Apologetics to the Glory of God

Tag: TAG

  • The Covenantal Apologetic: Principles to Practice

    It cannot be sufficiently stressed that the covenantal apologetic is first and foremost a Reformed apologetic.  Consistently, a practitioner will be Confessional, therefore Covenantal and Calvinistic.  These are sometimes called the “3 Cs.”  This is not being stressed for a subjectivistic “purity’s” sake, nor for controversialism’s sake.  It is being stressed for the sake of consistency.  First and foremost in Reformed theology is the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture.  From Scripture, we also have revealed the doctrine of God, and all of the other doctrines we believe and hold to.  Consistent with these doctrines, we preach, and we …

  • 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 …

  • Introduction 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!…

  • A Necessary Distinction

    In the midst of the turmoil which controversy creates, it is always refreshing to encounter an irenic, yet firm response in the midst of a variety of hasty and conjectural surmises.  That irenicism was, of course, the response of Mike Robinson, who many will know from his books and posts on a variety of subjects related to apologetics. When his response was brought to my attention, I was excited to see that he had commented on the situation.  Unfortunately, his post was in response only to the initial statement, which was intentionally designed to bring attention to the general …

  • 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. …

  • Impostors 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/…

  • Dr. James White Interviews Dr. Oliphint on the Janet Mefferd Show

    Dr. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries does an excellent job interviewing Dr. K Scott Oliphint about his new book Covenatal Apologetics. Check out the show here or download the mp3 here.…

  • When Contra Munda isn’t All About You

    Back in the third century of the church, as I’m sure some of our readers are aware, there was a bishop named Athanasius – his tenacious defense of the doctrine of the Trinity, in opposition to the swiftly growing heresy of Arianism gave rise to the statement “Athanasius contra mundum” – Athanasius against the world. In a sense, this wasn’t quite true – there were other defenders of the Trinity around, but none so prolific, and none who were targeted nearly so heavily as Athanasius, who was ejected from his church five times, and was only vindicated after his death. …

  • Falsificationism And Christianity

    Another difficulty with religious language (and hence, Christianity) that non-religious people have concerns itself with “falsifiability,” or the aspect of any claim which states it must, in principle at least, be capable of subjecting to certain scientific criteria by which it can conceivably be proven false, in order to be considered meaningful. Like Verificationism, Falsificationism assumes an empiricist worldview, and so is subject immediately to some of the criticisms of Verificationism, including for instance, the seeming arbitrariness of the foundational principles undergirding it. Falsificationism was articulated as a way to circumvent the problems inherent in Verificationism. While Karl Popper …

  • The Creator/Creature Distinction and Objections

    In our last post we looked at the centrality of the Creator/creature distinction to Christian theology, and to our apologetic. With this post, I’d like to look at the importance of it in regards to objections offered and our response to them. These objections can come in a variety of forms – the so-called problem of evil, the supposed “evil god” objections, objections to Scriptural tenets, or what have you. At bottom, however, I’d advance the theory that they all boil down to a denial of God’s transcendence. Why do I say this?

    At bottom, every objection that is offered …