Defense of the Faith by Cornelius Van Til
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What Van Til does here is remarkable. He pioneers important territory here as it relates to Christian apologetics. He points out that often our preaching and apologetics don’t match up, and we should strive to be, above all, submissive to Scriptural authority when it comes to defending the faith.
In essence, Roman Catholocism (building on Aquinas) and Arminianism seek to find a point of contact with fallen man and convince him to believe in a god. What Van Til points out is that this makes the mind and will of man ultimate, assuming that man’s reason can actually interpret the facts of the universe correctly.
Van Til starts from the fact that the Creator-creature divide must be forefront in our preaching and apologetic efforts. The Scriptures are the authority which should govern our efforts to persuade. Van Til insists that we remember that ALL men know God, but sinful man suppresses this knowledge.
Van Til slices things really thin at certain points. He takes folks in his own Calvinist camp to task for various compromises with erroneous thinking. At times he is tedious, perhaps unnecessarily, and the text at times is dense reading (could’ve used some editorial sandpaper).
On the whole, this was a remarkably helpful book. It kicked my rear end at times, and had me up and cheering at other points. I think this will prove to be a seminal work for generations to come.
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