Even in the Creation of the Universe and of All Things, Scripture By Unmistakable Marks Distinguishes the True God From False Gods.
Section 1: We Cannot and Should Not Go Behind God's Act of Creation in Our Speculation.
Calvin starts this chapter off by saying that false believers are obtuse, not learning from the foundation of the world who the true God is. But, despite their obtuseness, we who know the true God must depict more distinctly than they do in the false religions our else, due to the "slowness and dullness of our wit," to prevent believers from deserting to the false religions or wavering in doubt. "Therefore it was his will that the history of Creation be made manifest, in order that the faith of the church, resting upon this, might seek no other God but him who was put forth by Moses as the Maker and Founder of the universe."
In the account of creation, we are shown the beginning of all things. In this, God's eternity shines forth, for he was before the universe was created. Here Calvin gets into a strange discussion of those who speculate as to why God did not create the universe sooner than he did, "but that he idly permitted an immeasurable time to pass away." He answers this charge by simply stating that such questions are "neither lawful nor expedient" since we cannot know the answer. All we can do is "remember that that invisible God, whose wisdom, power, and righteousness are incomprehensible, sets before us Moses' history as a mirror in which his living likeness glows." We should seek no higher will for creation than God alone. Nor should we try to raise questions which we cannot answer, such as questions about "immeasurable stretches of time ... and of space." "As if within six thousand years God has not shown evidences enough on which to exercise our minds in earnest meditation!"
"Therefore let us willingly remain enclosed within these bounds to which God has willed to confine us, and as it were, to pen up our minds that they may not, through their very freedom to wander, go astray."
Section 2: The Work of the Six Days Shows God's Goodness Toward Men.
God indeed created the world in six days so that "we are drawn away from all fictions to the one God who distributed his work into six days that we might not find it irksome to occupy our whole life in contemplating it." Instead, our mind (human reason) must be "subjected to the obedience of faith."
In the order in which God did indeed create all things, we see his great care and providence. For he did not create human beings on an earth which would not support them, but first created all things that we would need to live before creating us. Thus Moses "not only speaks of the bare essence of God, but also sets forth for us His eternal Wisdom and Spirit; that we may not conjure up some other gad that him who would have himself recognized in that clear image."
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Reflection: Through these sections, I have come across again and again warnings against speculation beyond what is revealed in Scripture. Here Calvin suggests the reason for such warning--our human faculty of reason is fallen along with the rest of us, and needs to submit to the obedience of faith. We are sinful, and so do not live rightly, and neither do we think rightly. Without the regenerating work of the Spirit, our reasoning is fallen and cannot be trusted to lead us to the truth. Sure, we can know certain things, reason to certain things, but without renewal, we are easily led astray. Just look at those in the world around us to see how this works out. Reason is a god unto itself, and if people cannot understand something, if they cannot submit, for example, God to their own reasoning, then they cannot and will not believe in him.
It is a frustrating thing, this deification of our own reason, but something that we so easily do. It is frustrating because at some point in any discussion with an unbeliever, you find that there is a huge chasm between you, and there is no human way to cross it.
The more I learn, the more I study and think about these things, the more Van Tillian I become. It's all a matter of presuppositions, and without the light of faith worked in us through the Holy Spirit, we will never see the truth.
P.S. I am finally getting over being sick. It really knocked me out this time...it has taken me a while just to start regaining my stamina again. Good thing I have the opportunity to get enough sleep, without having to worry too much about getting sermons done and visits in, let alone meetings at night!
3 comments:
Van Tillian??? What does that mean?
Glad you are feeling better.
Barbara
Cornelis Van Til was a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, and a very important Reformed apologist. He argued that believers and unbelievers have no common ground upon which to argue, but that we have different sets of presuppositions, so we need to be aware of and argue against unbelievers' presuppositions rather than try to argue from a common foundation. We need to show that their worldview doesn't work and that ours does.
I haven't read much of him (yet), but what I have read, I have liked. Rev. Wes Bredenhof got me hooked.
Sounds a lot like the debate between evolutionary and creationist worldviews. Something my kids know a lot about. Though science clearly points to a Creator and a worldwide flood, evolutionary scientists apply many presuppositions to come up with different answers.
You may be hooked on Van Til but around here it is Science that gets us excited!
Barbara
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