K. Scott Oliphint discusses John Calvin’s influence upon apologetics.

Dr. James White recently played clips of a debate between William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens on The Dividing Line.  This was a great program that touches on several points in apologetics.  Dr. White’s lucidity and ability to isolate the issues is always appreciated.

Nick Batzig recently sat down with David Robertson pastor of St. Peters Free Church in Dundee, Scotland at Twin Lakes Fellowship where he lectured on Emergent Calvinism.  This interview has just been released through Christ the Center.  David spoke with Nick about his book The Dawkins Letters: Challenging Atheist Myths. David has been actively debating Dawkins supporters throughout the UK and shares his experience. This is an interesting discussion about how apologetics hits the road.

But wait, there’s more!  This interview is a double-feature.  Later on Nick asked David about Awakening: The Life and Ministry of Robert Murray McCheyne another excellent book detailing the life of the well-known minister.  I greatly enjoyed this discussion and would encourage the readers of Feeding on Christ to listen.

In a follow up to a discussion he had with Peter Enns, Paul Helm has posted some further criticisms of Enns’ controverial work Inspiration and Incarnation. You can read Helm’s post here. Helm was initially asked to write a review of Enns’ bookfor Reformation21. Since that review, Enns has posted a responded to Helm’s critique. This response can be found here.

Helm is one of the most careful analytical theologians in the church today. Even though he doesn’t reference Van Til, it is obvious that Helm is pointing out Van Til’s approach to Scripture contra Enns. What is ironic about all this is that Enns claims to be VanTillian, which somehow, we are supposed to believe, leads him to say that we have to accept God’s word as being God’s word regardless of errors that may exist in the human element of Scripture. Helm is right in pointing out that Enns comes to his examination of Scripture by attempting to find evidences to defend the inspiration of Scripture. But this is the problem, Enns presupposes that there are errors in Scripture prior to concluding that the Bible is God’s word. True presuppositionalism acknowlegdes that God’s word is the inerrant, infallible word of the living and true, Triune God because He is the living God. Evidences can be sought for only after we acknowledge the authority of God’s word. Anyway, Helm has given some very interesting thoughts.

In Roger Wagner’s excellent book Tongues Aflame: Learning to Preach from the Apsotles, there is a useful chapter on preaching the Gospel in a culture like Athens. If it is true that America is, in many respects, the new Athens (i.e. pluralistic and tolerant) it is fitting that a careful study of Acts 17 would again prove beneficial in learning what is the best way to advance the kingdom. Wagner suggests that many today are “celebrating the intellectual glories of the ‘marketplace of ideas.’” He writes:

Men and women come together for a free exchange of views, characterized by mutual respect and open honesty. Through this dispassionate intellectual process the best opinions prevail for the mutual benefit of all. Sounds great. But I have never seen it work in that way. Have you? Nobody likes to be shown up to be wrong. People change their minds very reluctantly. What’s more, according to God, all men (being sinners) ‘suppress the truth by their wickedness’ (Rom. 1:18). In a world of sinners, Luke’s account of the marketplace in Athens is more true to life than the idealized ‘marketplace of ideas.’ (251)

What should we expect when we take the Gospel into the marketplace? Wagner sets it out clearly:

When you enter the ‘marketplace of ideas’ expect to be mocked. Even if you have spent thousands of dollars and years of your life accumulating a string of initials after your name
(so much so that you impress all your Christian firends and colleagues), it will count for nothing to those who despise your message. No Ph.D degree will make acceptable to the world a message which they find supremely foolish. In fact, the more effective you are in making that message known, the more certain you can be that the unregenerate will mock and reject it. If your academic studies make ou a substantially better exegete, theogian, and preacher–wonderful. But don’t get your feelings hurt when your degrees cannot buy you intellectual respectablity. Like Paul, if you are faithful to the message of Christ you are nothing more than a ‘seed-picker’ to the wise-men of this world. No matter. God is pleased, ‘through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.