This article is the seventh installment in our series "Christian, What Do You Believe: The Belgic Confession of Faith". Find the whole series here.
Belgic Confession Art. 5: Why Should I Believe the Bible?
What you do with the Bible depends on your view of its authority. This book may only tell us what we must believe and how we must behave if it is from God. Human books may be admired. God’s word must be revered and obeyed.
Do we have reasons to believe that the sixty-six books of Scripture are God’s special revelation? The Belgic Confession explores this question by using the word “canonical.” The Greek word “canon” refers to a standard or rule. To say that these books are canonical means that they qualify to be accepted as God’s word. So why do “We receive all these books, and these only, as holy and canonical, for the regulating, founding, and confirmation of our faith”?
The Attestation of the Scriptures
These books “prove themselves to be from God.” Scripture’s basic message that a holy God rescues sinful people defies ordinary human logic. This central theme and the details connected to it clearly come from God. Consider these three examples of Scripture’s divine origin.
Scripture Is Cohesive
Though a product of dozens of authors and well over a thousand years, Scripture bears consistent witness to God’s salvation in Christ (Acts 10:43). Jesus said that “the Law of Moses, and the Prophets and the Psalms” testify of him (Luke 24:44). The New Testament can copiously quote the Old Testament since both tell the same story. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Bible is a unified message about God and his work.
Scripture Is Accurate
The Bible is filled with startlingly specific fulfilled prophesies. The Persian king Cyrus oversaw the rebuilding of the temple (Is. 44:28; 45:1; cf. Ezra 1). Jesus was born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; cf. Luke 2:1–7). The Messiah’s executioners cast lots for his clothes (Ps. 22:18; John 19:23–24). Who else but God could have foretold these things? And the Bible has sustained unparalleled criticism. Skeptics used to claim that Moses couldn’t have written the Pentateuch since he predated written language; much earlier writings have been discovered. It was alleged that the Hittites never existed; archaeologists now know otherwise.
Scripture Is Powerful
The Scriptures “convince and convert sinners [and] comfort and build up believers unto salvation.” When Saint Augustine was living a reckless and immoral life he read Scripture. He was converted. Charles Spurgeon made an unplanned visit to a worship service in which a man from the congregation, not the minister, gave a simple presentation of God’s word. Spurgeon was born again. God’s word alone is able to make us wise unto salvation (2 Tim. 3:15).
The Bible does not need our defense; it clearly testifies to its God-breathed character. Still, Scripture alone does not persuade skeptics. Something more is needed.
The Affirmation of the Holy Spirit
The Spirit who moved the prophets to write these books also “testifies in our hearts that they are from God.” Paul explained that the Spirit affirms the Scripture’s authority by giving us spiritual discernment, healing our natural blindness to spiritual things. “No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11). “The Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very word of God.” The truth of Scripture comes to us “not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches” (1 Cor. 2:13).
“Whoever is of God hears the words of God” (John 8:47; cf. John 10:27). When I call one of my children on the phone, I don’t have to prove that it is really me. I don’t provide a pin code or answer a security question. They know my voice. So it is when God’s children hear the Scriptures. In the days of Josiah, God’s word had been long forgotten. Yet, “When the book of the law was found … it was read in the ears of all the people and recognized at once as authoritative.” God’s Spirit, working a spiritual revival among the people, convinced them.
If you believe that the Bible is God’s word, thank the Lord for the confidence that his Spirit has given you. And plead with God to help you understand and submit to what he has written.
The Approval of the Church
The church has played a role in ratifying God’s word. But many get the story wrong. Some critics of Christianity claim that the church created the Bible to codify a religious movement: that in the fourth century, the Roman Emperor Constantine forced the church to approve his version of Scripture.
Actually, the church was guided by God’s Spirit to recognize his voice in his written word. The church “receives and approves” God’s writings as canonical. It does not create or establish a canon as such. The story of canonization is far more organic than is sometimes suggested. Within fifty years after the last book of the New Testament was written, most of the sixty-six books of the Bible were already recognized as authoritative. By 379 AD the Council of Carthage publicly confessed what the church had long believed: that the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are the written word of God. So “Although we recognize a human element in this long process, God was manifestly active in guiding his church” to recognize his written word.
The Answer of Believers
But knowing these facts about the canonicity of Scripture isn’t enough. We must respond to the manifold testimonies that Scripture is God’s word. Scripture claims to be “breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). Since it is what it says, it is qualified to speak to us authoritatively in several ways.
Scripture Regulates Our Faith
The Bible provides a norm for faith and practice. Standards outside of Scripture differ among cultures and are constantly changing. This can be confusing. Yet, the Scriptures tell us what all people at all times must “believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.” God’s word directs our faith to Jesus whose righteousness transforms us into new people as we trust and follow him.
Scripture Provides a Foundation for Our Faith
The Bible gives us a sure footing in a world of uncertainty. We sing “How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word.” God’s unchanging word is our unfading confidence. We stand upon it sure that it will not fail us.
Scripture Confirms Our Faith
As the word of God, the Bible reassures us when fear confronts faith. The Bible strengthens our faith as we read of God’s works in history and the abundant promises he has made to us. The word of God, with the sacraments, is “ordained and appointed for this end, that they may direct our faith to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation.”
It is appropriate to have questions about Scripture. So ask them. Read the Bible expecting God to help you believe and do what he says. Encouraged by God’s living and active word, assisted by the testimony of the church, and convinced by the Holy Spirit, take up God’s word with confidence.
Footnotes
Westminster Larger Catechism, Q/A 4; cf. Heb. 4:12.
Westminster Larger Catechism, Q/A 4.
Peter Y. De Jong, The Church’s Witness to the World, 1:113.
De Jong, The Church’s Witness to the World, 1:115.
Westminster Larger Catechism, Q/A 5.
John Rippon, “How Firm a Foundation,” Trinity Psalter Hymnal, 243.
Heidelberg Catechism, Q/A 67.
