Westminster's Confession: The Abandonment of Van - Gary North

410 Pages·2009·16.86 MB·English

WESTMINSTER'S CONFESSION
The Abandonment of Van Til's .Legacy
OTHER BOOKS BY GARY NORTH
Marx's Religion ofRevolution, 1968 [1989]
An Introduction to Christian Economics, 1973
Puritan Economic Experiments, 1974 [1988]
Unconditional Surrender, 1981 [1988]
Successful Investing in an Age ofEnvy, 1981
The Dominion Covenant, Genesis, 1982 [1987]
Backward Christian Soldiers?, 1984
75 Bible Questions }burInstructors Pray }bu Won't Ask, 1984
Moses and Pharaoh: Dominion Religion *rsus Power Religion, 1985
The Sinai Strategy: Economics and the Ten Commandments, 1986
Conspiracy: A Biblical View, 1986
Unholy Spirits: Occultism and New Age Humanism, 1986
Honest Money, 1986
Fighting Chance, 1986 [with Arthur Robinson]
Dominion and Common Grace, 1987
Inherit the Earth, 1987
Liberating Planet Earth, 1987
Healer ofthe Nations, 1987
Is the World Running Down, 1988
Trespassingfor Dear Life, 1989
WhenJustice Is Aborted, 1989
The Hoax ofHigher Criticism, 1989
Tools ofDominion: The Case Laws ofExodus, 1990
Millennialism and Social Theory, 1990
Christian Reconstruction: What It Is, What It Isn't, 1991 [with Gary
DeMar]
Books edited by Gary North
Foundations ofChristian Scholarship, 1976
Tactics ofChristian Resistance, 1983
The Theology ofChristian Resistance, 1983
Theonomy: An Informed Response, 1991
Editor,Journal ofChristian Reconstruction (1974-1981)
WESTMINSTER'S CONFESSION
The Abandonment of Van Til's Legacy
Gary.North
Institute for Christian Economics
Tyler, Texas
Copyright, Gary North, 1991
Van Til cover photo courtesy of
Westminster Theological Seminary.
Torn picture reproduction courtesy
ofRobert Langham Photography.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
North, Gary.
Westminster's confession: the abandonment ofVan
Til's legacy / Gary North.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-930464-54-0 (alk. paper) : $14.95
1. Theonomy. 2. Calvinism. 3. Dominion
theology. 4. Law (Theology). 5. Reformed
Church - Doctrines. 6. Westminster Theological
Seminary (Philadelphia, Pa. and Escondido, Ca.).
7. Van Til, Cornelius, 1895-1988. 8. Sociology,
Christian - United States. 9. Religious pluralism
- Christianity - Controversial literature.
I. Title.
BT82.25.T443N69 1991
230'.046 - dc20 91-7200
CIP
Institute for Christian Economics
P. O. Box 8000
Tyler, Texas 75711
This book is dedicated to the most accomplished
instructor I had at Westminster Seminary,
Norman Shepherd
who combined Machen's eschatological optimIsm,
VanTil's presuppositional apologetic, and Murray's
precise theological language. He was a loyal de
fender ofWestminster's original confession.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. xix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1
Chapter 1:·The Question ofInheritance 20
Chapter 2: Calvin's Divided Judicial Legacy 48
Chapter 3: A Positive Biblical Confession Is Mandatory .. 73
Chapter 4: A Negative Confession Is Insufficient 99
Chapter 5: The Question ofLaw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Chapter 6: The Question ofGod's Predictable Historical
Sanctions 148
Chapter 7: The Question ofMillennialism . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Chapter 8: Sic et Non: The Dilemma ofJudicial
Agnosticism 189
Chapter 9: Abusing the Past 234
Chapter 10: An Editor's Task: Just Say No! 259
Conclusion 295
Appendix A: H. L. Mencken's Obituary ofMachen .... 312
Appendix B: Honest Reporting as Heresy . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Appendix C: The Paralysis ofthe Parachurch Ministries 342
Appendix D: Calvin's Millennial Confession 349
Appendix E: Julius Shepherd 357
Books for Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Scripture Index 369
Index 372
About the Author 386
It was Dr. Van Til who shocked the new students into doc
trinal awareness. No fact is unrelated to the God ofthe Bible,
he declared. All truth, to be known aright, must be seen in the
light ofthe revelation ofthe Creator and Redeemer. By God's
grace we, his redeemed creatures, think God's thoughts after
him. Christianity is not probably true; it is truth. All merely
human philosophy and science is challenged and found want
ing. God upholds all things, including unbelievers. The believ
er and the unbeliever have everything in common metaphysi
cally, but epistemologically they have nothing in common. In
our proclamation ofGod and his grace, we present the triune
God as the sole ground for all our salvation from sin, for all of
life, and for all our thinking.!
Ifit is indeed not our King's intention for the civilauthority
to enforce the first great commandment, then among the five
alternatives Bahnsen offers as possible standards for civil law,
natural revelation as indeed "a sin-obscured edition of the
same law of God" "suppressed in unrighteousness by the sin
ner" is that to which we must appeal. ...
William s. Barker2
1. The OrtlwdoxPresbyterian Church, 1936-1886, edited by Charles G. Dennison
(Philadelphia: OrthodoxPresbyterian Church, 1986),p. 324.
2. Barker, "Theonomy, Pluralism, and the Bible," in William S. Barker and
Robert W. Godfrey (eds.), Theonomy: A ReformedCritique (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
ZondervanAcademie, 1990),p. 240.
FOREWORD
One desire has been the ruling passion ofmy life. One high motive
has acted like a spur upon my mind an soul. And sooner than that I
should seek escapefrom the sacrednecessitythatis laid uponme, letthe
breath oflifefail me. It is this: That in spite ofall worldly opposition,
God's holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the
school and in the State for the good ofthe people; to carve as it were .
intothe conscience ofthenation the ordinances oftheLord, towhichthe
Bibleand Creation bearwitness, untilthe nationpays homage again to
God.
Abraham Kuyper (l897Y
Calvinism is in crisis. Itis shrinking, both numerically and in
terms of its cultural impact, and has been since 1660, when
King Charles II returned to the English throne. How did this
happen? Calvinism was once a dominant force socially in Nor
thern Europe, not because there were many Calvinists, but
because they were influential out ofproportion to their num
bers in charitable works, scholarship, science, and business. Yet
Calvinism today is unknown to most people. Why? There are
many reasons, butthe mostsignificant one thatCalvinists could
and should have prevented was this: the intellectual and spirit-
1. Cited byJohn Herdrik de Vries, "Biographical Note," Abraham Kuyper,
LecturesonCalvinism (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1931),p.iii.
x WESTMINSTER'S CONFESSION
ual leaders within Calvinism have, for over three centuries,
voluntarily surrendered the culturally relevant aspects ofCal
vinism byaccepting the dominant humanist worldview that has
assailed the Church. Eventually, Calvinists even abandoned the
ideaofChristendom - oneof]ohn Calvin'sfundamental assump
tions: theprecious legacyofAugustine, thepost-Nicene Church
fathers, and the early monastic orders.2 Meanwhile, the hu
manists robbed them blind.
From 1660 to 1789, the humanists took the fundamental
doctrines of Calvinism and secularized them. They stripped
these ideas of all biblical theological content and produced a
new man-centered worldview, which became dominant in the
West. First, they took the doctrine of the sovereignty of God
and made itthe sovereignty ofnature and nature's finest prod
uct, autonomous man. The twin idols of nature and history
again became the idols ofman, as they have been throughout
pagan history.3 Second, the Calvinist doctrine ofthe priesthood
of all believers became the foundation of modern democratic
theory, beginning with the Levellers in the Cromwell period.
Calvinism's concept ofthe right ofthe laity to vote in church
elections became the model for politics. Third, the Calvinist
view ofGod's law and man's God-given ability to recognize it
and apply it to this world became the foundation of modern
science and technology. Fourth, Calvinism's doctrine of God's
sanctions in history - blessings and cursings - became, in the
writings of the anti-Calvinist Scottish common sense rational
ists,4 the concept of the impersonal market forces of supply
and demand. Fifth, Puritanism's unique conceptofthe triumph
2. Roland Bainton, Christendom, 2vols. (NewYork: HarperTorchbooks, 1966),
I,ch. 5.
3. Herbert Schlossberg.Idolsfor Destruction: Christian Faith andIts Confrontation
withAmerican Society (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway,[1983] 1990),p. 11.
4. The rightwing ofthe Enlightenment.