Bible - Versions & Translations

Is the Bible Something Less Than the Actual Word of God?

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
One leading theologian and his followers would have us think so.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

A leading "conservative" theologian and his followers tell us the answer is Yes! Ironically, he is a hero to some Christian ministries that simultaneously work to un-do the effects of his teaching.

We continue to see Christian ministries and publications mention, in a positive way, the teachings of the late Dr. Cornelius Van Til and two of his principal followers, Dr. John M. Frame and the late Dr. Greg Bahnsen. Van Til was a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia from the 1920s to the 1970s. Frame and Bahnsen both trained under Van Til and have subsequently taught his philosophy at several other institutions. Van Til and his followers are all mentioned in Christian publications as model defenders of presuppositional apologetics.

Christians need to practice a presuppositional defense of the faith. We must recognize that all human beings bring presuppositions to any discussion, especially about the Bible. We need make no apology for basing our beliefs and defense of the faith on the presuppositions of the existence of God, and the inspiration and sole authority of His Word.

However, Van Til and his followers are unacceptable role models for Christians. This is because their own essential presupposition about the Bible is fatally flawed: They do not believe it is the actual Word of God!

Portions of the following material about Van Til's deviant position on Scripture are adapted from Christianity and Neo-Liberalism, pages 59-62.

An Analogical System of Truth?

In his introduction to an edition of Benjamin B. Warfield's The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, Cornelius Van Til asserted:

When the Christian restates the content of Scriptural revelation in the form of a "system," such a system is based upon and therefore analogous to the "existential system" that God himself possesses. Being based upon God's revelation it is on the one hand, fully true and, on the other hand, at no point identical with the content of the divine mind.1

Van Til also says elsewhere that both theology and apologetics must be based on the principle that Scripture contains only an "analogical system of truth." 2

Van Til looks backward to Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck for support, asserting that Bavinck was "insistent...that the Scriptures are the Word of God and that its system of truth is an analogical system."3 In other words, the Scriptures contain a system of "truth" that is "at no point identical with" but somehow resembles the unknowable truth in God's mind. The statements of Scripture are not God's truth itself.

Making God Irrational

Dr. Robert L. Reymond observes that Van Til's depiction of God's self-interpreting revelation in Scripture

is no longer analogy at all but a form of equivocality, which God, according to Van Til, chooses to call true although it coincides at no point with the truth. This contention ultimately ascribes irrationality to God and ignorance to man..4

In answer to this key principle in Van Tilian thought, Dr. Gordon H. Clark maintained that if God possesses the truth, and man possesses in Scripture only an analogy of God's truth - containing only that which is, in Van Til's words, "at no point identical with the content of the divine mind" - then it follows that man does not have the truth at all.5 (And, we would quickly add, the Bible therefore cannot be inspired, inerrant, or fully authoritative.) Clark contends that:

To avoid this irrationalism, which of course is a denial of the divine image, we must insist that truth is the same for God and man. Naturally, we may not know the truth about some matters. But if we know anything at all, what we must know must be identical with what God knows. God knows all truth, and unless we know something God knows, our ideas are untrue. It is absolutely essential, therefore, to insist that there is an area of coincidence between God's mind and our mind. One example, as good as any, is the one already used, namely, David was King of Israel.6

The Biblical Use of Analogy

And God's truth - communicated directly and not in analogical form - is precisely what God the Holy Spirit has given us in the pages of Scripture. It is true that in numerous passages the Word of God employs analogies (comparisons based on resemblance), as in the types and symbols of Christ in the Old Testament. But Scripture is not, as Van Til plainly asserted, nothing but an analogy in toto of things of which human beings have - and can have - no knowledge. Van Til's assertion eliminates the concept of analogy as God actually uses it in the Scriptures.

A Foundation for Doctrinal Deviancy

Tellingly, Van Til himself admitted a key defect of his writings on theology and apologetics: "The lack of detailed scriptural exegesis is a lack in all of my writings. I have no excuse for this...."7 Yet Van Tilian philosophy, taught by Van Til himself to generations of ministers and seminary professors, and still championed today by his followers in many colleges and seminaries, is the foundation on which much of present-day Evangelical thought has been erected.

An Ironic Consequence

For example, increasing numbers of Evangelicals hold the view that the creation account in Genesis gives us only an analogy of what actually happened, probably over billions of years, and cannot be accepted as a historical record. That view has its basis in the Van Tilian assertion that the Bible is merely an analogy of the truth and not the truth itself. Ironically, some creation ministries that are the strongest opponents of this view of Genesis are also among the strongest proponents of Van Til as a model for presuppositional apologists!

Authentic Christianity in Contrast

Rather than being cheated by such vain philosophy (Colossians 2:8), Christians need to remain loyal to Scripture as the actual - not analogical - Word of God. We must heed what the Bible says about itself:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (literally, God-breathed; from the very mouth of God), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him (Psalm 18:30).

For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me...Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth (John 17:8, 17).

 

References:

1. Cornelius Van Til, Introduction to B. B. Warfield, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1948), 33. Emphasis in the original.

2. Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1955), 298.

3. Defense of the Faith, 296. Here Van Til also asserts, wrongly, that the Old Princeton theologians subscribed to his analogical view of Scripture.

4. Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), 103.

5. Gordon H. Clark, "The Bible as Truth," in God's Hammer: The Bible and Its Critics, John W. Robbins, editor (Unicoi, Tennessee: The Trinity Foundation [1982] 1995), 24-38.

6. Gordon H. Clark, An Introduction to Christian Philosophy (Unicoi, Tennessee: The Trinity Foundation, 1993), 76-77.

7. Cornelius Van Til, "Response by C. Van Til (to G. C. Berkouwer, 'The Authority of Scripture, A Responsible Confession')" in Jerusalem and Athens, Critical Discussions on the Philosophy and Apologetics of Cornelius Van Til, ed. E. R. Geehan (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1980), 203-204.

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