Apologetics to the Glory of God

Choosing Hats

  • 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 …

  • Ancient Empiricism: Aristotle (Van Til’s Apologetic: Readings and Analysis, p329-333)

    0875520987Ancient Empiricism: Aristotle (139)

    (A)In a non-Christian scheme of thought abstract universal and particulars stand over against one another in an unreconcilable fashion. Such was the case in Plato’s philosophy. Aristotle sought to remedy the situation by teaching that the universale are present in the particulars. But he failed to get genuine contact between them, inasmuch as for him the lowest universal (infima species), was, after all, a supposed abstraction from particulars. Hence the particulars that were presupposed were bare particulars, having no manner of contact with universality. And if they should, per impossible, have contact with universality, they would …

  • When an it becomes He – John 1:1 and the Iglesia Ni Cristo

    I was directed the other day to a post by an Iglesia Ni Cristo apologist (hereafter INC) where he tackles John 1:1 and specifically denies that the “Word” in John 1:1 is a person. The author quotes a Greek lexicon to say logos means a concept or idea. Then proceeds to apply that to John 1:1.

    Therefore, in view of the definition given above, what was with God in the beginning was His concept, a plan or an idea (logos) about the Christ who would be coming into the world.

    Ok, that is pretty easy to follow. …

  • Van Til on the Modern Man’s View of Scripture.

    vantil-studyIn response to A.E Taylor’s ‘Does God exist?’ Van Til writes:

    “Taylor simply assumes that every human mind, that of an apostle no less than that of any other man, contributes in an original sense to what it receives. The result is that even if he could believe in a self-contained God – which on his premises he cannot – Taylor cannot believe that any man could receive any revelation from such a God without to some extent, in the very act of reception, confusing it with his own experiences that operate independently of this God.
    The whole attitude of …

  • 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 …

  • Why the Homosexual Lobbyists are Racist Bigots (and Why You Should Care)

    Please allow me to state what needs to be stated more often in these types of posts. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners like me and like you, regardless of our sexual orientation. The depth of our sin is no match for the transforming power of the blood of Christ. Freedom from bondage to sin is found in Him. Do not hope in yourself, but hope in Christ.

    Do not hope in homosexuality. Homosexuality cannot free you from your desire or your pain. Homosexuality has no power to satisfy or heal you. Pursuing homosexual desires will lead …

  • Dr. James Anderson – On Worldviews

    Dr. Anderson has written some blog posts for Crossway that coincide with the release of his book. He has linked to all of them here: http://www.proginosko.com/2014/02/on-worldviews/…

  • Peripatetic 28 – TD Jakes, Todd Bentley, Bill Johnson, Psalm 19, and the Sufficiency of Scripture

    solaMailbag edition, answering a question I was asked recently concerning various ministries, then a positive presentation of the sufficiency of Scripture, then finishing with a testimony for those concerned with such things.…