InSlaveryToChrist
Puritan Board Junior
Cornelius Van Til, quoted in R. J. Rushdoony, By What Standard? (Fairfax, VA: Thoburn Press, 1974), 89.
"God made all things in this universe for Himself, that is, for His own glory. But not all things can reflect His glory self-consciously. Yet it is self-conscious glorification that is the highest kind of glorification. Accordingly, God put all things in this universe into covenant relation with one another. He made man the head of creation. Accordingly, the flowers of the field glorified God directly and unconsciously, but also indirectly and consciously through man. Man was to gather up into the prism of his self-conscious activity all the manifold manifestations of the glory of God in order to make one central self-conscious sacrifice of it all to God."
I've bolded the phrases that didn't make sense to me. What I do not understand here is how making man the head of creation makes the flowers of the field glorify God consciously through man. And what seemed even more confusing to me was the last, long phrase of the quote. Could someone, please, explain it to me in some other words?
Thanks in advance!
"God made all things in this universe for Himself, that is, for His own glory. But not all things can reflect His glory self-consciously. Yet it is self-conscious glorification that is the highest kind of glorification. Accordingly, God put all things in this universe into covenant relation with one another. He made man the head of creation. Accordingly, the flowers of the field glorified God directly and unconsciously, but also indirectly and consciously through man. Man was to gather up into the prism of his self-conscious activity all the manifold manifestations of the glory of God in order to make one central self-conscious sacrifice of it all to God."
I've bolded the phrases that didn't make sense to me. What I do not understand here is how making man the head of creation makes the flowers of the field glorify God consciously through man. And what seemed even more confusing to me was the last, long phrase of the quote. Could someone, please, explain it to me in some other words?
Thanks in advance!