Apologetics to the Glory of God

Category: Authors

  • Some thoughts on the upcoming debate

    In my preparations for the debate on Sunday, and in dealing with the quite providential example Paul Copan gave us last week of the importance of the subject, I felt it might be valuable to give a few impressions I’ve had along the way. My opening statement has been written for a week or so now – prior to Dr. Copan’s comments, in fact – and my first thought after reading it was this. I wouldn’t change anything I had to say. First, because Dr. Copan’s comments weren’t anything we hadn’t seen before. Second, because I’m giving a positive presentation …

  • Behind the Scenes: Notes from my debate with Michael Long

    Some readers might be interested in seeing the very beginning of preparation for my debate with Michael Long (found here – https://choosinghats.org/2011/08/is-there-good-reason-to-believe-that-the-christian-god-exists). What is posted below is by no means the entirety of my notes for the debate but does provide an idea of how I initially go about preparing for a debate. The quotations are from the Goodness Over God podcast and are as close as I could get them to the originals which may be found here – http://goodnessovergod.blogspot.com. Each quote is followed by a time stamp and episode number.

    Michael Long is a philosopher and …

  • Acts 17 and Covenantal Apologetics

    Re-posted from here – http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/03/13/answering-objections-to-presuppositionalism.

     

    J.R.

    March 14, 2012 at 12:51 PM

    taco,
    Non-presuppositionalists argue that Acts 17 is clearly a classical (specifically Greek) apologetic used by Paul. You’ll need to find another example to make your case. “So Paul, standing in the midst of Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religiou. For as I passed and observed the objects of your worship, I found an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”

    Reply
    •  taco
      March 14, 2012
    …

  • Debate: Covenantal Apologetics is the only Biblical apologetic methodology

    Date: March 25th
    Time: 2pm EST (Watch for updates)
    Location: IRC, #chdebate channel – fuller detail will be given the day of the debate.

    I’ll be debating Scotty Bowers, aka “Ransom” on this topic. I will, of course, be taking the affirmative in this debate. Anyone is invited to attend the debate.…

  • Copan’s Folly

    Dr. Paul Copan’s “critique” of presuppositionalism has started a minor furor over at TGC, with my response as only the first of many.

    Steve Hays
    Copan on Presuppositionalism
    Does Presuppositionalism Begs the Question
    Paul Copan on Common Ground

    James Anderson
    Does Presuppositionalism engage in question-begging?

    James White

    K. Scott Oliphint
    Answering Objections to Presuppositionalism…

  • Questioning Copan

    The Gospel Coalition is running a series on apologetics, and today’s entry was by Paul Copan, entitled “Questioning Presuppositionalism”. What struck me, while reading his take on the subject, was how superficial and inaccurate it was. He introduces Van Til, and then says that Gordon Clark supposedly “generally followed” his methodology, along with Bahnsen and Frame, and then called it “variegated”. Well, given that he’s simply wrong concerning Clark, and that Frame consciously departed from Van Til as well, I’d supposed that’s an assumption guaranteed to result in a certain conclusion, wouldn’t you? It is not the case that …

  • Modified Common Consent Argument

    One of my favorite, fun little arguments for the existence of God is formulated by Roman Catholic apologist Peter Kreeft and is called, “The Common Consent Argument.” You may read the argument here – http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/20_arguments-gods-existence.htm#19. Kreeft states the argument as follows:

    1. Belief in God—that Being to whom reverence and worship are properly due—is common to almost all people of every era.
    2. Either the vast majority of people have been wrong about this most profound element of their lives or they have not.
    3. It is most plausible to believe that they have not.
    4. Therefore it is most plausible to believe
    …

  • Paul Jenkins, Naughty Children, and Hell

    Introduction

    Somewhat understandably, our friend Paul Jenkins categorizes the discussion of, “whether Hell is ‘eternal conscious punishment’ on the one hand, or ‘annihilation’ on the other” as, “Not just piffle, but risible piffle.”

    The alternative that occurs most obviously to me is, “Hell doesn’t exist — it’s a horror story told to children to stop them being naughty.”

    One might question how Paul is so dogmatically certain that hell doesn’t exist. Of course it does not matter how certain Paul feels he is with regard to the alleged non-existence of hell if hell does in fact exist. It does …

  • William Edgar – What is Presuppositionalism?

    Good, basic intro post.

    Can be found at TGC, here.…

  • Atheist Justin Scheiber on Bible Translation

    After highlighting a difference between the way the NRSV, ESV, NASB, KJB, and WEB translate a particular text of Scripture versus the way the NIV, NLT, and God’s Word “translate” it (This is according to the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible, but note that the second list of versions provided are not all translations. Some are paraphrases, and it can make a difference to this particular objection, but for the sake of brevity I will move on.) Justin Scheiber of Reasonable Doubts writes:

    

I should perhaps presume that the ‘real’ Christians have their ducks all in a row – that

    …