“A lot of nonsense and misunderstanding concerning natural revelation / law / theology could be spared if people would distinguish between different points of telos. Presupps tend to reduce the discussion to the soteriological telos. But there are many others to consider.”
Cody Justice
Natural Law Aficionado
“There remain, however, in man since the fall, the glimmerings of natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge of God, of natural things, and of the differences between good and evil, and discovers some regard for virtue, good order in society, and for maintaining an orderly external deportment. But so far is this light of nature from being sufficient to bring him to a saving knowledge of God and to true conversion, that he is incapable of using it aright even in things natural and civil. Nay, further, this light, such as it is, man in various ways renders wholly polluted and holds it in unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes inexcusable before God.”
THIRD AND FOURTH HEADS OF DOCTRINE
Of the Corruption of Man, His Conversion to God, and the Manner Thereof
Article 4
I am a presuppositionalist. Over the years I have followed this argument carefully about Natural Law. I have read books on both sides. I am finishing up one now that Cody recommended to me some time ago. It has not changed my mind. Not even close. Having said that, I am here to tell you that Presupps understand perfectly that
1.) That their opponents (The Natural Law club) do not themselves argue that Natural Law is of any service in relation to the soteriological telos. Indeed presupps acknowledge that there is the retaining of some knowledge of God, of natural things, and of the differences between good and evil, and of the discovering of some regard for virtue, good order in society, and for maintaining an orderly external deportment.
Indeed, it is not possible for those outside of Christ to have a worldview system that doesn’t incorporate some aspects of God’s natural revelation and natural law for a unbelieving worldview that would be completely absent of natural revelation and/or natural law would be one that brought instantaneous death. Van Til would speak of this content of God’s natural revelation/ natural law present in unbelieving worldviews as “stolen capital” as gained by filching from Christianity.
We only insist that the this stolen capital from Christianity is in service against Christianity as it exists within the worldview of the non-Christian in order to deface Christianity. For example, over the centuries many peoples have understood the distinctions between males and females (as is going into eclipse now among some Western peoples) but the understanding of those distinctions often made for marriages where the women (wives) were slaves of their husbands. Natural Law was accepted as to male and female differences but then put into the service of demeaning women. So, in such examples we see the truth of what Dordt says when it offers;
that fallen man is incapable of using it (Natural Light) aright even in things natural and civil. Nay, further, this light, such as it is, man in various ways renders wholly polluted and holds it in unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes inexcusable before God.”
2.) Another thing that needs to be noted here is that nobody among the presupps deny that the heavens declare the handiwork of God or that the earth showeth forth His firmament (Ps. 19). Those among the presupps who reject Natural Law as a epistemological foundation for fallen man agree that Natural Revelation exists and that God is making Himself known in all creation. Our issue is not with the fact that God makes Himself known in nature. Our issue is that as fallen man suppresses the truth in unrighteousness and as fallen man has a mind that is at enmity with God, fallen man takes Natural Law in all its varied purposes (ends/goals) and twists them thereby becoming inexcusable before God.
3.) The fact that fallen man can still produce or apprehend beauty is accounted for by the fact of the common providence of God whereby God has not yet completely turned a people over to their sin. It is not that by means of Natural Law man is climbing to a higher state. It is, rather, that by God’s common providence fallen man has not yet fallen as far as he will fall if he does not repent.
4.) Presupps believe that the proper use of teleos for Natural Law in all things (not merely soteriology) can only be arrived at by reading Natural Law through the grid of special revelation. This is one reason why Scripture teaches; “In thy Light we see light.” To hold a contrary view, such as is held by the Natural Law fan-club denies the noetic effects of the fall, which in turn denies the standard Reformed teaching of total depravity, which in turn overturns the whole of the Reformed faith. This explains why the presupps can get a wee bit exercised over this issue.
5.) An illustration that Van Til used here touched on signals and radio stations. CVT would say that indeed Natural Revelation / Natural Law is being sent, much as radio signals are being sent out. The problem is not with the radio signals. The problem is that fallen man is constantly pushing every button on the old Delco car radios in order to find a station that is not playing God’s signals.
So, Corey is plainly in error here, as are all the members of the Natural Law fan club.
Failure to understand the “dialectical” nature of paganism, as Van Til and Rushdoony taught it, the interaction between one and the many, or order and chaos, is what prevents many people from realizing things like the pagan origins of Communism. For they see haughty hierarchical cultures like the Roman Empire, and think that that is what paganism was ALL about.
But they have seen only one side of the coin, or only one aspect of the heathen dialectic. For paganism is like “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and has also its uglier, or more chaotic side. The levelling chaos-festivals like Saturnalia and Bacchanalia were proof enough of this. (Nietzsche also had a hunch of this, as he saw the duality between the orderly “Apollonian” and chaotic “Dionysian” sides of pagan worldview.)
This principle also applies to Christ-rejecting Jews, btw. They have their orderly, or dreadfully legalistic side, as described and prescribed in the Talmud. But sometimes the Pharisees also like to flirt with chaos and “walk on the wild side,” and that is where Kabbalah comes in. Kabbalistic mysticism has some pretty wild, antinomian-revolutionary teachings that the rabbis have tried to keep hidden from prying eyes.
As E. Michael Jones observed:
“In a paper presented at a conference sponsored by The Institute on East Central Europe and The Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University in 1983, Jacob Allerhand claims that ‘according to Sabbatian teachings,’ Sabbatai Zevi’s drunken orgies ‘represented erotic mysteries that were supposed to make a way through the ‘gate of lechery’ into the hall of eternity.’ In other words, those Jews who were influenced by the Kabbalah – Jews like Nathan of Gaza and his protege Shabbetai Zevi – could posit ‘a connection between the Original Sin, with the origin of shame, and the tikkun (repair of the blemish) as the elimination of shame under the new messianic order.'”
Right … the heathen dialectical uses chaos and order (anarchy and totalitarianism) as limiting concepts. Not having a One and the Many they have no other option.