Apologetics to the Glory of God

Category: Cornelius Van Til

  • Mr. White, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Black X

    When Mr. Black objects against Mr. White that unconditional surrender to the authority of Scripture is irrational, then Mr. Grey nods approval and says that, of course, the “rational man” has a perfect right to test the credibility of Scripture by logic. When the Bible speaks of God’s sovereign election of some men to salvation this must mean something that fits in with his “rational nature.” When Mr. Black objects to Mr. White that unconditional surrender to Scripture is rationalistic, then Mr. Grey again nods approval and says that, of course, genuine human personality has a perfect right to test

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  • Revelation about God from Nature – Natural Theology

    Coming now to the knowledge that man in Paradise would have of God, we must notice first of all that there man would be able to reason correctly from nature to nature’s God. But the meaning of this fact should be taken in connection with what we have said when discussing the true theistic conception of physics. We may perhaps best bring out what we mean by saying that man could originally reason from nature to nature’s God by contrasting it to what is usually been meant by that statement. In the first place, when men say that we can

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  • Other Arguments

    Now the only argument for an absolute God that holds water is a transcendental argument. A deductive argument as such leads only from one spot in the universe to another spot in the universe. So also an inductive argument as such can never lead beyond the universe. In either case there is no more than an infinite regression. In both cases it is possible for the smart little girl to ask, “If God made the universe, who made God?” and no answer is forthcoming. This answer is, for instance, a favorite reply of the atheist debater, Clarence Darrow. But if

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  • A Conservative Evangelical Response to Molly Worthen’s “The Evangelical Roots of our Post-Truth Society”

    A Conservative Evangelical Response to Molly Worthen’s “The Evangelical Roots of our Post-Truth Society”

    by C.L. Bolt…

  • When Possibility is Impossible: Answering a Rawlsian Ruse with Radical Retortion

    In 1971 John Rawls wrote his famous A Theory of Justice in which he presented what is known as ‘The Original Position.’ The OP is a hypothetical state of affairs in which an individual operates from behind a ‘Veil of Ignorance’ in order to establish principles of justice for society apart from considerations of ethnicity, class, gender, and the like. This thought experiment stems from the radical autonomy present in Immanuel Kant’s work.

    Enough about Rawls. Cornelius Van Til was a Christian apologist who likewise drew from Kant’s work, taking the transcendental method developed by Kant (and many others before …

  • A Fundamental Problem With A Fundamental Problem with the Presuppositionalism of Cornelius Van Til

    Before anyone gets too excited by Haines’ upcoming critique of Van Til at SES (including Haines himself, I might add), it might be useful to point out a common mistake he has made in discussion of Van Til thus far.

    The philosopher or apologist who is well acquainted with the modern and post-modern philosophy of Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger will recognize that Van Til’s system of apologetics is very much dependent upon these sources.

    He notes this in the body of his announcement for his SES talk – but it might be illustrative …

  • Oliphint on Evidences – Reformed Forum

    Find it here.…

  • Oliphint on Understanding Cornelius Van Til

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  • Mr. White, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Black IX

    It’s been a while! We will, however, pick up from where we left off in this exchange, and examine Mr. Black’s reply to Mr. Grey.

    “Well,” says Mr. Black, “this is great news indeed. I knew that the modernists were willing with us to start from human experience as the final reference point in all research. I knew that they were willing with us to start from Chance as the source of facts, in order then to manufacture such facts of nature and of history as the law of non-contradiction, based on Chance, will allow. I also knew that the

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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 …