# Van Til's Six Part Series



## Whitefield (Jul 14, 2011)

For those who might be interested: I have posted _Defending the Faith_ to my webpage. It is a six-part series by Cornelius Van Til which appeared in _Torch and Trumpet_ in 1951 and 1952.


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## heymike (Jul 18, 2011)

Thanks for posting this. Coming from a classical apologetic background, I have often wondered about the dinstinction between presuppositional and classical apologetics. I found this part to be parricularly helpful:

"The basic difference between the two types of apologetics is to be found, we believe, in the primary assumption that each party makes. The Romanist-evangelical type of apologetics assumes that man can first know much about himself and the universe and afterward ask whether God exists and Christianity is true. The Reformed apologist assumes that nothing can be known by man about himself or the universe unless God exists and Christianity is true."

And I suspected part of the problem or difference was the use of pagan arguments for an unmoved mover. But this following paragraph was surprising:

"It will be observed that it is this very difference that exists between the two types of theology, the Romanist-evangelical and the Reformed. The former type of theology assumes that it first knows what human freedom is from "experience.It then adjusts the doctrines of Scripture concerning God and Christianity to its notion of freedom derived from experience. The Reformed type of theology begins with Scriptures and defines human freedom in terms of its principles alone."

About this experience of freedom, I have made reference in my talking and writing with atheists about the ability of a person to act without being caused to do so, and have had met some pretty incredible opposition to what is so basic. Without reading further in the essay, I was wondering about what anyone might have to say regarding a person's ability to freely act. 

Just to be clear at the outset, I believe that God is soveriegn over me snapping my fingers, even if I do it.


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