Nathan W. Bingham

This is where the Reformation and Roman Catholicism parted company. Because Rome says the Bible is true, but it needs to be supplemented by holy tradition. And the Reformers said, no, the Bible is sufficient. It contains all we need to know for faith and life. for the life of good works. It doesn't tell us who we're supposed to marry.

It doesn't tell us how to get an A in the chemistry test in high school. But it tells us everything we need to know about God and how to serve Him. So the Bible's true. The Bible is sufficient. And thirdly, the Reformation said the Bible is clear. This, too, is a point of contention with Rome. Rome said, well, the Bible's true, but you can't understand it. The church has to explain it to you.

If you read the Bible on your own, you may get all confused. In fact, they found when people read the Bible on their own, they tended to become Protestants. That's really confusing. And so the church says the church has to interpret the Bible for you. This became so serious that in the middle of the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church actually forbade lay people to read the Bible.

But the Reformation said, no, the Bible is clear. Now, when the Reformation said that, it was not saying that every person can pick up a Bible and turn to any verse and understand it. That's not what the doctrine of perspicuity means. Doctrine of perspicuity means that any person with an ability to read and understand can look at the Bible and find the great message of salvation there.

And that's what the Reformation wanted to insist on. And that's where Calvin and Luther and all the great reformers stood. And Calvin teaches that with great clarity to bring assurance to the people of God that they have access to the Word. And Calvin said, we need to submit to the Word.

In fact, in responding to Saddleado, he wrote, we hold that the Word of God alone lies beyond the sphere of our judgment. Now, that's a very important statement worth pondering a minute. The Word of God alone lies beyond the sphere of our judgment. That is, Calvin says, the Word of God always comes and stands over us, teaching us and judging us. We never stand over the Word of God judging it.

Well, that... seems right, doesn't it? If it's God's Word, it is authoritative, and we need to be submissive. Just as we would say, if God is God, He needs to be in charge, and we need to be submissive. The theological question that remains is, how do we know it is the Word of God? If we can't judge it, then how can we know it?

don't we at least have to stand outside the Word of God and look at it to know that it is the Word of God? And Calvin tackles that question in a very interesting way in chapters 7 and 8 of the first book of his Institutes. So if you want to check out whether I get this right, you can go and read those chapters.

In chapter 8, Calvin takes the rather traditional approach to knowing the Bible is the Word of God. He says, you know, by the age of the writings in the Bible, by the agreement of the different authors over so many centuries, by the miracles that accompany the Word of God, by the acceptance of the church, all of these support our recognition of the Bible as the Word of God.

So Calvin in chapter 8 of book 1 of the Institutes is saying there are plenty of reasons to believe the Bible is the Word of God. Our faith is never a leap in the dark. Our faith is never an active irrationality. There are abundant reasons and evidences to believe that the Bible is the Word of God. But you notice that's chapter 8. It's not chapter 7.

This is the kind of thing students pay a lot of tuition money to learn, that chapter 7 of the Institutes comes before chapter 8. Calvin makes use of evidences, but secondarily. What does chapter 7 say about our knowing that the Bible is the Word of God? Well, this is where Calvin brings into play his idea that we never stand in judgment of the Word of God.

So, it's not in the first place evidences that convince us, But Calvin says we immediately recognize the voice of our Father in the Scriptures. There is an immediate recognition of the voice of the Father in the Scriptures. He says it's just like the way a baby can tell the difference between something that's sour and something that's sweet. A baby doesn't reason about that.

A baby recognizes it immediately. And Calvin says that's the way it is with our recognition of the Bible as the Word of God. Now, this statement of Calvin has been rather controversial through the years. One rather Reformed scholar said this is just mushy mysticism. Not everybody will agree with Calvin at this point, but I think it's a very interesting point that he makes here.

It is in part controversial. His doctor of the Holy Spirit at work, he knows that not everybody recognizes the voice of God in the Scripture. Why do some people recognize it and some don't? Because of the Holy Spirit opening our eyes, opening our ears.

He is not making a kind of psychological point, namely that everybody in their individual experience comes to recognize the Word of God immediately. He knows that some people wrestle with the question of whether the Bible is the Word of God or not over a long period of time.

There may be a variety of factors, including the use of evidences, that brings someone finally to accept the Bible as the Word of God. But what Calvin wants to say is, essentially, at its very heart, we recognize the Bible to be the Word of God the way you recognize the voice of some beloved relative when you pick up the telephone.

Now, if someone says to you, how did you know that was your sister? You could say, well, the timbre of the voice, you know, and the accent, and you can come up with all sorts of evidences. But you didn't need any of that evidence to recognize immediately that it was the voice of your sister. And that's what Calvin is saying.

At the very core of our recognition of the Bible, we simply know God is speaking there. You know, one scripture passage that might be relevant here is when Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and follow me. They recognize the good shepherd. Now, is there danger of mushy mysticism? I don't think so because of chapter 8.

But what Calvin, you see, wants to stress is, in the end of the day, we don't establish the Bible as the Word of God. God establishes the Bible as the Word of God in our hearts. He's already established it as His Word by His inspiration. It's objectively His Word, but we accept it because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And this is all part of the

certainty that Calvin wants us to have and, of course, the submission that he wants us to have. I'm amazed as I read works of theology how many theologians feel perfectly content to stand outside the Bible and say, well, this part is true and this part is problematic. And, you know, if you just take out this verse, the whole thing makes better sense.