************ Sermon on Belgic Confession Article 5b ************
Doctrine: The Authority of Scripture
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on March 22, 1998
B.C. 5(b)
1 Corinthians 2:6-16
"The Authority of Scripture"
Introduction
Topic: Falsehood
Subtopic:
Index: 3702-3704
Date: 3/1998.101
Title: Marco Polo and John Kennedy
A new book claims that a Jewish-Italian merchant named Jacob d'Ancona sailed in to the Chinese port city of Zaitun in 1271, four years before Marco Polo arrived in China. He infiltrated high society and engaged in political battles so ferocious he had to flee for his life after six months. He wrote a dramatic account of his travels. The reason you haven't heard of Jacob d'Ancona before? His diaries are so filled with anti-Christian attacks that his heirs kept his writings a secret.
Sound too good to be true? Most likely. Many scholars claim the manuscript is a hoax.
Or, consider that a bunch of documents recently came to light that were apparently marked up with President John F. Kennedy's distinctive scrawl. They showed that Marilyn Monroe had blackmailed the late president. According to a series of signed agreements, between March 1960 and January 1962 the Kennedys paid the actress more than $1 million for her silence — not just about a long-rumored sexual affair between Kennedy and Monroe, but about JFK's supposed relationship with a Mafia figure. The papers even hint that Kennedy asked J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, to arrange Monroe's murder.
Sound too good to be true? You are right. It is now clear the documents were forged by someone.
Both these documents fooled a lot of people. ABC News, for instance, paid $2 million for the right to produce a one-hour documentary based on the Kennedy papers; this was after NBC had already paid $1 million and then backed out.
When it comes to manuscripts and books we always have to make sure we are dealing with the real thing, and not with a clever forgery or a fake.
We need to make sure that the Bible is also the real thing, that it also is not a forgery or a fake. But how do we know the Bible is true? How do we know we can trust it? How do we know it is not one big lie, a fabrication, designed to fool and delude us? On what basis, by what standards, do we say the Bible is the authoritative, inspired Word of God?
Before we answer these questions, let me do a quick review. When the Greek translation of the Old Testament — what we know as the Septuagint — was completed in 132 B.C., the Old Testament Bible appeared to be set. Every book which we recognize as part of the Old Testament was included in this translation. The Christian church simply accepted the Septuagint as defining the Old Testament Bible. To be considered part of the New Testament Bible, a New Testament book had to be written by an apostle or a close associate of one of the apostles; and, it had to be widely used and accepted by the churches as being the authoritative Word of God. Using these rules, the New Testament Bible was pretty well established by A.D. 382, so that a Church Council held in Rome that year made a list of the books found in our Bibles.
In talking about the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, Article 5 of the Belgic Confession says,
We receive all these books and these only as holy and canonical, for the regulating, founding, and establishing of our faith.
Again I ask, why do we accept them as being true? Do we accept the 39 books of the Old Testament as being holy and true because the Septuagint tells us they are?, because the Jewish Council of Jamnia in A.D. 90 accepted them as such? And the 27 books of the New Testament, do we accept them simply because they were written by one of the apostles and were widely used and accepted by the churches?, because the Church Council that met in Rome in A.D. 382 said they were the holy Word of God?
In talking about the books of the Bible, we have to avoid at all costs the view that it is the church or a church council which established the Bible; rather, all that the church has done is publicly confess what writings have shown themselves to be the authoritative, inspired, Word of God. The church does not clothe the books of the Bible with authority; rather, she simply confesses which books she has accepted as revealing themselves to be holy and divine. The Bible does not derive its authority from the church; rather, the task of the church is merely that of custodian and witness.
I The Scriptures and the Church
A The Roman Catholic Church disagrees with us here. The Romanists insist that the Bible is dependent upon the church for its authority. The Bible needs the church.
Rome defends her position on the ground that the church came before the Bible. For instance, long before Moses wrote the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy, the church existed; and, the New Testament church was in existence long before there was a New Testament Bible. According to the Roman Catholics, then, the church does not owe her existence to the Bible; rather, the Bible owe its existence to the church. It is the church which established the Bible. It is the church which preserves, interprets, and defends the Bible. Without the church, says Rome, there is no Bible, but without the Bible there is still a church.
According to Rome, then, why do the books of the Bible have authority?, why do we believe and trust them? To put it simply, because the church says they have authority and are worthy of belief and trust.
B The church does not need the Bible; rather, the Bible needs the church — that's the position of Rome. They are not the only ones to think this way. Even in the early church some of the mystical sects (such as Montanism and the Cathari) regarded the Bible as being quite unnecessary. At the time of the Reformation other groups (such as the Anabaptists and the Libertines of Geneva) were of the same opinion. By and large, these groups did not regard the Bible as the true Word of God, but only as a testimony, a description, a dead and impotent letter. According to these same groups, the real and true Word of God was spoken by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of God's people. This is not just an old heresy. People today also say that the true revelation of God is the Word of the Spirit in our hearts.
C1. The churches of the Reformation said two things in response to Rome's position. First, all the Reformers said the church needs the Bible rather than the Bible needs the church. In saying this, the Reformers do not deny that the Old Testament church existed before Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Bible, or that the New Testament church existed long before the formation of the New Testament Bible. The church needs the Bible because God, in His good pleasure, has decreed that His Word is the seed of the church. As Peter tells us, "... you have been born again ... through the living and enduring word of God" (1 Pt 1:23).
If the Word is necessary for the church, how do we explain the existence of the Old Testament church before the time of Moses; and, how do we explain the existence of the New Testament church before the formation of the New Testament Bible? Before the time of Moses the unwritten Word of God that was passed on from generation to generation was the seed from which the church sprang. And the New Testament church did not come into existence apart from the spoken word of Jesus and the apostles. As long as these witnesses of the facts of redemption lived, there was little need for a written word; but when they died, this changed at once. It became necessary to write down the Word of God for the sake of future generations.
Today, the only Word of God we have is the 66 books of Scripture. This Word of God is the seed from which the church springs. This Word of God is needed by the church.
2. The second thing the churches of the Reformation said in response to Rome was that the Bible does not get its authority from the church. We do not accept the Bible as being true simply because the church tells us to. Notice, for instance, how Guido de Brés starts off Article 5:
We receive all these books
and these only
as holy and canonical ...
"We receive." In other words, we don't pick, we don't choose, we don't decide, we don't produce. The Bible is not the church's creation. The Bible does not get its authority from the church. We simply "receive." And, in receiving the Bible, the church acknowledges it is from God.
The Bible's authority comes from God. That only makes sense when we consider what we have already said: that the Bible is the God-breathed, God-inspired, God-expired Word; it is holy and divine; God is its source; like God, it is inerrant, non-deceiving, and non-failing.
We know this in theology as the "autopistia" of Scripture. That's a Greek phrase which means that Scripture is self-authenticating or self-authoritative, as the very voice of God to His people. Whether or not its teachings are believed, it is still authoritative. Whether or not there is a divine-human encounter, it is still authoritative. Whether or not its message strikes home with me, it is still authoritative. Whether or not I believe in the Jesus of the Bible, the Bible is still authoritative. The Bible is authoritative in and of itself as the very voice and Word of God; it does not get any of its authority from my response to it or from the church's teachings about it.
II Accuracy of Prediction and the Testimony of the Spirit
A Back, then, to the question I asked earlier. On what basis, by what standards, do we say the Bible is the authoritative, inspired Word of God? Why do we receive the 66 books of the Bible as being the truth? On what basis do we accept them as being holy and canonical? How do we know they are not a lie?
In Article 5, Guido de Brés advances two reasons, two grounds, for believing and accepting the 66 books as being the authoritative Word of God: first, the accuracy of Biblical prediction and second, the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit.
First, in Article 5, Guido de Brés tells us about the accuracy of Biblical prediction. He says,
For even the blind themselves are able to see
that the things predicted in them
do happen.
Here an appeal is made to the prophetic predictions which have been spoken and recorded by holy men of old. For instance, men heard from the mouths of prophets about the rise and fall of certain kingdoms, of the captivity of Israel, and of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh centuries before these things came to pass. Many of these prophecies contained remarkable and specific details which have been confirmed not only by the Bible but also by secular history and archaeological finds. Other prophetic predictions such as the preservation of the church, the spread of the Gospel among all nations, and the increasing wickedness of the world are being fulfilled before our very eyes. The inescapable conclusion from all of this is that the Bible must come from God.
Compare the Bible's predictions to human prediction. In 1901 Wilbur Wright said to his brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years. In 1901 H. G. Wells, the British novelist, said "I must confess that my imagination ... refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea." In 1911 Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the French military strategist and future World War I commander, said "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." A president of the Michigan Savings Bank gave this advice to Henry Ford's lawyer: "The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty — a fad." In 1934 David Lloyd, the former British prime minister, said "Believe me, Germany is unable to wage war." In 1949 Popular Mechanics said "Computers in the future may ... perhaps only weigh 1.5 tons." In 1954 during a performance of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, a young man performed. Afterward Jim Denny, manager of the Opry, fired the young man and said, "you ain't goin' nowhere son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck." The young man's name: Elvis Presley. In 1963 Dr. Ian G. Macdonald, a Los Angeles surgeon, said "For the majority of people, the use of tobacco has a beneficial effect." In 1977 Kenneth Olsen, president and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, said "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home."
Compared to human prediction, Bible prediction comes to pass. This proves that the Bible must come from God.
In spite of the accuracy of Biblical prediction not everyone believes the Bible comes from God. Do you know what this tells me? This tells me that something more is needed in order to convince people that the Bible is God's Word.
B Here we come to Guido de Brés' second point: what I call the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit. Listen to what Article 5 says here about the canon:
And we believe
without a doubt
all things contained in them
... because the Holy Spirit
testifies in our hearts
that they are from God.
The fact is, no one believes and accepts the Bible to be the truth, the inspired Word of God, unless the Holy Spirit works it in them to believe.
In our Scripture reading, Paul tells us that none of the rulers of this age understand the wisdom of God (vs 8). And, in verse 14, Paul says,
(1 Cor 2:14) The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them ...
Paul further tells us that "we may understand what God has freely given us" only through the Spirit (vs 12) and that spiritual things can only be "spiritually discerned" (vs 14).
It is through the Holy Spirit, then, that we believe the 66 books of the Bible to be the authoritative Word of God. And, through the operation of the same Spirit in our hearts and lives, the 66 books — according to Article 5 — "prove themselves to be from God."
What does Guido de Brés mean by this? Think of the Apostle Paul. He was a cruel and bloody foe of Christ and the Gospel. Suddenly he was changed into an Apostle of Christ and a proclaimer of the Gospel. What happened? Through the inner testimony of the Spirit, the Word of God took root in Paul's heart and he became a new man.
Every time hearts are converted, every time lives are changed, every time sinners become saints, and every time opponents become disciples, the Bible proves itself to be God's life-giving, life-changing Word. Only something from God could produce such tremendous life-changes. Every time I see sinners repenting, unbelievers converting, and young people professing their faith, I know for sure that the Word is from God and of God.
This says something about how to reach the unbelieving. Today, people push contemporary worship services, or seeker services, or the Alpha course as the best way to reach non-Christians. But when it comes right down to it, the way to reach the unbelieving is simply by proclaiming the Word of God. Once we have done that we have to stand back and let the Spirit use the Word to bring about repentance, faith, and obedience.
Conclusion
How do we know the Bible is true? How do we know we can trust it? How do we know it is not one big lie, a fabrication, designed to fool and delude us? On what basis, by what standards, do we say the Bible is the authoritative, inspired Word of God? Not because the church says they are. Not even because its prophecies are fulfilled. But because the inner testimony of the Spirit proves it to be from God.
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