The Contemporary Church is N – Bewitched by Naturalism
- 17 December 2023
“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Col 1:16)
Dr Van Til left few stones unturned in his life-long endeavour to expound a Biblical view of the world. He was a humble man with a powerful mind. [Try reading his essay on Christian Education – ‘The Full-orbed Life’ – then precis it!] Van Til taught that Christian thought is locked in a battle of competing paradigms and that the most principled modus operandi was to lay bare the, often hidden, presuppositions of our opponents. The apologist’s task is to compare foundational assumptions and, as outlined in Prov 26:4-5, to educate the fool concerning his folly.
Alas, contemporary thought is adrift from its Biblical counterpart on at least two counts: (i) it is anchored in scepticism and (ii) suffocated with naturalism. Van Til traces the rise of the former through 18th century rationalism à 19th century romanticism à 20th century pragmatism. These three streams of philosophical consciousness found confluence in what now parades as a sort of esoteric organism – a syncretism of all earlier motifs. Van Til noted, ‘if anyone will not follow the educational dictator John Dewey, if anyone dared to hold that evolution theory is not the gospel truth to be pushed down children’s throats, let him be anathema!’ [i]
Unwittingly, the contemporary evangelical Churches have breathed deeply the toxic cultural air of secular academia and have settled for an evidential perspective characterised by mere probabilistic affirmations rather than Scripture’s plain absolute assertions. Van Til’s best scholar, Dr Greg Bahnsen, famously debated RC Sproul on the merits of a presuppositional approach to apologetics. Consider just a few proof-texts cited by Bahnsen – Lu 1:4; Rom 4:19,21; 1Thess 1:5; Heb 6:11 & 10:22; Prov 14:26&22:17,21.
Van Til’s later explanation of mankind’s philosophical journey through time reached this explosive conclusion: ‘the starting point of the modern scientific method is the negation of the absolute. Consequently, it forces its agnosticism upon our children. Thus, the humble scientist who pretends to be satisfied with searching the facts in the laboratory suddenly turns philosopher, theologian, teacher, and preacher, pouring down our throat large doses of anti-theistic metaphysics in the dread name of science. Here we reach the high watermark of present-day anti-theistic thought. Our opponents maintain not only that they do not know anything about the nature of reality but also that nobody else can possibly know anything about it. The present-day scientist is often not the humbler seeker after truth but the militant preacher of a faith, and the faith that he preaches is the faith of agnosticism.
The Remedy
Returning to our principal focus: the evangelical Churches have, by and large, jettisoned the conviction that Creation is God’s handiwork. The universe did not evolve NATURALLY; matter in motion is not the ultimate MATERIALISTIC reality; laws as principles CREATED BY GOD are absolute and universal entities circumscribing ordinary, everyday eventuality. God is our Creator and stands outside of time and space. As the great Potentate of all of history, He holds all things together by the power of His Word (Col 1:17; Heb 1:3) and governs His cosmos providentially (Is 40:12-17; 21-26).
But all of this is ubiquitously challenged and scorned by the high priests of contemporary scientism. They insist upon a philosophical commitment to naturalism. As the late Philip E Johnson famously noticed, ‘As students grow more and more accustomed to assuming materialism and naturalism in their academic work, the concept of creation by God gradually tends to become less real to them. It is not so much that any single finding undermines their faith; rather, the day-to-day practice of thinking in naturalistic terms about academic subjects makes it awkward to think differently when it comes to religion.’[ii]
And so finally we must indict the Churches for their quiet acquiescence to Darwinism & the materialistic naturalism that underpins it. Why was there so little noise when Hutton & Lyell published their theories of Geological uniformitarianism? Why was there so little formal opposition to Darwin’s major thesis in 1859? But more pertinently, why after decades of compelling Scientific research and much more precise empirical observation involving nanotechology of intricate cellular machinery is there still so little volume of protest from evangelicals? We have become spineless cowards quite unwilling to put our heads above the parapet in the public square. Bravo various international Creation Ministries; bravo Ken Ham et al. Alas, such organisations still barely dent the prevailing naturalistic worldview that dominates the cultural landscape.
When will a new shepherd-boy arise who dares to challenge the Goliath of mainstream media? We need God again to raise up a Samson willing to take on the full might of the Philistines? We are like it was in the time of the Judges when, ‘every man did that which was right in his own eyes’ (Ju 17:6; 21:25). Our public humiliation springs from our loss of conviction regarding the status of God’s moral law. ‘It is time for You to act, O LORD, for they have regarded Your law as void’ (Ps 119:126).
What we dearly need is for an army of head-strong (both intellectually & psychologically) ambassadors who dare to affirm
- Recent historical supernatural fiat creation by God just a few thousand years ago
- That only the Triune God of Biblical Christianity can provide the necessary precondition of intelligibility to make sense of human experience
- That laws of logic, scientific laws – the inductive principle enabling us to expect ordinary causation to explain necessary succession of events – presuppose God’s existence
- That human reasoning transcends brain function – i.e. electrochemical reactions
- That mankind – as the pinnacle of Creation made in the image of God – can only comprehend his cosmic vocation as God’s redeemed viceregent on Earth as St Paul taught ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28).
[i] Foundations of Christian Education p124.
[ii] An Easy-to-Understand Guide for Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds
