Apologetics to the Glory of God

Tag: evidentialism

  • The Consequences of Evidentialism

    If you were able to go back in a time machine and witness the tomb of Christ only to find that Christ did not raise from the grave, what would that do to your Christian faith?

    (A Quick Question – @Parchment and Pen)

    Note the poll to the side, and the responses.

    What’s wrong with this? My wife nailed it in about 8 seconds. (She gets an A in my apologetics class!)…

  • Tu Quoque Argument Advanced as a Primer for the Presuppositionalist Response to Evidentialist Critiques of Method

    Arguments which cut both ways are not always self-refuting, but are significantly weakened by their hypocritical nature. The activities of traditional non-presuppositionalist apologists almost always fall prey to the same objections the proponents of the traditional method advance in their critiques of presuppositionalism.

    Just today I heard a professional apologist and philosopher argue that the Transcendental Argument for God, an argument utilized within the presuppositional method of apologetics, may more or less be dismissed because an unbeliever might quite easily claim that logic is something other than what the presuppositionalist needs to portray logic as in order to make his …

  • Collision Gets A Bad Review

    While I have had Collision for some time now and have watched parts of it, I did not get to sit down and soak up the entirety of the movie until today. In my opinion, it was rather well done and fills a gap in the world of apologetics by seeking to engage the layperson in a way other apologetic presentations cannot. Of course, others may have extremely different opinions.

    Well known apologist Douglas Groothuis does not share my sentiments concerning the movie. He has written a less than positive review which may be found here – http://theconstructivecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2009/11/colision-dvd-review.html Allow me …

  • Falling Down

    A section of the ongoing discussion between Chris the evil Presuppositionlist (inside joke, sorry) and Mitch over at Urban Philosophy caught my attention today.  It is a section that discusses the concept of “common ground” between believer and unbeliever by using the analogy of gravity.  Here is the entirety of what Mitch stated caught my attention:

    The common ground of reality affect both the believer and the non-believer, and this is a common ground from which dialogue may begin. Knowledge of gravity is not required for the effects of gravity. We do not see babies flying because they do not

    …

  • More Mitch, Moreland

    In a recent post Mitch LeBlanc accuses me of blundering and misunderstanding apologetics. I consider these extremely strong claims coming from someone who argues as inconsistently regarding apologetics as Mitch does.

    Mitch LeBlanc has been writing comments on my posts regarding apologetic methodology in which he attempts to actually defend the method even though as far as I know he claims to be an atheist and rejects the traditional arguments for the existence of God. Mitch often ranges well beyond the scope of a topic in responding to it; that this is the case may be seen in his presentation …

  • Where To Start

    When it comes to disagreements about the existence of God people usually want to proceed without ever setting down a clear set of rules by which to make a case. We often assume that we are all thinking along the same lines as to what the rules are when it comes to discussions about God and truth and knowledge and other such subjects. This assumption is unfortunate because Christians and non-Christians “play” by a different set of rules. The amount of literature written about the subject of the existence of God could fill libraries, yet if we searched through all …

  • Applying Paul

    The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
    Prov 1:7 (ESV)

    Recognizing God for who He is and giving Him due reverence as Lord is the beginning of knowledge, not the end of it. This is very different from what most people think today. Even some Christians think that if we just start with what we already know without God, we can show people that God really does exist. From there, we can tell people about who God is. This does not match the verse though. A knowledge of God does not come …

  • Not Overly Surprising

    A few months ago a close relative of mine visited a church gathering. The person who “preached” that day is a well known evidentialist apologist. If I wrote the name of the person the majority of the readers would undoubtedly know this person.

    So what happened? Well, according to my close relative, the Bible was never opened during the entire course of the “sermon”. I told her that I was not surprised.

    One’s apologetic is generally indicative of and affects one’s view of Scripture. Evidentialism is grounded in philosophy. If we are to compare it to presuppositionalism, the chart might …

  • Why The Bible Is Necessary For Apologetics: A Brief Reflection On 1 Peter 3.15

    Introduction

    The study of defending the Christian faith has recently become extremely popular. Bookstores are filled with manuals on how Christians can defend their faith. Usually the books present “facts” from secular writings. The Big Bang Theory, Ancient Greek philosophy, Near Death Experiences, selections from secular Roman historians and even liberal theology are used to try and show unbelievers that Christianity is reasonable. Christians are encouraged to look at these “facts” with unbelievers in a “neutral” way as though God does not exist or the Bible is not His Word. I find this odd.

    When we are looking for help …

  • Sacrificing the Gospel on the Altar of Unbiblical Apologetics

    Often so-called objections to the presuppositionalist methodology are downright frightening. Take the article “Always Ready to Give an Answer” written by Caleb Colley.

    Under the section on presuppositionalism, Caleb writes the following:

    “While the presuppositionalist is right that worldview is important, the presuppositional approach is in conflict with Paul’s prescription of the cosmological argument”

    Um…I am sorry?

    “the presuppositional approach is in conflict with Paul’s prescription of the cosmological argument”

    Now I do not know about other people, but I am left wondering how people prior to Paul came to know that God exists without Paul being alive to present …