A Significant Book: A Review

By

Cornelius Van Til

ARTICLE

"The Church of Christ and the Problems of the Day" by Karl Heim, D.D., Ph.D., Professor of Theology in the University of Tubingen, Germany (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York).

THIS is a book to make one sad. There is a great deal of good in it, but it also contains a fundamental error. The error referred to is epitomized in the opening sentence of chapter five. Here Dr. Heim says: "The essence of Christianity does not lie in a philosophy or a system of doctrine, nor in an ethic, but in a person." Now if this basic statement about Christianity is true we can no longer read our Bibles as the expression of the program of God for ourselves and the world. We are then left in complete uncertainty as to the future. Speaking of the resurrection of the dead Dr. Heim says: “Our future is based solely upon His creative power. He can leave us in nothingness if it is His desire. And He can call us into new being" (p. 170). To be sure, Dr. Heim adds that through our contact with the risen One "we become certain that God will take the latter course," but if we may really believe that God could leave us in nothingness we are at best uncertain. All this, we believe, is contrary to Scripture. The Scripture knows of no contrast between a person and a program; it teaches us about an absolute person with an absolute program.

In the modern situation we need to emphasize this conception of God’s program. Modern thought as a whole is irrationalistic; anyone who wishes to help Christian thought forward and strengthen it. against the irrationalism that surrounds us on every side must bring out clearly that God does have a program and that Scripture does give us a system of doctrine. All the good that Dr. Heim has said in this book, if it is to be interpreted in consistency with the basic contrast he himself makes between person and program, falls to the ground.

It seems to be a phenomenon of the times that men hold to several individual Christian doctrines and yet deny the foundation of all Christian doctrine. Dr. Lewis in his book, “A Christian Manifesto," seems to hold at least to some Christian doctrines. Dr. Heim's book contains a far greater proportion of orthodox teaching than Dr. Lewis' book. It is this latter fact that makes the book of Dr. Heim still more dangerous than the book of Dr. Lewis. Dr. Lewis’ book is so obviously heretical in its every chapter that he who runs may read. Not so with Dr. Heim's book; its error is more subtle and for that reason more dangerous.

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Notes

Cornelius Van Til

Cornelius Van Til (1895-1987) served as Professor of Apologetics at Westminster Seminary until 1975. His work in presuppositional apologetics remains a hallmark of our institution.

A Significant Book: A Review

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