Common Grace and the Gospel

by Cornelius Van Til

Publisher:

P&R

, 1977

Overview

This book brings together a number of Van Til’s studies on Common Grace. Here the author addresses the question of how a Reformed person holding to the doctrine of “double election” can do justice to the universalism of the gospel, as expressed in the “whosoever will” statements of Scripture. Van Til finds the solution to this predicament in the “philosophy of history” conveyed by the Reformed confessions, based on biblical exegesis.

Comprised of nine chapters which contains a fairly complete collection of Van Til’s writings on common grace and its relation to Christian apologetics. The individual chapters do not form one unified whole, nor are they a collection of unrelated remarks. Each is a separate attempt to deal with particular aspects of the one theme—that of Common Grace and its relevance to the gospel.

Do not miss out on the updated release of The Works of Cornelius Van Til.

Product Details

• Title: Common Grace And The Gospel
• Author: Cornelius Van Til
• Publisher: Presbyterian and Reformed
• Publication Date: 1977

About Dr. Cornelius Van Til

Dr. Cornelius Van Til, served as a professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, for 43 years. He retired in 1972, but remained as an emeritus professor until his death in 1987. Van Til, an immigrant from The Netherlands, was one of the most respected apologetic theologians of his time.

Van Til earned degrees from Calvin College, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Princeton University on his way to becoming an Orthodox Presbyterian Minister. He served throughout the ministry and scholarly fields, including teaching as an instructor of apologetics at Princeton Theological Seminary and being heavily involved with the foundation of the Philadelphia-Montgomery Christian Academy.

His most noted writings include The New Modernism, The Defense of the Faith, and Christianity and Barthianism. Much of his work with apologetics focuses on the presuppositions of humans, the difference between believers and non-believers, and the opposition between Christian and non-Christian worldviews.

More information about Van Til as a teacher and Reformed theologian is available in an article Eric Sigward wrote for New Horizons entitled "Van Til Made Me Reformed." Read the article as HTML or PDF (copyright 2004 by New Horizons; used by permission)

Contents

Top Highlights

“Kuyper has a weakness in the foundation of his epistemolology. He did not start unequivocally from the presupposition of the ontological trinity. He has, to some extent, allowed himself to formulate his problems after the pattern of a modernized Platonism.” (Page 38)

“The biblical ‘system of truth’ is not a ‘deductive system.’ The various teachings of Scripture are not related to one another in the way that syllogisms of a series are related. The ‘system of truth’ of Scripture presupposes the existence of the internally, eternally, self-coherent, triune God who reveals Himself to man with unqualified authority.” (Page v)

“According to any consistently Christian position, God, and God only, has ultimate definitory power. God’s description or plan of the fact makes the fact what it is. What the modern scientist ascribes to the mind of man Christianity ascribes to God.” (Page 5)

“In the first place it ought to enable those who affirm, and those who deny common grace to be conscious of the fact that only in Reformed circles could the question have arisen at all.” (Page 12)

“If it is the self-contained ontological trinity that we need for the rationality of our interpretation of life, it is this same ontological trinity that requires us to hold to the apparently contradictory. This ontological trinity is, as the Larger Catechism of the Westminster Standards puts it, ‘incomprehensible.’ God dwells in light that no man can approach unto. This holds of His rationality as well as of His being, inasmuch as His being and His self-consciousness are coterminous.” (Pages 9–10)

Product Details

• Title: Common Grace and the Gospel
• Author: Cornelius Van Til
• Publisher: P&R
• Print Publication Date: 1977
• Logos Release Date: 2008
• Era: era:Contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Grace (Theology); Reformed Church › Doctrinal and controversial works
• Resource ID: LLS:CVTCMGRCGSP
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-02T19:25:29Z

About Cornelius Van Til

Cornelius Van Til (1895–1987) was one of the most respected apologetic theologians of his time. Van Til earned degrees from Calvin College, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Princeton University on his way to becoming an Orthodox Presbyterian Minister.

He served throughout the ministry and scholarly fields, including serving as a professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary and being heavily involved with the foundation of the Philadelphia-Montgomery Christian Academy.

His most noted writings include The New Modernism, The Defense of the Faith, and Christianity and Barthianism which can all be found in The Works of Cornelius Van Til (40 vols.).  Much of his work with apologetics focuses on presuppositions, the difference between believers and non-believers, and the opposition between Christian and non-Christian worldviews.