This article is the ninth installment in our series "Christian, What Do You Believe: The Belgic Confession of Faith". Find the whole series here.
Have you ever been talking with someone in a crowded room and been distracted by other conversations around you? You want to honor the person in front of you, but other discussions pique your curiosity. It can be hard to focus on a single voice when others compete for our attention.
Something like that happens as we listen to God’s word. The world is a noisy place. Religious influencers promote new meanings for old doctrines. Scientists claims to disprove Scripture. The changing cultural mood makes the Bible seem outdated. And some noise comes from within; stubborn prejudices, fear of man, and overzealous self-love can compete with revealed truth.
We need to understand the voices that sometimes compete with Scripture and firmly believe that God’s word outweighs them all.
The Competing Voices of Authority
The Belgic Confession notes ways we can become distracted from the absolute authority of God’s word and “distort the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:7).
New Revelation
Some people claim to hear God speak authoritatively through dreams, visions, or mere intuition. Sometimes what we feel about God can function like a revelation: “I don’t think God would judge people.” But those claiming something new must test it against the absolute standard of God’s Word; they must go “to the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Is. 8:20 NKJ). God gives fresh insights to his people but only as appropriate applications of Scripture.
Human Opinion
People are persuasive. Slogans can be compelling. Sometimes human opinions are shared by the majority, and it is awkward to hold unpopular views. But, as Scripture says, “All men are liars” (Ps. 116:11). Even the opinions of godly men and women are not completely trustworthy because, at the end of the day, they come from fallible human interpreters. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day taught “as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). No one should allow commandments based on human opinion to control their conscience.
Church Tradition
“Custom … age” and “the passage of times or persons” are part of what make tradition a weighty influence. Tradition can help us from hastily making unwise changes. The precedents of church history should temper our over-confidence and invite us to ask why others thought and acted as they did. But tradition is an inadequate alternative to the written will of God. Jesus’ opponents transgressed God’s commandments because of their tradition (Matt. 15:3). We must not allow this to happen to us.
Ecclesiastical Decisions
The confession speaks of church “councils, decrees, or official decisions,” which can and have erred. The Roman Catholic church insists that “Supernatural revelation is contained in the written books and unwritten traditions.” For them, that is an official church declaration. But it is wrong. More recently, a mainline denomination affirmed a new definition of marriage as a lifelong covenant between “two people of faith,” rather than solely between a man and a woman, and repealed its ban on LGBTQ clergy. A dissenting African delegate summed up what should be the attitude of all Christians: “We do not believe we know better than the Bible.” Church courts are necessary—they can be helpful. Their decisions should “be received with respect and submission, and shall be considered settled and binding, unless it is proved that they are in conflict with the Word of God.” But the church must submit to Scripture in its official declarations.
The voices of new revelation, human opinion, and church tradition and pronouncements have the potential to distract us from hearing God’s written word. Some voices we should reject immediately. Others are helpful. But we may place no word “above the truth of God.”
The Absolute Voice of Authority
After acknowledging the voices that we sometimes wrongly submit to, the confession argues that only Scripture is worthy to be our absolute voice of authority. It makes three main points about Scripture’s right to have the last word on all matters it addresses.
Scripture Is Sufficient
The Bible contains “the entire manner of service which God requires of us … the teaching is perfect and complete in all respects.” Scripture doesn’t say everything about every topic. It doesn’t even tell us everything about Jesus’ life. But it tells us enough about his incarnation, suffering, resurrection, and ascension that we might believe in him and have life in his name (John 20:30, 31). It tells us how to live faithfully in this world in light of God’s mercy (Rom. 12:1, 2). Scripture is our “infallible rule.” Armed with the Bible, believers are “complete, equipped for revery good work” (2 Tim. 3:16).
Scripture Is Authoritative
Scripture is not our only authority. We rightly accept the limited oversight of parents, elected officials, church confessions, and responsible academic scholars, for example. But Scripture is the authority against which everything else must be tested. And, unlike other kinds of authorities, the Bible doesn’t make suggestions: it teaches “whatever one must believe.” When God gave his will to Israel he said, “Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the Lord your God. You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes which I command you today” (Deut. 27:9, 10).
Scripture Is Clear
The clarity of Scripture doesn’t mean that the entire Bible is easy to understand (see 2 Pet. 3:16). It does mean that what “God requires of us is described … at great length.” Everything which God requires us to know as Christians is said in such a way that it cannot be missed. Charles Hodge wrote that “Scripture is a plain book.” You don’t have to be a bible scholar to benefit from Scripture because it gives understanding to those who read it (Ps. 119:130). The Bible is not unclear, for example, about the fact that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone, our duty to regularly meet for worship (Heb. 10:25), about God’s creation of all things (Heb. 11:3), about the reality of hell (Matt. 5:29, 30), or about the sinfulness of homosexuality (Rom. 1:26, 27; 1 Cor. 6:9). And church tradition—by its consistent affirmation of Christ’s saving work, gathered worship, divine creation, eternal punishment, and the sinfulness of homosexuality—can help us take note of what Christians should believe. The church is not the light. But it can bring us to the light of God’s word. For now, we live in a world of darkness. But Scripture provides us with enough light for us to take the next steps until Christ, the light of the world, banishes all darkness.
Scripture is a faithful guide to a flourishing life. Don’t add to it or subtract from it (Deut. 12:32). Use it to know God’s will, correct false ideas, “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1), and live as God desires. About God’s word we confidently say, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).
Footnotes
First Vatican Council, Third Session, Chapter 2, “On Revelation.”
Church Order of the URCNA, art. 29.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, n.d) 1:183.
