Intro to Covenantal Apologetics

Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics

Here’s one of our archived series you may find helpful:

Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics by C.L. Bolt

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July 18, 2017

The Covenantal Apologetic: Principles to Practice

It cannot be sufficiently stressed that the covenantal apologetic is first and foremost a Reformed apologetic. Consistently, a practitioner will be Confessional, therefore Covenantal and Calvinistic. These are sometimes called the “3 Cs.” This is not being stressed for a subjectivistic “purity’s” sake, nor for controversialism’s sake. It is being stressed for the sake of consistency. First and foremost in Reformed theology is the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. From Scripture, we also have revealed the doctrine of God, and all of the other doctrines we believe and hold to. Consistent with these doctrines, we preach, and we …

February 4, 2015

Defending the Covenant in Covenantal Apologetics

Dr. Oliphint’s new book, Covenantal Apologetics, just hit Kindle only a few hours ago. Many have already balked at the mere suggestion of a “covenantal” apologetic, for various reasons, and the first chapter of the book explains the change in terminology, and I’m sure many are wondering if he’s successfully justified his “new” position.…

July 15, 2013

Dr.Oliphint on Covenant, its apologetic application, and the To-ing and Fro-ing methodology

“But the “federal,” “covenantal” representation in Scripture does not move from the bottom up, as in a democracy. Rather, it is initiated “at the top,” as it were, by the Triune God himself, and there is no democratic, or other, means to change that relationship. Nor is there a need to, since the God who initiated the process could not have made a mistake. As a matter of fact, the “federal” process is reversed in God’s economy. Mankind is defined by one of two representatives — Adam or Christ — neither of whom are “elected” or chosen by us; rather, …

July 8, 2013

To TAG or Not To TAG?

How strongly did Van Til feel about using TAG when arguing for God?

Now the only argument for an absolute God that holds water is a transcendental argument.

Quite strongly. It’s not that there aren’t other arguments – they just don’t hold any water when arguing for the kind of God revealed in the Bible – an absolute God. If we are totally dependent upon God (as is the case if God is absolute), then we are necessarily dependent upon God as our starting point in reasoning. If we aim to show that this kind of God exists, we must …

June 25, 2013

A "Serious Problem" with "An Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics"

Lyndon Unger has a “SERIOUS problem” with my Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics. He expresses his concerns in the comments here. I asked him a series of questions that he has not answered, so I will go ahead and give a few of my thoughts in response to his comments. His comments are below, followed by my questions, followed by some explanation of why I asked what I did.

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Why does Bolt attach Covenant theology to his system of apologetics?

I’m confused as this sure sounds like he’s riding a hobby horse from one field to another and

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June 22, 2011

Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics by C.L. Bolt

Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics

By C.L. Bolt

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May 18, 2011

An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics – Conclusion

By C.L. Bolt

What I endeavored to accomplish in the pieces preceding this post was not to provide an exhaustive account of all things presuppositional but to grant the readers a very basic level knowledge of Van Tillian presuppositionalism also known as Covenantal Apologetics without fancy terminology or at least with definitions when technical language was used. My hopes were to write something merely from memory as opposed to turning to sources and then collecting them in a Works Cited or Bibliography. I did not mean to go back and correct much of what I wrote or to answer objections …

May 18, 2011

An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 45 – Redemption.

By C.L. Bolt

Non-Christians suppress the truth in unrighteousness, distorting every fact. Unbelievers are both spiritually and intellectually lost, believing themselves to be final authorities with respect to their own intellectual evaluations of the world. Yet in appealing to one’s own authority one appeals to a shifting foundation that certainly does not serve as a norm. Truth itself is relative in this scheme. The standards, purpose, meaning, motivation, etc. for reasoning are completely lost in this assumption of the possibility of thought independent of God. This series has sought to show in some detail how the creaturely mind asserting its …

May 18, 2011

An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 44 – Islam.

By C.L. Bolt

Islam is much more similar to the Christian worldview than atheism or agnosticism. Some varieties of the non-Christian worldview are so much like the Christian worldview that they actually admit to borrowing from the Christian worldview, and Islam is one of these. Islam states that faith is the starting point and Muslims place their faith in the Bible “like” the Christian does (on the surface). When the Bible is claimed as the starting point by an unbelieving system of thought, how might we begin to answer that system?

Many Christians are unaware that Muslims claim that the …

May 16, 2011

Category: Intro to Covenantal Apologetics

Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics