Apologetics to the Glory of God

Category: Objections and Misconceptions

  • The Haberdashery of Bruce Gerencser

    I have been watching, with interest, the stream of attempted rebuttal flowing from Bruce’s virtual pen today.  We began the day with the assertion that yesterday’s post was a “deconstruction” of Bruce’s story.  I found that odd, myself.  Especially since I am the author of the post, after all.  When you intentionally include such sentences as “See, Bruce doesn’t need to inflate his resume” or, ” I don’t have any concern with rewriting his story”, or even ” What is actually relevant is whether your resume has any bearing on what you actually have to say.”  Now, I understand …

  • When your resume is irrelevant – your testimonial does the trick

    impeccable resumeI got a Google Alert this morning for the term “presuppositionalism.”  Of course, as is usually the case, it was an atheist using the term.  In this case, however, it was actually irrelevant to the entire post, as far as the author, Bruce Gerencser, is concerned. The only reference to it was a wikipedia link.  I’m actually fairly sure he isn’t especially familiar with it, and that itself is unimportant.  What interested me was his resume, and his testimonial.  You see, the author is a pastor, and a former Calvinist pastor, to boot.  Of course, he was a former …

  • Peripatetic 31 – Truck on Fire Edition – and a response to Gary Crampton on Logic and God

    Response to Gary Crampton on Logic and God, interrupted by strange events.…

  • Peripatetic 30 – Simplicity, Systematic Theology, and Sanctification

    Recorded in mid-March; covers the relationship between Divine Simplicity and Systematic Theology, and goes through Ephesians 6 to emphasize the unity of the Christian life and the apologetic task. Additionally, as major examples, addresses practically all of the same subjects recently addressed on the blog, and gives a theological background for my recent comments about a variety of issues, as well as expanding on the previous episode.…

  • Peripatetic 29 – Theological Inclusivism

    On the perils of such beliefs, and examples thereof; to include C.S. Lewis, Kurt Jaros, Chris Date, William Lane Craig, and others.…

  • A Necessary Distinction

    In the midst of the turmoil which controversy creates, it is always refreshing to encounter an irenic, yet firm response in the midst of a variety of hasty and conjectural surmises.  That irenicism was, of course, the response of Mike Robinson, who many will know from his books and posts on a variety of subjects related to apologetics. When his response was brought to my attention, I was excited to see that he had commented on the situation.  Unfortunately, his post was in response only to the initial statement, which was intentionally designed to bring attention to the general …

  • 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 …

  • An internal critique of the Christology and Theology proper of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    jw1So, I had some interesting interactions with some JW’s over the weekend and something that was said was that they considered that Jesus was divine, but not God. Their explanation was that Jesus’ attributes mirrored those of Jehovah, with the exception of being created.

    Let’s see how much of a mirror it is then with that ‘one exception’.

    Let’s get a list of some of God’s attributes in front of us first and see how it holds together:

    God’s immutability & self-sufficiency.
    God does not change, He remains the same yesterday today and forever, and in Him there is no …

  • 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 …

  • Return of the Presuppositionalist: A counter-critique of a critique of presuppositionalism.

    phantommenace-300x225-150x150I was sent a link to view (a 4 part series) which ended in a critique of presuppositionalism. The full article can be found here:

    Revenge of Objectivity: Preunderstanding, Presuppositions, and First Principles (Part 4)

    Feel free to read the whole 4 part series.

    So, lets get started:

    “Naturally, the same problems with any representationalist epistemology are also embedded in the representationalism found within the presuppositional system.”

    Presuppositionalism runs on a revelatory epistemology, not a representationalist epistemology.

    “While the Thomist would certainly agree that God is the ultimate cause of all reality other than Himself and that the universal forms …