Category: Learn Apologetics
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An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 2 – Everyone has presuppositions.
By C.L. Bolt
Presuppositions are beliefs that people take to be the case as they come to some other belief or piece of evidence. A person who comes to the barber shop with a credit card and wants a haircut presupposes that the barber shop accepts credit cards as a means of payment. Note that presuppositions might be true or false in this sense. To ”presuppose” something is to “suppose” that something “beforehand;” “pre-suppose.”
People have all sorts of presuppositions as you can likely imagine. However when we speak of presuppositions in this treatment of covenantal apologetics we will speak …
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An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 1 – There are two worldviews.
By C.L. Bolt
There are only two worldviews. Within these two worldviews, or at any rate within one of them, is a whole plethora of other entities usually referred to as wordviews. A worldview is a network of presuppositions, beliefs, concepts, ideas, etc. through which an individual or individuals view the world. Every person has a worldview; every person has a network of presuppositions and beliefs by which he or she views the world. By viewing the world here I mean thinking in terms of what is right and wrong, good and bad, logical and illogical, sensical and nonsensical, worthwhile …
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An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics – Introduction
By C.L. Bolt
What I endeavor to accomplish in the following pieces is not to provide an exhaustive account of all things presuppositional but to grant the readers a very basic level knowledge of Van Tillian presuppositionalism also known as Covenantal Apologetics without fancy terminology or at least with definitions when technical language is used. My hopes are to write something merely from memory as opposed to turning to sources and then collecting them in a Works Cited or Bibliography. I don’t mean to go back and correct much of what I write or to answer objections that people might …
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Responses to the assertions of Yasser Ali
In the debate transcript, I have inserted my opponent’s answers, as I said I would. This post is intended to answer his assertions made therein, and to address the various problems I found with them. As of this posting, he has yet to offer his final questions, so I’m going to go ahead and offer comments on the debate in it’s entirety, and consider the debate closed. My questions will be italicized bold, his answers in italics, both will be in quote, and my responses in plain text. I will be offering more comments in the future, and …
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Pre-order to save big!
Two titles you will want that are almost here are:
(I should be clear that I am not endorsing the work of Karl Barth, but it is nevertheless an important work. For an excellent critique of Barth’s theology see the WTS iTunes lectures by Van Til.)
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Is the Qur'an the Word of God? – Debate Transcript
Debate Thesis: Is the Qur’an the Word of God?
Introductions
[12:07] [BK] ok, the floor is yours, Algo
[12:07] [PL] Very Good.
[12:07] [PL] Welcome Gentlemen.
[12:08] [PL] Let us now begin our formal debate with an intro/bio.
[12:08] [PL] Introducing MusLm :
[12:08] [PL] Name: Yasser Ali
[12:08] [PL] Nick: MusLm
[12:08] [PL] Age: 34
[12:09] [PL] Country: Pakistan
[12:09] [PL] Education: Post-Graduate of Information Technology (Australia)
[12:09] [PL] Occupation / Designation: Da’ee (Da’ee is a Muslim who invites people towards God / Islam)
[12:09] [PL] Faith: Muslim based on Quran (100%) and Hadith (Authentic)
[12:09] [PL] I have … -
Should we concede anything to our opponents?
Series on Does God Exist? Dr. Greg Bahnsen versus Dr. Gordon Stein
Should we argue for “general theism”?
Should our case be “subjective or personal”?
Should we concede anything to our opponents?
Bahnsen’s last introductory remark prior to his main argument for the existence of God involves a concession to Stein’s “area of expertise.” As insignificant as this concession seemingly is it serves as a refutation of the oft-repeated-but-never-cited claim that presuppositional apologists contend that unbelievers cannot know anything. The truth is that if unbelievers were epistemologically consistent they could not know anything, but unbelievers are never epistemologically …
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A Message For Muslims
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Should our case be “subjective or personal”?
Series on Does God Exist? Dr. Greg Bahnsen versus Dr. Gordon Stein
Should we argue for “general theism”?
Should our case be “subjective or personal”?
Having presented his reasons for arguing for Christian theism as a unit or system of thought Bahnsen moves on to discuss what the debate is about. Bahnsen transitions from the aforementioned topic he addresses at the very beginning of his first opening statement through placing a slightly different emphasis upon the systematic nature of Christian theism. Bahnsen is arguing for Christian theism as a unit or system of thought so that the debate …
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Borrowing from the Christian Worldview
The question has been asked a couple of times now just what is meant by the Presuppositionalist when they claim that unbelievers “borrow from the Christian Worldview”, and so I thought it made sense to address this in its own post at this point.
In the Bahnsen/Stein debate, Bahnsen makes the following comments in his rebuttal to Stein regarding the laws of logic:
…“As invariant, they don’t fit into what most materialists would tell us about the constantly changing nature of the world. And so, you see, we have a real problem on our hands. Dr. Stein wants to use