The Underdog Scales and Plumbs

Simplicity has often been associated with humility, and this is not without viable cause. However, in the area of the Scriptures and its study, this same criterion has paved the way for much disguised pride.

There is overweening hubris in the distaste for deep, theological reflection. The proud man contents himself with the simplicity of "moralistic, therapeutic, deistic" chaff, whereas the Underdog, with profound affection for God and His revelation, seeks to scale the heights and plumb the depths of the wheat of His Word.


Francis Turretin observes:

For we unhesitatingly confess that the Scriptures have their adyta ("heights") and bathe ("depths") which we cannot enter or sound and which God so ordered on purpose to excite the study of believers and increase their diligence; to humble the pride of man and to remove from them the contempt which might arise from too great plainness. (Institutes of Elenctic Theology, I.2.7.4)

So humility, in fact, is not manifest in the resignation to ignorance but in the passionate pursuit of the knowledge of God, which gives us an antithesis: the proud stupid and the humble knowledgeable.

Westminster Wednesday: What Is the Most Satanic Philosophy?

According to Cornelius Van Til, it is Karl Barth's:

"Total depravity. That means the whole glass is poisoned. It's not as poisoned as it could be, but it's all poisoned. The faculties of soul are all turned against God by nature. All are poisoned by sin. Wherever there is evidence of God, which is everywhere, man will deny it. You see, God must reach down and save dead men in their trespasses and sins. You do not heal a dead man. You resurrect him. Man is not sick, not drowning, but dead. Dead is dead. You can't throw him a rope. A dead man can't grab anything. Your mother is dead without Christ. Your culture is dead without Christ. This is the problem with Karl Barth, there's no space-and-time redemption by Christ. There's no change of the unbeliever to believer. There's no challenge to the natural man. That's why Barth is poison. Water and sulfuric acid look the same, right? If you drink sulfuric acid, it will kill you. Barth has placed sulfuric acid in our water bottles and told us it is water. Barth has created the systematically most satanic philosophy ever devised by the mind of man. Salvation is like cleaning a bad tooth. It's no good if your dentist tells you your tooth is okay when it's rotten. The dentist has to go down, drill out the decay and replace it with gold. This is what salvation is." (Van Til Made Me Reformed by Eric H. Sigward, emphasis mine)

For Van Til's essay in the Westminster Theological Journal entitled, "Has Karl Barth Become Orthodox?", click here.

For a PDF copy, email me.

John Calvin's Influence on Reformed Apologetics

In no way exhaustive, the following 3 points derived from John Calvin's thought enumerate the ways in which he has contributed significantly to Reformed apologetics:

I. THE CREATOR-CREATURE DISTINCTION—IN KNOWING GOD YOU KNOW YOURSELF, IN KNOWING YOURSELF YOU KNOW GOD.

II. THE SENSUS DIVINITATIS.

III. THE SELF-ATTESTING AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE.


More below:

The Relationship of Apologetics, Philosophy, and the Doctrine of Scripture to Each Other

Dr. K. Scott Oliphint discusses (a 3-part video):

The Inspiration of Inspiration

If the Scripture be of divine inspiration,
then be exhorted to,

Study the Scripture.
Prize the written Word.
Believe it.
Love the written Word.
Conform to it.
Contend for it.
Be thankful to God for it.

Adore God's distinguishing grace, if you have felt the power and authority of the Word upon your conscience.

— Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, 34-38.

"The Christian Anthem" by Lee Behnken

I first came across this song by Lee Behnken back in 1998. In fact, I've seen Lee play live on two different occassions during one of his visits here in the Philippines.

This particular song cuts me to the heart. It is timely, given the global economic crisis and the recent appointment of the new U.S. president, the one chiefly tasked with the alleviation of the aforementioned burden. It reminds me that no nation can ever continue to stand and prosper, in the ultimate sense of these two words, apart from submission to the sovereignty of God and His Word.