem is that this argument is a logical argument. That is, logic is used to prove that logic is superior to the Bible. Or to be explicit, using logic to prove logic is itself a circular argument. In fact, it is impossible to avoid a circular argument to prove an ultimate standard of truth.

Therefore, the accusation of the atheist applies to himself as much as it does to the Christian.

However, I deny that circularity is a fatal accusation against biblical Christianity. Why? Because it is also the flaw of the argument against Christianity. Think of it this way: If God is real, and the Bible is true, then what it says is ultimate truth. By its very nature, that which is ultimate has no higher standard against which it can be judged. Therefore, it can only be judged according to its own presuppositions. Then, the evidence against Christian theism can only be, not that we didn't start with evidence, but rather that it leads to irrational results, such as contradiction, or something which is demonstrably false. That means that the burden of proof is not on the Christian, who is acting according to reason with proper justification, but rather on the atheist to demonstrate the falsity of the Bible.