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Sourced quotes from Cornelius Van Til in the Postmilstill archive, with works and topics linked for reading and research.
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The criticism that is valid against Kant is valid against later idealism as well. All idealism is at a loss to interpret the phenomenon of error or evil. As was already noted earlier it will not do to limit the question…
If there are no brute facts, if brute facts are mute facts, it must be maintained that all facts are revelational of the true God. If facts may not be separated from faith, neither may faith be separated from facts. Ever…
he Christian apologist must place himself upon the position of his opponent, assuming the correctness of his method merely for argument's sake, in order to show him that on such a position the 'facts'are not facts and th…
Now the question is not whether the non-Christian can weigh, measure, or do a thousand other things. No one denies that he can. But the question is whether on his principle the non-Christian can account for his own or an…
It ought to be pretty plain now what sort of God I believe in. It is God, the All-Conditioner. It is the God who created all things, Who by His providence conditioned my youth, making me believe in Him, and who in my lat…
But if it be said to such opponents of Christianity that, unless there were an absolute God their own questions and doubts would have no meaning at all, there is no argument in return.
These most important matters were somewhat as follows: First of all, we note the necessity of seeing clearly that Christianity and theism are intricately woven. If one is really a theist he cannot stop short of being a C…
Only in Reformed theology does one find an attempt to take the fundamental motif of Scripture, the self-contained ontological trinity, and understand all the teachings of Scripture in terms of that motif. It is because o…
We offer this triune God without apology as the only possible presupposition for the possibility of predication.
We may, therefore, perhaps conceive of the vindication of Christian theism as a whole to modern warfare. There is bayonet fighting, there is rifle shooting, there are machine guns, but there are also heavy cannon and ato…
Science has been built up all along on the basis of this principle of the 'uniformity of nature,'and the principle is one which science itself has no means of demonstrating. No one could possibly prove its truth to an op…
This brings up the point of circular reasoning. The charge is constantly made that if matters stand thus with Christianity, it has written its own death warrant as far as intelligent men are concerned. Who wishes to make…
The Calvinist, therefore, using his point of contact, observes to the non-Christian that if the world were not what Scripture says it is, if the natural man's knowledge were not actually rooted in the creation and provid…
Kant vaguely felt that, after all, there was dualism in his epistemology. He did leave room for the possibility of a higher form of existence but did not leave room for the possibility of a genuine knowledge of that high…
The great difference between Kant and Hegel has often been emphasized. And there was a great difference. Hegel said that Kant studied the theory of knowledge too much in distinction from metaphysics. Hence all his dualis…
A metaphysics that leads to identity cannot but lead to an epistemology that denies error, and an epistemology that denies evil in its most universal sense cannot but identify God and man, and shuts itself in forever in…
A pantheistic epistemology is suicidal. The subject-object, and the subject-subject relation implies the supernatural, and evil cannot be accounted for on any other basis.
We see that in the Lutheran view of the incarnation and the sacraments, God and man are not kept properly distinct... Such being the view of the relation between God and man metaphysically, its epistemology can not be tr…
Coming now to discuss that form of Christian epistemology which we consider most satisfactory, we already know from the standard of criticism employed throughout the previous chapters that the Reformed view makes the cla…
The only way then for man to have any knowledge of either temporal or eternal things is for a God to think for us in eternal categories and reveal to us the Measure of truth we can fathom. Thus we hold that Christian the…
Yet both Romanism and Arminian Protestantism leave the root assumption of the modern man untouched. And they leave this root assumption unchallenged because the root assumption of their own theology partakes in a measure…
It is not a sufficient description of Christian theism when we say that as Christians we believe in both the transcendence and the immanence of God while pantheistic systems believe only in the immanence of God and deist…
The Bible is thought of as authoritative on everything of which it speaks. Moreover, it speaks of everything. We do not mean that it speaks of football games, of atoms, etc., directly, but we do mean that it speaks of ev…
...the problem of the one and the many, of the universal and the particular, of being and becoming, and analytical and synthetic reasoning, of the apriori and aposteriori must be solved by an exclusive reference to the t…
When we say that as Christians we believe in an ultimate rationalism we are, naturally, not intending anything like the idea that we as human beings have or may at some time expect to have a comprehensive rational unders…
On the assumptions of the natural man logic is a timeless impersonal principle, and facts are controlled by chance. It is by means of universal timeless principles of logic that natural man must, on his assumptions, seek…
The whole meaning of any fact is exhausted by its position in and in relation to the plan of God. This implies that every fact is related to every other fact. God's plan is a unit. And it is this unity of the plan of God…
We may characterize this whole situation by saying that the creation of God is a revelation of God. God revealed himself in nature and God also revealed himself in the mind of man. Thus it is impossible for the mind of m…
The charge is made that we engage in circular reasoning. Now if it be called circular reasoning when we hold it necessary to presuppose the existence of God, we are not ashamed of it because we are firmly convinced that…
The first objection that suggests itself may be expressed in the rhetorical questions 'Do you mean to assert that non-Christians do not discover truth by the methods they employ?' The reply is that we mean nothing so abs…
We are well aware of the fact that non-Christians have a great deal of knowledge about this world which is true as far as it goes.
In our great concern to win men we have allowed that the evidence for God's existence is only probably compelling. And from that fatal confession we have gone one step further down to the point where we have admitted or…
I see induction and analytical reasoning as part of one process of interpretation. I would therefore engage in historical apologetics. (I do not personally do a great deal of this because my colleagues in the other depar…
The reason why the scientific, the philosophic, and the theological efforts of non-Christians contribute to the discovery of the true states of affairs is the fact that the world is what Christians say it is and it is no…
We readily allow that non-Christian science has done a great work and brought to light much truth. But this margin of truth which science has discovered is in spite of and not because of its fundamental assumption of a c…
As a Christian believer I must therefore place myself, for the sake of argument, upon the position of the non-Christian and show him that on his view of man and the cosmos he and the whole culture is based upon, and will…
But the best and only possible proof for the existence of such a God is that his existence is required for the uniformity of nature and for the coherence of all things in the world. We cannot prove the existence of beams…
We hold it to be true that circular reasoning is the only reasoning that is possible to finite man... We must go round and round a thing to see more of its dimensions and to know more about it, in general, unless we are…
Christ upholds even those who ignore, deny, and oppose him. A little child may slap his father in the face, but it can do so only because the father holds it on his knee.
The two systems, that of the non-Christian and that of the Christian, differ because of the fact that their basic assumptions or presuppositions differ. On the non-Christian basis man is assumed to be the final reference…
If one does not make human knowledge wholly dependent upon the original self-knowledge and consequent revelation of God to man, then man will have to seek knowledge within himself as the final reference point. Then he wi…
The Christian knows the truth about the non-Christian. He knows this because he is himself what he is by grace alone. He has been saved from the blindness of mind and the hardness of heart that marks the 'natural man.' T…
...intellectual argument will not, as such, convince and convert the non-Christian. It takes the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit to do that. But as in the case of preaching, so in the case of apologetical reasoning…
It is readily seen that in the formulation of this Logos theology, the Apologists were largely influenced by Greek modes of thought. The question for them was how they could protect the deposit of faith against those who…
Tertullian uses the notion of a common human nature. His principle of discontinuity would not entitle him to this. According to it, he should attribute to each man afresh a total independence of his fellows. But must mai…
It was this principle of inwardness of plentitude as represented so well by Plotinus that was brought into synthesis with the principle of Christianity by St. Dionysius the Areopagite and by Erigena. And surely it seemed…
The idea of the analogy of being compromises the biblical doctrine of creation. It tends to reduce the distinction of God as Creator and man the creature to that of the Greek notion of man's participation in being as suc…
Accordingly I do not reject 'the theistic proofs'but merely insist on formulating them in such a way as not to compromise the doctrines of Scripture.
50 quotes
The criticism that is valid against Kant is valid against later idealism as well. All idealism is at a loss to interpret the phenomenon of error or evil. As was already noted earlier it will not do to limit the question…
If there are no brute facts, if brute facts are mute facts, it must be maintained that all facts are revelational of the true God. If facts may not be separated from faith, neither may faith be separated from facts. Ever…
he Christian apologist must place himself upon the position of his opponent, assuming the correctness of his method merely for argument's sake, in order to show him that on such a position the 'facts'are not facts and th…
Now the question is not whether the non-Christian can weigh, measure, or do a thousand other things. No one denies that he can. But the question is whether on his principle the non-Christian can account for his own or an…
It ought to be pretty plain now what sort of God I believe in. It is God, the All-Conditioner. It is the God who created all things, Who by His providence conditioned my youth, making me believe in Him, and who in my lat…
But if it be said to such opponents of Christianity that, unless there were an absolute God their own questions and doubts would have no meaning at all, there is no argument in return.
These most important matters were somewhat as follows: First of all, we note the necessity of seeing clearly that Christianity and theism are intricately woven. If one is really a theist he cannot stop short of being a C…
Only in Reformed theology does one find an attempt to take the fundamental motif of Scripture, the self-contained ontological trinity, and understand all the teachings of Scripture in terms of that motif. It is because o…
We offer this triune God without apology as the only possible presupposition for the possibility of predication.
We may, therefore, perhaps conceive of the vindication of Christian theism as a whole to modern warfare. There is bayonet fighting, there is rifle shooting, there are machine guns, but there are also heavy cannon and ato…
Science has been built up all along on the basis of this principle of the 'uniformity of nature,'and the principle is one which science itself has no means of demonstrating. No one could possibly prove its truth to an op…
This brings up the point of circular reasoning. The charge is constantly made that if matters stand thus with Christianity, it has written its own death warrant as far as intelligent men are concerned. Who wishes to make…
The Calvinist, therefore, using his point of contact, observes to the non-Christian that if the world were not what Scripture says it is, if the natural man's knowledge were not actually rooted in the creation and provid…
Kant vaguely felt that, after all, there was dualism in his epistemology. He did leave room for the possibility of a higher form of existence but did not leave room for the possibility of a genuine knowledge of that high…
The great difference between Kant and Hegel has often been emphasized. And there was a great difference. Hegel said that Kant studied the theory of knowledge too much in distinction from metaphysics. Hence all his dualis…
A metaphysics that leads to identity cannot but lead to an epistemology that denies error, and an epistemology that denies evil in its most universal sense cannot but identify God and man, and shuts itself in forever in…
A pantheistic epistemology is suicidal. The subject-object, and the subject-subject relation implies the supernatural, and evil cannot be accounted for on any other basis.
We see that in the Lutheran view of the incarnation and the sacraments, God and man are not kept properly distinct... Such being the view of the relation between God and man metaphysically, its epistemology can not be tr…
Coming now to discuss that form of Christian epistemology which we consider most satisfactory, we already know from the standard of criticism employed throughout the previous chapters that the Reformed view makes the cla…
The only way then for man to have any knowledge of either temporal or eternal things is for a God to think for us in eternal categories and reveal to us the Measure of truth we can fathom. Thus we hold that Christian the…
Yet both Romanism and Arminian Protestantism leave the root assumption of the modern man untouched. And they leave this root assumption unchallenged because the root assumption of their own theology partakes in a measure…
It is not a sufficient description of Christian theism when we say that as Christians we believe in both the transcendence and the immanence of God while pantheistic systems believe only in the immanence of God and deist…
The Bible is thought of as authoritative on everything of which it speaks. Moreover, it speaks of everything. We do not mean that it speaks of football games, of atoms, etc., directly, but we do mean that it speaks of ev…
...the problem of the one and the many, of the universal and the particular, of being and becoming, and analytical and synthetic reasoning, of the apriori and aposteriori must be solved by an exclusive reference to the t…
When we say that as Christians we believe in an ultimate rationalism we are, naturally, not intending anything like the idea that we as human beings have or may at some time expect to have a comprehensive rational unders…
On the assumptions of the natural man logic is a timeless impersonal principle, and facts are controlled by chance. It is by means of universal timeless principles of logic that natural man must, on his assumptions, seek…
The whole meaning of any fact is exhausted by its position in and in relation to the plan of God. This implies that every fact is related to every other fact. God's plan is a unit. And it is this unity of the plan of God…
We may characterize this whole situation by saying that the creation of God is a revelation of God. God revealed himself in nature and God also revealed himself in the mind of man. Thus it is impossible for the mind of m…
The charge is made that we engage in circular reasoning. Now if it be called circular reasoning when we hold it necessary to presuppose the existence of God, we are not ashamed of it because we are firmly convinced that…
The first objection that suggests itself may be expressed in the rhetorical questions 'Do you mean to assert that non-Christians do not discover truth by the methods they employ?' The reply is that we mean nothing so abs…
We are well aware of the fact that non-Christians have a great deal of knowledge about this world which is true as far as it goes.
In our great concern to win men we have allowed that the evidence for God's existence is only probably compelling. And from that fatal confession we have gone one step further down to the point where we have admitted or…
I see induction and analytical reasoning as part of one process of interpretation. I would therefore engage in historical apologetics. (I do not personally do a great deal of this because my colleagues in the other depar…
The reason why the scientific, the philosophic, and the theological efforts of non-Christians contribute to the discovery of the true states of affairs is the fact that the world is what Christians say it is and it is no…
We readily allow that non-Christian science has done a great work and brought to light much truth. But this margin of truth which science has discovered is in spite of and not because of its fundamental assumption of a c…
As a Christian believer I must therefore place myself, for the sake of argument, upon the position of the non-Christian and show him that on his view of man and the cosmos he and the whole culture is based upon, and will…
But the best and only possible proof for the existence of such a God is that his existence is required for the uniformity of nature and for the coherence of all things in the world. We cannot prove the existence of beams…
We hold it to be true that circular reasoning is the only reasoning that is possible to finite man... We must go round and round a thing to see more of its dimensions and to know more about it, in general, unless we are…
Christ upholds even those who ignore, deny, and oppose him. A little child may slap his father in the face, but it can do so only because the father holds it on his knee.
The two systems, that of the non-Christian and that of the Christian, differ because of the fact that their basic assumptions or presuppositions differ. On the non-Christian basis man is assumed to be the final reference…
If one does not make human knowledge wholly dependent upon the original self-knowledge and consequent revelation of God to man, then man will have to seek knowledge within himself as the final reference point. Then he wi…
The Christian knows the truth about the non-Christian. He knows this because he is himself what he is by grace alone. He has been saved from the blindness of mind and the hardness of heart that marks the 'natural man.' T…
...intellectual argument will not, as such, convince and convert the non-Christian. It takes the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit to do that. But as in the case of preaching, so in the case of apologetical reasoning…
It is readily seen that in the formulation of this Logos theology, the Apologists were largely influenced by Greek modes of thought. The question for them was how they could protect the deposit of faith against those who…
Tertullian uses the notion of a common human nature. His principle of discontinuity would not entitle him to this. According to it, he should attribute to each man afresh a total independence of his fellows. But must mai…
It was this principle of inwardness of plentitude as represented so well by Plotinus that was brought into synthesis with the principle of Christianity by St. Dionysius the Areopagite and by Erigena. And surely it seemed…
The idea of the analogy of being compromises the biblical doctrine of creation. It tends to reduce the distinction of God as Creator and man the creature to that of the Greek notion of man's participation in being as suc…
Accordingly I do not reject 'the theistic proofs'but merely insist on formulating them in such a way as not to compromise the doctrines of Scripture.