Henry R. Van Til Quotes

#1. Although the realization of values in a culture may seem on the surface to be concerned merely with the temporal and material, this is appearance only, for man is a spiritual being destined for eternity, exhaustively accountable to his Creator-Lord.

Henry R. Van Til

#2. Scripture is not only the authoritative guide for the way of salvation, but it furnishes man with an authoritative interpretation of reality as a whole.

Henry R. Van Til

#3. One cannot keep on evangelizing the world without interfering with the world's culture. It devolves upon God's people, therefore, to contend for such a society which will give the maximum opportunity for us to live wholly Christian lives and the maximum opportunity for others to become Christians.

Henry R. Van Til

#4. The Protestant Reformation did not merely seek to cleanse the church and deliver it from doctrinal errors, but it also sought the restoration of the whole of life.

Henry R. Van Til

#5. Does the twentieth-century disciple have a right to discard the cultural mandate, twice given to the human race by Jehovah himself? Are we justified in turning the world and culture over to the enemies of God How far does the kingship of Christ extend?

Henry R. Van Til

#6. The expectation of future glory and the joy of future redemption has its counterpart here and now in the implications for the present life of the believer.

Henry R. Van Til

#7. Culture is "lived religion". It is the form that religion takes in the lives of men.

Henry R. Van Til

#8. Culture is any and all human effort and labor expended upon the cosmos, to unearth its treasures and its riches and bring them into the service of man for the enrichment of human existence unto the glory of God.

Henry R. Van Til

#9. Culture derives its meaning from man's faith in God; it is never an end in itself, but always a means of expressing one's religious faith.

Henry R. Van Til

#10. Calvinism furnishes us with the only theology of culture that is truly relevant for the world in which we live, because it is the true theology of the Word.

Henry R. Van Til

#11. A biblical metaphysics implies a biblical theory of knowledge and a biblical ethic.

Henry R. Van Til

#12. Christ has redeemed the cultural agents, thus transforming culture also.

Henry R. Van Til

#13. The problem of living a Christian life in a non-Christian society is pressing, since most of our social institutions are non-Christian and in pagan hands. The family remains the only trustworthy transmitter of Christian culture.

Henry R. Van Til

#14. Since man is a moral being, his culture cannot be a-moral. Because man is a religious being, his culture, too, must be religiously oriented.

Henry R. Van Til

#15. The Christian is in the world, but not to be of it. This constitutes the basis of the perennial problem involved in the discussion of Christian culture. Because believers are not of the world, there have been many Christians who have taken a negative attitude toward culture.

Henry R. Van Til

#16. Religion based on divine sovereignty is religion for God's sake. Religion is for God, for whom all things exist. Whereas all forms of Arminianistic Christianity make man the final arbiter of his own salvation, in Calvinism, God saves sovereignly, immediately, whom He wills.

Henry R. Van Til

#17. The family is the simplest and smallest unit of society and the real fountain of culture. If this fountain remains pure, man's culture has promise. But if it becomes polluted, all the rest will turn to dust and ashes, since the home is the foundation of the entire social structure.

Henry R. Van Til

#18. Rome changed the New Testament catholicity (which purifies and sanctifies as it's proper domain the whole of life) and has substituted in its place a dualism which separates the supernatural from the natural.

Henry R. Van Til

#19. Through the Reformation, the mechanical relation of nature and grace was superceded by an ethical one, so that the restoration of the law of God in every sphere of life became the concern of the believer.

Henry R. Van Til

#20. Religious faith always transcends culture, and is the integrating principle and power of man's cultural striving.

Henry R. Van Til

#21. To divide life into areas of sacred and secular, letting our devotions take care of the former while becoming secular reformers during the week, is to fail to understand the true end of man

Henry R. Van Til

#22. Culture is concerned with the world of values. All cultures are irreducibly value-oriented.

Henry R. Van Til

#23. The primary principle of the Calvinistic system of thought is the direct and absolute sovereignty of God over all things. Such sovereignty is not one among the many attributes of God, but it comes to expression in all of His attributes.

Henry R. Van Til