Category: Apologetics

23 January, 2016

No Common Ground in Apologetics, but an Axe to Grind

“It is only to follow out the lead which Hodge in his theology, following Calvin, has given, if we seek our point of contact not in any abstraction whatsoever, whether it be reason or intuition. No such abstraction exists in the universe of men. We always deal with concrete individual men. These men are sinners. They have “an axe to grind.” They want to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They will employ their reason for that purpose. And they are not formally illogical if, granted the assumption of man’s ultimacy, they reject the teachings of Christianity. On the contrary, to be logically consistent they are bound to do so. This point will engage us more fully in the sequel. For the moment it must suffice to have shown how the apologist is not only untrue to his own doctrine of man as the creature of God, but also defeats his own purpose if he appeals to some form of the “common consciousness of man.”

Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith (The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company: Philadelphia, 1955).

23 January, 2016

Arguing for the Existence of Air Whilst Breathing

“To make our conversation more interesting, let’s start by comparing notes on our past. That will fit in well with our plan, for the debate concerning heredity and environment is prominent in our day. Perhaps you think that the only real reason I have for believing in God is the fact that I was taught to do so in my early days. Of course I don’t think that is really so. I don’t deny that I was taught to believe in God when I was a child, but I do affirm that since I have grown up I have heard a pretty full statement of the argument against belief in God. And it is after having heard that argument that I am more than ever ready to believe in God. Now, in fact, I feel that the whole of history and civilization would be unintelligible to me if it were not for my belief in God. So true is this, that I propose to argue that unless God is back of everything, you cannot find meaning in anything. I cannot even argue for belief in Him, without already having taken Him for granted. And similarly I contend that you cannot argue against belief in Him unless you also first take Him for granted. Arguing about God’s existence, I hold, is like arguing about air. You may affirm that air exists, and I that it does not. But as we debate the point, we are both breathing air all the time. Or to use another illustration, God is like the emplacement on which must stand the very guns that are supposed to shoot Him out of existence. However if, after hearing my story briefly, you still think it is all a matter of heredity and environment, I shall not disagree too violently. My whole point will be that there is perfect harmony between my belief as a child and my belief as a man, simply because God is Himself the environment by which my early life was directed and my later life made intelligible to myself.”

Cornelius Van Til and Eric H. Sigward, The Pamphlets, Tracts, and Offprints of Cornelius Van Til, Electronic ed. (Labels Army Company: New York, 1997).

14 November, 2015

The Un-Winnable War

“Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” Acts 2:40b (ESV)

The West, that is, Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States (and allies) are indeed in a war against Islam. Not in a war against ISIS, ISIL, or Al-Qaeda, but the ideology of Islam.

This would be true if Islam were perfectly peaceful. This article is not about violence, terrorism, or the right military response.

This is a war of ideas, and the West is now governed by the notion that its own historically Christian foundations are of little importance, and may be traded away under the guise of multiculturalism. The West is rudderless in a stormy sea.

Philosophical multiculturalism is inherently a weak system, that cannot stand against any other ideology that privileges its own culture. Islam is one such culture. Islam is not founded upon a view of the validity of all cultures, but understands that all values must be based upon its teachings. Even a nominal Christendom was a good defence against Islam; with this removed, only a humanistic centre remains that does not have the moral fibre to defend itself ideologically, let alone militarily.

Islam would not need to be violent in order to win against the West. It only has to remain true to its own ideology, increase its population, and wait. As Mark Steyn pointed out, “The future belongs to those who show up.” The multicultural West has abandoned reproduction and family life in favour of personal happiness, wealth, and fulfilment.

The West has also replaced a cherished multiculturalism for a philosophical multiculturalism. In the former, many aspects of a different culture are appreciated and even adopted, but are not seen as competing as an ultimate value. Philosophical multiculturalism denies that ultimate values exist.

The culture that possesses the idea of an ultimate, immovable value system will always defeat the one that believes that no such ultimate system exists.

Christians, if they be Christian at all (and many do not think consistently as Christians), must reject multiculturalism, as it is a denial of the final truth as revealed in Scripture.

But many Christians live in a society that is philosophically multicultural. Thus, the short Bible verse at the beginning of the post. The only Christian option right now is to trust wholly in the God who does not change, the God who has revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ. Unless the hearts and minds of the people of the West, and therefore their leaders, are captured by the Gospel, Western Christians will live under the dominion of Islam.

The West has projected its multicultural wishes upon an ideology (Islam) that violently rejects it. By definition, philosophical multiculturalism cannot judge other cultures as false, and are left ideologically defenceless against Islam; and when a nation, or group of nations is ideologically bankrupt, the will to fight militarily is diminished below a winnable strength.

God is greater than Islam, and will always save His people, even if through fire and sword. Islam, if it is to be defeated at all, must be defeated by the Gospel.