Of Hardened-Hearts, An Open Letter

This past Thursday was a strange one. The entire day I was fixated on hardened-hearts, and near everything brought to me dealt with hardened-hearts. Strange coincidence. It started shortly after midnight on Thursday morning when I penned the following.

A man might speak truth, but through his action can mysteriously make truth to be untruth. By this I mean to say that a man may know all truths, but if he does not live out truth, if truth does not drive him, begin him at every moment- then truth is an untruth. Those who turn to such men see a veil of falsehood that covers/distorts truth, and truth is lost for those who, turning to such men, reject the veil thiking it to be truth. Woe to the man who willingly adorns himself with a deceitful veil whether knowingly or not. Regardless, brothers, we must avail to discourage one another from such garb as this. To those who unwittingly act in this disobedience we must reveal to them the Light of Christ which is Truth and which destroys all untruth. But of those whose hearts are hardened- what do we do? To those whose gnostic pride assails the truth- how will the LORD lead us? We speak truth, and they speak truth, but in our actions we are divided. One acts truth, the other acts spite, selfishness, and distraction from the truth. What of such men? I would say 'love,' but I hesitate. For if their hearts are hardened such that they know truth but do not act in it- what then is the will of God?

Mr. Van Til

So I've been listening to a Cornelius Van Til lecture mp3. You can find it on theopedia, under Karl Barth. So far he's rejecting the existential heritage that Barth is bringing into theology; he considers this direct connection of God to our consciousness man-centered theology (Jesus is the man, the Son of Man, by the way). I do think it needs to be said that it is not merely "us and God" but that the Holy Spirit connects us with Christ, who reveals the Father. This is what Barth is getting at, and Mr. Van Til misunderstands him. And of course, the Father reveals the Son, but this goes to show that Father and Son are working together. We need not worry about a secret agenda (or secret decree) from God the Father, we see Christ doing his work. Jesus of Nazareth, the Jesus who is the head of the church now. Anyhow...He labels Bart a "liberal modern theologian," and what I don't get is how he can't see that he himself is entrenched in the modern notion that our reason is capable of providing a framework for God's action. This is our "man-centered" theology at it's best (or it's worst:( ). Sure, we have scripture, and we can build a framework upon that, but God is beyond our frameworks. It reminds me of the Pharisees, and there shock when Jesus did something apart from the Torah (healing on the Sabbath, for example). It's not like he just spoke to people thousands of years ago and then stopped, leaving us this book to figure out. He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, through the Bible.

Sorry, that's just my rant. Criticisms are welcome.

And I'm still listening to Cornelius.

Thanks to my fellow travelers

Gentlemen, brothers in Christ, fellow travelers
I just want to thank you all for being so committed to this page. Your posts have been helpful, especially in the way that they challenge the one posting. I wouldnt have predicted it to turn out so well. Eric and I are going to continue screwing with the page, making it more sparkley and more entertaining (like the coffee?). I just wanted to encourage you guys to keep it up; no post is taboo (example: my last post ;). And if you want any books of note that you are reading shown on the page, just let us know. Thanks again guys, its been enlightening thus far.
-Mike-