Month: June 2011
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Barking at Thunder
While working out in my yard today, it began to rain. Along with the rain, as often happens in South Mississippi, came thunder and lightning (there is a small tropical storm in the Gulf). Immediately, my year old Great Dane/Rottweiler mix, Huan (Yes, he’s named after the Hound of Valinor! My youngest daughter’s middle name is Luthien, incidentally. You do the math…), began to bark at that thunder, as if to chase it off! Now, looking at the mix there, you can imagine the size of my dog. He is a massive specimen of canine. He’s not as tall …
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Dr. Oliphint And The Clark/Van Til Controversy. But Wait, There's More!
Reformed Forum had Dr. Oliphint on to speak on the Clark/Van Til controversy which I found helpful as an introduction to the issues at hand. This seems like a good discussion to start out your perusal of this controversy if you are so inclined. However the more interesting part of this discussion for me were the following locations:
- Minute 37 God and Logic – What is the relation? What about paradox?
- Minute 43 Transcendental Arguments and the Impossibility of the Contrary (as a methodological approach) used in non-Christian Theism.
In the time after minute 43 the answer Dr. Oliphint gives …
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An Acceptance of Paul Baird's Debate Challenge
On April 29, 2011 I linked to Sye TenBruggencate’s debates which I had not, at the time, listened to.
Paul Baird responded:
Transcript of the Second Debate that I had with Sye Tenbruggebcate is here – http://patientandpersistent.blogspot.com/2011/03/second-debate-transcript-work-in.html
One review is here – http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/presuppositional-apologetics-on-unbelievable/
Strangely all of Syes previous supporters appear to have vanished and none have offered any congratulations on his performance.
Maybe you guys have offered support.
In response to this comment I wrote:
…Thank you for the links.
As I mentioned in the post, I have not gotten around to listening to these exchanges yet. Perhaps after I
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The Phantom Menace
One of the complaints against the use of the Transcendental Argument for God involves a denial of the claim that there are fundamentally only two worldviews. The Christian claim is that all non-Christian worldviews have at root the principle of autonomy. Autonomy is not only rebellion towards the Christian God but an active suppression of the personal knowledge of Him and a turning away to worship the creature instead of the Creator. It is a rejection of the authority of the Creator over all of reality. Van Til illustrated this using Eve and her reasoning at the time of the … -
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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WTS iTunes Lectures
I have found these to be quite helpful.
Apologetics Van Til, Bahnsen, Oliphint (iTunesU link)
History and Nature of Apologetics by Dr. Cornelius Van Til (iTunesU link)
Doctrine of God by Dr. Scott Oliphint (iTunesU link)
Christ and Human Thought by Dr. Cornelius Van Til (iTunesU link)
* These are all available from the Westminster Theological Seminary Resources website though you may need to create an account to download them.…
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"Getting to God" – Thomistic Misconceptions of Van Tilian Presuppositionalism (Updated)
David Gadbois from Green Baggins wrote the following in a comment on Fides, Ratio, et Mysterium:
…I’m definitely in the camp that doesn’t believe that Christianity is transcendentally necessary. I think the VanTilian presuppositionalists overreached in trying to make Christianity, as a package deal, into a transcendental necessity. The various transcendental arguments that have been offered really only get you as far as God’s existence, a personal and just God, not [sic] doubt, but really nothing beyond what is revealed in general revelation. God’s acts of redemption in time and space, as recorded in special revelation, were
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Doubt
Then, Christian men, behave like men! It is childish to doubt; it is manhood’s glory to trust. Plant your foot upon the immoveable Rock of Ages; lift your eye to heaven; scorn the world; never play craven; bend your fist in the world’s face, and bid defiance to it and hell, and you are a man, and noble. But crouch and cringe, and dread, and doubt, and you have lost your Christian dignity, and are no longer what you should be. You do not honor God. – Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “Fear Not!”, 1857
In our day, as in many days …
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Commenting on Canon
“Do you mean why should we accept Hebrews rather than the Gospel of Thomas as canonical?
Well, the primary reason is because Hebrews *is* canonical, whereas the Gospel of Thomas is not.
But then I guess you’re asking how we know that.
I would say that it is self-attesting.
See, self-attesting is always objective.
This is strange to me – people usually take that to be subjective.
I’m not talking about a subjective mark, but an objective one.
But it presumes itself authoritative in the same way as other Scripture.
And is qualitatively the same.
I’m not talking about the …
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Wisdom vs Wisdom [falsely so called]
After a recent conversation I had with a couple of friends, I was reminded of a very important subject that needs to be brought to the forefront of the Christian’s life and apologetic. This subject is the wisdom that is true, and wisdom that is falsely so called. The Scripture always sets wisdom and and false wisdom in diametrical opposition to one another. It is for this reason we point out that there are only two worldviews, Christian Theism and it’s denial. Similar to this, there are only two kinds of wisdom.
The scripture has much to say about the …