“[Van Til in an undergraduate paper] challenged other interpretations that dismissed Calvinism as “merely a passing view of life” that inevitably gave way to higher forms of religious expression such as modernism. Though small and embattled in a hostile American context, Calvinism “embodies the eternal truth of God that must be the guide for men everywhere and through all ages.” To see it rise again, he challenged his Calvin [College]  classmates, “we should make the maxim of ora et labora once more part and parcel of ourselves. “Pray and work” were words that would become his credo well beyond his Calvin days” (John R. Muether, Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman, 46).

“The psalmist says all creation declares the glory of God (Ps. 19:1). Nothing, however, glorifies God as much as the Incarnation of His Son. As Charles Spurgeon exclaimed, “Sing, sing, O universe, till thou hast exhausted thyself, yet thou canst not chant an anthem so sweet as the song of the Incarnation!” John Owen observed, “We can only adore the mysterious nature of it;–‘great is this mystery of godliness'” (1 Tim. 3:16)” (Joel R. Beeke & William Boekestein, Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation, viii).

Van Til recalled his Christian upbringing in his booklet, Why I Believe in God  (Quoted by John R. Muether, Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman, 29).

Ours was not in any sense a pietistic family. There were not any great emotional outbursts on any occasion that I recall. There was much ado about making hay in the summer and about caring for the cows and sheep in the winter, but round about it all there was a deep conditioning atmosphere. . . . I learned that I must believe the Scripture story, and that “faith was a gift of God” . . . I was “conditioned” in the most thorough fashion. I could not help believing in God–in the God of Christianity–in the God of the whole Bible.

“Learning the reasons for Christ’s advent will help us more deeply celebrate His birth, allow us to see more clearly how it is connected with the rest of His ministry, and help us understand its importance for our lives” (Joel R. Beeke & William Boekestein, Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation, vii).

“What fueled his [Van Til’s] polemics was not penchant for vain argumentation but a passion for the purity of the church” (John R. Muether, Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman, 18).

“Traditionally, at Christmastime we think about the story of Christ’s birth. It feels like Christmas when we picture Joseph and Mary, the shepherds, the angels, and the manger containing the Christ child. But to appreciate the magnitude of the main point of the story — that the eternal Son of God assume our flesh-and-blood human nature — we need to learn from the res of the Bible why Christ came to earth” (Joel R. Beeke & William Boekestein, Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation,  vii).

“What [Van Til’s] students often overlook is that to separate Van Til the apologist from Van Til the churchman is to eclipse the very heart and underlying simplicity of his thought and life. Thus, many of his followers are searching for Van Til’s significance apart from the context in which he served. Van Til’s theological commitments cannot be understood apart from his ecclesiology. The faith that Van Til sought to defend was the faith of Reformed churches that found expression in Reformed creeds” (John R. Muether, Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman, 15).

“For there is hardly a page of Scripture on which it is not clearly written that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble [James 4:6]” (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 565).

“But the man who cannot speak both eloquently and wisely should speak wisely without eloquence, rather than eloquently without wisdom” (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 596).

“Purity of life has reference to the love of God and one’s neighbor; soundness of doctrine to the knowledge of God and one’s neighbor. Every man, moreover, has hope in his own conscience, so far as he perceives that he has attained to the love and knowledge of God and his neighbor” (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 561).