Van Til and Evangelistic Identity

by ERIC B. WATKINS

Many people are familiar with the name Cornelius Van Til. He was a Dutch, Orthodox Presbyterian Minister (with a PhD from Princeton) who taught at Westminster Theological Seminary for decades following the 1930s. He is particularly well-known for his teaching on reformed apologetics. Van Til was an ardent defender of the Reformed faith.

He was loved for what he taught in his classes and admired for his many published books, though admittedly his books are not easy reading. Van Til was a brilliant thinker, whose academic and intellectual abilities loomed over many of his contemporaries. This is the side of Van Til with which most people are familiar.

Van Til was also a churchman. He loved the church and demonstrated that love in countless, simple ways. His students remember his frequent practice on Sunday afternoons. In between attending the morning and evening services Van Til would go to the local hospital in his area to visit the sick, reading Scripture and praying with them. From visiting hos pitals to showing hospitality in the home, to housing students, Van Til’s love for the body of Christ was abundantly manifest: Van Til loved the church.

There is a lesser known side of Van Til to which I would like to draw attention in this article – Van Til’s evangelistic identity. The word identity is helpfully distinguished from other words. Method might refer to how something is done on occasion. Habit might refer to it actually being done regularly, but identity suggests something that is at a person’s core. It is who they are and what they are committed to internally that shapes what they regularly and faithfully do externally. Van Til’s identity was shaped by the gospel and a desire to share that gospel with as many people as he could. Let me illustrate.

Van Til was a gardener. After his wife died, he did his best to maintain his Pennsylvania home, inside and out, as well as his health. A student of Van Til remembers visiting his professor. Van Til loved to walk around his neighborhood. One day, as the two were walking together, a neighbor casually said to the student, “I bet he’s talking to you about Jesus, isn’t he?” That’s how neighbors knew him – he was an evangelist – a man who loved Jesus and loved to talk about Jesus.

Van Til had an interesting reputation among his students. He had a good sense of humor and was famous for playfully throwing chalk at them if they answered correctly. He loved ice cream and enjoyed eating it with students. But he also took students on occasion to downtown New York and would preach the gospel on street corners. His actions spoke to those students. Van Til practiced what he preached and he preached what he practiced.

Van Til believed that the days in which he lived were dark and stormy. He likened them to the days of Calvin and Luther, or of Moses and Joshua. He believed that a sober awareness of the times would lead to fervent preaching of the gospel. He grieved over how blinded the world truly was, but also at how cold and indifferent the church at times could be. He once referred to The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, and noted that in many ways it seemed as though Wormwood’s plan was working. The church had been lulled to sleep by the idols of comfort and ease, and sadly, the salt of the earth and light of the world was in danger of becoming bland and dim.

​Van Til called for reformation. In a sermon before the 1968 OPC General Assembly, he said, “Only if each one of God’s people will see himself in the light of the calling that he has, together with all the people of the covenant to become a blessing to all nations through the promised Messiah, will they be able to face the future with joy and confidence instead of fear.” Van Til saw the church not simply as the recipient of God’s blessings, but also as the agent of God’s blessing to the nations. The church was God’s means for evangelism. This evangelistic identity was to be at the core of the church’s sense of mission and purpose in the world.

Readers of this article might also recognize that we live in dark and perilous times. Van Til preached on the street corners of New York City in the early 1960s. Imagine what that would be like today. The church, Van Til suggested, was in danger of being lulled to sleep by the idols of comfort and ease back then. Surely the same temptations to withdraw into comfortable isolation confronts us today. Pride ensnares the hearts of us all, and on this point, Van Til noted that Jesus sets himself against proud people and especially proud ministers.

“True boldness for Christ and true humility go hand in hand,” Van Til said.

Satan may have many devices, but the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit is stronger. King Jesus wins and his church will have the victory in Him. But there is much work to do. Along these lines, Van Til once asked, “Who then must bring to a world that is without God and without hope, the message of Christ’s constraining love for sinful men? Who must take the only name given under heaven by which men must be saved? It is our little church that was brought into existence for this very pur pose. It is, thank God, not we alone.”

Van Til believed that evangelism was at the heart of the church’s identity and mission. It was not simply the OPC’s calling according to Van Til. It was to the identity and mission of the church in general – especially the reformed church. As Calvinists, we do not simply believe that God makes men savable; we believe He actually saves them, and that the church is the ordinary agent for doing so. Such theology inspires our confidence. God has promised to be with his Church until the end of the age, when the mission is accomplished.
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What gives us our sense of identity? What fuels our sense of mission, purpose and calling? What dispels our fear and gives us confidence to face the world? It is the gospel, and God’s promise to be with us until the kingdom fully comes. As Scripture reminds us, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.