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the ethos of persuasion

Here are a few more highlights from Covenantal Apologetics, by Scott Oliphint. 

"So mystery, for the Christian, is a confession that God, though knowable and known, is never in any way exhausted by our knowledge of him."

"The Christian God, however, is truly great. He is and will eternally be one God—simple, transcendent, necessary, and eternal. But he is also able, freely, to choose to be in a relationship with his creation, for eternity, all the while remaining who he is and has always been."

"If persuasion is the means by which we are to defend the Christian faith, then this requires, in the end, that we must be people who pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). It means, in the first place, that we cannot expect to imbibe the spirit of the age and at the same time to present a credible defense of Christianity. This is the ethos of persuasion..."

"One of Van Til’s favorite phrases was that we are to be suaviter in modo, fortiter in re — mild in manner, strong in matter."


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