All Articles For Editorial

The true conception of the “moment’’ against the background of the counsel of God, makes it possible to give real meaning to history, according to Van Til. For, according to this view, it is God’s meaning that is in all things. They do not receive their meaning from man, for “God’s idea of Himself is in re”, and when man deals with “the phenomenal world” he deals with God. p. 8. On this basis we can explain and maintain the reality of the “positive and negative instance”, good and evil, and especially moral good and moral evil. They are historically...

Van Til’s philosophy of the “Moment” is really the basic and essential part of his philosophy of history in as far as he makes an attempt to find room for the theory of common grace. His conception of common grace is not different from the current view of this theory as, for instance, adopted by the Christian Reformed Churches in the “Three Points”. In this respect it is literally true what he wrote in the introductory paragraph of his book: “To the perplexing problem of common grace we do not pretend to give an adequate answer. It is nothing essentially...

Before we pass to the discussion of other elements of the philosophy of Dr. Van Til, we must still make one remark concerning his conception of what he calls the Moment. We have a question here. Van Til speaks of Moment A. and Moment B., and of a certain commonness, in Moment B., both with respect to the attitude of God to the believers and non-believers, or rather, to elect and reprobate, and with respect to the relation between these in the world. But as far as I have been able to find out, he does not express himself at...

The Belgic Confession, a Reformed creed, bears the impression of John Calvin’s theology. Soon after it was written by Guido de Brès in 1561, Reformed churches in the Netherlands began adopting it. The Belgic Confession includes a lengthy section on ecclesiology, reflecting the reality that the doctrine of the church was a major conflict between the Romish church and the churches of the Reformation. The ecclesiology is clearly Calvinistic. Article 27 of the Belgic Confession expresses the Reformed confession on the church—one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church—the truth considered in the May 1 editorial. This one body of the church...

We cannot possibly call attention to every detail in Van Til’s work for I am afraid that I would weary the attention of our readers too much by doing so. As an illustration of Van Til’s meaning when he speaks of the “paradox,” and his application to the matter of “common grace,” therefore, I will make just one other quotation. The writer is discussing Point I, 1924, and particularly Dr. Schilder’s appraisal of its meaning over against Zwier. He writes: “The point of logic raised by Schilder is of a similar nature. Zwier replies that something more should have been...

Another question was sent in by IT. A. V. P. of Holland, Mich. The question is whether, if anyone is to be saved, the Word of God must always be preached to him by an ordained minister or missionary. The question is elucidated by different examples. If an American soldier tells a Japanese soldier about Christ on the battlefield, or if a Japanese soldier, who is not acquainted with the way of salvation, finds a Bible and reads it, can he not be saved through this means? Briefly: “Does Scripture teach that God can and will save only those to...

Attention must be called to Van Til’s idea and application of the “limiting concept,” which is closely related to his notion and use of the “paradox.” Let us quote him: “If we hold to a theology of the apparently paradoxical we must also hold by consequence to the Christian notion of a limiting concept. The non-Christian notion of the limiting concept has been developed on the basis of the non-Christian conception of mystery. By contrast we may think of the Christian notion of the limiting concept as based upon the Christian notion of mystery. The non-Christian notion of the limiting...

In our last article we discussed Van Til’s notion of the “limiting concept.” And we also attempted to define the nature of the limiting concept, and to indicate the causes for the necessity of working with them. We stated that limiting concepts arise: 1. When in the light of revelation the finite mind of man attempts to form a conception of the Infinite; 2. When earthly man, in the light of the same revelation, conceives of the “things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man.” 3. When, on the other hand, the...

That we were deeply shocked when on April 1 the news reached us that our God had suddenly called the Rev. Wm. Verhil away from his earthly field of labor and from the church militant, as well as from his dear ones, is merely to express what many more experienced with us when they heard of his sudden decease. For sudden it was. According to reports we received the brother suffered a heart attack about eight o’clock in the morning, that caused him to lapse into unconsciousness. He never regained consciousness. And at about ten-thirty that same morning of April...

We must still call the attention of our readers to Van Til’s “As If philosophy. It is, according to him, especially with a view to the practical cooperation between the Christian and the non-Christian in this world, that we have need of an “as if,” and we actually proceed on its tacit assumption and presupposition. We cannot quote here all that Van Til has to say on this subject. Yet, before we discuss this notion, we will let him present his ideas in his own words. Writes he on p. 18: “On what basis then can we speak of cooperation...