Cornelius Van Til

Born in 1895 in the Netherlands, Cornelius Van Til carried the torch of Abraham Kuyper's antithesis. His family, of whom were farmers, moved to North America when Van Til was 8 years of age. Van Til loved working with his hands, even having a garden outside of his Philadelphia home up to his death in 1987. But he had another calling that did not involve a life of a simple farmer (although he may have wanted that). In 1914 he entered Calvin College to prepare for Christian ministry. After he graduated from Calvin - with a short stint at Calvin Seminary - he headed to Princeton Seminary, where he earned 4 graduate degrees in 5 years. Apparently he was smart!

But when a wave of liberalism hit the seminary, Van Til and others left with J. Gresham Machen, to found Westminster Theological Seminary. Van Til would spend the rest of his life teaching there. And so, for over 40 years he pushed the antithesis. He personally taught over 1500 ministers and had a profound influence in Reformed circles.
Van Til's biggest contribution to popular evangelicalism was in writing "Christianity and Barthianism". He showed Barth's thought to be utterly contrary to the Christian faith. It undermined the authority of scripture and allowed for no historical facts concerning God whatsoever. Not that Barth didn't believe in history. But since God was so "active" He could not be pinned down in some static state. So, although God may be found in scripture, as much as in History, this is only one revelation of Himself. He could be found in a newspaper, as much as He could be found in scripture. Both are static and therefore cannot contain God's word (read: Jesus Christ) entirely.

But Van Til's greatest contribution to the Reformed faith came by way of his apologetics and theology. He found the inconsistencies of Calvinism and ironed them out. He found hidden camps of scholastic thought and eliminated them. He held to the confession (Westminster confession of faith) with a spirit of militancy. In isolation is where the Reformed faith grows. Not to be misunderstood, this does not mean to be in isolation from the world and in witness to the world. It means to be isolated in worldview and theology from every inconsistent form of Christianity, in order to protect the unique gospel witness that the Reformed faith possesses. Van Til and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church would not capitulate this unique testimony. They would not apprehend the ecumenical spirit of the age.

We have Van Til to thank for a more consistent and militant Christianity today. And more importantly, we have an example of Militant Calvinism come on its own.