Category: Apologetics In Practice
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Nothing is Pure
To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. – Titus 1:15-16
As I’m sure many of you have been following, Planned Parenthood has been getting lambasted on social media in the aftermath of the sting operation by Center for Medical Progress. This is not to discuss the video in question – although the casual brutality of Deborah Nucatola, …
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The Modern Molech
Molech still receives sacrifices. Now they call the altar the blood of the unborn runs down by the name “women’s health”, and “reproductive rights.” Except for the 26 million women whose health and reproductive rights were terminated – with extreme prejudice. So, tell me, folks. Are you prepared to say that these are persons being murdered? If not, what are they? Sub-persons? (Or unpersons? Hmm.) Where have we heard that argument before?
But let’s grant that for the sake of argument, for those of you still unconvinced. If they are sub-human, are they animals? If they are animals, why would …
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A Conversation About Categories
There are particular buzzwords in the air these days. Of course, there are buzzwords in the air every day – and always have been. One of the hot-buttons these days is “transgender”. With the media circus surrounding Bruce Jenner, it is in an impossible glare. The media’s feeding frenzies know no bounds, and the level of rhetoric and sheer hyperbole is shocking, even to a jaded student of mass media narrative creation.
The problem is, the left is in a pickle when it comes to “transgender” – much as it is in a pickle concerning “bisexuals.” With the latter, on …
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The Theological Bases
The other day, I posted a reply to Andrew, at “Entertaining Christianity.” He has since responded. We’ve chatted a bit privately, as well, but my time constraints tend to curtail things, occasionally.
Essentially, I think there’s a bit of miscommunication on his part about what, exactly, the problems were with his post. As I pointed out to him, that could very well be due to our rather different backgrounds, theologically speaking. From our conversation, I gathered that he was confused by what I meant by “omnibenevolence” in the context I used it in. As others have pointed out, …
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Irrationality is not a Response
I encountered a rather unfortunate blog post today. Upon examining it, and the posts it links to, I think it would be helpful to respond to, albeit briefly.
First, just to get it out of the way – why on earth would you use such appalling language when dealing, at least putatively, with Christian doctrine? (Let alone any other time.) It is, quite simply, outrageous on any level.
Second, while I’m sure Jon Stewart (and his devoted fans) are quite convinced that he is the epitome of the witty bon mot – he quite typically fails, rather spectacularly, in …
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Love is Love and Other Tautologies
Love is love, right? That’s the tagline for the modern movement which seeks to redefine what, precisely, love is. There are a multitude of problems with this idea, of course, but let’s take one specific instance.
It begins, predictably, with “love has no gender.” It proceeds to “love has no race.” Next, “love has no disability.” Next up is “love has no age.” We’ll get back to that in a minute. Next up is “love has no religion.” It ends with “love has no labels.”
There’s a problem with this progression, though. The video is subtitled “Love has no Labels” …
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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 …
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Jeremiah 31 and Newness
Most Covenantal discussions revolve around what, precisely, is new about the New Covenant. Much ink has been spilled, and literary armies have marched forth to battle on the strength of this one word. A newer entrant to the lists has their own opinion on the matter, and believes that the newness consists in a complete distinction from the old. As one adherent of New Covenant Theology stated to me in conversation, the difference lies in “newness” and “not like”. In a sense, this is true. What we bring to bear on these words, presuppositionally, will determine what we think they …
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Second Timothy 2 and Unbelief
I recently encountered a comment on 2Tim which asserted that this passage precludes “protracted arguments with unbelievers.” The verse cited as proof of this was 2 Timothy 2:14. Unfortunately, there was no argument accompanying this statement. The additional statement was made that “We have zero evidence that Jesus and the apostles spent protracted time dealing with unbelievers.” I’d like to deal with these comments to follow.
Firstly, let’s look at the passage. Obviously, 2 Timothy is written to Timothy, a young pastor at Ephesus, and protege of Paul. The entire middle section of the second chapter concerns practical instructions for …
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Standing our Ground: But Not Because of Tradition
While it might be politic to cite the opinion of someone whose idea of things is, at least superficially, similar to our own, that doesn’t negate the requirement to examine that opinion with an eye toward the presuppositional commitments of the one expressing it. When we, as Reformed believers, committed to Sola Scriptura, look at a subject like the current push for “gay marriage” – what sort of things are we taking for granted when we take that look? I refer, of course, to the columnist Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, who recently wrote an article entitled “Why so many Christians won’t …