HE IS THERE AND HE IS NOT SILENT: Part Three

As Cornelius Van Til brilliantly pointed out all knowledge is derivative. Thus, in order for man to know anything it necessitates God. Without God man must have exhaustive knowledge within himself. Van Til goes on to write, “If one does not make human knowledge wholly dependant upon the original self-knowledge and consequent revelation of God to man, then man will have to seek knowledge within himself as the final reference point. Then he will have to seek an exhaustive understanding of reality. Then he will have to hold that if he cannot attain to such an exhaustive understanding of reality, he has no true knowledge of anything at all. Either man knows everything or he knows nothing.”[1]

In order to truly understand what has been said thus far we must go back to the time of man’s creation. The very first words in the Book of Life are, “In the beginning God” (Gen. 1:1), and the New Testament counterpart, “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). “In the beginning God,” this means that God is self-determinative. “He has no non-being over against himself in terms of which he needs or can to any extent interpret himself. He is omniscient. He is omniscient because of what he is as a self-sufficient Being. On the other hand we must add that the nature of God’s being requires complete exhaustive self-consciousness. God’s Being is coterminous with his self-consciousness.”[2]

The Westminster Confession of Faith 2:2 tells us, “God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which He hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto them: He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever Himself pleaseth.”

Though God in His triune perfection derives nothing from outside of Himself and finds all perfection within Himself it pleased Him to create by His eternal power and wisdom all things. On the sixth day of God’s creative acts He created man as a separate and distinct creature. The Westminster Confession of Faith (4:2) goes on to concisely say, “After God had made all other creatures, He created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after His own image; having the law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfill it: and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject unto change.”

Man being created in the image of God is an antecedent being. This means that God is man’s necessary antecedent. God not only created, but also sustains life for man. Thus, man has his existence because God exists, and because of this man is completely and utterly dependant upon God for his existence.

Man’s created functional purpose is to will the will of God over all of God’s creation with joy and spontaneity. Man was created as a steward, a vicegerent. Given this, man must know the will of his King in order to rule adequately and will His will. Thus, man was given several capacities upon his creation. These capacities include man’s mental, volitional, and emotional abilities. There are multiple aspects to man being created in the image of God which could be covered, but for purposes of this paper I will be brief.

Because man bears God’s image God is able to reveal Himself to man and man is in turn able to discern this revelation through his created capacities. The question then arises, how can man know God if God is incomprehensible? Even if man was given certain capacities to discern God’s revealing of Himself man is still finite. So, how is it possible for the finite to know the infinite? John Frame addresses this question as follows, “So God is knowable and known, and yet mysterious, wondrous, and incomprehensible. How can God be both knowable and incomprehensible? Like the problems discussed earlier – divine sovereignty and human responsibility, and the problem of evil – the biblical writers don’t treat this as a problem. Indeed, most believers have no trouble rejoicing in what God has revealed of himself, while worshipping in awe and wonder.”[3] Frame goes on to conclude, “We should think of God’s incomprehensibility, then, not as a ‘wholly otherness,’ but as the result of transcendence in the biblical sense: God has control and authority over creaturely knowledge. So his thoughts are not our thoughts, and his mystery permeates our knowledge. This kind of incomprehensibility does not compromise God’s knowability. Rather, God’s incomprehensible nature becomes immanent in his revelation of himself.”[4]

So, although God is incomprehensible man can still know God. This does not mean that man knows God comprehensibly, but it does mean that man knows God truly. Cornelius Van Til writes, “God alone knows himself and all things of the created universe exhaustively. He has revealed himself to man. But he did not reveal himself exhaustively to man. Neither the created universe nor the Bible exhaustively reveals God to man. Nor has man the capacity to receive such as exhaustive revelation. God reveals himself to man according to his ability to receive revelation. All revelation is anthropomorphic.”[5]

Given man’s created capacities and the absence of sin God was able to speak to man directly. Thus, God’s act of speaking, creating, and blessing are all one and the same. As soon as man came into existence he was utterly dependant upon very word that came from his Father’s mouth. Man was not born with a tabula rosa. Never at any point in man’s existence has he been autonomous. There was never a point when man was to use his capacities to discern truth for himself. Rather, his capacities were given to discern God’s revelation of Himself (truth). Therefore, the only place man can find meaning and right use of his capacities is when he wills the wills of God, and he cannot will the will of God unless he knows what that will is. Francis A. Schaeffer writes, “All the way back to the Greeks, we have for 2,000 years the cleverest men who have ever lived trying to find a way to have meaning and certainty of knowledge; but man, beginning with himself with no other knowledge outside of himself, has totally failed.”[6]

If man has been trying to find meaning and certainty of knowledge, but has never found it we should then ask the question, why? We know that God is perfect within Himself and is incomprehensible to man though man can truly know Him. Given that God must be perfect, and that man is to will God’s will after Him, we must then conclude that meaning and certainty of knowledge can only be found when man wills God’s will. Thus, when there is no meaning and uncertainty we must then conclude that we are not willing God’s will.