Apologetics to the Glory of God

Category: Scripture

  • Nothing is Pure

    To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.  They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. – Titus 1:15-16

    As I’m sure many of you have been following, Planned Parenthood has been getting lambasted on social media in the aftermath of the sting operation by Center for Medical Progress. This is not to discuss the video in question – although the casual brutality of Deborah Nucatola, …

  • I’m Neither a Prophet nor Son of a Prophet

    But if my guess is correct, this week’s news cycles will be all about hate speech. Ours. Or what they want to represent as ours. You see, with a Friday ruling, and so much near-instant access to our churches’ sermons, you can almost bet that they will be trolling our sermons for sound bytes. You see, while there will be much trumpeting that Kennedy’s majority opinion states the following:

    Finally, it must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be

  • The Tyranny of Death

    Death is a tyrant.

    Only one, however, has ever experienced the entirety of the curse of death. Everyone else will experience it in part, or never cease to experience it. The fullness of that tyranny rests its claws upon only one; He upon whom the wrath of God, and all the terrible and righteous fury that implies, was poured, and who bore it for the sake of His elect. Christ, our Lord and King.

    The first death, the promise of Adam’s curse, attends us all. This is a pittance, a vapor, in comparison to that of the second. It is …

  • A Conversation About Categories

    There are particular buzzwords in the air these days. Of course, there are buzzwords in the air every day – and always have been. One of the hot-buttons these days is “transgender”. With the media circus surrounding Bruce Jenner, it is in an impossible glare. The media’s feeding frenzies know no bounds, and the level of rhetoric and sheer hyperbole is shocking, even to a jaded student of mass media narrative creation.

    The problem is, the left is in a pickle when it comes to “transgender” – much as it is in a pickle concerning “bisexuals.” With the latter, on …

  • The Theological Bases

    The other day, I posted a reply to Andrew, at “Entertaining Christianity.” He has since responded. We’ve chatted a bit privately, as well, but my time constraints tend to curtail things, occasionally.

    Essentially, I think there’s a bit of miscommunication on his part about what, exactly, the problems were with his post. As I pointed out to him, that could very well be due to our rather different backgrounds, theologically speaking. From our conversation, I gathered that he was confused by what I meant by “omnibenevolence” in the context I used it in. As others have pointed out, …

  • Irrationality is not a Response

    I encountered a rather unfortunate blog post today. Upon examining it, and the posts it links to, I think it would be helpful to respond to, albeit briefly.

    First, just to get it out of the way – why on earth would you use such appalling language when dealing, at least putatively, with Christian doctrine? (Let alone any other time.) It is, quite simply, outrageous on any level.

    Second, while I’m sure Jon Stewart (and his devoted fans) are quite convinced that he is the epitome of the witty bon mot – he quite typically fails, rather spectacularly, in …

  • Mr. White, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Black IX

    It’s been a while! We will, however, pick up from where we left off in this exchange, and examine Mr. Black’s reply to Mr. Grey.

    “Well,” says Mr. Black, “this is great news indeed. I knew that the modernists were willing with us to start from human experience as the final reference point in all research. I knew that they were willing with us to start from Chance as the source of facts, in order then to manufacture such facts of nature and of history as the law of non-contradiction, based on Chance, will allow. I also knew that the

  • The Covenantal Apologetic: Principles to Practice

    It cannot be sufficiently stressed that the covenantal apologetic is first and foremost a Reformed apologetic.  Consistently, a practitioner will be Confessional, therefore Covenantal and Calvinistic.  These are sometimes called the “3 Cs.”  This is not being stressed for a subjectivistic “purity’s” sake, nor for controversialism’s sake.  It is being stressed for the sake of consistency.  First and foremost in Reformed theology is the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture.  From Scripture, we also have revealed the doctrine of God, and all of the other doctrines we believe and hold to.  Consistent with these doctrines, we preach, and we …

  • Jeremiah 31 and Newness

    Most Covenantal discussions revolve around what, precisely, is new about the New Covenant.  Much ink has been spilled, and literary armies have marched forth to battle on the strength of this one word.  A newer entrant to the lists has their own opinion on the matter, and believes that the newness consists in a complete distinction from the old.  As one adherent of New Covenant Theology stated to me in conversation, the difference lies in “newness” and “not like”.  In a sense, this is true. What we bring to bear on these words, presuppositionally, will determine what we think they …

  • Have you read the Quran?

    Given the recent attention to the horrible actions taking place in Paris by Muslims, I thought I would write this post on something that I have seen come up a few times before. “Irreligious” people who tar religion, including Christianity, with the same brush and brand it all wrong and evil and the source of many problems,  appear to come out in droves when events like what have taken place recently occur. If you want proof- check YouTube. No doubt a Christian would be in a position to respond to criticisms that come from such people, and ultimately, the truth …