Apologetics to the Glory of God

Theology Determines Apologetic: Van Til

“All Protestants will agree with one another that the doctrines of Protestantism must be defended as over against Romanism. But not all agree that there is a distinctly Protestant method of defending Christianity as a whole. Some hold that Protestants should first join the Romanists in order with them to defend the doctrines that they have in common. All Christians, we are told, believe in God. All believe that God has created the world. All Christians hold that God controls the world by His providence. All believe in the deity of Christ. These and other doctrines may therefore be defended in the same way by all Christians. There is no specifically Protestant way of defending the Christian doctrine of God. How could there be since this is the common property of all Christians?

Other Protestants contend that there must be a specifically Protestant defense of all Christian doctrines. Their argument is that all Christian doctrines are interdependent. Each major doctrine implies all of the others and colors all of the others. A Protestant’s doctrine of the atonement will, to some extent, color his doctrine of God and vice versa. in fact, the difference with respect to all other doctrines rests ultimately on a difference with respect to the notion one has of God.”[1]

  1. [1]CVT, A Christian Theory of Knowledge, pg.12

Comments

3 responses to “Theology Determines Apologetic: Van Til”

  1. C.L. Bolt Avatar
    C.L. Bolt

    Not related to the post, per se, but thanks for the link. 🙂 I responded.

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