Category: Intro to Covenantal Apologetics

By C.L. Bolt

Since Romans 1 teaches a universal belief in God, if the Christian world view is true, then agnosticism is contradictory and thus false. But let’s assume for the sake of argument that agnosticism is true, and the agnostic really does not know whether or not God exists:

If God exists, then everyone knows that God exists;
The agnostic does not know that God exists;
Therefore, God does not exist.

The agnostic’s position of agnosticism assumes at the outset that God does not exist. But this is atheism, not agnosticism. For agnosticism to both be agnosticism and not …

By C.L. Bolt

So much work has been done regarding atheism that one hesitates to add much more concerning it in an introduction to covenantal apologetics. The atheist must be pressed for consistency in every area, and her inconsistencies immediately pointed out. The problems of skepticism described in this series are so easily applied to atheism that those new to this method of apologetics sometimes mistakenly think that the method is only applicable to atheism.

The atheist will mockingly demand evidence for the existence of God all the while pretending as though she is neutral with respect to any evidence …

By C.L. Bolt

Polytheism posits that there are multiple entities which go by the label “god,” but these entities are often so much like humans that they do not merit the label. Positing all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful gods in the plural results in a number of contradictions between those attributes such that these conceptions typically only possess slightly above and beyond what humans possess in terms of knowledge, presence, and power. They are nothing like the God of the Bible. It is not difficult to see why, given what has been discussed in this series; polytheism fails to provide an account …

By C.L. Bolt

The covenantal apologist should highlight the many fundamental differences between the Christian and deistic positions, for they are not so similar as many would presume in the context of covenantal apologetics. A deist god may of course be posited as solving many of the same problems that the Christian God does insofar as this clock-making god provides an immaterial absolute to ground such things as logic and morality in, but this objection to covenantal apologetics comes mostly as the result of having been trained to think like a classical apologist. Once we take a closer look at …

By C.L. Bolt

Once theology and history are separated there are insurmountable problems with the discipline. History cannot speak concerning God once this happens in an epistemology, since God as a supernatural being is not a historical fact in this false system of thought. God is no longer the kind of God who can act in history in any way that we are able to know it. Such a god is not the God of Christian Scripture. The God described in the Christian Scripture has spoken as an authority concerning His great acts in history brought about to finally accomplish …

By C.L. Bolt

The presuppositional, transcendental, and skeptical considerations brought out in this introduction are easily applied to particular manifestations of the non-Christian worldview. They can be similarly applied to tools that are heavily relied upon by these particular manifestations of the non-Christian worldview. For example, science rests upon many of the principles brought forth so far in this series, including especially the senses, induction, and the uniformity of nature. When the nonbeliever desires to use an argument against Christianity from the disciplines of science or history (etc.) the Christian apologist can point out that these disciplines require the Christian …

By C.L. Bolt

There are many other features of human experience which are possible only because of the truth of the Christian worldview and the existence of the God of Scripture. Communication, personhood, meaning, and purpose are some examples. The inductive and deductive characteristics of language in addition to the common ground shared by all believers and non-believers in God’s world make communication possible. Having been created in the image of God, we as human beings reflect in our communication that communication which exists between the persons of the tri-une God of Scripture. We are likewise persons who exist in …

By C.L. Bolt

We make qualitative judgments about art and beauty. Some works of art are considered better in some way(s) than other works of art, and some things are considered more beautiful than others. There is a large amount of subjectivity involved in determining whether or not something is beautiful, not to mention a large amount of expertise which is needed to make a better judgment on such issues.

An old cliché claims that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” but few, if any, consider this to be true. Such an account is wholly subjective, meaning that …

By C.L. Bolt

Something that is widely agreed upon across different views concerning the world is that there is an element of knowledge called “justification” or “warrant.” Broadly conceived, it is that element of knowledge pertaining to the basis, reason, evidence, etc. that we have for believing that something is true. There is also widespread disagreement as to what exactly constitutes justification or warrant, but most do agree that there is something like this necessary for knowledge. If there are those who do not believe that this is an element of knowledge then they have a radically different understanding of …

By C.L. Bolt

It follows from what has been written regarding morality that a consistent unbeliever is unable to account for evil. Yet the existence of evil is one of the most used objections to the existence of the good and powerful Christian God. The consistent unbeliever is unable to account for the problem of evil when it comes to moral evil, but cannot raise the problem of evil through natural evil either. In this sense evil becomes a real problem for the non-Christian worldview, not the Christian worldview. The non-Christian cannot account for evil within his or her own …