CONTENTS

Pr e f a c e ............................................................................ 1

I n t r o d u c t io n ................................................................. 3
CHAPTER
I. C h r is t ia n T h e o l o g y ..................................................... 7
I. T h e D o c t r in e o f G o d ........................................... 9
A. THE PERSONALITY OF GOD................................. 12
B. THE TRINITY ..................................................... 12
II. T h e D o c t r in e o f M a n ........................................... 13
A. THE IMAGE OF GOD IN M A N ............................ 13
B. MANS RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE............... 14
C. THE FALL OF MAN............................................. 14
III. T h e D o c t r in e o f C h r i s t ...................................... 16
IV. T h e D o c t r in e o f Sa l v a t i o n .................... 17
V. T h e D o c t r in e o f t h e C h u r c h ......................... 20
VI. T h e D o c t r in e o f t h e L a s t T h i n g s .................. 20

II. T h e C h r is t ia n P h il o s o p h y o f R e a l i t y ............... 23
I. E t e r n a l U n it y a n d P l u r a l i t y ......................... 25
II. T e m p o r a l U n it y a n d P l u r a l i t y .................... 26
III. Sin a n d it s C u r s e ..................................................... 28

III. T h e C h r is t ia n P h i l o s o p h y o f K n o w l e d g e . . . . 31
I. G o d ’s Kn o w l e d g e o f H i m s e l f ......................... 35
II. G o d ’s K n o w l e d g e o f t h e W o r l d .................... 37
III. M a n ’s Kn o w l e d g e o f G o d ...................................... 39
IV. M a n ’s Kn o w l e d g e o f t h e W o r l d ....................... 41
V. Si n a n d rrs C u r s e ..................................................... 4q
 CONTENTS

c h a pt e r pa c e

IV. T h e C h r is t ia n P h il o s o p h y o f B e h a v i o u r ......... 51
I. E t h ic s a n d t h e C h r is t ia n P h il o s o ph y
o f Kn o w l e d g e ........................................................................ 52
A. MAN AS MADE IN COD’S I M A G E ............................ 52
B. SIN AND ITS C U R S E ...................................................... 54
C. THE REGENERATED CONSCIOUSNESS...................... 55
D. ROMAN C A T H O L IC IS M ............................................... 5Q
E. EVANGELICALISM ......................................................... 58

II. E t h ic s a n d t h e Ch r is t ia n P h il o s o ph y
o f R e a l i t y ............................................................. 60
III. T h e Kin g d o m o f Go d a s Ma n ’s H ig h e s t Go o d . . 62
A. THE NON-CHRISTIAN SUmmUTTl b o n u m . . . . 62
b . t h e b i b l i c a l s u m m u m b o n u m ................... 64

V. C h r is t ia n Ap o l o c e t ic s (P o in t of C o n t a c t ) . . 67
I. Ro m a n C a t h o l ic is m ........................................ 69
II. E v a n g e l ic a l is m .................................................... 78
III. L e s s Co n s is t e n t C a l v i n i s m ............................... 79
IV. T h e Re f o r m e d P o s i t i o n ...................................... 90

VI. C h r is t ia n Ap o l o g e t ic s
(T h e P r o b l e m o f M e t h o d ) .................................... 96
I. Re a s o n in g b y P r e s u p p o s it io n ............................. 99
II. Sc r ipt u r e ................................................................. 105
III. Bl o c k -h o u s e M e t h o d o l o g y .................................. 114

V II. C h r is t ia n Apo l o g e t ic s
(A u t h o r it y a n d R e a s o n ) ............................................*23
I. N o n -C h r is t ia n Vie w s ............................................*23
 CONTENTS

CHATTER TACK

II. Mo d e r n T h e o l o c ic a l Vi e w s ............................... 123

III. T h e Ro m a n C a t h o l ic Vi e w ............................... 132
IV. T h e Ar m in ia n Vi e w .............................................. 139
V. T h e Re f o r m e d Vi e w ........................................... 146

V III. C o m m o n G r a c e a n d Sc h o l a s t i c i s m ........................151
I. Al l M e n Un a v o id a b l y Kn o w Go d ................... 151
II. N a t u r a l T h e o l o c y .............................................. 155
III. D if f e r e n c e s b e t w e e n Re f o r m e d T h e o l o g ia n s 160

IX. Ar g u m e n t b y P r e s u p p o s i t i o n ................................. 179

X. T h e D e f e n s e o f C h r i s t i a n i t y ................................. 209
I. T h e P l a c e o f Re a s o n in T h e o l o c y ................... 211
II. D e f e n d in g t h e F a i t h ........................................... 219
III. T h e Be l ie v e r Me e t s t h e U n b e l ie v e r .............. 225
IV. A C o n s is t e n t W i t n e s s ............................................233
V. T h e Ao t h o r t t y o f Sc r ip t u r e ............................... 241
VI. P r o o f s f o r t h e E x is t e n c e o f Go d .........................248

XI. Am s t e r d a m a n d O l d P r i n c e t o n ............................ 260

I. W a r f ie l d a n d Ku y p e r ............................................ 261
II. W il l ia m Br e n t o n C r e e n b , J r . ............................ 267
III. F l o y d E. H a m i l t o n ............................................... 277
IV. Ku y pe r .................................................................... 287
V. Ba v i n c x ...................................................................... 291
 PREFACE

Except for minor corrections and additions, primarily in

the form of footnotes, this third edition is the same as the
second. Discussion of more recent movements in theology
and philosophy, both orthodox and neo-orthodox, may be
found in later writings by the present writer, and, more
exactly, in unpublished class syllabi available through the
Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co. or from West­
minster Theological Seminary.
Acknowledgment is again made to publishers who kindly
gave permission to quote from various books: To the Mac­
millan Company for permission to quote from Religious
Realism, copyright, 1931, and from A. E. Taylor’s Does God
Exist? copyright-reprint 1947; to the Cambridge University
Press for permission to quote from James Jeans’ The Mys­
terious Universe; to William B. Eerdman’s Co. for permission
to quote from Edward Carnell’s An Introduction to Christian
Apologetics; to F. S. Crofts and Company for permission to
quote from Martin, Clarke, Clark, Ruddick: A History of
Philosophy; to Yale University Press for permission to quote
from Cassirer’s Essay on Man, and Gilson’s God and Phi­
losophy; to Charles Scribner’s Sons for permission to quote
from Millikan’s Science and the New Civilization; and to the
estate of Felix Cohen for permission to quote from Morris
R. Cohen’s Reason and Nature, copyrighted, revised 1953.
Special thanks are due to the Rev. Rousas John Rush-
doony for carefully reading the entire manuscript; and to
my former student, Robert G. DeMoss, Th.M., for pains­
taking help in the technical details of the manuscript.
I am indebted to Mr. Edward Robert Geehan for editorial
work in connection with the revision of this volume.
Cornelius Van Til
October, 1967
1
 INTRODUCTION

There are many who share with the writer of this book
the conviction that if Christ is to be presented to men as a
challenge to their thinking and living then he must be offered
without compromise.
Yet the traditional method of presenting Christ to men,
as developed chiefly by Roman Catholic theologians, does
compromise him. In Roman Catholic apologetics the nat­
ural man is not challenged to make his every thought captive
to the obedience of Christ. The natural man is merely asked
to add the wisdom and work of Christ to that which man has
in and of himself.
The result of this Roman Catholic compromise is two­
fold. Negatively it results in failure to show the natural man
the internal inconsistency and futility of his effort to find
meaning in life. For if Roman Catholic apologetics were to
demonstrate to the natural man the futility of his position
it would, at the same time, demonstrate the futility of its
own position. If by means of his philosophy and natural
theology the Roman Catholic apologist “proves” the ex­
istence of God, then he proves the existence of a god such
as is “proved” by Aristotle, a god, who is nothing more than
an abstract universal principle of being, a god who, instead
of giving meaning to the universe, is itself in need of the con­
tingency of this universe as correlative to itself.
Positively the traditional method of apologetics, as de­
veloped by Roman Catholics, has no Christ who could chal­
lenge the thought and life of the natural man in order to
3
save him anil his culture. The Christianity of Roman Cath­
olic "supernatural theology” cannot bo attached to tho
“theism" of its philosophy and natural theology without it­
self sinking in the bottomless pit of pure contingency.
Protestant Christians ought therefore to celebrate the
grace of God their Savior unto them by noting carefully from
what they have been saved and to what they are called.
Their method of apologetics should be in line with their
theology. In both Christ should be taught and preached
unto men who are lost in all their thinking and living without
him. The natural man must be shown that on his presup­
position or assumption of man’s autonomy human predication
has no meaning at all. But this negative task cannot be ac­
complished except on the presupposition that in Christ life
does have meaning. Only when Protestant theology thus sees
its apologetics to be an aspect of its theology of free grace
can the glad tidings of the gospel ring out clearly and fully
to men. Only thus can those who are in the schismatic
“mother church” be challenged to come into the church uni­
versal in which Christ is really supreme and really saves men
from sin.
But if Protestants are thus to fulfill their task they should
do so while they confess their failures. Their own apologetics
has constantly come far behind their theology. The tradi­
tional or Roman Catholic method of apologetics was often
brought into the Protestant fold. This is notably true of
those who followed the lead of Arminian theologians. The
methodology of Bishop Butler’s Analogy is essentially the
same as that of the Contra Gentiles of Thomas Aquinas.
But the greater burden lies upon those who have fol­
lowed the lead of Reformed theologians. In his little book,
The Plan of Salvation, B. B. Warfield shows clearly that Ro­
man Catholic theology is defective because it is not con­
structed exclusively in terms of the revelation of God in
Christ. Rome’s notion of “freedom,” argues Warfield, con­
stitutes a compromise with the naturalist notion of autonomy.
4
On the Romanist view God with his grace cannot enter the
penetralia of the consciousness of sinful man unless man first
opens the door.
As Warfield continues, he points out that what is true of
Romanism is true of Protestant theology so far as it is
Arminian. In Arminian theology too God can only make
salvation “possible”; he cannot actually save individual men
unless they want to be saved.
The moral of Warfield’s argument would seem to be
easy to draw. Those who follow the lead of Reformed theo­
logians cannot expect Arminian theology to furnish (a) a
truly biblical apologetic with which to challenge the natural
man and (b) an apologetic that will challenge Roman Cath­
olics to forsake the paralyzing naturalism in their view.
A still further moral must be drawn from Warfield’s
telling argument. It is to the effect that Reformed theologians
must put their hands in their own bosom to see whether it
too is not white with the leprosy of naturalism.
Such a critical self-examination of the apologetic posi­
tion of Reformed theologians is desperately needed in the
present day. Modem theology is in a crisis. The neo-orthodox
position of Karl Barth and his followers carries the flag but
not the content of the Reformed Faith. Neo-orthodoxy and
Roman Catholicism are drawing ever closer together.
Both oppose “modernism” but both are afflicted with its
naturalist assumptions. None of them have a Christ who
can help sinners in need. Nothing short of the Christ of the
Scriptures, as presented in historic Reformed theology, can
challenge men to forsake their sin and establish them in truth
and life.
If only Reformed theologians were true to their own
principles and ideas! How often does it not prove true that
Arminian Christians are, in practice, more truly biblical and
Reformed than are those who speak of Calvin as their leader?
If only the present writer, in presuming to differ from Re­
formed thinkers of the past and present, were true to his
principles and ideals! Truly, with Augustine, our praye
should ever be for humility and more humility. Even so
necessity is laid upon us. The gospel must be heard without
compromise. The whole world lies in darkness. Modem
philosophers follow one another about in circles within the
hollow of a sphere that they have built about themselves
They will never question their common assumption of human
autonomy. Therefore those who know that they were them­
selves in that state but have been taken out of it by grace
must proclaim that grace to those who are in darkness still.
It is this one ideal that has controlled the writing of this
book. First, the main contents of the gospel of grace is briefly
set forth in terms of theology (Chapter I). Then this same
gospel is set forth in terms of philosophy (Chapters II-IV).
Finally, this gospel is presented to the “natural man” in or­
der that he might be saved (Chapters V-XI). It is especially
in the last chapters that controversial matters have been
brought in. Even so, the main goal throughout is the dis­
covery of the most Biblical and therefore the most effective
way of bringing Christ to men.
For those who, after finishing this work, wish to pursue
the various areas discussed in more depth, unpublished class
syllabi are available. They may be most profitably con­
sulted in the following order: First, Protestant Doctrine
of Scripture;second, Introduction to Systematic Theology;
third, A Christian Theory of Knowledge; fourth, History of
Christian Epistemology; fifth, Apologetics; sixth, Christian
Theistic Evidences; seventh, Christian Theistic Ethics;
eighth, The Triumph of Grace;ninth, Sover
fended, and finally, The Psychology of Religion. None of
these materials, however, is to be regarded as a published
work. Various papers developing particular subjects, either
mimeographed or in single copies, may be found in the
Westminster Theological Seminary Library, as well as pub­
lications and syllabi of the present writer which are now
out of print. Material from these syllabi quoted in this
book can be identified by its smaller type.