Category Archives: Apologetics

Why I Believe in God (with Introduction and Revisions)

Apologetics, Articles, Cornelius Van Til, Steve Scrivener

“Why I Believe in God” (with introduction and revisions) by Cornelius Van Til and Steve Scrivener

Later below you will find Van Til’s pamphlet called Why I Believe in God. He says he wrote this pamphlet “to point out in simple terminology why I believe in the God of the Bible, the God of historic Reformed theology.” And then he summarizes its message:

 

“The God I believe in is the triune God of the Bible. I believe in this God because He Himself has told me in the Bible Who He is, what I am, and what He, in Christ and by the Holy Spirit, has done for me. Or I might say “has done for men.” I was brought up on the Bible as the Word of God. Can I, now that I have been to school, still believe in the God of the Bible? Well, can I still believe in the sun that shown on me when I walked as a boy in wooden shoes in Groningen? I could believe in nothing else if I did not, as back of everything, believe in this God. Can I see the beams underneath the floor on which I walk? I must assume or presuppose that the beams are underneath. Unless the beams were underneath, I could not walk on the floor.”

Why I Believe in God (Cornelius Van Til)

Apologetics, Articles, Cornelius Van Til

“Why I Believe in God” by Cornelius Van Til

You have noticed, haven’t you, that in recent times certain scientists like Dr. James Jeans and Sir Arthur Eddington, as well as some outstanding philosophers like Dr. C.E.M. Joad, have had a good deal to say about religion and God? Scientists Jeans and Eddington are ready to admit that there may be something to the claims of men who say they have had an experience of God, while Philosopher Joad says that the “obtrusiveness of evil” has virtually compelled him to look into the argument for God’s existence afresh. Much like modernist theologian Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr who talks about original sin, Philosopher Joad speaks about evil as being ineradicable from the human mind. …

The Defense of Christianity (Cornelius Van Til)

Apologetics, Articles, Cornelius Van Til

“The Defense of Christianity” by Cornelius Van Til

We have first the non-Christian, who worships the creature rather than the Creator. We shall call him Mr. Black. Mr. Black may be a very “decent” sort of man. By God’s common grace he may do much that is “good.” Even so he is, as long as he remains in his unconverted state, black in the sight of God.

 

On the other hand we have a representative of those who have, by the grace of God, become worshipers of the Creator-Redeemer, called Mr. White. Mr. White is far from what, judging him by his name, we should expect him to be. But he is washed in the blood of the Lamb. In Christ he is whiter than snow. Mr. White is the Reformed Christian. …

Presuppositionalism: A Reply to Dr. Buswell (Cornelius Van Til)

Apologetics, Articles, Cornelius Van Til

“Presuppositionalism: A Reply to Dr. Buswell” [Part 1] [Part 2] by Cornelius Van Til

Dear Dr. Buswell:

 

Allow me to thank you first for the courtesy extended in permitting me to make some remarks on your recent review of my booklet on Common Grace (See The Bible Today, November, 1948). I shall try, as simply as I can, to state something of my theological beliefs and my method of defending them. In this way I can perhaps best reply to your charges that I do not hesitate to make declarations flatly contradictory to the Reformed Standards and the Bible. …

My Credo (Cornelius Van Til)

Apologetics, Articles, Cornelius Van Til, Epistemology

“My Credo” by Cornelius Van Til

How can I express my appreciation adequately for the honor you have conferred on me by your contributions to this Festschrift? I shall try to do so first by setting forth in this, my “Credo,” a general statement of my main beliefs as I hold them today. Then I shall deal separately with the problems and objections some of you have raised in respect to my views in separate response to the essays themselves. I hope that by doing this we may be of help to one another as together we present the name of Jesus as the only name given under heaven by which men must be saved. …