Apologetics to the Glory of God

Tag: revelation

  • My Grandfather’s Funeral Sermon

    We come here today as family and friends because an awful event has taken place in our lives. There are other times when we come together for different reasons than grieving. There are times when we gather to rejoice. We celebrate birthdays, holidays, and marriages together. But today we come together to grieve. We might not grieve as those who have no hope, but we still grieve. We might recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ has conquered the grave, but we still weep just as he did at the graveside of his friend Lazarus whom he loved. Death is immediately …

  • My Opponent’s Position, as Stated

    (22:14)First, I fully hold to the orthodox essentials of the faith and other important doctrines; I believe in the Trinity, the deity and virgin birth of Christ, the total depravity of man and salvation by grace through faith alone; Sola Scriptura, the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible. I’m not a Seventh Day Adventist, a Jehovah’s Witness, or a member of any other questionable denomination.

    Second, I have no emotional or philosophical problem whatsoever with eternal conscious torment; everlasting suffering has never seemed to me to be incompatible with the love and justice of God, nor does it today.

    …

  • Sermon: The Morality of Knowledge

    I was once again invited to preach at Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Slidell. This week’s sermon was on Rom. 1:26-2:16. It is, additionally, the second installment of my adaptation of the paper in the first edition of In Antithesis.…

  • Augustine and Calvin on the Language of Corruption and Incorruption

    Mortality, which in general, is the state of being susceptible, or of being subject to death, should be defined precisely, clearly, and unequivocally, if we are to speak on the subject. Not doing so will result in confusion, dissatisfaction, and eventually, error. This also requires us to speak to what this state presupposes, in order to be meaningful, or intelligible. Death, likewise, must be clearly, precisely, and unequivocally defined should we wish to deal with it.

    “Now every fault injures the nature, and is consequently contrary to the nature. The creature, therefore, which cleaves to God, differs from those

    …

  • Propitiation, Wrath and Substitution

    What is propitiation? That was one of the central elements of the Reformation of doctrine, and one of the most problematic issues in the modern Evangelical movement today. It has to do with many, many areas of theology, and we can’t possibly cover them exhaustively in a single blog post. But in a nutshell, what is it? In a nutshell, it is the “turning away of,” “appeasement” or “satisfaction for” the wrath of God due sinners. It is, therefore, intimately bound up to our notion of what the wrath of God actually is. It is bound up with sacrifice, atonement, …

  • Islam: Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai on the Knowledge of Allah (2)

    In my previous post on Islam I began to address the attempt that Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai (ASMHT) makes to argue for the necessity of his god Allah through natural theology (123). ASMHT offers a rational argument that takes the subject of knowledge as its most basic assumption and speaks of three objects of knowledge in the very first sentence of his argument for Allah which are human beings, god, and the world. In order for him to make a successful argument, ASMHT must connect the subject of knowledge with these objects of knowledge.

    I asked …

  • Islam: Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai on the Knowledge of Allah (1)

    In Shi’ite Islam, Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai (hereafter ASMHT) attempts an argument for “The Necessity of God” through natural theology (123). There are many different understandings of what exactly natural theology is and what it actually accomplishes, but in this particular passage ASMHT attempts to prove the existence of the Muslim god Allah through a simple, straightforward natural theological proof (123). This attempt is made at the very beginning of a chapter on the knowledge of ASMHT’s god, so it is clear that the argument he presents is pre-dogmatic in nature and possesses even an apologetic function. Since …

  • John Starke on Van Til’s Influence on Christian Thought

    John Starke over at The Gospel Coalition takes a quick look at the affect Dr. Cornelius Van Til has had since his work at Westminster Theological Seminary.

    John Starke notes:

    Van Til transformed the discussions around epistemology and apologetics unlike anyone else in modern Christian history—being the main influence behind theologians, pastors, and apologists like John Frame, Tim Keller, David Powlison, Greg Bahnsen and the entire systematic and apologetics departments of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and California, headed by names like Michael Horton, Scott Oliphint, William Edgar, and David VanDrunen.

    Even Dr. Albert Mohler of SBTS has spoken of …

  • Perspicacity and Ignorance

    If I assert that there is a black cat in the closet, and you assert that nobody knows what is in the closet, you have virtually told me that I am wrong in my hypothesis. So when I tell Mr. Black that God exists, and he responds very graciously by saying that perhaps I am right since nobody knows what is in the “Beyond,” he is virtually saying that I am wrong in my hypothesis. He is obviously thinking of such a god as could comfortably live in the realm of chance. But the God of Scripture cannot live in

    …

  • Sermon: The Knowledge of God

    I was given the opportunity by the ever-gracious Eddie Exposito of Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Slidell, to preach in Romans 1 this morning. I appreciate the opportunity. It is, for those who follow the site regularly, an adaptation of my paper on Romans 1 that appeared in the first edition of In Antithesis. It also includes, for more recent followers, a bit of a discussion on the topic of my upcoming debate, and should be interesting in that vein as well. I will have further opportunity to preach again next Sunday. Again, I was most appreciative of the opportunity, and …