In our previous discussion on the third question of the Westminster Larger Catechism, we talked about the importance of understanding that scripture is the very Word of God. Understanding that reality is central to how we go about the study of Scripture. The danger is that if we do not have this foundational understanding, we are likely to treat Scripture the same way we treat any other book. In other words, we take the parts that we like and ignore the parts we do not want. When reading different books this is a good thing. A perfect example of this is biblical commentaries. The Scriptures are the Word of God, but the commentary on them is not. Scripture is inerrant and infallible, meaning that there are no errors and it does not fail, but our interpretations are certainly capable of failing or having errors. So as we read through something like a commentary, we have a responsibility to test what is written against a higher standard. When we treat scripture like this, there is no higher standard. In effect what is happening is that we are making ourselves the higher standard. The question we are going to look at today deals with how we know that Scripture is indeed the Word of God. How do we know that it is the higher standard that we are to measure everything else against?
Question #4
The fourth question of the Westminster Larger Catechism asks;
How does it appear that the Scriptures are the Word of God?
Another way of asking the question is, how do we know that Scripture is the Word of God? The question is important because it is not enough for Christians to simply claim that Scripture is the Word of God. There needs to be some evidence. The question we are looking at is not how do we prove to someone who rejects the existence of God that the Bible is God's Word. Someone who rejects God is not going to accept any amount of evidence. The question is for us, as Christians, how do we know that Scripture is God's Word? The Catechism answers;
The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the Word of God, by their majesty and purity; by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very Word of God.
There are four parts to this answer that we need to look at.
Part One
The first part of the answer says "The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God, by their majesty and purity." What is meant by majesty? What we are talking about here is the overwhelming amount of instances in scripture where the language and description of things, were they from human origins, would be presumptuous at best. Thomas Ridgley in his commentary on the catechism (1734) puts it this way;
It would be almost endless to refer to the many places of scripture, in which God speaks in such a style as is inimitable by any creature. Of this we have several instances in the book of Job, especially in those chapters where he is represented as answering Job out of the whirlwind, and where expressions are used which, if not immediately from God, could proceed only from the most bold presumption in any creature, and which, therefore, argue the style to be olivine, great, and magnificent.
What Ridgley is saying is that much of what we find in Scripture is unique to its pages. He says that the style is inimitable (meaning unique or special). It is important to note that neither the catechism nor Ridgley are saying that all scripture is written in the same way. There are certainly passages, such as some of the histories, that are written in a plain and familiar manner. But when we look at scripture as a whole, it is impossible not to see the majesty of the text. The text is not only majestic though, it is also pure. In other words, it has the same message from beginning to end. It is all linked together in a way that every part helps your understanding of the whole. The purity of doctrine is even more astounding when we understand how we were given the text. The Bible is a collection of 66 books, written over the course of 2000 years, by 40 authors, on 3 different continents, and in 3 languages. With all that, every part of scripture fits together and expands the same message.
Part Two
The second part of the answer expounds on the first. In Scripture, we see purity in all its parts as well as its doctrine. All of scripture points to and is given to glorifying God. When we look at the Scriptures as a whole, the central theme is that God is working throughout human history to save a people for his own glory. When we ask the question of why we are saved, the Scripture answers that salvation is for our good and God's glory. In other words, me and you are not the central theme of Scripture. The consistency in this message points to the reality that Scripture is not something that was devised by man.
Part Three
Perhaps the most visible example of the Scripture being the Word of God, is how it changes the lives of people like you and me. The truth of the gospel and the character and nature of God, convict us and change us. When the truth of Scripture is preached, lives are changed. People who had no hope find hope. People who were lost in their sins, find a savior in Christ. This happens even when the one sharing is ineloquent and stumbles over their words. I once heard the conversion story of J.T. English which exemplifies this well. When he was in college, a friend invited him to a Bible study where English ended up leaving somewhat confused, to say the least. The next morning that same friend asked to meet him to eat. During that meal, the friend simply handed English a gospel tract and said I'm supposed to give you this. Everything about the event was clunky and awkward, but the result was the salvation of J.T. English. God used his Word through the awkwardness of a friend to bring a sinner to repentance. There is power in the Word of God to change lives, and if you have been a Christian for a while, you have seen this to be true.
Part Four
The last part of the answer summarizes the most important part of this argument. There is a lot of internal and external evidence that points us to the reality that the Bible is more than just another human work, but this is not what finally proves that Scripture is the Word of God. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith puts it well when it says,
The testimony of the church of God may stir and persuade us to adopt a high and reverent respect for the Holy Scriptures. Moreover, the heavenliness of the contents, the power of the system of truth, the majesty of the style, the harmony of all the parts, the central focus on giving all glory to God, the full revelation of the only way of salvation, and many other incomparable qualities and complete perfections, all provide abundant evidence that the Scriptures are the Word of God. Even so, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority of the Scriptures comes from the internal work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.
The Holy Spirit witnesses to us that the scripture is his Word. All the other evidence is important, but insufficient to fully prove that Scripture is the Word of God. We need that internal witness. That witness comes as we prayerfully and humbly study its pages. The more time we spend seeking to understand what we have been given, the more we will be convinced of the transcendent nature of the text.
Summary
I want to close this by looking at an important question posed by Johannes Geerhardus Vos in his commentary on the catechism. At the close of his thoughts on question 4 he asks the question;
Why are intelligence and education not enough to enable a person to believe with certainty that the Bible is the Word of God?
Put another way, why can we not rely wholly on the textual evidence to prove that Scripture is the word of God? I will leave his full answer to the question at the end of this post because I believe it is worth your time to read, but in this closing paragraph, I want to highlight the simple answer to his question. The answer is because of our sinful nature. We are born in sin, with sinful hearts, and even when we are born again and given new hearts, we are still influenced by sin. We still struggle with that sin. At the heart of our sin is a desire to make ourselves like God. This is what Satan tempted the woman in the garden with and it is what we are still tempted with today. We want to be first, instead of God. We need the saving work of the Holy Spirit to change us and convince us. Apart from that work, the changing work of the Holy Spirit, we will never truly recognize scripture as the inerrant and infallible Word of God. But this is what we must do. We must recognize that Scripture is more than just a book. It is our only infallible rule for faith and practice.
Soli Deo Gloria
Scriptural References
Hos. 8:12; 1 Cor. 2:6-7, 13; Ps. 119:18, 129. The majesty of the Scriptures.
Pss. 12:6; 119:140. The purity of the Scriptures.
Acts 10:43; 26:22. The consent of all the parts of the Scripture.
Rom. 3:19, 27. The scope of the Scriptures as a whole.
Acts 18:28; Heb. 4:12; James 1:18; Ps. 19:7-9; Rom. 15:4; Acts 20:32; John 20:31. The power of the Scriptures to convert sinners and edify saints.
John 16:13-14; 1 John 2:20, 27. The witness of the Holy Spirit in the heart.
Question From Vos
"Why are intelligence and education not enough to enable a person to believe with certainty that the Bible is the Word of God?
Because in the sinful human heart there is strong prejudice against God and the truth of God. The ordinary evidences are sufficient to convince a neutral, unprejudiced inquirer that the Bible is the Word of God. But the fact is that there are no neutral, unprejudiced inquirers. The whole human race has fallen into sin; the human heart has been darkened; the "natural" man is gripped by a tremendous prejudice against accepting the Bible as God's Word. Apart from the special work of the Holy Spirit in men's hearts, there would not be a single true Christian believer in the world. There are of course unconverted people who readily assent to the statement that the Bible is God's Word, by mere custom or tradition rather than by personal conviction. Such people are not really convinced that the Bible is God's Word; they merely have a hearsay or secondhand faith which reflects the true spiritual faith of other persons."
Vos, Johannes Geerhardus. The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary. Edited by G. I. Williamson. Phillipsburg, N.J: P & R Pub, 2002. (Page 15)
Comments