Van Til and Calvin on Man

I have notables of the Christian faith, such as Cornelius Van Til, who by their faith have confessed and further deliberated a true nature of man as distinct from God. As I was reading Van Til's The Defense of the Faith, I couldn't help but look at the study of man. I recently finished the section of the study of man in Calvin's Institutes, which did clarify some of the notions of the noetic effects of sin and such. There was one sentence--or more properly, a paragraph--which roused my curiosity all the more: "Since, then, we see the flesh panting for every subterfuge by which it thinks that the blame for its own evils may in any way be diverted from itself to another, we must diligently oppose this evil intent. Therefore we must so deal with the calamity of mankind that we may cut off every shift, and may vindicate God’s justice from every accusation." (John Calvin, Calvin's Institutes, Book I:xv.1) And thereupon building on this thesis, if you would, Van Til delineates the overall plan for Christ's coming. He states, speaking of Christ, ". . . he [Christ] is our wisdom too in teaching us true knowledge about everything concerning which we should have knowledge" (p.17). I was just amazed at the brevity and cogent expression of this sentence. Philosophy is more broad and comprehensive, and Christ is the magnifier of knowledge interpreted. Therefore, if Christ is prophet, then he, too, is king. He tells us how we ought to seek to be happy. It is no wonder that the divines of the Westminster Assembly answered the first question in relation to God, when the object of happiness is under scrutiny; and Christ is the one who defines it. Amazing! How amazingly profound! But even still, polemics and further debate continues whether the particulars can make sense of the universals within the realm of philosophy. More of these posts to come.