by Chris Alexion, Copyright April 04, 2006, all rights reserved. 271 views
"If non-Reformed evangelical theologies tend toward subjectivism, modern non-evangelical theology stands on it flat-footed! Take the theology of Karl Barth, for example. The free grace of God, Barth maintained, could not be communicated through a stabilized, objectivized revelation. Orthodox theology, he argues, has reduced the living, active revelation of God to that of a lifeless form. When Barth spoke agreeably, therefore, of verbal inspiration he 'actualized' it and therewith fitted it 'into his system.'
"In bringing down the Bible to the dimension of 'causal relations,' orthodoxy brings down the entire religious relation between God and man to the level of impersonal concepts and ideas. Orthodoxy is the theology of the 'blessed possessors,' the theology of those who control the freedom of God. The God of orthodoxy, indeed the God of Calvinism, is not sovereign! The God of Calvin is not the God of sovereign, universal grace.
"We may say, therefore, that the Barthian soteriology of 'sovereign, free grace' which comes to us only in our ectivity entails a radically new view of Scripture itself. The Bible may now be called the Word of God only in so far as it brings this message of subjectivity to us. To say 'The Bible is the Word of God,' for Barth, does not imply a directly discernible revelation of God in history as we know it.
"From these examples of Roman Catholic, Arminian-Wesleyan- Lutheran, and finally modern theology, it is clear (1) that the idea of Scripture can never be separated from the message of Scripture, and (2) that none of these non-Reformed evangelical and modern theologies have a view of Scripture such that the Lord Christ speaks to man with an absolute authority. The self- attesting Christ of Scripture is not absolutely central to these theologies. Just so, he will not be central in any apologetic form to defend them."
- Cornelius Van Til, "My Credo"
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