Apologetics to the Glory of God

Category: Learn Apologetics

  • Going Deeper

    In our last post, we examined Philippians 1 as a bit of a survey, and covered some high points and contextual issues. Now I want to dig a little more into the text and bring out some points in higher relief. We started the post with the observation that neither Rome nor the health and wealth preachers are possessors of the Biblical Gospel. Rome, in particular, makes enough additions and subtractions to make the Judaizers look like amateur heretics. We then made the connection with the term “Evangelical” – which essentially means “those who are about the Gospel”. We hear …

  • Are you an Evangelical apologist?

    The term “evangelical” is used for a whole host of people these days – but what does it really mean? It refers to those who believe the Gospel is the center of the Christian faith, and the core of our message, right? Since we live in such a sound byte culture, it really behooves us to ask – both ourselves, and those we come in contact with, what they mean when they say “evangelical.” Which, of course, brings us to the subject of our post.

    It’s all well and good to say “I’m an Evangelical!” It’s another thing altogether to …

  • Peripatetic 10 – Consistency of Theology and Apologetic

    Is what you believe, what you preach, and what you defend consistent with itself?…

  • The Issue of Authority – God Speaking

    C. Michael Patton’s recent posts, in his own words, look a whole lot like “I am shooting myself in the foot.” He rejects this characterization, of course – but as we have seen in my own posts responding to his over the last couple years, we have an entirely different view of the issues of certainty, and doubt. This recent series, of course, shows where this difference arises from – a different doctrine of Scripture. See, there’s a significant difference between the generally evangelical doctrine of Sola Scriptura, and the historic Reformed doctrine. Dr. White, TurretinFan, and I all …

  • An Experiential Apologetic

    Quite often, we hear the claim “I came to faith through evidence” – with the conclusion being, of course, that evidentialism must be a valid form of apologetic methodology. How would you answer such a claim for yourself?

    First, there is the confusion of “system” with “element.” Evidence is not evidentialism. The two are massively different things. Evidentialism is distinguishable (in some ways) from classicalism, and in a host of ways from presuppositionalism. These differences, of course, are not on the level of “which things in this world that get talked about in …

  • The List of Non-Essentials Just Keeps on Growing

    Subtitled: What a “Mere” Christianity does to orthodoxy.

    C. Michael Patton is one of the people I use to illustrate points, with great frequency. The reason I do so is due to the fact that he is out to do essentially the same sort of thing we are doing – but from a vastly different perspective, theologically. As such, his teaching can be clearly contrasted with our own.

    I realize that posts such as these have the potential to create quite a bit of heat and get me in a lot of trouble. As well, I don’t really want to

    …

  • Peripatetic 9 – Fristianity Style Counters

    Some people think Fristianity is a “Silver Bullet” objection to Covenantal Apologetics. Are they correct?…

  • Apologetics: Defined by the Bible

    An excellent presentation by Dr. James White.

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  • My Credo and Rodney King Methodology

    “There’s a place for every apologetic method.”

    “Can’t we argue about something essential?”

    While these remain as popular approaches to some traditional apologists, they run afoul of the very underpinnings of the Covenantal apologetic – which was from the beginning intended as a reform of our theology of apologetics. Van Til, the “father of presuppositionalism”, outlines these issues on pages 18-21 in his essay “My Credo”, found in the work “Jerusalem and Athens,” edited by E.R. Geehan. After reading this outline of the structure of the method, from the method’s “father” – can there be any surprise that the Covenantal …

  • Point of Contact 5

    Matthias, Joshua and Justin discuss the intrinsic ties between synergism and evidentialism, and the theological foundation of Covenantal apologetics in this edition of Point of Contact.…