Cornelius Van Til obviously misunderstood the theology and apologetics of Gordon H. Clark, and he attributes wrongly the Neo-Evangelical movement to Gordon H. Clark. If you download the mp3 of the class lecture on the New Evangelicalism, you will notice at about the 19 minute mark that Van Til begins to discuss Gordon H. Clark. He wrongly asserts that Clark follows the rationalism of Butler. But that is not Clark's position at all. In fact, Gordon H. Clark flatly denied that logic is a source of truth. To assert that logic can lead to truth is rationalism. Gordon H. Clark went to great lengths in his book, Christian Philosophy, and in his book, A Christian View of Men and Things, to show that rationalism and logic only lead to skepticism.
What Clark did say, however, is that Scripture is a rational revelation. All else flows out of the axiom that Scripture is the Word of God. If God is not rational and logical when He speaks in the Word of God, the Bible, then we can know nothing whatsoever. Van Til's position is that God puts the laws of logic into the creature but that God Himself is not logical in His being nor in His revelation, which opens the door to irrationalism and skepticism. In other words, Van Til ends up agreeing more with neo-orthodoxy than with orthodoxy, despite his protests.
Clark, on the other hand, rightly grounds logic in the revelation of Scripture. John 1:1 says that God is Logic.
Clark, on the other hand, rightly grounds logic in the revelation of Scripture. John 1:1 says that God is Logic.
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