Baxter, Van Til, and Presuppositionalism

Some gold from The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter (1615-1691):

“Nothing can be rightly known, if God be not known; nor is any study well managed, nor to any great purpose, if God is not studied.” 56

“To see and admire, to revere and adore, to love and delight in God, as exhibited in his works – this is the true and only philosophy; the contrary is mere foolery, and is so called again and again by God himself.” 58

“I shall presume to tell you, by the way, that it is a grand error, and a dangerous consequence in Christian academies…that they study the creature before the Redeemer, and set themselves to physics, and metaphysics, and mathematics before they set themselves to theology; whereas no man that hath not the vitals of theology is capable of going beyond a fool in philosophy. Theology must lay the foundation, and lead the way of all our studies.” 58

Compare to Van Til (1895-1987), who said:

“Phenomena cannot be known without noumena.” Introduction to Systematic Theology, 148

“We cannot do without God any more when we wish to know about physics or psychology than we wish to know about our soul’s salvation. Not one single fact in this universe can be known truly by man without the existence of God.” 36

Shall we in the interest of a point of contact admit that man can interpret anything correctly if he virtually leaves God out of the picture? Shall we who wish to prove that nothing can be explained without God first admit some things at least can be explained without him? On the contrary we shall show that all explanations without God are futile. Only when we do this do we appeal to that knowledge of God within men which they seek to suppress. The Defense of the Faith, 258

“If Christian theism is not true, then nothing is true. Is the God of the Bible satisfied if his servants say anything less?” 264

“The basic difference between the two types of apologetics is to be found, we believe, in the primary assumption that each party makes. The Romanist-evangelical type of apologetics assumes that man can first know much about himself and the universe and afterward ask whether God exists and Christianity is true. The Reformed apologist assumes that nothing can be known by man about himself or the universe unless God exists and Christianity is true.” 310