Tag: apologetic method
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Mr. White, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Black III
In our previous post, we saw the beginnings of the typical evidential/classical method, as posed by Dr. Carnell. We will continue our journey through Van Til’s dialogue, on pages 316-317 of Defense of the Faith.
…Of course, Mr. Black will be greatly impressed with such an argument as Mr. Grey has presented to him for the truth of Christianity. In fact, if Christianity is thus shown to be in accord with the moral nature of man, as Mr. Black himself sees that moral nature, then Mr. Black does not need to be converted at all to accept Christianity. He
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Presuppositionalist Concept of Presupposition
Don Collett argues that traditional forms of argument do not do justice to presupposition as a concept. He works from Peter Strawson’s semantic account of presupposition.
…According to Strawson, a statement A may be said to presuppose a statement B if B is a necessary precondition of the truth-or-falsity of A. Strawson’s interpretation of the concept of presupposition has been restated in succinct fashion by Bas van Fraassen as follows:
A presupposes B if and only if A is neither true nor false unless B is true.
This may also be stated as follows:
(1) A presupposes B if
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Mr. White, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Black II
In the previous post, we saw Cornelius Van Til examining the apologetic method of the Reformed, vs the Evangelical varieties. By Evangelical, he means the Arminian or Roman Catholic schools of theology and/or apologetic. As our friend Dr. White is wont to say, “theology determines apologetic”. We’ll continue this series in this post, the second of the series, and pick up where we left off.
An excerpt from Defense of The Faith, by Cornelius Van Til – Chap. 12, Sec. 3, pg. 313-315, 4th Ed.
The Believer Meets the Unbeliever – Part II
…Let us first look briefly at
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Mr. White, Mr. Grey, and Mr. Black
An excerpt from Defense of The Faith, by Cornelius Van Til – Chap. 12, Sec. 3, pg. 312-313, 4th Ed.
The Believer Meets the Unbeliever
…To see clearly what is meant, think of a dentist. You go to him with a “bad tooth”. Does he take care of your tooth in two operations? To be sure, you may have to come back to have him finish the job. But it is one job he is doing. He takes all the decayed matter out before he fills the cavity. Well, Mr. Black is the man with the toothache, and you,
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Positive Covenantal Apologetics
A popular objection to the covenantal apologetic is the claim that it lacks positive arguments or otherwise falls short of providing a positive apologetic. There are at least three responses to this criticism.
1. The distinction between a negative and positive apologetic and how the distinction is made is largely attached to apologetic method. Assuming definitions and a distinction that covenantal apologetics by their very nature do not share and then raising an objection to covenantal apologetics based upon the unshared categories of an alternative method is roughly equivalent to critiquing covenantal apologetics because they are covenantal apologetics and not …
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God Hates Arrogance in Apologetics
Might we take a moment to set everything aside, read or listen to this message from John Piper, and remember that God hates our arrogance and our pride. God is really not all that concerned about apologetic ministries, letters behind names, popularity, erudition, logical precision or lack thereof as much as many of us would often tend to think. Apologetics is not about you. How foolish we can become in this respect; how often we need a reminder.
“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 10.17…
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Introductory Level Apologetics Books
In light of the fact that Christmas is almost here and in light of the frequently asked questions I receive regarding introductory level material on covenantal apologetics I have provided a list of introductions to presuppositional apologetics. The list is by no means exhaustive. The books are listed roughly in order starting from the easiest to understand and most foundational.
The Battle Belongs to the Lord