Apologetics to the Glory of God

Category: Method

  • The Shattered Stained Glass Window

    A lot of people seemed upset when I posted an encouragement and admonishment to Sye Ten Bruggencate yesterday.  The fallout seems to consist of either those praising me for doing so, or vilifying me for same.  I’m no stranger to controversy, obviously, so I have been watching the general trend of commentary.  The fallout from my detractors, on the main, seems to have missed the central meat of the post.  Sure, I mentioned several things only in general, but most of our regular readers know what I was referring to.  I’ve said the same things I am saying now over …

  • Why God’s common grace is necessary for apologetics.

    40-1“When the case has been boldly made that the unbeliever must repent and admit to his suppressed knowledge of God if he is to have theoretical grounding for any knowledge whatsoever, then the Holy Spirit either opens his eyes at present or will do so at a coming day. In this present life God’s common grace restrains the apostate from utter intellectual self-destruction. While not positing neutral ground between the Christian and non-Christian interpretative systems, common grace nevertheless prevents the non-Christian from being consistent with his futile boast of autonomy. But in that coming day the unbeliever will cease to …

  • Fred is Dead: A Christian Response to the Followers of Fred Phelps, Founder of “Westboro Baptist Church”

    Fred Phelps is dead.

    Phelps is best known for heading up the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). The WBC is infamous for preaching a message of hatred toward homosexuals (“God Hates Fags”) and picketing the funerals of United States military.

    Most people are shocked and appalled at the WBC. I do not fault them for that. However, I do fault them for substituting their subjective emotional responses for sound intellectual responses to the WBC. In a society where feelings matter more than substantial thought, even most Christians are satisfied with the purely emotional response to the WBC. But they should …

  • Infallibilism, Knowledge, Attenuated Presup and Unwitting Clarkianism

    So, I was involved in a bit of a dustup with some folks yesterday. Essentially, the bone of contention was concerning knowledge. The position of our antagonists, essentially, was that knowledge, to be knowledge, must be “infallible.” There are a variety of issues with this stance, but chiefly, my concern is from theology proper, as we will explore; although we will address a few other issues along the way as well.

    My response is first to the notion of infallibility being applied to “knowledge” in the first place. Fallibility, obviously, means an ability to fail. Well, to fail, one has …

  • Peripatetic 16 – Eclectic Responses

    An Eclectic Peripatetic responding to Kurt Jaros, Jordan Cooper, Michael Patton, and a commenter named Scott.…

  • The Apostle of Doubt vs. Calvin

    Why I Lack Certainty about Christianity – C. Michael Patton:

    Some people say that they have no doubt at all, and they never have. I have difficulty believing assertions such as this, though I suppose they might be true for a very small number of individuals. However, at this point, I think it would be valuable for us to distinguish between “certainty” and “certitude” (Daniel Taylor introduced me to this concept, but I don’t know if the distinctions he made are embedded in the specific definitions of the terms). “Certainty” is the more objective type of conviction. It is the

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  • “We Destroy Arguments..”

    Chapter 5 of Dr. Oliphint’s book has been posted on Monergism with permission. Go give it a read and tell us what you think!…

  • Apologetic Method and a CH Shoutout

    Dr. White finished his review of the Jaros/Oliphint discussion, and mentioned Choosing Hats toward the beginning.…

  • The Prophecy of Hosea: God’s Covenant Faithfulness

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  • The Law and New Covenant Theology

    Excellent exposition from Romans 2, a text I’ve had occasion to look at as well. He also addresses other texts in a shorter fashion. Pay close attention to the various implications he draws out from the denial of universal moral law, along with other issues, that NCT demands. If I might be so bold, it might also be helpful to look over my paper in the first issue of In Antithesis, which addresses Romans 1 and the first part of 2.

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