What is
the authority of Scripture? How do you interpret it?
Those questions have been at the center of the storm in the
Presbyterian Church (USA). Like a hurricane uprooting trees, many
professors in seminaries and denominational leaders have tried to tear
Presbyterians away from their Reformed heritage that Scripture alone is
the final and infallible authority on matters of faith and practice.
They boldly challenge the divine authorship of Scripture. They dispute
its accuracy. They contradict the Bible's clear teachings. They refute
Scripture with appeals to their own biases, culture and "progressive"
revelation.
John Calvin, the founder of the Presbyterian movement, dealt with
similar arguments during the Reformation. Contending that Scripture is
God's "witness to Himself," Calvin aggressively opposed those
who would dilute its authority and distort its message.
Here are some of the things he had to say:
THE INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, BOOK I
If true religion is to beam upon us, our principle must be, that it is
necessary to begin with heavenly teaching, and that it is impossible for
any man to obtain even the minutest portion of right and sound doctrine
without being a disciple of Scripture.
***
With great insult to the Holy Spirit, it is asked, who can assure us
that the Scriptures proceeded from God; who guarantee that they have
come down safe and unimpaired to our times; who persuade us that this
book is to be received with reverence, and that one expunged from the
list, did not the Church regulate all these things with certainty?
***
When the Church receives it [Scripture], and gives it the stamp of her
authority, she does not make that authentic which was otherwise doubtful
or controverted but, acknowledging it as the truth of God, she, as in
duty bounds, shows her reverence by an unhesitating assent.
***
[O]ur faith in doctrine is not established until we have a perfect
conviction that God is its author. Hence, the highest proof of Scripture
is uniformly taken from the character of him whose Word it is.
***
[O]ur conviction of the truth of Scripture must be derived from a
higher source than human conjectures, Judgments, or reasons; namely, the
secret testimony of the Spirit.
***
[I]f we look at it [Scripture] with clear eyes, and unblessed Judgment,
it will forthwith present itself with a divine majesty which will subdue
our presumptuous opposition, and force us to do it homage.
***
But although we may maintain the sacred Word of God against gainsayers,
it does not follow that we shall forthwith implant the certainty which
faith requires in their hearts. Profane men think that religion rests
only on opinion, and, therefore, that they may not believe foolishly, or
on slight grounds, desire and insist to have it proved by reason that
Moses and the prophets were divinely inspired.
***
Read Demosthenes or Cicero, read Plato, Aristotle, or any other of that
class: you will, I admit, feel wonderfully allured, pleased, moved,
enchanted; but turn from them to the reading of the Sacred Volume, and
whether you will or not, it will so affect you, so pierce your heart, so
work its way into your very marrow, that, in comparison of the
impression so produced, that of orators and philosophers will almost
disappear; making it manifest that in the Sacred Volume there is a truth
divine, a something which makes it immeasurably superior to all the
gifts and graces attainable by man.
***
[I]n regard to the Holy Scriptures, however petulant men may attempt to
carp at them, they are replete with sentiments which it is clear that
man never could have conceived.
***
I am aware of what is muttered in corners by certain miscreants, when
they would display their acuteness in assailing divine truth. They ask,
how do we know that Moses and the prophets wrote the books which now
bear their names? Nay, they even dare to question whether there ever was
a Moses. Were any one to question whether there ever was a Plato, or an
Aristotle, or a Cicero, would not the rod or the whip be deemed the fit
chastisement of such folly?
***
To sum up the whole in one word, it is certain beyond dispute, that
these writings passed down, if I may so express it, from hand to hand,
being transmitted in an unbroken series from the fathers, who either
with their own ears heard them spoken, or learned them from those who
had, while the remembrance of them was fresh.
***
Those who, rejecting Scripture, imagine that they have some peculiar
way of penetrating to God, are to be deemed not so much under the
influence of error as madness. For certain giddy men have lately
appeared, who, while they make a great display of the superiority of the
Spirit, reject all reading of the Scriptures themselves, and deride the
simplicity of those who only delight in what they call the dead and
deadly letter. But I wish they would tell me what spirit it is whose
inspiration raises them to such a sublime height that they dare despise
the doctrine of Scripture as mean and childish.
***
What an infatuation of the devil, therefore, to fancy that Scripture,
which conducts the sons of God to the final goal, is of transient and
temporary use? Again, I should like those people to tell me whether they
have imbibed any other Spirit than that which Christ promised to his
disciples. Though their madness is extreme, it will scarcely carry them
the length of making this their boast.
***
First, then, let the reader observe that the Scripture, in order to
direct us to the true God, distinctly excludes and rejects all the gods
of the heathen, because religion was universally adulterated in almost
every age.
***
As Scripture, in accommodation to the rude and gross intellect of man,
usually speaks in popular terms, so whenever its object is to
discriminate between the true God and false deities, it opposes him in
particular to idols; not that it approves of what is taught more
elegantly and subtlely by philosophers, but that it may the better
expose the folly, nay, madness of the world in its inquiries after God,
so long as every one clings to his own speculations. This exclusive
definition, which we uniformly meet with in Scripture, annihilates every
deity which men frame for themselves of their own accord – God
himself being the only fit witness to himself.
***
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
The doctrine of Scripture concerning the immensity and the spirituality
of the essence of God, should have the effect not only of dissipating
the wild dreams of the vulgar, but also of refuting the subtleties of a
profane philosophy.
***
For this there is no other remedy than to pluck up by the roots those
most noxious pests, self-love and love of victory. This the doctrine of
Scripture does.
***
COMMENTARY ON II TIMOTHY
(vs. 3:16)In order to uphold the authority of the Scripture, he [the
Apostle Paul] declares that it is divinely inspired; for, if it be so,
it is beyond all controversy that men ought to receive it with
reverence. This is a principle which distinguishes our religion from all
others, that we know that God hath spoken to us, and are fully convinced
that the prophets did not speak at their own suggestion, but that, being
organs of the Holy Spirit, they only uttered what they had been
commissioned from heaven to declare. Whoever then wishes to profit in
the Scriptures, let him first of all, lay down this as a settled point,
that the Law and the Prophets are not a doctrine delivered according to
the will and pleasure of men, but dictated by the Holy Spirit.
***
[W]e may in the present day, condemn all who, disregarding edification,
agitate questions which, though they are ingenious, are also useless.
Whenever ingenious trifles of that kind are brought forward, they must
be warded off by this shield, that "Scripture is profitable."
Hence it follows, that it is unlawful to treat it in an unprofitable
manner; for the Lord, when he gave us the Scriptures, did not intend
either to gratify our curiosity, or to encourage ostentation, or to give
occasion for chatting and talking, but to do us good; and, therefore,
the right use of Scripture must always tend to what is profitable.