In this perspective, man's reason sits in judgment on God and his revelation instead of working in terms of it. Such rationalism may agree with orthodox theology, but in its basic premise, the sufficiency, right, and necessity of reason to sit in judgment over God and his revelation, it is heresy. It enthrones man's reason as the supreme judge over all things, beginning with God. Rationalism has insisted on identifying itself with reason, a fallacy, because it represents a misuse of reason. It can recognize and approve of the God of the Bible but only as an independent source of judgment and corroboration.
Theological rationalism leads in time to humanistic rationalism.
Its goal may be a kind of orthodoxy, but its methodology is simply a radical heresy. God created the heavens and the earth, and all things therein, including man and man's reason. The clay cannot judge the potter nor sit as a court to verify the potter's existence. Such a procedure is an absurd arrogance. Cornelius Van Til repeatedly demonstrated the circularity of man's reason.