# Clark's Scriptural Axiom



## RamistThomist (May 19, 2017)

Did Gordon Clark actually hold to the position that you can't know anything unless it is either in the Bible or deduced from it? I just read _Clark and his Critics _(ed. Nash) and Mavrodes claims Clark said that. Bahnsen seemed to think that. And some of Clark's disciples seemed to think that. Yet in the response in the same volume Clark backed away from that position. I haven't read all of Clark's works, so what was his final take on this position?


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## Alan D. Strange (May 19, 2017)

As I understand Clark, Jacob, certainty obtains only from the propositions of the Bible (or what can be logically deduced therefrom). I just read Douglas Douma's book on Clark, _The Presbyterian Philosopher_, and this is his conclusion as well. 

Peace,
Alan


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## Dachaser (May 19, 2017)

ReformedReidian said:


> Did Gordon Clark actually hold to the position that you can't know anything unless it is either in the Bible or deduced from it? I just read _Clark and his Critics _(ed. Nash) and Mavrodes claims Clark said that. Bahnsen seemed to think that. And some of Clark's disciples seemed to think that. Yet in the response in the same volume Clark backed away from that position. I haven't read all of Clark's works, so what was his final take on this position?


Doesn't God speak though us outside the scriptures in a non salvation sense, such as in nature and in the conscious?


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## Semper Fidelis (May 19, 2017)

ReformedReidian said:


> Did Gordon Clark actually hold to the position that you can't know anything unless it is either in the Bible or deduced from it? I just read _Clark and his Critics _(ed. Nash) and Mavrodes claims Clark said that. Bahnsen seemed to think that. And some of Clark's disciples seemed to think that. Yet in the response in the same volume Clark backed away from that position. I haven't read all of Clark's works, so what was his final take on this position?


We used to have some pretty serious debates on this forum about the idealism of Clark. The name of your mother isn't something you know but it's just a very solid opinion. Clark's theology is, to my mind, a rejection of the archetypal/ectypal distinction and is not a Reformed notion of our knowledge. I remember Matthew Winzer pointing out that Jesus pointed out that the Pharisees knew something from nature (red sky at night sailors delight/red sky at morn sailor be warned - not really but that's the gist) but hard corps Clarkians are idealists.


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## RamistThomist (May 19, 2017)

Alan D. Strange said:


> As I understand Clark, Jacob, certainty obtains only from the propositions of the Bible (or what can be logically deduced therefrom). I just read Douglas Douma's book on Clark, _The Presbyterian Philosopher_, and this is his conclusion as well.
> 
> Peace,
> Alan



Thank you.


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## MW (May 19, 2017)

It might be safe to say that there was development of thought which ended up giving Scripturists their main concepts. There was also some mischaracterisation from the VanTillian "transcendental" and "paradoxical" side. It is not clear at times whether Clark was opposing empirical knowledge or showing that empiricism does not yield epistemic justification of knowledge.

Anti-liberal defences of Scripture were heavily concerned with maintaining the propositional content of revelation over against the liberal idea of "personal" revelation. Some of the defensive arguments tend in the opposite direction and were taken so far as to deny the "personal" element.

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