Of the Holy Scripture, I:5

We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to a high and reverend esteem of the holy Scripture, and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God; yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts.

Here the Confession enumerates the various qualities of Scripture by which we may be sure these writings are truly the word of God. These qualities are:

1. The endorsement of the Church. Consider the character of the many men and women of the past 2000 years who have taken this book to themselves.

2. The exalted nature of the matters with which Scripture is concerned. There are many things contained within the pages of Scripture that no man could have or would have invented. A superior mind is at work here.

3. Pragmatically speaking, the teachings work. This is what one would expect of the truth.

4. The majesty of the style. Vernacular translations of the Bible are commonly considered to be representatives of the best literature of a given language.

5. The internal consistency, by which is meant the astonishing way in which numerous authors writing over many centuries have produced a compliation of books that remarkably cohere and do not contradict one another.

6. The goal of Scripture is to glorify God. Men do not do this naturally.

7. It provides sufficient guidance as to the way of salvation, as Paul emphasizes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

8. It is incomparably excellent and entirely perfect.

All these are "proofs" of the divine origin of the holy Scripture. Yet the Confession places all of this secondary to the internal witness of the Holy Spirit. The Author himself testifies as to his authorship. Almost every Christian to whom I have ever spoken of the matter has stated that he saw the Scripture in an entirely new light once he had been regenerated and converted. "It suddenly came alive to me" is a common experience. "Once I thought it was the most boring and incomprehensible book I'd ever tried to read; now I can't get enough of it and it all makes perfect sense." Yet this is not a bare fideism, for the experience comports entirely with the testimonies and evidences listed above, further supported by the lessons of archeology and textual criticism.

9/15/07 addendum: J. P. Moreland has posted a excellent short article on Jesus's view of Scripture that dovetails nicely with the discussion above. That article may be found here: http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2007/09/13/what-did-jesus-believe-about-scripture/

Tomorrow: The sufficiency of Scripture.