Excerpt from an Interview

The approach that Gordon Clark took to the believability of the Bible had an almost instantaneous effect on me. His clarity and rigor of thought (as well as his boldness) was completely disarming and I found myself accepting the truth of the scriptures without much resistance.

This recent interview I conducted with of one of Dr. Clark’s students from Butler college in the 1960’s is important enough that I felt some of it should be shared even prior to quoting it in the GHC biography.
A former student writes:
“For me, Gordon Clark was the essential influence that brought me to the position of a convinced believer in the Bible. Although I was drawn to the gospel from various influences including a Billy Graham crusade in Gainesville, Florida, in 1961, I believe that little would have come of this unless certain stubborn resistances were not overcome. Gordon Clark was and is, in my mind, the only instrument that could have produced the evident result.
Billy Graham preached from Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” I was transfixed and stumbled forward barely understanding why. I had cultural distaste for the event; didn’t like the people or the music. But somehow the message caught me up. I was a very immature and phlegmatic young man without direction but full of self and confusion. I hasten to add that the “going forward” did not produce much visible change in me, yet looking back there were some stirrings.
The next year I transferred to Butler. I became acquainted with (a student) who recommended taking a class from Clark.The approach that Gordon Clark took to the believability of the Bible had an almost instantaneous effect on me. His clarity and rigor of thought (as well as his boldness) was completely disarming and I found myself accepting the truth of the scriptures without much resistance. It is relatively easy to come up with objections to some miraculous events of the Bible that seem outrageous from the world’s perspective. But the application of intelligent argument from a biblical framework in which miracles and history are harmoniously integrated was convincing to me.
As a new believer I was vastly ignorant of spiritual things and only grew over many years. Still, the groundwork laid by Gordon Clark served me well. I learned from him to make the scriptures speak clearly, insisting on understanding the real meaning of every text. This has made me somewhat hyper-critical of preaching and teaching in churches. If this is a flaw it had its roots in my youth; I was always critiquing my betters; often to my own hurt. GC fed this inclination well! I find it hard to tolerate superficial treatments of important truth.”