Quote:
Originally Posted by CarolinaCalvinist  From my understanding of the Van Tillian approach to presuppositionalism, the unbeliever is to be shown the "impossibility of the contrary," that is, that every worldview except the Reformed Christian one leads to absurdity and contradictions. How does this square with the Van Tillian understanding of "apparent contradictions" in scripture? |
It doesn't square. Rather, it would show that Christianity is irrational too. I think Van Til's "apparent contradictions" is a point where VT's system is flawed. He never should have used the phrase "apparent contradictions". Rather, he should have said there are simply parts of the Bible we may not rightly understand. When he went so far as to say we must "embrace" these apparent contradictions, rather then trying to determine which of the two contradictory propositions is false, he pushed the Christian worldview into being irrational.
The rational Christian view is that when we perceive an apparent contradiction, we either try to determine which is true and reject the other, or we admit we don't know which is correct. We certainly don't embrace both as true because "apparently" they can not both be true, and we, being created as rational being's being made in God's image, can not believe both are true at the same time.
Also, if we believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, we know that both A and B can not be Scripture, because God certainly does not contradict himself. We may not know enough to determine which is Scripture, but certainly not both. God is neither irrational or absurd, and neither is His Word.