Lane G. Tipton joins the panel again to discuss Cornelius Van Til’s particular formulation of Trinitarian theology. Dr. Tipton is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary (PA) and has written a dissertation on the topic. Join us as we talk about Dr. Van Til’s theology and the importance of his Trinitarian theology not only for understanding his apologetic system, but for holding all things together.
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- Lane Tipton
- Nick Batzig
- Jeff Waddington
- Jim Cassidy
- Camden Bucey
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Participants: Camden Bucey, Jeff Waddington, Jim Cassidy, Lane G. Tipton, Nick Batzig
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Yahoo!!!! I just started listening. Thanks brothers.
With all due respect to R.C. Sproul, Lane Tipton should write the 2nd edition of “Now, That’s a Good Question!”
Got directed here from aomin.org. I am really going to have to listen to this again. Honestly though, thank you much for putting this out there. It has given me a lot to think about.
Go with God.
Listening as I write this…
Isn’t “being” in relation to mankind a state of sin which in the absence of a relationship with Christ, encompassing of everything in our reality? I mean, to say that we are inherently sinful, does that not include our consistent state as well as our actions? In that sense, sin is our “universal.” For the person who has been saved by Christ, we are never told that our sins were erased, yet covered by the blood of Christ. So, whether you are saved or not, it seems to me that sin is the trait we share which grants us all unity in our common state. Particulars of each sinner is meaningless to God as Jesus states that we are all breakers of the law regardless of frequency or our perceived (and flawed) severity.
This was posted back in 2008, but I’m just finding it now.
Did Dr. Tipton ever get around to getting a book published about the Trinity?
It’s still in the works. Last I heard, it was getting ready to be submitted to the publisher.
…and, oh no!! I had already purchased Ralph Smith’s book on Van Til and the Trinity. Yikes!
I’m interested in this topic because, for the last few weeks I’ve been getting beat up by an atheist who argues that we Christians cannot present a coherent accounting of God’s “personhood”.
We’ve not spoken enough for me to get the full gist of his argument, so I’m sure I’m not stating it as best I could, but he argues something like: When we finally give an account of God’s personhood, it turns out to be trivial such that, the Christian’s view of personhood could describe mechanistic processes of some impersonal environment. We can’t account for God’s intentionality or His qualitative mental states.
I was excited when I heard Dr. Tipton discuss these very issues during the podcast! I’m a committed Van Tillian and I’m especially inclined to reject Clark’s view after seeing how such a view (an impersonal, “pure-logic” God) leaves me open to all sorts of criticism from the atheists. But I’ve got to figure out how to defend the “ultimate personhood” of God. I hope you guys don’t mind me asking a few questions:
1. If God is “ultimately personal” — then how can we distinguish between this sort of personhood and a mechanistic environment?
2. Are you familiar with this argument, or something like it? I know some atheist in a chatroom didn’t come up with it, so there has to be more sophisticated versions floating around out there.
3. I’d also like to study up on why Clark held the view he did. I’m marginally familiar with Clark’s apologetic enterprise and I’d be interested in reading how he develops his view of the Trinity.
Anyway — thanks for what you guys do here at Reformed Forum.
We also did a follow up episode incorporating material from Dr. Tipton’s course on the subject.