No Excuse for God
In
the
beginning,
GOD.
Four words into God’s living and active autobiography and, boom, there He is. Front and center. No beating around the bush. After all, from Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Romans 11:36), so it should be no surprise that the Bible begins with Him.…
Read moreOliphint on Understanding Cornelius Van Til
On Proper Analysis – Scott Terry and VanTillianFire
The author, Aaron Dale, at the blog “Van Tillian Fire,” has written a critique of my much-critiqued “Dear Sye” post. For reasons unbeknownst to me, he neglected to read the post of the following day, “The Shattered Stained Glass Window”, as well as the post “A Necessary Distinction.” Why is this important, you ask? It is important because these were written several months ago – and written specifically to provide specifics about issues I left unstated, or merely referred to in general terms in the initial post. Why did I leave them unstated? I left them …
Read moreVan Tilian Turf Wars (Part 2)
Presuppositionalists are sticklers for sound apologetic methodology. But how is sound apologetic methodology discerned? Presuppositional proclivities preclude the vast majority of classical or evidentialist approaches to apologetics. That much is clear. But how does one determine who is right and who is wrong when presuppositionalists argue about methodology amongst themselves? Perhaps we all agree that presuppositional apologetic methodology is the way to go, but who is to say what presuppositional apologetic method is? Is there some standard of presuppositional orthodoxy?
Fundamentalist presuppositionalists tend to respond to these questions by citing the Bible as their ultimate authority for apologetics. The …
Read moreA Presuppositional Devotion
It is interesting to come across some very presuppositional teaching from people who don’t really fly the flag and I like to note it when I do. August 10, 2014 “For the Love of God” devotional by D. A. Carson was one such devotional. I especially appreciated his call for people to be precise about the use of the Psalm 14:1 and Romans 1. I think it is a good reminder for us all as it seems like much of the recent popular apologetics billing itself as “presuppositional” is more about the misapplying these passage by simply calling people fools …
Van Tilian Turf Wars (Part 1)
At least three types of Van Tilian presuppositionalists have emerged from the recent surge in popularity of presuppositionalism.
Fundamentalist
The first group are the fundamentalists. Fundamentalists are not necessarily to be identified with fundamentalism in general, but rather with fundamentalist tendencies when it comes to discerning apologetic methodology. This brand of presuppositionalism takes a more biblicist approach to apologetic questions and disputes. Though arguments may be offered in the context of apologetic discussion, these arguments are typically less philosophically precise and more explicitly biblical or dogmatic. Examples of those in the fundamentalist strain of presuppositionalism include Answers in Genesis, Sye …
Read moreIntroduction to Apologetics Seminary Course
Lord willing, I will be teaching AP8521 Introduction to Apologetics at the Huntsville, Alabama extension center for Birmingham Theological Seminary on Monday nights from 7:30-9:30pm starting in September. Please find more details at http://birminghamseminary.org/ and pass this information along to anyone you know who is interested and lives in the area!…
Read moreImpostors in Presuppositionalism
I came across a very good post discussing the rise of of some popular level apologetic methodology that tries to brand itself as Van Tilian presuppositionalism but is really just an impostor.
Check it out here: http://pousto.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/naive-presuppositionalism/…
Read moreIf one is uncertain; one is certainly an evidentialist?
Someone pointed me to the following quote on facebook yesterday:
The Baptist is inherently an evidentialist. They must look to subjective always changing evidence to prove covenant membership.
A Presbyterian assumes an objective, universal standard for membership that can be known with certainty.
A Baptist cannot claim certainty.
Granted, this is a non-sequitur in its own right as it stands. It seems to be a post meant to start what those of us who have been around Internet discussions a while call a “flame war” about the subject of baptism in some purported presuppositionalist sub-group. I choose to ignore that …
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