Archive for category: General Apologetics

The widening influence of a sub-biblical world-view within Christian circles manifests itself in many ways: the diminishing emphasis upon the reality of God’s Word as the certain touchstone of truth; the lack of passion for its study and application; the odd and strange appearance of those who lay claim to the name “Christian” and even “Reformed” and yet who do

Next McLaren speaks of the “apologetic of good lives and good works” being more “costly” than “asserting the message of absolute objective truth or proclaiming a version of Christianity as the true metanarrative.” (definition) Of course, the biblical form of apologetics is good lives and good works combined with the assertion of divine, transcendant, unchanging, eternal truth, truth that is

As most of you know, Steve Camp has become not only a regular guest over the years on The Dividing Line (the program he and I did on the anniversary of Keith Green’s death is one of my all time favorites), but he and I have worked together many times now, including doing the apologetics cruises together. Steve provides that

It is hard to find words to describe the response of Dave Armstrong to the review of his own published work. I mean, when you publish a book, do you expect that no one will respond to it, review it, check it for accuracy, examine it for apologetic coherence? When you claim to be able to perform action X (i.e.,

Apologetics and Christmas. Not the most common pair, is it? In fact, for most, you’d be pretty crass to be practicing apologetics on Christmas. But is it really that odd a combination? A few thoughts. We all know there is an all-out assault on the Christian faith that is manifesting itself in the demand to stop saying “Merry Christmas” (lest

“There is no inerrant Bible. There is no one true Church. There is no faith once-for-all delivered to the saints.” Once again Bishop Spong has expressed his deep and abiding detestation for the Christian faith, this time in a dialogue/debate with Al Mohler on Faith Under Fire. He likewise denied the resurrection, virgin birth, substitutionary atonement—i.e., the entirety of the

I’ve been experiencing techno-envy for quite some time while awaiting the release of the Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible from Logos. I had mentioned to Hermeneutika years ago that they should seek to add the textual data to BibleWorks, but it seems Logos beat them to the punch. In any case, the textual data alone is worth the investment for those

I was downloading some Adrian Rogers audio, listening likewise to some Herb Reavis audio, when all of a sudden it hit me: I had started reviewing the presentation of Paige Patterson at New Orleans Baptist Seminary from earlier this year, and had dropped it after I started it. Why? Simple: I forgot. I think it was right before the big

I was looking over yet another “statement” offered by an ecclesiastical body or group regarding the Auburn Avenue controversy, and I was once again struck by the fact that it is tremendously rare to find a meaningful response simply because no one, evidently, is willing to accurately represent the diversity of opinion expressed by authors loosely identified with the “Federal

Man, I am truly sick of nuttiness. I will keep this very, very brief.  I had promoted DR for years, even when I started to hear complaints about their service, and thought, until late May of this year, that we were “on the same page.”  Even when RS responded to me in a completely improper way, I did not speak

I thought I should note that Julie from DR wrote and apologized for her e-mail. Only fair to mention that.

Did you hear Senator Edwards on “The View” charging Vice President Cheney with untruths and inaccuracies, but not bothering to back up the allegation? It’s so very frustrating to see folks make allegations and then not even try to back up what they are saying. The Kerry/Edwards folks do this all the time, and it drives me nuts.  On a

Every element of God’s truth can be twisted to provide cover for man’s sin. Paul recognized this when he asked “Shall we continue in sin that grace might abound? May it never be!” (Romans 6:1-2). Paul’s doctrine of grace clearly had been twisted by his opponents so that he had to respond to this objection. Some suggest the imputation of

Dear Dr. Seifrid: I hasten to finish this open letter as I have so many pressing duties, and I’m sure you do as well. Unless events call for more, I intend this to be my final installment in this “saga,” one that has taught me many lessons, most of which have been surprising, disappointing, to be sure, but in the

Just a quick note from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Just finished up speaking at the Southwest Founder’s Conference and Heritage Baptist Church. Had a great time with the brothers and sisters here. I want to thank the many, many people who have been sending encouraging notes both about my attempt to discuss the real issues regarding the Seifrid situation as

Before continuing to respond to your statement, Dr. Seifrid, I wanted to note the use of the phrase “later Protestant orthodoxy” in your writings on the issue of imputation. Would you comment on these words of Calvin, who seems to have “added” the imputation of a positive righteousness “to the forgiveness of sins” at a very early stage of  “Protestant orthodoxy”:

Dear Dr. Seifrid: I continue my open letter in response to your written statement. You wrote, In order to prevent confusion among those who have read one or more of Dr. White’s blogs, I offer the following brief response, attempting as much as possible to follow the order of his comments posted on September 9, 2004. Unfortunately, I did not

Dear Dr. Seifrid: I continue my response to your recently distributed article/reply. You wrote: Now, however, Dr White has attacked not the considered opinion of the administration and trustee board of Southern Seminary. He has done so, moreover, almost immediately upon reception of the official document of the seminary affirming my doctrinal fidelity. With all good will, it is still

Thanks to those of you rushing me copies of Mark Seifrid’s 3.5 page reply. I once again find myself in the Wonderland of Academia, for while the constant accusation has been that by discussing, and disagreeing with, Seifrid’s long-published works, I “attacked” or “assaulted” him, in his response he refers to me as a “factious” man, citing Titus 3:10, describes

“In conclusion, James White’s campaign against Mark Seifrid should be seen for what it is–a publicity stunt which serves to get himself attention.” Before God I affirm this statement false, a lie without basis or foundation, refuted by the facts, known not only to God, but to any person with the slightest shred of fairness in their mind who has

In 1994 Richard Gaffin reviewed Mark Seifrid’s book, Justification by Faith: The Origin and Development of a Central Pauline Theme (1992). Please note this book was published twelve years ago. In the Westminster Theological Journal for the Spring of 1994 (Vol. 56 p. 195), at the very end of his review, Gaffin provides these fascinating words: One final point: it

In the course of seeking to honor God through the accurate handling of His truth and through the defense of the faith, one at times steps on toes you didn’t even know were exposed. Such is the case of late. I began a short series of articles replying to just a few pages of Mark Seifrid’s book, Christ, our Righteousness,

Yeah, he’s done it again. Having never repented of his false prophesying about 1994, and continuing his church-hating, Christ-dishonoring “church age has ended” blather (based upon the same kind of completely ridiculous manhandling of the text of Scripture), Camping has now “seen” in Scripture a new date for the end of it all: 2011. I had heard about this a

I doubt he’d recognize me today. I was barely twenty years of age when I began a series of appearances on KFYI radio in Phoenix on the radio program of one Tom Leykis, one of today’s best known “shock jocks.” I was “debating” in studio with one Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Barker is a genius, inarguably:

We return to our review of Mark A. Seifrid’s Christ: our Righteousness. We had cited the following from page 176: In raising the foregoing criticism, we are touching upon problems which attend Protestant placement of justification within in an ‘order of salvation’ (ordo salutis). According to Paul, ‘justification’ has to do with Christ’s cross and resurrection for us “the whole

I was scheduled to be at the church at 7PM, but the pastor asked if I might come an hour earlier. Upon arriving, the pastor explained why he had asked me to come early. He mentioned that he truly does make a concerted effort to keep up with current trends and developments in theology (a fact I had known and

Before we continue with our examination of Dr. Seifrid’s published views on imputation, I thought it would be wise to note the presence of a rather short chapter in the new book, Justification: What’s at Stake in the Current Debates (Husbands & Treier, 2004) by Dr. Seifrid. The majority of the text is a discussion of a dialogue between Luther