Cornelius Van Til was a 20th-century Reformed theologian and apologist known for his development of presuppositional apologetics. His work focused on the absolute sovereignty of God in all areas of life and thought, particularly in how Christians defend the faith against non-Christian worldviews.
Cornelius Van Til (1895–1987) was a Dutch-American professor at Westminster Theological Seminary. He was deeply committed to the Reformed tradition, emphasizing that God is the Creator and Governor of all things. He taught that because all of life is lived in the presence of God, every aspect of our thinking must be submissive to His revelation in Scripture. As the 1689 LBCF Ch.3 §1 states, God hath decreed whatsoever comes to pass, and Van Til spent his career demonstrating that human reasoning cannot be autonomous from that sovereign divine counsel.
Van Til is most famous for his 'presuppositional' approach to apologetics. He argued that the non-Christian and the Christian do not share a neutral foundation for reasoning. Instead, he maintained that the 'natural man' suppresses the truth of God and cannot perceive reality rightly without the transformative power of the gospel. He insisted that the Christian must challenge the non-believer's starting point rather than attempting to prove God's existence using a 'neutral' logic that leaves out the Creator. As Scripture says, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 'Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.'