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Here is an exchange I had recently with a brother in Christ on the topic of presuppositionalism and it’s possible pitfalls when it comes to being a basis for apologetics and evangelization: They: when the presuppositionalist claims there is no common ground, how duz the classical apologist respond? Because one of my seminary buddies (he’s in seminary, I’m not) said that all we can do is deliver the Gospel and if God wants to save He will. Then my buddy quotes something from Romans 10 about how faith comes from the Gospel. ...

From “the sage of Mac-O-Chee (Further reading here.)", Donn Piatt: Recognizing as I do that Democracy is the organized ignorance of the country and the Republican party the organized greed, I could not belong to one or the other. American politics has crystallized into two hostile camps that differ from each other only in name and possession of offices. Ask a Democrat why he’s a Democrat and he will tell you it is because he is not a Republican and a Republican, asked the same question will give the same answer reversed. The ludicrous part of this lies in the fact that neither party dares avow opinions because such avowal may loose them votes! ...

There’s really nothing conservative – and certainly nothing evangelical – about a laissez-faire view of a lack of government regulation," Moore says, “because we, as Christians, believe in sin. I ran across this gem in an article on blackchristiannews.com. This reminds me of the comment Frank Turek made out of frustration in a recent interview: Money, Greed and God. How do those things go together, and why should we even be worried about them? And what does this have to do with apologetics? Well, in a few minutes, friends, you’re going to see that it has everything to do with apologetics. You know, you need money to do apologetics. You’re listening right now to a radio program that takes money to run. When you go buy an apologetics book, you need to pay for it. Somebody has gotten resources together – some of them immaterial resources, some of them material resources – they’ve put them together and they’ve marketed this piece to that you would buy it. That takes money. It takes money to preach the gospel across the world. It takes money to send missionaries overseas. It takes money to put on a TV program. It takes money to run an institute like the Discovery Institute. It takes money to run a seminary like Southern Evangelical Seminary or a ministry like CrossExamined.org. Money is essential to what we do. Well, you say “well, gee, you know, we’re Christians, we can’t really be concerned about money”. NONSENSE! ...

There is a secular case to be made for government involvement in the institution of marriage. Marriage is the only institution wherein a new life may be created. No, the generation of new life is not an automatic given nor are those who choose, for whatever reason, not to generate new life to be considered less in any way than those of us who do. But the fact is that without children, marriage would really devolve into little more than a contract or partnership. ...

Where it came from What the myth is What the real problem is The truth is that “overpopulation” is merely a myth. The population bomb was just a fairy tale. Aldus Huxley was wrong. The sky is not falling and the government does not need to take any drastic measures. However overpopulation continues to be a popular myth. Why? Because it often fits and in hand with social and enviromental agendas which require some sort of emergency to encourage people to want to undergo drastic social and political change. ...

But avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning, knowing that such a person is perverted and sins, being self-condemned. -Titus 3:9-11 Every now and then, and especially in the course of slaughtering an individual or church’s sacred cows, I run into a well meaning Christian who decides to use this passage as an excuse to prematurely end our conversation (or prevent it from occurring). ...

A friend on Facebook posted the video above which gave rise to the following conversation: Me: I find such sermons where the underlying premise is “though you think you are saved, you MAY not be” to be absolutely deplorable and ultimately severely spiritually damaging. May God have mercy on all preachers who think they are doing any good in preaching such sermons and may God also fortify those unfortunate enough to sit through such horrible sermons to either ignore them or be strengthened enough to withstand the undue and needless spiritual consternation they cause. ...

The common view of the multiplicity of wills of God (revealed and secret) has several flaws. Namely it seeks to resolve the apparent paradox posed by the view of God’s sovereignty wherein God MUST get his way without fail (and his way is the only way any situation or event may come about) and the view that man possesses responsibility and therefore the power of limited free choice. So when we read about events such as God repenting for creating man or for saving Israel we are forced to call into question the initial presupposed definition of sovereignty (as stated above and affirmed throughout Calvinistic literature). However, rather than reject this view of sovereignty God’s will is seen as divided and hierarchical such that God MUST (by necessity) have a “hidden” will that can somehow freely subvert and even contradict his revealed will. ...

Ellis Potter, in a talk posted by Apologetics315, made an assertion that I found to be quite helpful in explaining how Christianity is not, as Christopher Hitchens asserts; evil, totalitarian, and oppressive. All things comport to a particular form (or several related forms) and when the form one is made to conform to is violated, bad things result. Ellis’s point does not end here, however, as this by itself would sound no different than the moral argument, which itself is solid. Coming from a Buddhist background, Ellis posits that there is “freedom in forms”. ...

Here’s a gem I ran across recently while reading the excellent book, Whosoever Will. And indeed our Lord Jesus was offered to the world. For it is not speaking of three or four when it says: “God so loved the world, that He spared not His only Son.” But yet we must notice what the Evangelist adds in this passage: “That whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but obtain to eternal life.” Our Lord Jesus suffered for all and there is neither great nor small who is not inexcusable today, for we can obtain salvation in Him. Unbelievers who turn away from Him and who deprive themselves of Him by their malice are today doubly culpable, for how will excuse their ingratitude in not receiving the blessing in which they could share by faith. John Calvin, Sermons on Isaiah’s Prophecy of the Death and Passion of Christ (London: James Clark, [1559] 1956), 141 ...