Apologetics to the Glory of God

Category: Authors

  • Commentary on Comments

    [O]ne of the most basic features of presuppositional apologetics (though it is not exclusive to presuppositional apologetics) is drawing the distinction between proof and persuasion. Suppose, for example, that someone is not persuaded that 5+7=12. What does this lack of persuasion have to do with whether or not 5+7=12 is self-evident, true, or even proven? Nothing! Insert your favorite provable mathematical claim in the place of 5+7=12. It does not matter at all whether or not someone is persuaded by the proof offered in support of the mathematical proposition in question; it does not follow that the proof does not

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  • The New Euthyphro

    There are countless angles to take in approaching the somewhat difficult task of teaching covenantal/presuppositional apologetics. What follows may be one of them.

    Socrates famously asked, “Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?” The so-called Euthyphro Dilemma has haunted and warmed the halls of the academy ever since.

    The difficulty with answering that the good is willed by God because it is good is that the standard of good in this view exists quite apart from and in superiority to God. God appeals to a …

  • Reasonable Doubts and Childish Bigotry

    http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2012/05/reasonable-doubts-podcast-part-2-12-or.html…

  • We’ve got mail: Are the senses reliable?

    I do not know if this is the right place to ask this question but regardless, I have a question regarding presuppositional apologetics and how the Christian knows what she/he knows. I have been studying apologetics (classic/PA) for a while and I feel as though I have come to somewhat of a roadblock in epistemology. So here’s my question. Does the Vantillian approach to apologetics rely on sensation and if so, how does it account for the reliability of sensation. Usually when I ask this question the answer is “God has made our senses reliable” but I am equally aware

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  • Rhology Responds to Reasonable Doubts (part 2)

    http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2012/05/reasonable-doubts-podcast-on_29.html…

  • Romans 6 and Prolepsis

    If, as we are told by Date and Co., death spoken of a present tense is prolepsis – an event spoken of as certain to occur in the future – are we to take regeneration to be something that occurs only after this death? For what are we born again, as if we had a need? It’s not as if we are dead, is it? For, as we are told, death is something to be considered as the actual deprivation of life; and speaking of “dead in trespasses and sins” as if it was a present reality is prolepsis, is …

  • Various Issues of Interest to the Debate

    As I noted in my post “The Central Verses for the Doctrine of Hell,” there is a typical list of verses that are appealed to by the annihilationist. What this means in terms of the debate’s actual focus is still up in the air, of course, given that I have not yet heard what he intends to present, and likely will not, prior to the day. This is not problematic, of course, it just isn’t my typical modus operandi. If he sticks with a similar opener to that which he used with Diaz, I believe that he would …

  • The Unbeliever’s Problem

    A former classmate who serves as a professor at the college level sometimes has students who come to his office expressing doubt about the existence of God. Before engaging them in any sort of intellectual conversation, he wisely asks such students, “What sin are you currently struggling with?”

    The problem of unbelief is first spiritual, then moral, and only then intellectual. While a Reformed anthropology should take the human as a whole, analytic abstractions require an emphasis upon the spiritual aspect of doubt. The unbridled irrationality of spiritual waywardness ruins the moral uprightness and intellectual acuity of the individual. All …

  • Furnaces of Fire and Outer Darkness

    Another common argument made by annihilationists is from the imagery of the “furnace”, particularly in Matthew 13:42 and 50. As this is one of the parables Christ gives the most explanation of, we should be able to make a significant amount of headway in exegeting it properly. Date’s exegesis of this passage is significantly lacking – and as with the passages we’ve already looked at, I sincerely hope that what he has offered us thus far is not all that we’ll see, despite his statement that I am in possession of the entirety of his positive case. If this is …

  • Rhology responds to Reasonable Doubts (part 1)

    http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2012/05/reasonable-doubts-podcast-on.html…