The Will In Its Theological Relations

"The Will in Its Theological Relations.€ 1924
Three bound notebooks, handwritten, 78, 95, 57 pp. [Van Til Papers, WTS Archives]

A paper written at Princeton Theological Seminary and presented to C. W. Hodge, Jr., for which Van Til was awarded the Gelston-Winthrop Fellowship in Systematic Theology.

€œHence we seek not to subject any part of Scripture to the principium generale, nor subject any part of scripture revelation to any other part, for that amounts to the same thing as again subjecting it to our own judgment. We found . . . that the Reformed covenant theology remained nearest to this Biblical position. Other theories of the will go off on either of two byways, namely that of seeking an unwarranted independence for man, or otherwise of subjecting man to philosophical necessitarianism. Reformed theology attempts to steer clear of both these dangers; avoiding all forms of Pelagianizing and of Pantheizing thought. It thinks to have found in the covenant relation of God with creation the true presentation of the Biblical concept of the relation of God to man. Man is totally dependent upon God and exists, with all creation, for God. Yet his freedom is not therewith abridged, but realized. Sin did not destroy this original covenant-relation because it is carried through in Christ. Members of the covenant of grace are again members of the covenant with man and therefore free.€