More Pious Irrationalism Masquerading as Christianity


July 2001

Friends,
Today's excerpt from The Horror Files is taken from the "The Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth" magazine, November 1997, page 249.

The "Corner for Teens" propounds this question:

"Are all the doctrines contained in the Bible subject to the rules of logic?"

Here is the answer:

"No.... Now, we may say that God is certainly not an illogical God, the thought itself being blasphemous. [Why? Is there a verse that says so? -Editor] Nevertheless, as God, He far transcends our understanding. Hence we encounter certain mysteries [In Scripture "mysteries" are information that can be understood by mere men. Look a few up in a concordance. This Neo-orthodox use of the word "mystery" is un-Biblical.] and tensions ["tensions" is also Neo-orthodox jargon] in Scripture which our finite understanding cannot fathom ["fathom" means to plumb the depths, but the question is, Can we understand anything? not, Can we understand everything?]. An example of the first [mystery] is the Trinity. Who can truly understand in a logical manner a single, simple Being who is also three distinct and communicative persons? We believe though we cannot understand. [One cannot believe what one does not understand. The author here unwittingly endorses the Roman Catholic view of implicit faith.] An example of the second [tension] would be that the same God who elects and reprobates says, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked," etc. Who, for example, can understand that God can never by His very nature, be the author of sin (Hab. 1:13)? Yet we also believe from Scripture that all things are decreed by God, even evil and sin (Prov. 16:4). [The author needs to read a good commentator – say John Gill.] We cannot always understand, but adore we must. Therefore, we must say that God transcends logic."

The conclusion is, of course, a non sequitur, for all the author has shown is that he does not understand either the Trinity or Scripture. But the author is arrogant enough to assert that what he does not understand, no one can. He confuses his understanding with logic.

This thinking, is, of course, typical of the followers of Cornelius Van Til. Van Til's adoption of some Neo-orthodox ideas and his introduction of irrationalism into his theology have wreaked havoc with Westminster Seminary and many of his disciples.

At our website, www.trinityfoundation.org, read the Review entitled "Marstonian Mysticism" for a longer discussion of this pious irrationalism.

Thanks to reader Hugh McCann for calling this horror to our attention.

John Robbins
The Trinity Foundation
July 10, 2001

For further reading go to Review Archives at www.trinityfoundation.org