Apologetics to the Glory of God

Farewell to my Readers

My dearest readers,

For nearly five years I have devoted a great deal of my time and effort to this site. Many of you have contacted me to express your gratitude for my work. Thank you. Your words have been a great encouragement to me.

For good or for ill, everything this side of the new heavens and earth must come to an end. And my time at Choosing Hats is over. You will note I have taken a number of short breaks from posting in the past. For the last year or so, I have struggled over the direction of this site, my place here, and competing responsibilities offline. Suffice it to say I am now confident Choosing Hats will continue to exist, and thrive, without me.

Posting here has been a great blessing and privilege. I am not being forced to leave. But it is my decision to do so. My family, studies, and (now) ministry that exist outside of Choosing Hats are, in my opinion, much more in need of my attention during this new chapter of my life than are the pages of this site.

Arrangements have been made for me to serve here in an administrative role until the fifth anniversary of the site in July. This plan should enable us to keep the site alive, while freeing me up to focus on some projects I have been waiting to begin for some time. If my work on those projects is good enough, maybe the guys here will provide a link!

Thanks for everything, and I will, Lord willing, see you for a final goodbye in July.

Grace,

C.L. Bolt

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18 responses to “Farewell to my Readers”

  1. pat Avatar
    pat

    Nooooo!!!!! Chris!!!

    Reply
  2. monty Avatar
    monty

    Thanks for all the work Chris. I hope and pray that what you are moving onto is fruitful.

    Reply
  3. Jeff Downs Avatar
    Jeff Downs

    I look forward to what the Lord will do through you.

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    Reply
  4. Doug Avatar
    Doug

    Thanks for your ministry here — blessings for your ministry elsewhere!

    Reply
  5. B.C. Askins Avatar
    B.C. Askins

    “Say it ain’t so, Joe! Say it ain’t so!”

    😉

    Reply
  6. Mike Felker Avatar
    Mike Felker

    Chris, you are truly irreplaceable. I’m really going to miss your posts and I hope to hear or read you in public in the future as I pray the Lord will use you in a powerful way. You were (and still are) a huge impact in my accepting and using this apologetic methodology.

    Thank you for your dedication to the Lord and His Kingdom.

    Mike Felker

    Reply
  7. Dane Avatar
    Dane

    CHRIS BOLT!!! I will miss you my friend and brother. It has been a privilege and much fun knowing you. I look forward to seeing the good work the Lord has prepared for you in the future. I know you will serve and grow as you have done over the course of your education. God bless you and your family. You will be in my prayers.

    Reply
  8. Matt Oxley Avatar
    Matt Oxley

    Who’s gonna obsess over me now?

    Reply
    1. pat Avatar
      pat

      Yea…who will be Matt Oxley’s new arch nemesis?

      Reply
    2. Matthias McMahon Avatar
      Matthias McMahon

      Such a loaded question 😉

      Reply
  9. Mid-February 2013 Presuppositional Apologetics Links « The Domain for Truth

    […] Chris Bolt’s Farewell to my Readers (Note to Readers: Chris Bolt has definitely been an encouragement in advocating and advancing […]

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  10. Patrick Mefford Avatar
    Patrick Mefford

    Good luck in your future endeavors Chris!

    Reply
  11. Trev Avatar
    Trev

    Chris,
    I just don’t get it. I’ve been reading articles on this site for about an hour now, and I’m duly impressed with the way that you articulate your faith, but one basic thing just doesn’t make sense, and it has bothered me since I was about 12. Why believe in any particular brand of Christianity? Why not Islam, or Mormonism, or any other religion? What makes any one religion more believable than any other? I’ve read and understand your FAQ, and I’ve read and made a strong effort to understand the Bible and some other religious texts, and I just can’t pick a winner. Nothing in my heart or head says that any of them are more valid than any others (although some seem a bit less valid, if that makes any sense). Jesus and the Buddha seem very much like the same guy to me, with culturally explainable, or perhaps explanatory, differences. Why choose one attempt to describe/explain the universe over any other?

    2 days too late,
    Trevor

    Reply
    1. Matthias McMahon Avatar
      Matthias McMahon

      Trevor,

      When arbitrating through worldviews, the appropriate method is one that is “transcendental” in nature. That is, rather than look for evidence for a worldview (which is somewhat misguided), we assume the worldview for the sake of argument, and engage in an “internal critique,” or, test the integrity of the worldview on its own terms, as it applies to the known world. Of course, for a worldview to be true, it must be consistent through and through. Further than that, those things which regulate the worldview must come from somewhere that itself is consistent, and immutable. What “gives rise” to any particular worldview must be such that nothing other than that worldview can be a possible outcome, particularly if it is contrary, in any sense.

      When we argue for the Christian worldview, we argue from the Impossibility of the Contrary. Since Christianity is the truth given to us by the Creator of the Universe, it must therefore be the only thing rightly called “true.” Anything else that purports to be “true,” if it is not Christianity, will inevitably result in contradiction, or “Impossibility.” This is most clearly seen in light of arguments brought against Christianity. Any worldview (which is definitionally absolute) which is “sufficient” is therefore *the* truth, as there cannot be competing “absolutes” that are contradictory. In other words, once Christianity is understood to be sufficient, all other worldviews are consigned to “false.”

      Granted, there are “expressions” of Christianity that do not take the entire Bible into account. And that is precisely the difference. Any expression of Christianity that does *not* take the entire Bible into account is an incorrect expression. Ultimately, therefore, it will and does lead to contradiction. With regard to the Bible, it’s an all or nothing deal. The clearest, most consistent expression of Christianity will be a Reformed, Calvinistic, Covenantal, Trinitarian Christianity.

      All that said, you need to determine whether you are not putting off embracing Christianity simply because there are competing religions. You don’t need to know every way in which every other religion is false, in order to know that Christianity is true. Do you wait to see every *wrong* answer to 1 + 1 before you settle on “2” being the *right* answer? No, in fact, since you understand that “2” is the right answer, that makes it easier to decide which answers are wrong. And this is what I challenge you with. Take Christianity, in its entirety, for the sake of argument. As Augustine and Anselm have said, “Believe in order to understand.”

      Don’t worry about being called or considered “closed-minded” if you only accept one truth. No one calls you that for only accepting “2” as the right answer to “1 + 1,” right?

      Well, hope this helped!

      Regards,
      Matthias

      Reply
  12. Jimmy Li Avatar
    Jimmy Li

    You will be missed Chris. Thanks for everything you have done for the LORD on here, it has been an encouragement. I hope this does not mean the end of your engagement in apologetics as I believe you have a bright future ahead of you.

    Reply
  13. MrBsPapa Avatar
    MrBsPapa

    Are there any forwarding links to any of Chris’ future work or projects? He did mention that he’d be working on project or two and that it might be possible for the powers that be to forward a link. Chris will be missed, but I haven’t even read all his articles yet anyways, so he lives on. heh

    Reply
    1. defectivebit Avatar
      defectivebit

      I’m sure we will be linking to future work he does if it is not at Choosing Hats.

      Reply
  14. Attacking Apologetics Blogs? | Choosing Hats

    […] is an SBC pastor.  He is one of the founding (and Emeritus) members of Choosing Hats. He has well over 500 posts on this site; our most prolific contributor. You can […]

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