This section looks at the thought of Van Til and similar thinkers after him in the context of the intellectual history of the West.

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At Van Til College, our discipleship and intellectual training look at every area of life from the perspective of "foundational assumptions" about the existence or non-existence of the God of the Bible. Van Til championed this perspective in the 20th century interacting with secular thought as well as Christian thought which ignored the critical role of man's foundational assumptions.

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A perspective which ignores the critical role of man's foundational assumptions about God has been dominant in the western church since the revival of humanist Greek thought in the 12th century in Italy. Christian thinkers who lived before Van Til that had perspectives similar to Van Til include Calvin, Anselm and Augustine.

 

Note that of those I mentioned only Calvin wrote in the years since the 12th century revival of Greek philosophy in the West. Yet Calvin's primary focus was on the doctrine of salvation. Likewise, the errors of the 12th century were just beginning to bear fruit in the so-called "Renaissance" during Calvin's lifetime. In the years since Calvin the humanist Renaissance gave birth to the even broader and deeper rise of humanism in the West that we know today as the "Enlightenment" but which we unaffectionately call the "Endarkenment".

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The intellectual root of both the humanist Renaissance and the Endarkenment is the same. They both ignore man's foundational assumptions about the existence or non-existence of the God of the Bible in all of their intellectual activity. Such humanist thought has been a stealthy, silent plague for the western Church and for western civilization.

Consider for a moment the path of Christian educational institutions in the United States over the last 400 years. Try to think of a college or university that is more than 100 years old and still faithful to the Scriptures. I am not aware of any and I am guessing that you aren't either.

 

Why?

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Worldliness?  Spiritual unfaithfulness?

 

Well, those things are not irrelevant. But there have been faithful Christians over the last 400 years. Many of them have started schools and colleges. They just can't seem to keep any of their educational institutions from "going secular".

 

Again, why?

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The answer is that Christians have not had the proper, Biblical intellectual equipment to fight the battle successfully. Since the 12th century Christians have increasingly been fighting intellectual battles on the enemy's own turf. We have been playing the games of education and knowledge and apologetics by the rules that the humanists set rather than recognizing that all men have faith - either faith that the God of the Bible exists or that He does not.

Furthermore, the Bible teaches us in Romans 1:16-32 that all men know about God but that they suppress that knowledge. In this way all of man's activity is based on whether he accepts and obeys God's revelation of Himself or rebels against it. Unbelievers don't have a knowledge problem. They have a heart problem.

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Thus, in our intellectual striving against humanism we should be clearly pointing out the Biblical view of knowledge which we know to be true. We should point out that the humanists are reaching different conclusions than the Christians not because of the data but because they started their thinking with the initial premise "there is no God".

Humanists ask me to prove that there is a God. I tell them the proof is in their own conscience. I tell them that God made the heavens and the earth and that He reveals himself to all men and gives every man a conscience so that he knows right from wrong. Murder, adultery, bearing false witness against our neighbor... we know these things are wrong. No one has to teach us. God made us and we belong to Him. But we rebel. Yet He is merciful to all who call on His name.

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I rarely ever have anyone ask for additional proof. Sinful man knows that he is guilty. And by the way, he can't answer any of life's big questions with "proof". Why are we here? Where did we come from? Where are we going? The humanist's explanation about these things are weak AND they are false.

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Instead of "playing by their rules" Christians should expose the fact all men operate on "faith" about life's big questions. We should call out the humanist and point out that his foundational assumption about God is determining the outcome of his arguments. And lest we forget, as we proclaim the truth of God's word we are wielding the most powerful weapon there is. It is powerful because it's true and because it is the weapon that God intends for us to use.  But early on after the 12th century revival of Greek thought in Europe the humanist Christians got control of the universities in Europe and there were no Biblically faithful champions during that time who called them out on their error in ignoring what the Bible says about man's knowledge. In the centuries that followed, the Renaissance and the Endarkenment worked their way through western civilization -- through our educational institutions and the Church.

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Jesus said that you shouldn't expect to get good fruit from a bad tree. If the root is bad the fruit will be bad. That is a snapshot lesson about the last 800 years of Christian intellectual history. The root of humanism is rebellion against God. Its first manifestation is that "there is no God". And from that foundational premise rebellious man goes on to build his false world of ideas to answer all of life's questions in ways that are consistent with his initial premise that "there is no God". We sum this up at Van Til College by saying, "The mind justifies what the heart has chosen."

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Imagine for a moment that when a man eats tasteless poison, he doesn't realize that he is eating something harmful. Only later as the poison runs its course will he realize something is wrong. That is where the western Church is today. Van Til came along in the 20th century and announced that the western Church has been eating poison and that is has weakened them and caused them to lose battle after battle with the enemy.

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Our response should be to stop eating the poison and train our children how to recognize the poison. Without the poison we will be stronger to fight the battle that God has given us to fight.