Various and Sundry Cornelius Van Til Quotes

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Backwoods Presbyterian

Puritanboard Amanuensis
‎"If then Christianity as interpreted in the Reformed creeds, as championed by Kuyper, Bavinck, Hodge, Warfield, and Machen, is to be presented to men today, ministers must learn to understand the riches of their own position. Christianity is the sine qua non of the intelligibility of anything. Why am I so much interested in science? It is a) because with Kuyper I believe that God requires of us that we claim every realm of being for Him, and b) because with Kuyper I believe that unless we press the crown rights of our King in every realm, we shall not long retain them in any realm." - Cornelius Van Til, "The Defense of the Faith", pg. 276

‎"As I have followed Calvin closely in stressing the fact that men ought to believe in God inasmuch as the evidence of His existence is abundantly plain, so I have also closely followed Calvin in saying that no sinner reacts properly to God's revelation. Is this too sweeping a statement? It is simply the doctrine of total depravity. All sinners are covenant breakers. They have an axe to grind. They do not want to keep God in remembrance. They keep under the knowledge of God that is within them. That is, they try as best as they can to keep under this knowledge for fear they should look into the face of their Judge." -- Cornelius Van Til, "The Defense of the Faith", pg. 257

"My reason for arguing this matter is that together with all orthodox believers I have frequently argued, as you know, that the historicity of Christianity cannot be maintained unless the historicity of the Old Testament and in particular the historicity of the Genesis account be also maintained." -- Cornelius Van Til, "The Defense of the Faith", pg. 251

‎"There are those who worship and serve the creature and there are those who worship and serve the Creator. This is the simple differentiation with which I am concerned. I try and call men back to the recognition of the fact that they are creatures of God by challenging their false assumption of their non-createdness, their autonomy, or ultimacy." -- Cornelius Van Til, "The Defense of the Faith", pg. 248

‎"On the question of creation I believe that it pleased God 'for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein, whether invisible or visible, in the space of six days and all very good.' This doctrine of creation fits in with the doctrine of the ontological Trinity. If God is fully self-contained, then there was no sort of half existence and no sort of non-being that had any power over against him. There was therefore no impersonal law of logic that told God what He could do, and there was no sort of stuff that had as much even as refractory power over against God when he decided to create the world." -- Cornelius Van Til, "The Defense of the Faith", pg. 247

‎"Moreover, in paradise, supernatural revelation, that is, thought-communication on the part of God, accompanied God's revelation in the created universe. Natural revelation therefore required supernatural revelation as its supplement even apart from the fact of sin. Even in paradise Adam had to regard all the facts of his natural environment in the light of the goal that God set for man in his supernatural revelation." -- Cornelius Van Til, "The Defense of the Faith", pg. 205

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