Before anyone blows a gasket about the title of this blog post, I didn’t come up with it. It’s the title of the February 22, 2011 episode of the Reformed Forum podcast . In other words, the title was created by a Van Tillian. Before getting into this brief podcast, let me provide some context that will explain why I am discussing it at all. In two consecutive Reformed Forum podcasts, I’ve been strongly criticized for allegedly relying too much on Scott Oliphint’s interpretati

In my response to the second part of the Reformed Forum’s ongoing critique of my book on Cornelius Van Til, I touched briefly on their claim that not all Van Tillians agree in their interpretation of Van Til. I had already acknowledged this in the introduction to my book when I briefly surveyed six different schools of Van Tillianism, but there is a bit more to say on this point. Consider for a moment the fact that some eighty years ago, Van Til dropped a bomb in the American

For those readers of my blog who may have stumbled across this post and who do not know what this is all about, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the context before reading this post. Otherwise, this post isn’t going to make a lot of sense. Here is a brief rundown of the relevant context. In November 2024, my book Toward a Reformed Apologetics: A Critique of the Thought of Cornelius Van Til was published. It is, as the subtitle indicates, a critique of the teach

Throughout its history, the Westminster Theological Journal published many articles written by Cornelius Van Til, and it also published many articles written about Van Til. The Spring 1995 issue of the journal, which commemorated the one hundredth birthday of Van Til, was unique in that the entire issue was devoted to articles related to his system of thought. This issue included articles by notable presuppositionalist scholars such as Greg L. Bahnsen, John M. Frame, William

In my previous blog post, I mentioned that on the November 27, 2024 episode of Kevin DeYoung’s podcast “Life, Books, and Everything,” Dr. DeYoung invited me and Dr. James Anderson to discuss my book about Cornelius Van Til. I then mentioned the two podcasts aired by the Reformed Forum on February 7 and 8 which were devoted to a criticism of my book. As I mentioned in the previous post, the DeYoung podcast was not presented as a criticism of my book or a debate about it. It w

In November 2024, my book Toward a Reformed Apologetics: A Critique of the Thought of Cornelius Van Til was published by Mentor/Christian Focus. One of my hopes in writing this book was to move the perennial debate over Van Til’s system of thought in a more constructive and edifying direction than has sometimes existed in the past. I think that goal has already been accomplished to some degree. The first Van Tillian responses to my book have begun to appear, and these public

I haven't posted much on this blog site in the last year. I had a number of other things on my plate. One such project was a new book related to apologetics . I'm happy to announce that aside from some final rounds of editing, that book is finished and will be published in November. As you can see from the cover, the book is a critique of the apologetic system of Cornelius Van Til. In the five chapters of Part One, I have attempted to explain as clearly and concisely as poss