The Myth of Common Grace: The Trinity Review

The Trinity Review from March/April of 1987 quotes Benjamin B. Warfield to demonstrate that the Reformed view advocates not just the plain declarations of Scripture but also what can be logically derived from the doctrine of perspicuity. Quoting from Warfield:

[T]he recent plea against the use of human logic in determining doctrine has been most sharply put forward in order to justify the rejection of a doctrine which is explicitly taught, and that repeatedly, in the very letter of Scripture; if the plea is valid at all, it destroys at once our confidence in all doctrines, no one of which is ascertained or formulated without the aid of human logic." 6

In contrast to this Scriptural view, Van Til denies the possibility of a deductive system and asserts that the "analogical truths" we have all appear to be contradictory. Apart from this unscriptural denial of the role of logic and the perspicuity of Scripture, one must ask the question: What is the meaning of a "system" of non- deducible paradoxes?

Although Westminster Seminary’s apologetics professor John Frame endorses Van Tilianism, he presents an excellent analysis of Van Til’s proposal:

" ... the necessity of formulating doctrines in ‘apparently contradictory’ ways certainly increases the difficulty of developing a ‘system of doctrine,’ especially a system such as Van Til himself advocates.... How may it be shown that one doctrine ‘requires’ another, when our paradoxical formulations fail even to show how the two are compatible?

To read the entire article click here: The Myth of Common Grace