Presbyterian Gilbert Tennent Refutes Cornelius Van Til's heresy of "analogical predication"

If you're a member of a Presbyterian or Baptist church that claims the doctrines of the Bible ALWAYS mean something different for God than for the justified, then know that you are not in a Bible-believing church—you're in a cult. The teachings of such a Neo-orthodox cult is known as Van Tilianism. Van Tilianism (named after heretic Cornelius Van Til) assumes, with no Biblical evidence whatsoever, that God is incapable of communicating even a single proposition to the minds of men. The idea is that any idea God shares with men is always different for God than it is for man. So, when we think 7 + 7 = 14, for God, according to Van Tilianism, the answer is something else entirely...perhaps 3. Think about that. You think the Bible teaches justification by faith alone, but God, according to Van Tilianism, thinks something else. Van Tilianism is a trap that always leads to the papist tradition of justification by faith and works. Since this Van Tilian irrationalism teaches that the minds of men cannot coincide with the mind of God at any single point, it follows that there's no way of knowing what God actually thinks is true. If accepted, Van Tilianism closes the Bible—and that benefits the Roman Pontiff, who is Antichrist. The success of dialectical theologies of paradox, such as Van Tilianism, depends on people not reading and believing the Bible. That God shares/communicates some of His knowledge with men, resulting in those men knowing God's shared knowledge, is easily seen in Scripture: The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29) Van Til's heresy would have been rejected by faithful Presbyterians in 18th century America. Consider Presbyterian Gilbert Tennent. He published a series of sermons in 1743 concerning the doctrine of Scripture and the meaning of life. In the following quote, Tennent teaches the Reformed doctrine of univocal predication: "Neither, 2ndly, is it impossible that the Almighty should communicate His mind and will to His creatures by immediate revelation: if a creature can impart his mind to another, much more the Creator; for surely there is no excellency in creatures, but what is eminently in Him. If it is not inconsistent with the glory and majesty of God to behold and be present with all things, then surely it cannot be injurious to His honor to communicate His mind to reasonable creatures: Nay, on the contrary, it is an indication of His goodness and wisdom, to favor intelligent creatures with such intimations of His will, as are suitable to the capacity He has given them, and subservient to promote their happiness. Neither is it in any respect absurd or impossible for the Almighty to communicate His mind to mankind by immediate revelation. Surely He that made the soul can find easy access to the work of His own hands, and form what impressions on it He pleases! If a finite spirit can communicate its ideas to the soul of man, as all confess, except, Sadduces, how much more can the Father of Spirits? To deny the reality of inspiration..." (Twenty-three Sermons Upon The Chief End of Man, The Divine Authority of the Sacred Scriptures, The Being and Attributes of God, and the Doctrine of the Trinity, Sermon 3, page 66) Notice that Tennent identifies individuals who deny univocal predication to be "Sadduces." To claim that God's mind does not coincide with the minds of men at any point is to deny the Bible "the reality of inspiration." Van Tilianism is a rejection of Sola Scripture: it's heresy. Away with such papist nonsense! It's not too hard for God to teach man His truth: And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. (Exodus 4:11-12) He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? (Psalm 94:9)