pious thinking ⁽⁹³⁾

Some suggest that pious Christian faith includes belief that the logically contradictory is true, such as in a divine realm beyond the laws of logic and all distinctions. In By Scripture Alone (2002 Trinity Foundation edition), W. Gary Crampton rejects this as impious nonsense: As I’ve noted in brackets, what is to be rejected is belief in contradictions that are true. It is in the sense of insoluble contradictions that, I believe,…

Gordon H. Clark, in the 1963 Presbyterian & Reformed edition of his Karl Barth’s Theological Method, argues that letting Scripture-based theology reign as queen over the sciences yields the unity of knowledge that reason requires. He writes: This proposal may strike even some Christians as odd today, since many so-called apologists now look to science for evidence upon which to base their version of Christian “faith.” In this scheme, science is queen…

Philip Jacob Spener, in his 1675 book Pia Desideria (Pious Desires), addressed the origin of impious interpretive schemes at odds with the perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture. Theodore Tappert translates Spener’s remarks as follows: While it is possible Spener considered some reasonable inferences from all that Scripture says to have been “Subtleties unknown to the Scriptures,” his basic observation merits every Bible believer’s attention. Very complex and imaginative interpretations may be made to…

In To Be As God: A Study of Modern Thought Since The Marquis de Sade (Ross House, 2003) Rousas John Rushdoony reiterates how the consistent immorality of the Marquis de Sade is the course most logically consistent with unbelief. Because [the Marquis de] Sade was so consistently evil, he was more logical than most evil men and most churchmen, whose inconsistent profession of Christianity blurs their vision badly. Sade’s fundamental premise in…

Rousas John Rushdoony, in his The Mythology Of Science (Ross House edition, 2001), points out the logical superiority (given unbelieving or “neutral” premises) of the Marquis de Sade’s anti-ethics over relativistic “consenting adults” morality. To date, American society has only been inclined to adopt the demonic Marquis’s logic when it comes to the victimization of innocents unable to speak for themselves, by making surgical abortion, which ends an innocent person’s life based…

Originally prepared March 2007 for a course at Bethel Seminary San Diego. In Search of the Soul: Four Views of The Mind-Body Problem, Edited by Joel B. Green & Stuart L. Palmer. Downers Grover: InterVarsity, 2005. Pp. 223. Paper. ISBN 0-8308-2773-0. 1, 2 Editor Joel B. Green opens the collection with an essay that introduces readers to the mind-body problem by surveying some relevant findings and opinions from neuroscience, philosophy, biblical studies,…

When essential bricks are left out, the wall cannot stand. Do better. Cornelius Van Til, in The Defense of The Faith (Presbyterian and Reformed, 3rd revised edition, 1967), describes how any unity of thought and experience that the impious (unbelievers) claim is illusory. At least, any unbelieving basis claimed for such unity is illusory, though a degree of unity at odds with unbelief, “a shadow unity,” is inevitably retained. And so it…

In the 1981 InterVarsity edition of his book Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People, Will Metzger warned against using a watered-down “feel good” gospel to make Christian faith seem more appealing to unbelievers. He wrote, “God has a wonderful plan for your life!” and “Won’t you give Jesus a chance?” may feel good to say, but that doesn’t mean you should say them. While it…

The world is full of popular, clever-sounding sayings that are simply not true. This brief post concerns one such pseudo-aphorism, namely this: This popular saying, which I have heard from pulpits and from other Christians for as long I can remember, has finally exceeded my tolerance. A relationship motivates practice; it does not replace it. Therefore, Christianity is both a religion and a relationship, with the latter motivating the former. To deny…