                   THE
             STANDARD
A Reformed         BEARER
Semi-Monthly
Magazine

                              Special Issue
                     THE REFORMATION AND SCRIPTURE





                          Luthekmd the Bible


October 15,1993


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                                 October 15, 1993

The Profit of Our inspired Bible - Rev. Jason L. Kortering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Editorial - Prof. David J. Enge/sma
           "Far Brighter even than the Sun" .~~~~..................,.....~.....~.....~~~,........                                                                                                           29    ISSN 0362-4692
The Reformation and
           Biblical interpretation - Prof. Herman C. Hanko ,..,..,,,..,,,.,,,,,,,,,,.,,. 31                                                                                                                       Semi-monthly, except monthly during June. July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association. Inc..
The Believer and His Bible - Prof. Robert D. Decker ..,,..,,......,....,........ 33                                                                                                                               4349  Ivanmat  Ave.,  Gmndvllle, MI  48418.  Semnd  Class
Reformation, Revival,                                                                                                                                                                                             Postage Paid at Qmndvllte, Mlchlgan.
           and Scripture's Authority - Rev, Jerome M. Julien ..,.....,.....,.,.....,,.  35                                                                                                                        Postrnutw Send addma changea to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  P.O. Box 303. Grwdvtlle. MI 49468-0603.
The Reformation and the Philosophy of
          Vernacular Translations of the Bible - Theodore P. Letis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37                                                                                                                 EDtTORtAL COMMtlTEE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
Whence the Authority of the Bible?                                                                                                                                                                                6eaetary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
           or Why the Great Reformers Preached                                                                                                                                                                    Managing Editor. Mr. Don Dwzema
          with Confidence - Rev. Russell J. Dykstra ,,,,,,.,,,,,,,.,~.~,.,~..,..,,,.,.,...                                                                                                                  40    DEPARTMENT EDtTORS
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
The Bible, A Divine Book                                                                                                                                                                                          Decker, Rev. Ada denHartog, Rev. Barry Grittem, Rev. Carl
           John Calvin's Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Rev. Da/e H. Kuiper . . . 42                                                                                                                                tiaak, Rev. Comellw Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Hap, Rev. Steven Key, Rw. Data Kuiper, Mr. James Lanting,
Doctrine of Scripture in the                                                                                                                                                                                      Rw. r3awg.a Lubbers, Mm. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rw. Thomas
           Reformed Creeds - Rev. Kenneth Koole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~........................ 44                                                                                                        Mbmma,  Rw.  Audred  Spriensmn, Rw.  Cha&n   Terpatra,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Rw. QbeVanBamn,  Rw. RonaktVan&artoq&  Mr. San)amin
Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       47    Wigger,  Rev. Barnard Wwdenberg.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  EDtTORtALOFFtCE            CHURCH NEWS EDtTOR
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer        Mr. Ben Wlgger
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           As is our custom with the October 15th issue of the Standard Bearer  each                                                                                                                                       (616) 531-1430                     .I Glarwheny
year, this issue is a special issue commemorating the 16th century Reformation                                                                                                                                    FAX:  (618) 531-3033       Bdlymen& Co. Antrlm BT42 3EL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Northern Ireland
of the church.                                                                                                                                                                                                    EDtTORtALPOLfCY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Every edkor I8 w maponrlbk for the content8 of m ovm
           This special issue is devoted to the Reformation doctrine and correspond-                                                                                                                              artkbe. Contrlbutknrolgenemlkdarwtfmmwrmademwd
ingpractice of Holy Scripture. It covers a wide range of vital topics: inspiration;                                                                                                                               qwatbnekrThnReadwAsb&parhw& are  wekome.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Contrlbutkns  wltl  be limtted  to appmximataty  300 W-X& and
message; authority; interpretation; confessional doctrine; translation; use; and                                                                                                                                  mwtbenea~wlttwatypmwnt~,mdmwtbe8igMd.cQpy
profit. It offers acloselookat MartinLuther's doctrine of Scripture's clarity and                                                                                                                                 deadliner am the  frmt and fifteenth of the month. All
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  communication6 r&ttw  to the contents should be sent to the
at John Calvin's doctrine of Scripture's divinity.                                                                                                                                                                edItOrid offke.
           All of the writers have taken pains to relate the truth of Scripture as                                                                                                                                REPRINT POLICY
recovered by the Reformation to the calling and struggle of the church and                                                                                                                                        Pwmksknisherebyglantedfwthe~thrgdartidwinwr
Christian in the present day.                                                                                                                                                                                     maouinsbYotherpubliationr,~:4maudlrspinted
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  8rtkbaamreproduc@dkrfuY:b)thatprop+ra&rwkdgmant
           We thank all who contributed. We welcome to the pages of the SB the Rev.                                                                                                                               ir~;c)~acopyofthepwiodiullnwMchwchreprint
Jerome Julien, pastor of the Independent Reformed Church in Troy, Ontario,                                                                                                                                        appears Is ewt to air edltorlel ofllw.
Canada, and Mr. Theodore P.  Letis, a post-graduate student in ecclesiastical                                                                                                                                     SUBSCRIPTtON POtJCY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  BubBaipuon prlw: 512.00 per year in tha U.S., $15.00
history with special interest in the Greek text of the New Testament.                                                                                                                                             drswhere. Unbu a rbftnite  mquent for diawnttnu~m b
           I encourage our readers to celebrate the Reformation this month by means                                                                                                                               moehmd, It b  swumed that the subscriber  wiahea  the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  subscri@kx0oconttnw,andhe~beb!lledformrwwst.  tfyou
also of another magazine. Christian  History has just published a superb issue                                                                                                                                    hweachangeofaddmn,pbae.enotlfytlmBudneaaOflkeas
on Martin Luther, "Martin Luther: The Later Years and Legacy" (issue 39, vol.                                                                                                                                     earty  a8  poedlbb In order to  avokl  the  inconvenkmca of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Interrupted dellwty. Indude your Zip or Poatat Code.
12, no. 3). It gives a thorough overview of Luther's life and labor in the years
between 1522 and the Reformer's deathin 1546. It includes both humorous and                                                                                                                                       AovERTtstNo  POLICY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The SfmdnrdBasrsrdow  not accept oomm+rcbl  advsrtldng
gripping excerpts from Luther's own writings. The issue is the follow-up to an                                                                                                                                    of any kind. Announwmwta  of church and schod wente,
earlier issue, "Martin Luther: The Early Years." Both issuesare available.                                                                                                                                        annivemarlw. obituaries, and sympathy resdutrons  will be
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  placed for a $3.00 fee. The50 should be sent to tha Business
Order from Christian  History,  Past Issue Sales, P.O. Box 550-A, Church Hill,                                                                                                                                    Gifkaandshculdba-paniedbytheS3.f~.  DeedlIne
MD 21690. Ask for issues 34 and 39 on Martin Luther. Cost is $4.00 per issue                                                                                                                                      foranrmuncementslsattaastorlemonthprtortopuMicattun
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  date.
plus 10% for shipping prepaid.                                                                                                                                                                                    BOUND VOLUMES
           The cover of this issue of the SB shows the young.Luther  discovering a                                                                                                                                TheBudnessoftkewlHacwptstMdlngordemforbound
complete Bible in the library of the University of Erfurt. The Bible, however,                                                                                                                                    mpiesofthecurrcmtvdume. .Suchordw3arettttedas8oona8
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  powlble efter compbHon of a volume year.
was still "chained."
                                                                                                                                                                                                         - DJE    1 Smm mlaoftlm,  33mm mlcrofllm  and 105mm miaofidm, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  arUde  copied am  avallabb  thrwgh  Unhrsmlty  Mkrofllms
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Internatkemt.
26lStandard  BearerlOctober  15,1993


                                     The Profit of Our
                                            Inspired B.ible

     All scripture is given by inspiration of            Thoroughly furnished unto all          things we could do as churches is
     God, and is profitable for doctrine, for        good works!                                throw out the "pew Bible." Our per-
     reproofi  for correction, for instruction in        The more we practice this now,         sona.lBibles  shouldbe  working Bibles;
     righteousness; that the man of God may          the closer we are to heaven already in     and they won't become that, as long
     be perfect, throughly furnished unto all        this life. As Christians we become         as we have school Bibles, church
     good works.                                     perfect now, by being equipped, that       Bibles, society Bibles. How many
                           II Timothy 3:16,17        is, thoroughly furnished, unto all good    Bibles presented to our children at
                                                     works. The very purpose of God in          school graduation get worn out? We
         A perfect man of God, a perfect             saving us is that we may perform           canleamsomethingfromothers. This
     woman of God!                                   good works (Eph. 2:8-10). Think that       is one thing we ought to learn.
         Furnished unto all good works.              through a for moment: we become                The proper use of our Bibles af-
         Breathtaking!                               complete Christians when we are rich       fords spiritual change in our lives. We
         Does not your soul cry out for              in all good works. Thus it is in our       are told that the Bible "is profitable
     that spiritual condition? Victory over          personal life, in our home and family      for doctrine, for reproof, for correc-
     all the appetites of the flesh. Satan and       life, in our dealing with our neigh-       tion, for instruction in righteousness."
     his hordes, vanquished forever. We              bors, yes, also in the church of Jesus     Doctrine is, literally, teaching. The
     become so complete in our salvation             Christ.                                    Word of God forms the basis of our
     thatwefulfillexactlythepurposethat                  The purpose of the Holy Bible is       faith, what we believe and hold for
     Godhadinsendingjesustodieforus.                 to accomplish this. It is our God-         truth.Righteousnessisourlegalstand-
         Yes, to be the perfect man of God,          given equipment that enables us to         ing before God, we are viewed as
     thoroughly furnished unto all good              walk in all good works.                    conformingto God's divinelaw. Such
     works, we must ultimately wait until                Does your Bible show it? How           proper standing before God's law
     we open our eyesin glory. Then every            many Bibles have you worn out in           involves two things: reproof -it points
     tear shall we wiped from our eyes, the          your lifetime? Do you have your own        out sin and error by calling us to
     former things shall pass away, and              personal Bible which you take with         repentance; andcorrection-it directs
     we shall be complete. That will not             you to the society meeting or Bible        us in the right way, the way of obedi-
     onlybe trueforusindividually,itwill             study? Is it-with you when you wor-        ence, of sanctification. The sum total
     be true for all of us who make up the           ship on the Lord's Day? Do you have        of such activity is called in verse 15,
     perfect church. In some ways this is            the same Bible at family worship and       "wise unto salvation."
     best of all. Sometimes our greatest             for your own quiet time                                     The process whereby
     hurt is the way we treat each other in          with your Lord? Is your 7
                                                                                      TI--.. 1 we take hold of the Word
     the church. Ah, what a day, when                present Bible well               now many               of God is described in
     doctrinal controversy will be a thing           marked, noted with                  Bibles              verse 14: "But continue
     of the past, for we will all profess            points that have been             have you              thou in the things which
     unityinthetruth. Ourtongueswillbe               made in sermons or               worn out in            thou hast  learned." The
     sanctified to speak the truth in love.          Bible studies, thoughts                                 assumption is that some-
     We will get along with each other               which came to you when         your lifetime?           one taught him. Further,
                                                                                                                                   _  _
     perfectly. We will fully appreciate             you reflected in the in-                                in verse 16 we read of
     God's work in each saint.                       ner closet?                                "instructioninrighteousness"-liter-
                                                         One of the first things our mis-       ally, training, whichimplies repeated
                                                     sionaries learn to appreciate is that      lessons. This comes in many ways.
                                                     outside the sphere of our churches         Paul mentions particularly to Timo-
                                                     the above things are true, while within    thy that it started for him when he
     Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Reformed         our churches and families it is rare.      was youngandhis mother and grand-
     minister-on-loan to Singapore.                  This ought not to be. One of the best      mother taught him. The influence of a

                                                                                                      October 15,1QWStandard Bearer/27



L


Christian home in our youth is inesti-                Yes, our children can read and         ration  of God." The Scriptures which
mable. The reading of God's Word                 understand.Theirimplicitfaithis held        are referred to here are first of all the
and Bible stories to our children is so          before us by our Master, "Except ye         Old Testament writings which Timo-
important. We teach our growing                  be converted and become as little           thy had learned from a child. In addi-
children to have a "quiet time" with             children, ye shall not enter into the       tion to them, the "all" refers to those
God each day by being an example to              kingdom of heaven" (Matt.  18:3).           New Testament writings which were
them ourselves. More and more we                      The traditions of men cannot com-      already available to the church. Some
learn to appreciate the preaching of             pare. Men err; but God's Word is free       of these writings were copies of the
the gospel and the loving care of the            from human error and conveys truth          original manuscripts; some were
Christian church through her                     from beginning to end.                      translations from copies, for in all
officebearers and fellow members. In                  He who has the Word of God is          XkelihoodTimothy'smotherusedthe
the center of all this activity is the           equipped, having been furnished for         Greek version of the Old Testament
Word of God.                                     every good work.                            aswell.Paulisn'tinterestedingetting
     And no wonder!                                   The lessons of history teach this      intotheissuewhethertheautographa
     The Bible is God's message to us.           to us. No wonder Satan's attack is          were inspired, whether copies are
It is His clear instruction on all as-           upon the Word of God. Yes, he at-           inspired, whether translations are in-
pects of Christian belief. We hold for           tacks it in many ways, none more            spired. He simply says, and that
truth what God Himself declares to               effective than simply getting us to         through the Holy Spirit, that all the
be truth. Our Christian life is not a            abandon the proper use of our Bibles.       Scriptures, no matter which ones
novelty invented by austere Puritans             Why did the prophet Hosea  cry out,         Timothy used and which ones were
or liberating Germans. The Bible sets            "My people are destroyed for lack of        in use in the early church, came by
forth God's unchangeable law and                 knowledge" (Hosea 4:6)? Why? Be-            inspiration. The original ones were
purpose for our serving Him. Good                cause the people rejected knowledge.        uniquely inspired, but since the cop-
worksareclearlydefinedinHisWord.                 There were times when the Word of           ies and translations have come from
He determines good and evil.                     God was scarce, but that was God's          that original, we can say we have an
     The Bible is nothing to play with.         judgment upon the people for reject-         inspired Bible. This does not negate
It carries the stamp of divine author-           ing His prophets. The height of apos-       necessary and careful textual criti-
ity. One cannot read the imprecatory             tasy is for the church either to forbid     cism and examination of translations.
Psalms or the warning                                         God's people God's             It rather establishes our faith and cer-
of the prophets without                                       Word or to corrupt what        tainty that when we do the above
bowing in humble awe                     If the blood         Word they have. Hence          prayerfully and carefully, we do have
before the "Thus saith                                        the Reformation was a
                                        of translators                                       the Word of God.
Jehovah."      He whose                                       time of re-forming, for            Inspiration is the key. We saved
eyes are as flaming fire,          and publishers             the old was beyond sav-        the best for last.
who melted the cities of                 cannot stop          ing. And for the faithful          The Holy Bible is God-breathed.
Sodom and Gomorrah                the distribution,           who pay attention to           Yes, many times God breathed in the
into an inferno of fire           the devil quietly           God's Word, Satan has          realm of His creation. The Spirit,
and brimstone, calls ev-                                      his subtle and not so
                                         gets the job                                        whose very Name means "Breath,"
eryone of us to account.                                      subtle ways to attack the      brooded upon the face of the deep in
The lie originates in His                  done by            Word of God itself or          the creative act of God. God breathed
adversary. Sin carries            higher criticism            those who are deter-           into Adam's nostrils and Adam be-
an awful smell in His                    and corrupt          mined to declare it. If the    came a living soul. All things are also
holy nostrils. Can we                   translations.         blood of translators and       sustained by God's breath. The great
read His Word and ac- L                                       publishers cannot stop         workof  re-creationis a mighty breath
tually think that we will                                     the distribution, the devil    of the Holy Spirit. We sing, "Breathe
decide what parts of it are human and           quietly gets the job done by higher          on me, Breath of God." The work of
what are divine? 0 presumptuous                 criticism and corrupt translations. He       inspiration is another aspect of this
fools who tread on His holy ground              never stops, for our enemy knows the         Work of the Holy Spirit. Our Bible did
with such fatal pride. Rather, we bow           battle of faithis over the Wordof God.       not come by the will of men, not even
in humble gratitude, for His revela-                  Why is that Wordso  special? Why       the cooperative act of God and man.
tion is reliable. Rather would I place          is it so effective in the lives of God's     It came by the mighty will and work
the care of my immortal soul in the             people, and why does it consequently         of God Himself. Just as He planned
hands of Him who inhabiteth eter-                draw like a lightening rod the sparks       history from eternity, He planned all
nity, thanin the wisdom of the fool, be         of hostility from the enemy of the           66 books of the Bible and the place
he the scholarly professor, the intelli-        church?                                      each would have in the finished canon.
gent guru, or the all-wise philoso-                   The answer is in this passage as       He saw to it that each writer would
pher.                                           well, "All scripture is given by inspi-      have the exact character and quality

28lStandard  BeererlOctober  15,1993


to write what portion was his. He           nation, for God is an Amazing God.         mon people. Living in Singapore we
moved them to desire to write and to        All His works force us to say, "0 the      can identify with such difficulties.
take up the task, which could not           depth of the riches both of the wis-       What a blessing to possess a Bible, to
have been an easy one. At the right         dom and knowledge of God! how              be able to read it and grow by it, to
time and place, God gave them rev-          unsearchable are his judgments and         enjoy the lively preaching of God's
elation or enabled them to make per-        his ways past finding out! For who         Word which expounds its truth and
fect use of pre-existing information        hath known the mind of the Lord? or        applies its principles.
and guided their hand to write per-         who hath been his counsellor?  Or              Change has taken place.
fectly. The miracle is that each wrote      who hath first given to him and it             Not `easily, for the pages of this
inhis own personal style andvocabu-         shallberecompenseduntohimagain?            history are written in the blood of the
lary, yet each wrote exactly as God         For of him and through him and to          martyrs.
wanted him to write. The end prod-          him are all things: to whom be glory           God has seen fit to continue to
uct was free from human error and           forever, Amen" (Rom. 11:33-36).            equip us with the Word, so necessary
possessed the stamp of God Himself.             What a blessing it is to observe       to be properly furnished in order that
Eventually the church was guidedby          the precious work of God in the Ref-       we may be rich in good works.
the same Author to select the 66books,      ormation of the mid-sixteenth cen-             Not the heretic, nor the sword, is
so that we have a complete and fin-         t u r y .                                  our greatest enemy today.
ished revelation of God which we call           There was a time when the church           It is plain old dust! And it is
the Bible.                                  service and the Bible were in a foreign    everywhere.
    Amazing, yet not beyond imagi-          language, unintelligible to the com-           May we who read, beware. 0




                           "Far Bri hter even
                                                          a
                                   than t e Sun"

    It is well known that Martin            this grand work on the central mes-        Scripture, in their unity.
Luther's great work, The  Bondage of        sage of the gospel also puts forward a         The reason for Luther's consider-
the WiZZ,  sets forth the Reformation's     splendid defense of Holy Scripture as      ation of the clarity of Scripture lay in
central doctrine of salvation by the        the source and standard of the gospel.     the book that occasioned his writing
sovereign grace of God alone. The           This defense focuses on the clarity, or    Tke Bondage. This was Erasmus'
introduction to J. I. Packer and 0. R.      perspicuity, of Scripture. Clarity is a    defense of free will, A Diatribe or
Johnston's translation of The Bond-         quality of Scripture that is somewhat      Sermon concerning Free Will. In his
age (London: James Clarke & Co.,            overlooked in the struggle of the Re-      attack on Luther's teaching that the
Ltd., 1957; the quotations that follow      formed church today to maintain a          will of fallen man is enslaved to sin,
are taken from this fine translation)       sound doctrine of Scripture. To the        Erasmus suggested that Scripture is
calls the book "the greatest piece of       mind of Luther, clarity is basic to a      not clear on the issue of the bound or
theological writing that ever came          sound doctrine of Scripture and to the     free wilt
from Luther's pen." It quotes the           functioning of Scripture as the Word
Reformation scholar E. Gordon Rupp          of God in the church. Denial of              If (wrote Erasmus) you turn your
as approving the description of The         Scripture's clarity is the destruction       eyes to Scripture, both sides claim it
Bondage as U the finest and most pow-       of the doctrine of Scripture.                as their own. Furthermore, OUT con-
erful Soli Deo Gloria to be sung in the         The defense of Scripture's clarity       troversy is not merely over Scripture
whole period of the Reformation."           is no incidental aspect of The  Bond-        (which is somewhat deficient in clar-
Accurately, it identifies the message       age. With this, Luther begins. It is a       ity at present), but over the precise
                                                                                         meaning of Scriptnre;  and here not
of The eondage  as the heart of the         recurring theme in the book,                the numbers, learning and distinc-
theology of all the Reformers: "the         undergirding the message of sover-           tion on the one side, much less the
sinner's entire salvation is by free and    eign grace. The Bondage presents the         paucity, ignorance and lack of dis-
sovereign grace  only.n                     two great truths of the Reformation,         tinction on the other, can advance
    What is not so well known is that       sovereign grace and the authority of         either cause (p. 123).

                                                                                              October 15,1993lStandad  Bearer729


     The implication, Luther notes, is       ing of all the teachings of the Scrip-             ability have not understood Scripture
that "the matter is therefore left in        tures. Everybeliever has this enlight-             rightly is their own natural, sinful
doubt."                                      ening. The external clarity is the in-             blindness. Indeed, Erasmus himself,
     Luther regards Erasmus' opinion         herent perfection of Scripture itself.             the most learned scholar in
that Scripture is obscure as grave er-       The Holy Book is not obscure or am-                Christendom, denies Scripture's clear
ror. The result of this notion in the        biguous. Rather, its meaning is plain              teaching of the bound will because he
church will be that the views of men         (pp. 73,74;  124,125).                             is a blind man standing in the bright
replace the Word of God:                          Two important quali-                     I                    rays of the "external
                                             fications attach to the ex-                                        clarity" of Scripture:
  No more disastrous words could be          ternal clarity of Scripture.         The church
  spoken; for by this means ungodly          The first is that Scripture                                       ;;;smuD;`atr;;;t  `p,f
  men have exalted themselves above                                              must assert,
                                             is clear to believers
  the Scriptures and done what they                                               but she can                  Erasmus' himself L
  liked, till the Scriptures were com-       through the preaching of             assert only                  DJE) and its beloved
  pletely trodden down and we could          Scripture: "all that is in                                        Sophists, standing
  believe and teach nothing but mani-        the Scripture is  through            if Scripture                 open-eyed under the
  acs' dreams. In a word, that dictum        the Word  brought forth                is clear.                  bright light of Luke's
  is no mere human invention; it is          into the clearest light" (p.                                      words and of clear fact,
  poison sent into the world by the          74; my emphasis-DJE).                                             continue in `blindness;
  inconceivable malevolent prince of         This is intriguing. Luther personally                                                  _~
                                                                                                  such is their lack of care in reading
  all the devils himself! (p. 124)           and the Reformation generally refused                and marking the Scriptures. And
                                             to separate Scripture from the preach-               then they have to brand them "ob-
It was exactly this doubt concerning         ingof Scripture. Scripture is light, but             scure and ambiguous"! (p. 247)
Scripture's clarity that enabled the         it shines through faithful preaching,
pope to subdue the church, and Scrip-        not otherwise.                                         Thechurchmustknowtheclarity
ture, to himself:                                The second qualification attach-               of Scripture for two main reasons.
                                             ing to the external clarity is that Scrip-         The first is eminently practical: only
  On the same account I have thus far        ture must be interpreted in its simple,            then will Christians read Sc@ure.
  hounded the Pope, in whose king-                                                              What fool will bother to studyand  to
  domnothingismorecommonlysaid               natural sense. Clarity rejects, indeed             hear preached an obscure book? By
  or more widely accepted than this          abominates, the allegorizing meth-
  dictum: "the Scriptures are obscure        ods of interpretation. Luther con-                 suggesting that Scripture is obscure,
  and equivocal; we must seek the in-        demns Origen and Jerome for their                  Erasmus "well-nigh frightened us off
  terpreting Spirit from the apostolic       "pestilent practice of paying no heed              reading theBible altogether- though
  see of Rome!" (p. 124)                     to the simple sense of Scripture" (p.              Bible-reading is something to which
                                             240; cf. pp. 191,192).                             Christ and the Apostles urgently ex-
    Expressing a conviction that                 What proof is there that Scripture             hort us" (p. 99). In Erasmus' charge
would become the foundation of the           is clear? This is an urgent question               that "in Scripture some things are
Reformation, Luther asserts that the         especiallybecauseErasmus  hadraised                recondite and allis not plain," Luther
Scriptures are clear - "far brighter         the argument that many men of supe-                sees the horns and hooves of Satan:
even than the sun":                          rior ability did not understand Scrip-
                                             ture on the issue of the bound will as               Satan has used these unsubstantial
  It should be settled as fundamental,       Luther explained it. Does this not                   spectres to scare men off reading the
  andmostflrmlyfixedin  themindsof           prove that Scripture is obscure? The                 sacred text, and to destroy all sense
  Christians, that the Holy Scriptures                                                            of its value, so as to ensure that his
                                             proof of Scripture's clarity, says
  are a spiritual light far brighter even                                                         own brand of poisonous philosophy
  than the sun, especially in what re-       Luther, is the testimony of Scripture                reigns supreme in the church (p. 71).
  lates to salvation and all essential       itself. Scripture claims to be clear.
  matters (p. 125).                          Luther      cites     and       explains               The second reason why the church
                                             DeuteronomyP8;  Psalm 19:8; Psalm                  must be convinced of Scripture's clar-
The entire Scripture is clear. Scrip-        119:105,130;  Isaiah 8:20; Malachi 2:7;            ity is that only then will the church
ture is clear in its totality. The whole     II Corinthians 3,4; and II Peter 1:19.             make "assertions." Concern that the
of it is light, not darkness. The diffi-     Luther readily acknowledges that this              church make "assertions" is the heart
cult passages are clarified by the other     way of proving Scripture's clarity                 of Luther's defense of the clarity of
passages.                                    amounts to "arguing in a circle": One              Scripture  in The Bonduge.  By "asser-
    The clarity of Scripture is two-         appeals to Scripture to prove that one             tions," Luther means firm confessions
fold, internal and external. The inter-      can appeal to Scripture. But this is the           of all the teachings of Scripture. In-
nal clarity is the enlightening of the       "circle" of the Reformation faith that             cluded is the rejection of all errors.
Holy Spirit, which gives understand-         Scripture is the Word of God.
                                                 The reason why many of superior                  By"assertion"  Imeanstaunchlyhold-

do/Standard Bearer/October 15,1993


  ing your ground, stating your posi-           The alternative is doubt and un-        of marriage between a husband (male)
  tion, confessing it, defending it and     certainty about the doctrines of the        and wife (female).
  persevering in it unvanquished (p.        Bible, that is, skepticism. This is im-         They can only assert that there
  66).                                      possible, in Luther's glorious state-       ought not be assertions in the church.
                                            ment, because                                   Their  synodical decisions and
So uncompromising is the asserting                                                      personal testimonies run like this:
Christian that he is ready "to die for        the Holy Spirit is no Sceptic, and the    "Scripture does not make clear, and
what you confess and assert" (p. 67).         things He has written in our hearts       we cannot decide with certainty . . . . U
    Luther takes up this matter of            are not doubts or opinions, but asser-        What use, we ask, is a Scripture
asserting at the outset of  The Bondage       tions - surer and more certain than       that is unclear on every issue? What-
because Erasmus had disparaged as-            sense and life itself (p. 70).            ever could have been the motivation
sertions. Erasmus found no satisfac-                                                    of an otherwise wise God to give us
tion in assertions, preferring "an              The church must assert, but she         more obscurity in our already suffi-
undogmatic temper to any other."            can assert only if Scripture is clear,      cient darkness of uncertainty?
Erasmus of Rotterdam, uncharacter-          since she asserts "what has been de-            But, of course, to propose obscu-
isticDutchman,wasthecompromiser,            livered to us from above in the Sacred      rity as an attribute of Scripture is to
ready to give up doctrine for peace.        Scriptures" (p. 66).                        open up the way of every error into
This marked him, as far as Luther was           How evident it is that Protestant       the church. Pleading uncertainty and
concerned, as no genuine Christian,         churches and professing Protestant          appealing to Scripture's obscurity,
for a to take no pleasure in assertions     Christians at the end of the 20th cen-      Desiderius Erasmus, in fact, advo-
is not the mark of a Christian heart;       tury have lost the faith that Scripture     cated free will and opposed the gos-
indeed, one must delight in asser-          is clear!                                   pel of salvation by the grace of God.
tions to be a Christian at all" (p. 66).        They cannot assert!                         The need of the hour is that
Asserting is the essence of Christian-          They cannot assert the bondage          churches and Christians assert. They
ity: "Take away assertions, and you         of the will. They cannot assert biblical    must assert every doctrine of Scrip-
take away Christianity" (p. 67).            creation. They cannot assert the ces-       ture. They must especially assert the
    The true church of Christ is an         sation of the extraordinary gifts of the    doctrine of the bound will.
asserting church. Every real  Chris-        Spirit. They cannot assert the exclu-           They must assert, but they also
tianisanassertingchristian.  Particu-       sion of women from the government           can and will assert.
larly, every true church and every          of the church. They cannot assert the           For the Scriptures are "a spiritual
real Christian assert the bondage of        wickedness of divorce except for for-       light far brighter even than the sun."
the will of the natural man and the         nication. They cannot assert the law-                                               cl
salvation of every sinner by sover-         fulnessofsexonlyinthelifelongbond                                             - DJE
eign grace alone.




                     The Reformation and
                     Biblical Interpretation

Introduction                                Scripture. Not only did the Reforma-        discoveries, but the church which is
    One part of the great heritage of       tion return the Scriptures to the           faithful to the Word has cherished
the Protestant Reformation, to which        church, but the Reformers laid down         what the Reformers insisted on as the
we owe so much, is its doctrine of          fundamental principles of biblical in-      only correct method of biblical inter-
                                            terpretation which the church has           pretation.
                                            followed to the present. Many, even
                                            in Reformed and Presbyterian circles,       Medieval Background
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-     have abandoned these principles in              To understand properly the valu-
toy and New Testament in the Protes-        the interests of accommodation to           able and significant contribution of
tant Reformed Semina y.                     modem secular trends and scientific         the Reformers in this area, we ought

                                                                                               October 15,1993/Standard  Beareri


r

     to have some idea of the false teach-        The Doctihe of Scripture                      times. Thus Scripture is no longer the
     ings of the Roman Catholic Church in                With a few minor exceptions, all        sole authority for our faith (in cre-
     the years preceding the Reformation.         the Reformers of the 16th century             ation) and our life (in the church of
             The Romish Church effectively        Reformation agreed on the doctrine             Christ).
     took the Bible from the people of God.       of Scripture. Luther, Zwingli, Knox,               This authority of the Scriptures is
     It did this in the firm belief that only     Calvin, and all the second-generation         notgiventoGod'sWordbythechurch.
     a trained and ordained clergy was            Reformers held to the truth that Scrip-       The Scriptures are self-authenticat-
     capable of understanding Scripture.          ture is a unique and God-inspired             ing. The second point of "The Ten
     Not only did Rome consider the Bible         book.                                         Conclusions of Beme" (1528), drawn
     in itself to be difficult of interpreta-            The whole question of the nature       up under Zwingli's influence, stated:
     tion, but it denied that                                     of -inspiration was not       "The Church of Christ makes no laws
     the people of God pos-                                       discussed much by the         or commandments apart from the
     sessed the spiritual abil-             "We owe               Reformers, chiefly be-        Word of God; hence all human tradi-
     ity tounderstand this dif-          to the Scripture         cause it was not an issue     tions are not binding upon us except
     ficult and obscure book.               the same              with Rome. But that           so far as they are grounded upon or
     It forbade, therefore, the                                   Scripture in all its parts    prescribed in the Word of God."
     common people to pos-                  reverence             and down to its very          Luther's stirring'appeal to Scripture
     sess and read God's                   as we owe              words was the Word of         at the Diet of Worms was a total
     Word, and it persecuted                to God."              God was firmly held.          commitment to the authority of Scrip-
     those who attempted to L                                     Calvinwritesinhiscom-         ture, although he had come to this
     translate the Scriptures                                     mentary on II Timothy         position two yearsearlier  at the Dis-
     into the common tongue and distrib-          3:16: "All those who wish to profit           putation of Leipzig where he had
     ute God's Word to God's people.              from the Scriptures must first accept         debated with the Roman theologian
     Tyndale was killed for translating the       this as a settled principle, that the         John Eck
     Scriptures into the English language.        Law and the prophets are not teach-                The authority of Scripture was,
             The obscurity of the Scriptures      ings handed on at the pleasure of men         by the Reformers, ,based foursquare
     was due, according to Rome, to the           or produced by men's minds as their           on the,principie  of Scripture's perspi-
     fact that Scripture had a fourfold           source, but are dictated by the Holy          cuity. Scripture is clear and easy to
     meaning. Different levels of interpre-       Spirit.... We owe to the Scripture the        understand. But Scripture's perspi-
     tation required someone extremely            same reverence as we owe to God,              cuity was, in turn, based on the truth
     skilled to penetrate to the lower levels     since it has its only source in Him and       that the literal meaning of Scripture is
     where the true meaning of Scripture          has nothing of human origin mixed             the correct one. Scripture means what
     lay.                                         with it."                                     it says; thus Scripture is clear; thus
             Furthermore, Scripture derived              Along with this truth of inspira-      Scripture is self-authenticating in its
     its authority from the church. And,          tion,, the Reformers also believed that       authority.
     while this meant many different              Scripture was the sole authority in
     things, it also meant that only the          matters of faith and life.- This was the      Rules for Biblical Interpretation
     church possessed the authority to in-        truth, sometimes  called "the formal          The Grammatico-Historical Method
     terpret Scripture. What the church           principle of the Reformation," of sola             When Rome spoke of four levels.
     said Scripture meant, that was its true      scriptura -by Scripture alone.                of meaning in Scripture, Rome held to
     meaning.                                      It is sad that this principle has            an allegorical method of interpreta-
             Thus the Bible was forcibly          been so recklessly abandoned today.           tion. All Scripture is basically alle-
     snatched from the hands of God's             Those who support evolutionism use            gorical.
     people. And so it is today. With the         as one of their arguments that the                 Over against this view, the Re-
     methods of interpretation ,employed          creation clearly demonstrates evolu-          formers held to the grammatico-his-
     by those who defendwomeninoffice,            tionism; that the cre-                                       torical  method. By this
     evolutionism, homosexuality, the.            ation is also God's rev- -                                 1 they meant several
     Bible has become a closed book to all        elation; and that, there-.                                   things.
     but the "experts." It is no wonder that      fore, we must accept the                                         They meant, first of
     Bible study is on the decline. Who           testimony of creation I                                      -all, that Scripture is the
     cares to read a bookwhich one cannot         along with Scripture.  1                                     record of God's revela-
     understand anyway in its true mean-         Many of those who at:                                         tion in history, and that a
     ing? Why read God's narrative of             tempt to promote women in ecclesi-            text must be explained in its historical
     creation if the Bible does not mean          astical office openly admit, that Scrip-      `setting.' One must understand what
     what it says? Reading is an exercise in      ture is opposed to this notion; but           the temple meant for Solomon and
     futility.                                   they insist-that Scripture must be in-         Israel when it was built in order to
                                                  terpreted in the light of our modem           understand what God is saying to us

     3YStandard BeardOctober  15.1993


in the building of the temple.                and indeed to learn even that which is       principle of all is the Reformers' insis-
     Secondly, Scripture is written in        contrary to Scripture. Harold Camp-          tence that the Holy Spirit alone inter-
human language and must be inter-             ing has even discovered the date of          prets Scripture.
preted according to the rules of He-          Christ's return by hopeless allegory,            This means two things.
brew and Greek. God wrote Scrip-              and he leads many astray. The Re-                It means, first of all, that Scrip-
ture in our language so that we could         formers would have none of it.               ture interprets Scripture. The Re-
understand it. God spoke of Himself               The Reformers did not deny that          formers insisted that this principle,
in such a way that it is clear to us what     some Scriptures were more difficult          sometimes call the "analogyof faith,"
He says. Calvin compared God's                to understand than others; but, so           was not merely a principle of conve-
speech to us as the "lisping" of anurse       says Luther, "a doubtful and obscure         nience. By it they meant that Scrip-
maid who speaks to a child in a way           passage must be explained by a clear         ture was the Spirit's book, for it was
the child can understand.                     and certain passage," for, "Scripture        inspired by the Spirit as a unity; and
    Thirdly, the grammatico-histori-          is its own light. It is a fine thing when    the Spirit used His own writings in
cal method meant that Scripture was           Scripture explains itself."                  one place to explain His writings in
to be taken literally. While this prin-       Christ-centered Interpretation               another place.
ciple cannot be so rigidly applied to             It is, said the Reformers, the lit-          But, secondly, and equally im-
Scripture that even figures of speech         eral meaning of Scripture which will         portant, the Spirit was the Interpreter
and symbols are takenliterally (as the        lead us to Christ. Allegory hid Christ.      of Scripture in the hearts of the people
Anabaptists attempted to explain              The literal meaning leads the believer       of God. Reason cannot explain Scrip-
Scripture), Scripture itself will clearly     to Christ. "He who would read the            ture, for the man who. relies upon
indicatewhenitisnottobe takeninits            Bible," Luther says, "must simply take       reasonisanunbelieverwhosemindis
absolutely literal sense. Luther put it       heed that he does not err, for the           darkened. To him Scripture is a
this way: "The Christian reader               Scripture may permit itself to be            `!closedbook" Scripture, Luther said,
should make it his first task to seek         stretched and led, but let no one lead       "is foreign and strange to reason, and
out theliteral sense, as they callit. For     it according to his own inclinations         particularly to the worldly-wise. No
it alone is the whole substance of faith      but let himleadit to the source, that is,    man can accept it unless his heart has
and Christian theology; it alone holds        the cross of Christ. Then he will            been touched and opened by the Holy
its ground in trouble and trial."             surely strike the center." The literal       Spirit." The Holy Spirit alone can
    Fourthly, this literal sense de-          meaning "drives home Christ."                open the Scriptures because the Holy
stroys allegory once and for all. Luther          Christ is the "center" of Scrip-         Spiritgivesfaithbywhichwelayhold
had learned the hopelessness of alle-         ture, for Scripture reveals to us our        on Christ taught us in God's Word.
gory while he was a monk, and he              salvation and leads us to Christ.                Thus the interpreter of Scripture
sharply condemned such interpreta-            Whatever does not teach Christ is            is the man who comes to Scripture in
tion as lmere  jugglery," "a merry            not apostolic, even thoughst. Peter or       humility, seeking to be taught by the
chase," fimonkey tricks," and "looney         St. Paul does the teaching. Again,           Holy Spirit that he may take Christ as
talk."                                        whatever preaches Christ would be            his all-sufficient Savior.
    Again today the church is beset           apostolic, evenif Judas, Annas, Pilate,          Would that these towering prin-
by those who wish to resort to alle-          and Herod were doing it."                    ciples of the Reformation would still
gory to learn from Scripture by alle-         The Spirit Interprets Scripture              today be the confession of the church!
gory that which is not clearly taught,            Perhaps the most fundamental                                                   cl




          The Believer and His Bible
                                                  The sixteenth century Reforma-           of God's people is Holy Scripture.
                                              tion proclaimed three fundamental            They further insisted that every be-
                                              principles: justification by faith alone,    liever as prophet, priest, and king in
                                              Scripture alone, and the priesthood of       Christcouldreadandunderstandthe
Prof. Decker is professor ofPractical The-    all believers. In opposition to Rome's       Word of God. Rome had effectively
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-        hierarchy the Reformers insisted that        taken the Bible out of the hands of the
nary.                                         the onlyauthorityforthefaithandlife          people. Rome's hierarchy, the clergy
                                                                                                  October 15,1993/Standard  Bear&3


and especially the pope, stood be-           now in our scientific and sophisti-              are quite different. In Paul's day
tween the believer and his Bible. The        cated age we know better. Either                 women had to keep silence in the
church(clericalhierarchy)interpreted         these things just did not occur or               churches, while today they may oc-
the Bible for the people (laity).            thereisanaturalexplanationforthem.               cupy church office. In Paul's day
     Today a new hierarchy has arisen            These men also say that the Bible            homosexuality and lesbianism were
in the churches, viz. that of the profes-    is  culturally conditioned.  Each writer         considered a manifestation of the rep-
sional theologians, the archaeologists       wrote in the context of his own cul-             robate mind; while today such people
and geologists, the scientists, the          ture, and this affected his witness to           mayoccupynot onlythepewbut also
learned scholars. These are tellingus        God. When, for example, Paul wrote               the pulpit.-
that we cannot understand the Bible          about marriage and divorce, or about                  Thus it is, we are being told, that
anymore. They are telling us that the        the headship of the husband, or about            we need to know ancient history, cul-
Bible does not say what we have al-          women keeping silence in the                     ture, language, mythology, philoso-
ways thought it says. Furthermore,           churches and not usurping the au-                phy, archeology, and the sciences, if
because of this they are telling us we       thority of the man in the church, Paul           we are to be equipped to understand
need them to tell us what the Bible          was under the influence of his rab-              theBible. Of course, we need to know
really means and how it applies to our       binical training and the cultural mo-            these disciplines if we are to expound
lives today. They represent a new            res of his day. Likewise were the                the Bible correctly. But the theolo-
hierarchy between the believer and           other biblical writers limited by the            gians mean something quite differ-
his Bible.                                   cultural influences of their day.                ent. They mean that if there is a
     According to this new hierarchy             All this radically alters how we             conflict between one's scientific dis-
the Bible contains man's witness to          aretounderstand theBible.  TheBible,             coveries and the Bible, one must re-
God or to Jesus. What we have in the         according to these scholars, contains            consider the traditional interpreta-
Bible is the record of the various writ-     myths and teaching models. Genesis               tion of the Bible and be willing to
ers' religious experiences or encoun-        1,2 tells us that God created the uni-           change. Science determines the mean-
ters with God. The Pentateuch is the         verse, but not how and when. Gen-                ing of the Bible.
record of Moses' encounter with God.         esis 3 teaches that the human race fell              The conclusion is that God's
Isaiah witnesses to God as he and his        into sin and death, but no more than             people really cannot understand the
contemporaries experienced God.              that. The Bible contains misconcep-              Bible. We are not equipped to read it
The Evangelists wrote about Jesus as         tions arising out of primitive concep-           correctly. We need the theologians,
they saw and heard Him. The same is          tions of reality. And there are just             linguists, and scientists to tell us what
true of the apostles and other writers       plain errors in the Bible. One of these          the Bible is reuZZy saying.
of the New Testament. The early              is the Bible's account of creation. Sci-             And so it is that a new hierarchy
church gradually adopted these writ-         ence has proved a very                                           has arisen in the
ings as sacred Scripture.                    old universe. The earth                     I                    churches, that of the
     The Bible, therefore, is time bound     simply cannot be about            The question                   theologians and schol-
according to these experts. It was           six thousand years old          or issue we face                 ars. These must tell us
written in its own time in history, and      as Scripture teaches.                  is not                    the meaning of Scrip-
its writers were limited by the times        Adam and Eve were not                                            ture. Without them we
in which they lived. They were influ-        real people living in a         whether we can                   cannot understand
enced by the primitive vision of the         real garden called Eden                or do                     what we read in  the
ancient world of Bible times. They           or Paradise. Further,                understand                  Bible. Just as effectively
conceived, for example, of a  three-         what Paul said about            what the Bible                   as Rome, these have
storied universe: heaven above, the          women applied in his                 is saying;                  placed themselves  be-
earth beneath, and hell under the earth.     day when women ran                                               tweenGod'speopleand
They thought that the sun revolved           around with veils and           but whether we                   the Bible. They have
around a flat earth. The biblical writ-      were living in a male-                believe                    effectively taken the
ers had many other mistaken notions          dominated society. But          what the Bible                   Bible out of the hands of
as well, such as, for example, the           all this does not apply in           is saying?                  the people of God.
following: the world was created by          our enlightened times.                                                This is very serious
God in six twenty-four hour days,                Many factors are in-                    I                    indeed! The church has
there was a universal flood, an ax           volved in interpreting the Bible. Two            always confessed, and the Reforma-
head floated, Jonah was in the belly of      questions need to be answered in                 tion reasserted, these precious truths
a great fish, a dry path was made            Bible interpretation: What did the               that the Bible is inspired and there-
through the Red Sea, water out of a          writer mean by this passage relative             fore infallible. The Reformation also
rockwent bouncing along after Israel         to his own time and culture, and what            asserted that theBibleisperspicuous,
in the desert. These men wrote in            does it mean for us today? The an-               or clear. Because the Bible is inspired
their times and for their times, but         swers to those two questions often               and infallible it is the only rule for our

34lStandard  BearerlOctober  15,1993


faith and life. And in the Bible God        end of the ages. The Scriptures are         Romans  10:13-15)  Faithful preaching
speaks to us in language which we           able to make us wise unto salvation         is preaching that expounds the Word
can understand. The question or is-         through faith in Christ Jesus (II Timo-     of God. The sermons we hear must
sue we face is not whether we can or        thy 3:15).                                  contain nothing more or less than
do understand .what the Bible is say-           Our calling is plain! We must let       what Scripture itself says. And we
ing, but whether we believe  what the       no one, no synods, no theologians, no       need to search the Scriptures daily,
Bible is saying? This is, no doubt, at      experts take our Bibles away from us.       prayerfully to meditate on the Word
least one of the reasons Jesus told us      Still more, we must insist that the         of God.
we had to become as little children in      Word of God be faithfully preached.             By these means we may be as-
order to enter the kingdom of God.          And faithfully means properly. The          sured that the Spirit of our Lord Jesus
This writer teaches a catechism class       church does not need Sunday School          Christ witnesses with our spirits that
of six-year-old children. These little      stories from the pulpit, or disserta-       we are the children of God (Rom.
ones have no difficulty understand-         tions on political or social issues. The    8:16).
ing that Jesus was born of the virgin,      believer needs to hear the voice of the         Following the example of Martin
that He healed the sick and raised the      Good Shepherd (John 10) by means of         Luther let each of us, with Bible in
dead, that He suffered and died on          preaching. Without faithful preach-         hand, say to the new hierarchy, "Here
the cross and was raised from the           ing we cannot call upon the name of         I stand, I can do naught else, God help
dead andnow sits at God's right hand        the Lord in faith and be saved (cf.         me."  Cl
in glory and is coming again at the





  Reformation, Revival, and
                     Scripture's Authority

    Today the church of Jesus Christ        tioned was the truth of God and the         Church of Rome held to the inspira-
is being torn apart. This should not        authority of His words.                     tion of Scripture. In 1546, the Council
surprise us, since Scripture reminds            Today, things are no different.         of Trent made it clear that the Scrip-
us that this will happen. The fact          Concerning Scripture, the question is       tures were dictated by the Holy Spirit.
remains, however, that this is hap-         either, "Has God said?" or What can         However, in the same breath were
pening, and it is very painful. If we       we add to, or how can we get around         included the "unwritten traditions."
carefully analyze this terrible situa-      Scripture?" The issues of feminism,             Over against this stood the Re-
tion, we realize immediately that this      homosexuality, theistic evolution  -        formers, for whom Scripture alone
is happening because Scripture's au-        or just plain evolution - to name a         had the ultimate authority- the first
thority is being undermined. In one         few, which tear apart the church have       and last word. This was true because
way or another all of the problems in       their source in a denial of the author-     it is God's Word. Luther,in 1520, said
the church can be traced to this un-        ity of Scripture.                           that the disturbance in the church
dermining.                                      Unfortunately, those who call           world, i.e., the Reformation, was be-
    Theoldesttemptationintheworld           themselves Protestants-sons of the          cause of the Word of God.
continues to plague us. When Satan          Reformation - have begun to sing a              The differencebetweenRome  and
came to Eve, it was with the words,         very un-Protestant song! The song           the Reformers was not over the au-
"Has God said?" We all know what            which the Reformers sang had sev-           thority of Scripture, but over what
God said and that His words were a          eral stanzas, one of which was SoZu         came first. For Rome the church ex-
command! Nevertheless, Adam and             Scriptura.  Today their song is not         isted in time and logically before the
Eve disobeyed God. What they ques-          being heard!                                Scriptures. Therefore, the Scriptures
                                                Through the dark years of the           owe their existence to the church. The
Rev. JuZien is pastor of the Independent    Middle Ages, Scripture was more and         church could exist without the Scrip-
Reformed Church in Troy, Ontario,           more overshadowed by church tradi-          tures, but not the Scriptures without
Canada.                                     tions and dogmas. Officially, the           the church. Authority was vested

                                                                                                  October 15,1993/Standard  Beared


first in the church. Thus, the Council            Therefore, we must admit that           in place of God's Word.
of Trent could lump Scripture and           the development in Protestant circles             In still another way - and that
tradition together and see them both        is very strange, indeed. While men            seemingly harmless -the authority
as authored by God. The Reformers,          give lip service to the Word of God,          of Scripture is undermined. There are
on the other hand, saw Scripture as         there are many ways in which the              those who want Bibles with the words
having authority, not because it is         Word is being eclipsed, just as in the        of Jesus in red! Why? These words,
given or declared by the church, but        days of the Reformation.                      they tell us, are very important. Some
because it came from God alone, be-               For example, the authority of the       even request sermons on the words of
ing inspired by the Holy Spirit. The        church bodies is to be accepted with-         Jesus because they are so outstand-
Scriptures must be believed because         out question, according to some Prot-         ing. But is not God's Word the com-
of what they are. Since they are God's      estant leaders. We hear                                     pleteBible?  Why should
Word, God's people must be in sub-          from them that when the                                     some words be high-
jection to them1 Of course, this was        synod speaks it is the  1         me em                     lighted?
                                                                                         phasis
the reason why the Reformation              voice of God! How                            lations            Protestants today
brought a rebirth to the ancient prac-      strangely like the Catho-        on  reve                   have become guilty of
tice of preaching.                          lit statements this is! I        in addition to             exchanging a Pope and
     The Confessions of the Reforma-        Does not the Belgic Con-             Scripture              his decrees, not for the
tion underscored this. Article V of the     fession  warn us that the I       Qrows  out of             Bible, but for the voice
Belgic Confession states: "We receive       church must not ascribe 1
                                            ,.                               ln individull-             of their conscience and
all these books, and these only, as         "more power and au-                 ism which               for their feelings! This
holy and canonical, for the regula-         thority to itself and its                                   began early in the Ref-
tion, foundation, and confirmation of       ordinances than to the            elevates man              ormation when some
ourfaith...." Notice: "and these only."     Word of God" (Art. I and his feelings.                      people placed too much
Article VII adds: "it is unlawful for       XXDQ? And the tragedy -                                     emphasis on feelings,
any one, though an apostle, to teach        is that, when this kind of                                  and not enough empha-
otherwise than we are now taught in         pronouncement is made, it is usually          sis on revelation. The histories of this
the Holy Scriptures: nay, though if         without exegetical basis. Instead,            development are fascinating to read.
werean angelfiom heaven, as the apostle     necessity and current situations be-          However, what took place back then
Paul says. For since it is forbidden to     come the reasons! This, of course, is         is still taking place today, only in
add unto or take away anythingfrom the      a backhanded way of questioning the           different clothing.
Word ofGod, it does thereby evidently       authority of Scripture.                           The rise of emphasis on revela-
appear that the doctrine thereof is               We are told that present condi-         tions is a direct assault on the author-
most perfect and complete in all            tions in the world require certain de-        ity of Scripture - and not much dif-
parts." Other confessions indicated         cisions and actions even though they          ferent from the Church of Rome, ex-
the very same thing.                        may even be in direct conflict with           cept that Rome says her pronounce-
    The development since those early       Scripture. We are told that Scripture         ments come from the church, but
days has been at the same time pre-         really does not mean to say what we           within Protestantism  we hear that
dictable and very strange.                  think it says, and what the church            these revelations come from the indi-
    The development is predictable          throughout the centuries has under-           vidual.
as far as Rome is concerned. She went       stood it to say. The present-day                  The emphasis on revelations in
so far as to declare that to deny the       method of interpreting Scripture is           addition to Scripture grows o.ut of an
inspiration of the Bible is anathema        the reason that these ideas may be            individualism which elevates man
(X370)!  But even though she contin-        voiced!                                       and his feelings. It is made to sound
ued to declare the inspiration of Scrip-          There is another way in which           very spiritual, and those who follow
ture, and thus its divine origin, Rome      Scripture's authority is questioned.          that teaching want everyone to know
also continued to decree extra-bibli-       We findmanywhowouldratherread                 that they are spiritual. However,
cal ideas as being truth: Marys im-         a devotional book than the Bible it-         while we cannot infallibly judge their
maculate conception, her assumption         self. Ministers often hear from pa-          relationship with the Lord (and should
into heaven, etc. These ideas could         rishioners that they read certainbooks       not try), we can say that adding to
become "truth" because they, too,           for devotional purposes. Do not these         Scripture is not a sign of spiritual
like Scripture, proceeded from the          readers say by their actions that they       health, as they would have us believe.
church! How predictable! Although           find men's words more valuable than               Even though they would have us
Rome will not deny what Scripture           God's Word? Of course, they would            believe that their experience is the
says, she will add to it. preformed         never say that, but in practice they do!     result of the witness of the Spirit, their
believers have confessed through the        Are not devotional books of value?           view is a great departure from the
centuries that they do not add to           What of the great devotional classics?       historic Reformation view of this wit-
Scripture.                                  Certainly, they have value, but never        ness. The testimony of theHoly  Spirit

36lStandard  BearerlOctober  15,1993


as taught by Calvin has always been           really mean that He created as He                   Only as we return to the faith of
understood as not being revelation,           said in Scripture? Did God really say           our fathers will we see reformation
but that the Holy Spirit works in con-        that there was a flood in Noah's day?           andrevival. When thechurchisweak
nectionwithGod'srevelation(Calvin,            Does God really say that miracles               itis because her commitment to God's
Institutes, I, ix, 2). To teach that the      took place during the Old and New               truth is at best weak. And that com-
witness of the Spirit means that we           Testament eras? There have even                 mitment to God's truth is weak be-
now receive new truths is a departure         been those who question the virgin              cause the churchiswillingto compro-
from Reformation truth, because Ref-          birth and the resurrection of our Lord          mise on Scripture. The church must
ormation truth is Sola Scripturu. And         Jesus Christ. Of course, even the Bible         repent of her coldness to God's truth.
really, how reliable would such rev-          as a book has been critiqued as being               Equally  iinportant,  however, is
elations be, especially when two folks        other than what it says it is.                  that the church must not only hold to
claim equally authoritative but con-              Sadly, all of this is done in the           the truth, but she must Zive auf of that
trary revelations?                            nameof "Protestant" scholarship. But            truth. Herconfessionmustbeherlife!
    There is one blatant way in which         these questions do not arise out of             Life and confession cannot and must
the authority of Scripture is ques-           faith-atleast,thefaithwhichisbom                not be separated.
tioned: out and out denial of God's           of the Spirit. Norisit the Reformation              Thus, if we say that Scripture is
truth. "Has God really said...?" That         faith! It is a strange song being sung          authoritative, we must demonstrate
is the question they ask. Did God             by people in disguise.                          by our lives that we believe this. 0




            The Reformation and the
            Philosophy of Vernacular
             Translations of the Bible
    Many will be surprised to learn             taught such complex doc@i& that                   If the last remark sounds like the
that it was not Luther, nor Calvin, nor         hardly anyone outside a handful of            formulaforacharismaticprayermeet-
Tyndale in the sixteenth century who            theologians could understand it, or           ing, it is not far from Erasmus' goal.
first advocated that the Bible should           as if the chief strength of the Chris-        While all the Reformers were pro-
                                                tian religion lay in people's igno-
be made available to all in their own                                                         foundly indebted to Erasmus' inspi-
                                                rance of it. Perhaps the state  secrets
language. It was a Roman Catholic               of kings have to be concealed, but            ration and nearly all of them put his
and Dutch humanist, Desiderius                  Christ wanted his mysteries to be             recommendationsintopractice;none
Erasmus (ca.  1466-1536).' In his               disseminatedaswidelyaspossible. I             of them would have been happy with
Pavaclesis (Greek for "exhortation"),           should prefer that all women, even            the reductionistic, non-dogmatic, lay
a foreword published in his Greek               of the lowest rank, should read the           Christianity Erasmus envisioned and
Novum  Instrumenturn  (1516) a year             evangelists and the epistles of Paul,         hoped that popular translations of
before Luther had even posted his               and I wish these writings were trans-
                                                lated into all the languages of the
Ninety-Five Theses, Erasmus had said:                                                         Mr. Theodore Letis is a post-graduate
                                                human race, so that they could be             student in ecclesiastical history. He is
                                                readandstudied,notjustbytheIrish
  I absolutely dissent from those people        and the Scats, but by the Turks as            author of The Revival of the Ecclesias-
  who don't want the holy scriptures            well, and the Saracens.... I would            tical Text and the Claims  of  the
  to be read in translation by the un-          hope that the farmer might chant a            Anabaptists. He has edited the book,
  learned - as if, forsooth, Christ             holy text at his plow, the spinner sing       The Majority Text: Essays and Re-
                                                it as she sits at her wheel, the traveller    vkws in the Continuing Debate, a
' Of course, Wycliffe                           ease the tedium of his journey with
                          was earlier than                                                    defuse of the Teds Receptus and the
                                                tales from the scripture.... Let each
Erasmus, but his effort predated the age                                                      King James version of Scripture. Mr.
                                                individual grasp what he can, and
of printing and so his influence was much                                                     Letisisamemberof  theLutheranChurch-
more limited than that of Erasmus.              give expression to what he feels.             Missouri Synod.
                                                                                                     October 15,1993/Standard  Bearer/37


    the Bible might produce. But in twen-                 Each Protestant community had            sies  of religion, the Church is finally
    tieth century America, certainly it is       its own confessional standards, all of            to appeal to them (WCF 123).
    Erasmus who has triumphed over the           which assumed the validity of the
    Reformers.                                   orthodox standards of the ancient                _. So for confessional Protestants,
        In the sixteenth century, how-           Catholic Church.2 As James Moffatt             while vernacular translations certainly
    ever, it was only the many Anabaptist        put it,                                        had their place, ultimately the Greek
    communities who most radically                                                              and Hebrew texts were, decisive. on
    caught Erasmus' vision to dis-em-              .C&inists and Lutherans amid, all            matters of belief. This had a definite
    power the structures of catholic Chris-        their differences have been agreed,          effect on how these texts were trans-
    tianity -both Protestant as well as            from the outset, that the Cliurch.is         lated. Calvin, for example, "favoured
    Roman - by means of vernacular                 not a mere conventicle,  a seti-started      a literal translation, even to the extent
    translations of the Bible. Against hi-         body of "pious variers from the .'           of preserving the word order where
    erarchy and creed, these free church           Church," gathered round some                 nodifferencebetweenGreekandLatin
                                                   "heated pulpiteer" or of provincial
    traditions were keen to replace re-                                                         syntax forbade."4 Therefore it is not
                                                   religionists who belong to one class
    ceived dogmatic and ecclesiastical             in the main. The spirit of the authen-       surprising that when Reformers, such
    consensus with a religion by demo-           tic creeds,.confessions,  and testimo-         as Tyndale, decided to take Erasmus'
    cratic consensus. In seventeenth and           nies of the Presbyterian Churches.           advice seriously by Englishing the
    eighteenth century England this                may be summed up in the words of             inspired Hebrew and Greektexts, they
    simple, Erasmian Christianity re-              the apostle, "I speak of Christ and the      tended to keep very close to a literal
    sulted in the emergence of various             Church.  flj                                 translation, as close as possible to one
    non-conformist, anti-trinitarian                                                            English word for each inspired word
    groups - Socinians, Sabellians, and                   Therefore, the study of the Bible     from the Hebrew and Greek texts.
    Unitarians -and eventually Deism.            wasalwaysprefiguredinconfessional                      Even then, however, because the
    All of these developments were, in           Protestant traditions by the received          ProtestantReformerswereaBleamed
    one way or another, the result of put-       orthodoxy contained in the cat-                men they knew it was impossible to
    ting the Bible into the hands of the         echisms, creeds, and confessions.              conveyallof  the meaning found in the
    common man without reference to                ' One of the tenets one learned              Greek and Hebrew texts in another
    how the church had interpreted her           during catechesis within these con-'           language by way of translation.
    sacred text.                                 fessional traditions was a belief that         Hence, Francis Turretin, the ortho-
        The magisterial Reformers advo-          the Bible was alone the inspired Word          dox Protestant scholastic and heir to
    cated a different strategy. While they       of God. And because every word of              Calvin's Geneva Academy, argued
    agreed with Erasmus that the Bible           it was inspired and sacred, it could           -asdidalll?rotestant  divines-that
  : should be translated into the vemacu-        only be authoritative in a final sense         although translations
    lar, they never assumed it would be          in the original languages in which it
    studied outside of the ecclesiastical        had been given by inspiration. In the            are of great value for the instruction.
 .' context, that is, outside of the catholic    words of the Westminster Confession of           of believers, no other version can or
    dogmatic consensus which all Protes-         Faith:                                           should be regarded as on, par with
    tants retained while rejecting the                                                            the 0riginaI  [language texts], much
                                                                                                  less as superior.  Because no other
    unbiblical accretions of Romanism              The OldTestamentinHebrew  . . . and            version his any weight which the
  developed during the Middle Ages.                theNewTestamentinGreek...being
                                                   immediately inspired by God, and,              Hebrew or Greek source does not
    Hence, Luther produced the Small               by His singular care and providence,           possessmorefully,  sinceinthesources
    Catechism and the Larger Catechism;            kept pure in all ages, are therefore           not only the content . . . but also the
    and the Lutheran Church'as a whole             authentical.... so as in all controver-        very words, were directly spoken . . .
    produced the confessional standard,                                                           by  the Holy Spirit, which cannot be
    The Book of Concord. Calvin in Swit-                                                          saidbfany  version.... The translations
                                                 2 On the place of creeds within the history
    zerland produced the Geneva Cat-                                                              areallstreams; the original [language]
                                                 of the Church a very accessible work is
    echism (1541); and in Germany, Hun-                                                           text the source whence they take their
                                                 Gerald Bray, Creeds, Councils and Christ         lasting quality. One is the rule, the
    gary, Belgium, and the Netherlands           (Downers Grove, 1984). Although, I find          other the ruled which has merely hu-
    the Reformed produced the Heidel-            myself at odds regarding Dr. Bray's              man authority (emphasis mine).5
 *. berg Catechism (1563). In England the        strange advice advocating that the creeds
    Presbyterians        produced the            and confessions should be in modem
    Westminster Standards.  Finally, the         language, which goes counter to the very       4 T.H.L. Parker, Calvin's New Testament
    Reformed Anglicans had their match-          idea of static phraseology which accom-        Commentaries (Grand Rapids, 1971),  p.
`- less Prayer  Book and the Thirty-Nine         panies the finality of confessional litera-    102.
                                                 ture.
    Articles, the twentieth of which recog-
 : nized the church as 0 the witness and                                                        5 Francis Turretin, The  Doctrine of Scrip-
                                                 3 James Moffatt,  The Presbyterian             ture trans. by J.W. Beardslee III (Grand
 r keeper of Holy Writ."                         Churches 2nd ed. (London, 1928),  p. 4.        Rapids, 1981), p. 152.
    3Wtandard  BearedOctober  15,1993


     Therefore, all the qualities that     what happens when creeds and con-                    The Demythologizers are those
accompany divine inspiration only          fessions are jettisoned in favour of            who are not interested in either pre-
fully apply to those original language     "the Bible alone"? The answer is                serving  catholic consensus in Bible
texts in which Scripture was given by      foundintwoimpulsescultivatedmost                translation, or restoring a more primi-
inspiration: "a given translation made     fully in the American religious con-            tive and alien, ancient, Near-Eastern
by human beings subject to error is        text:     1)  restorationism   and 2)           religioustradition.-theysimplywant
not tobe regarded as divine andinfal-      demytholization.                                to communicate in contemporary
lible verbally," although "it  can:be          `Restorationism argues that his-            id.iom.lO  These are the pragmatists
properly so regarded in substance if it    toric orthodoxy as foundin the creeds           bred in business schools and inmass;
faithfully renders the divine truth of     andconfessionsofReformationChris-               media journalism and  communic,a-
the [original] sources,.." (emphasis       tianity reflects a degenerative and             tion departments in many American
mine).6                                    defective form of the faith, and what           universities.  They have little schol-
     That no translation, no matter        is necessary is a return to a more              arly interest but know how to make
how` carefully or literally rendered,      primitive form of Christianity.8 This           the Bible sell. Hence, everything that
canfullycommunicatewordforword             conviction is held by two groups of             would be abarrier to communicating
all the meaning of the original lan-       moderns: 1) those who are interested            the bare essentials of the Bible so that,
guages can be most clearly seen in the     in reconstructing earlier recensions            in Erasmus' words, "each individual
historic and official Bible of the Re-     of the New Testament than that which            [can] grasp what he can, and give
formed Church of England, the Au-          was preserved and used within his-              expression to what he.feels" is demy-
thorized Version.  Though the transla-     toric orthodoxy since the fourth cen-           thologized, that is, made contempo-
tors sought to retain Tyndale's mas-       tury (sometimes called the Byzantine            rary. One demythologizes the Bible
terful, literal, word for word render-     text, but here I will refer to this as the      in translation, that is, casts its mes-
ingfrom the GreekandHebrew,  when          Ecclesiastical text since it became nor-        sage in terms that are relevant to
this was not possible and more words       mative outside as well as inside of the         various special interest groups, to
were needed in English than were           Eastern orByzantine  Church);2)  those          certain ideologically oriented com-
used in the original sources the addi-     Anabaptist communities who reject               munities (e.g., feminists), or to those
tional words were placed in italics.       creeds and confessions, believing their         seriously deficient culturally or intel-
This did not mean that these words         churches alone have retained the pri-           lectually, for purposes of cultivating
were unnecessary, unimportant, or          mal Christian tradition. Oddly                  diversified markets. Here we dis-
superfluous (I once was handed a           enough, many fundamentalists in this            cover the very inversion of Turretin's
Bible by someone who believed he           group have clung to the old Anglican            principle: the ruled (translations) now
had arrived nearer the truth by cross-     Bible because of a defective historiog-         become the rule (the'true standard for
ing out all the italicized words in the    raphy which claims this Bible repre-            what is the essence of Christianity)
book of Genesis). Rather, these itali-     sents a now lost MS tradition reach-            and the verbal content of the original
cized words signaled what Turretin         ing back to the earliest, first century,        languages is left behind. Gerald
was at pains to make clear: no trans-      Anabaptist  communities.g  Both                 Hammond put it this way:
lation can fully convey all the mean-      groups are menacing because the
ingfrom the originallanguages, which       former are never able to arrive at a              The basic distinction between the.
is why the Greek and Hebrew alone          consensus, thus they continue to offer            Renaissance [and Reformation] and
must be final.                             approximation after approximation                 modern translators is one of fidelity
     Where translations failed, preach-    while the data remains in flux; while             to their original. Partly the loss of
ing was to offer additional clarity.       the latter have in a misinformed and              faith in the Hebrew and Greek as the
                                                                                             definitive word of God has led to the
WithinhistoricReformationchurches,         confused way instilled in the English             translatois loss of contact with .it,
liturgy and preaching, in Beardslee's      of the Anglican Bible all the qualities           but more responsibility lies in the
words, "continues the work of Bible        which Reformation scholars attrib-                belief that a modem Bible should
translation; hence the importance of       uted exclusively to the  original lan-            aim not to tax its readers' linguistic
an educated ministry."'                    guage texts.                                      or interpretive abilities one bit. If this
     What happens when the ministry                                                          aim is to be achieved then it seems
is no longer fully educated: as were
the Reformation pastors of the six-        B  A wonderful introduction to this phe-
teenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and       nomenon is Richard T. Hughes, ed. The           10 I cannot take credit for this analysis
even the nineteenth centuries; and         AmericanQuestforthePrimitiveChurch              concerning Bultmann's project as it ap-
                                           (Urbana, 1988).                                 plies to modem Bible translations since I
                                                                                           am indebted to Jakob VanBruggen's ob-
                                           9 For a brief study of this see, Theodore P.    servation on this point in his important,
6 Ibid., p. 154.                           Letis, The Revival of the Ecclesiastical        The Future  of  the Bible  (Nashville, 1978).
                                           Text and the Claims  of  the Anabaptists        This is soon to be reprinted by the Ins&-        ,
' Ibid., p. 154, no. 3.                    (Fort Wayne, 1993).                             tute  for Reformation Biblical Studies.

                                                                                                   October 15, UWStandard  6eareti39


  clear that a new Bible will have to be         The only antidote to this plight is       tracting  with the full fragrance of the
  produced for every generation -            for those small remnant Reformation           old classic translations those whose
  each one probably moving us fur-           communities who still retain confes-          senses have been dulledby the pollut-
  ther away from the original text, now      sional and catholic integrity to act as       ants of modernity (II Cor. 2~14-17):~
  thattheinitialbreakhasbeenmade.ll          salt and light in this insipid and ever                                               a
       This is a major, neglected theme      dimming age. With little promise of
in American religious studies which          success they must walk by faith and
could go a long way in explaining the        not by sight and celebrate their
state of much of modern American             distinctives with intelligence, dignity,
Christianity.                                and winsomeness*2  in hopes of at-            I3 For those interested in an academic
                                                                                           organization intended to assist in this
                                                                                           project, please write for a free bibliogra-
*I Gerald Hammond, The Making of the         I2 Ishouldlike to thankmy friend, Wallace     phy and information to: The Institute for
English Bible (New York, 1983), pp. 12,      Bell, for teaching me the value of a "Win-    Reformation Biblical Studies, P.O.Box5114,
13.                                          some Christianity."                           Fort Wayne, Indiana 46895.





              - Whence the Authority
                                            of the Bible?
                        Or: Why the Great Reformers
                             Preached with Confidence

       The great Reformation of Luther           For the Reformers, the question           it is inspired and authoritative only in
and Calvin was preeminently a                always came back to this - What               so far as it contains that savingknowl-
preaching Reformation. Both Calvin           does the Bible teach? Their insistence        edge. On any other topic the Bible has
and Luther were powerful preachers,          on the inspiration of the Bible was in        no divine authority, being fallible and
as were many of the other leaders in         the interest of proclaiming the au-           quite possibly unreliable. Since the
the Reformation. They were great             thoritative message of the gospel.            emphasis is on the divine, inspired
theologians who ably defended the            Clearly, if the Bible is the inspired         message of the Bible, this might seem
doctrines of the Reformation in print.       Word of God, then thefaithfulpreach-          at first to be in harmony with the
Yet the power that carried the Refor-        ing of the Bible has great authority! If      Reformation's emphasis on the au-
mation into the hearts and lives of the      it is not inspired, then the preaching is     thoritative message of the gospel. On
people was their preaching of Christ         but the opinion of man. The Reform-           the contrary, it is an attackon  thevery
crucified, salvation by grace, justifi-      ers insisted that the Bible as God's          foundation of an inspired and infal-
cationbyfaith,andthenecessaryGod-            Wordistheonlyruleforfaithandlife.             lible Bible and consequently on the
glorifyinglife. In short, they preached          Exactly over this issue has arisen        authoritative proclamation of the gos-
the truths of the Bible; and, by this,       a particularly deceptive attack on            pel.
God "re-formed" the church back to           Scripture's authority. Arising out of                 The idea that the authority of
the standards of the Scripture.              the Reformed camp, it maintains that          Scripture depends on its content is
                                             the Bible is inspired only as far as its      not new. In the 1890s Dr. Benjamin
                                             main message is concerned. This view          Warfield  criticized the view of a cer-
                                             maintains that, because God gave the          tam Dr. Evans in the Presbyterian
Rev.`Dykstru is pastor of the Protestant     Bible in order to give a saving knowl-        churches who said that "he accepted
Reformed Church of Doon, 1owu.               edge of Himself, any given passage in         the Scriptures as an infallible rule of

4OlStandard Beam/October 15,1993


faith and practice, and not as infal-          with scientific language (e.g.; that in             mation? It is not. Search as you will,
lible in their every statement"; and           describing the sun's movement the                   you will not find such ideas from the
that "whenweacknowledge the Scrip-             Bible says the sun arose or went down               pen of Calvin, Luther, and the rest of
tures to be an infallible rule, we do not      instead of saying the sun revolved                  the Reformers. They did not consider
affirm them to be inerrant  in their           around the earth), no one would dis-                the Bible to be inspired only as to its
statements of history and science."*           agree. If this meant that                                           main message. They
Dr. Evans maintained that the Bible is         the Bible does not give a                      I                    considered the Bible to
the product of the divine and the              complete account of his-          The  &thority                     be the divinely inspired
human. How is one to discriminate              torical events, again, any           ofthe  Bible,                  Word of God, and after
between the two elements? Accord-              Reformed man would                      and thus                    maintaining such they
ing to Dr. Evans "the divine element           agree. Those facts do not         of  the preaching,                did not  ,play around
concerns only what `makes wise unto            detract from Scripture's                                            with silly distinctions
salvation'; all that makes wise unto           authority one iota. But                is not due                   that weakened or de-
anything else is h.uman."2                     this is not the force of the        to the content                  stroyed it. The author-
     More recently in Reformed circles         above. Subsequent de-              of the passage;                  ity of theBible, and thus
the same idea has found increased              bates on Genesis l-11              it is due simply                 of the preaching, is not
support. For example, in 1972 the              show that some favor the           to the fact that                 due to the content of the
Christian Reformed Church approved             accounts of history                                                 passage; it is due sim-
a report on the Nature and Extent of           drawn from the clay tab-            the passage is                  ply to the fact that the
Biblical Authority (Report  36/44)             lets of ancient civiliza-          from the Bible,                  passage is from the
which gives evidence of this kind of           tions over the Bible's ac-           God's Word.                    Bible, God's Word. Al-
thinking. It states that "Scripture            count of early history. L                                      a though the following
presents itself solely as a divine self-       Others accept the find-                                             (from Calvin's  Ins&
revelation of God for redemptive               ings of unbelieving scientists on the               i&es) was addressed to the Romish
purposes" (p. 14). It adds that "the           origin of the universe as a better ex-              Church, it applies well to the errors of
issue now is whether the church can            planation than the Bible gives. Why?                today. "A most pernicious error has
come to greater clarity on the nature          Because history and science are out-                very generally prevailed  - viz. that
and extent of biblical authority and           side of the Bible's redemptive pur-                 Scripture is of importance only in so
what has been called `the connection           pose. The accounts of the Bible are                 far as conceded to it by the suffrage of
between the content and purpose of             not more authoritative than other                   the Church; asif the eternal andinvio-
Scripture as the saving revelation of          studies.                                            lable truth of God could depend on
Godin Jesus Christ and the subsequent              In practice then, if scientific stud-           the will of men. With great insult to
and deducible authority of Scripture' fl       ies support the biblical account of                 the Holy Spirit, it is asked, Who can
(p. 14, emphasis mine, RJD).                   creation, one may accept it as. genu-               assure us that the Scriptures pro-
    That last is a very telling state-         ine;  if science disagrees with the Bible,          ceededfromGod;whoguaranteethat
ment. It can only mean, first of all,          he may feel free to go with science. If             they have come down safe and
that Scripture has authority because it        the written histories of Egypt and                  unimpaired to our times?" (I, VII, 1).
reveals salvation in Christ. And sec-          Babylon substantiate the Bible in a                     The Catechism of the city of
ondly, Scripture has divine authority          given passage, you can trust theBible's             GenevawrittenbyCalvin,totheques-
only when it reveals salvationin Christ.       account there. If the other records                 tion, "How are you to use it [the Holy
It follows that when theBible touches          contradict the biblical record, the                 Scriptures] in order to profit fromit?"
on other areas, as, for example, SC+           scholarly conclusion is that the writer             replies "By embracing it with entire
ence or history, it does not haveGod's         in the Bible was mistaken. To say that              heartfelt persuasion, as certain truth
authority behind it. Then it becomes           the Bible is mistaken, that it is, in fact,         come down from heaven . . . . II
some man's account, no more reliable           replete with errors of this kind, does                  The confessions of the Reforma-
than any other record. The Bible is            not trouble these men. They rather                  tion addressed the question of the            '
inspired (authoritative) in matters of         Ijiously  reassure us that the Bible is             Bible and the consequent authority of
redemption only.                               still reliable on matters of redemp-                biblical preaching. Consider the
    Now if this meant merely that the          tion. Your salvation and faith in God               Tetrapolitan [Four Cities] Confession
Bible does not describe the creation           need not be affected.                               (1530), formulated largely by Martin
                                                   Really?                                         Bucer for the Swiss/German Re-
                                                   Putting aside for now the obvi- formed Churches. Chapter.1 of the
                                               ous and devastating effect this will                Subject Matter of Sermons:
1 LimitedInspiia  tion, Philadelphia: Pres-    have on the `believer's trust in the
byteiian & Reformed, 1962, p. 3.               Bible and his confidence in God, its                  . . . We . . . enjoined our preachers to
                                               Author, face the question; Is this the                teach from the pulpit nothing else
2 Warfield, p. 9.                              language and thinking of the Refor-                   than is either contained in the Holy

                                                                                                          October 15,lQB3~Standad  Seami


  Scriptures or hath sure ground                also instruction in all duties of piety;      is now preached in the church by
  therein. For it seemed to us not              and, to be short, the confirmation of         preacherslawfullycalled, webelieve
  improper to resort in such a crisis           doctrines, and the confutation of all         that the very Word of God is
  whither of old and always . . . the           errors, with all exhortations; accord-        preached, and received of the faith-
  children of God everywhere,  have             ing to that word of the Apostle, "All         ful....
  always resorted - viz., to the au-            Scripture is given by inspiration of
  thority of the Holy Scriptures.               God, and is profitable for doctrine,             In the end, the views of the Re-
                                                for reproof," etc. (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).       formers do not determine what we
    The Second Helvetic  Confession             Again, "These things write I unto           believe about the Bible, its inspiration
(1562) powerfully asserts the author-           thee," says the Apostle to Timothy,         and authority. But these great spiri-
ity of the Bible, simply because it is the      "that thou mayest know how thou             tual giants were not ashamed to use
Word of God. (Chapter 1)                        oughtest to behave thyself in the
                                                house of God," etc. (1 Tim. 3:14,15).       any passage of Scripture, being confi-
                                                Again, the selfsame  Apostle to the         dent of its divine authority simply
    We believe and confess the Ca-              Thessalonians: "When," says he, "ye         because it was the very Word of God.
  nonicalScriptures of theholyproph-            received the Word of us, ye received        Therefore, solid, authoritative, bibli-
  ets and apostles of both Testaments           not the word of men, but as it was          cal preaching is part of the glorious
  to be the true Word of God, and to            indeed, the Word of God," etc. (1
  have sufficient authority of them-                                                        heritage of the Reformation. The Re-
                                                Thess. 213). For the Lord himself
  selves, not of men. For God himself                                                       formers were right. And preacher-
                                                has said in the Gospel, "It is not ye
  spake to the fathers, prophets,                                                           descendants of the Reformation still
                                                that speak, but the Spirit of my Fa-
  apostles,andstillspeakstousthrough            ther speakethin you": therefore "he         today must preach from any passage
  the Holy Scriptures....                       that heareth you, heareth me; and he        with the confidence that it is God's
    We judge, therefore, that from              that despiseth you, despiseth me"           inspired Word. Believers still receive
  these Scriptures are to be taken true         (Matt. 10:20;  Luke 1096; John 13:20).      such preaching as the very Word of
  wisdom and godliness, the reforma-              Wherefore when this Word of God           God.  0
  tion and government of churches; as





             The Bible, a Divine Book
       John Calvin's Doctrine of Holy Scripture

    Just as children of the Reforma-          apology in the face of the calumnies of       edge of ourselves, the nature of the
tion understand that the greatest             the enemies of the Reformation" (B.B.         knowledge of God, and what the fall
event between Pentecost and the re-           Warfield, p. v).l                             has done to man's knowledge, he
turn of Christ was above all a return             Calvin's view of Scripture is set         stresses in chapter six that the guid-
to the Scriptures, so Calvinists ought        forth in the first nine chapters of the       ance and teaching of Scripture is nec-
to know what the theologian of the            Institutes. It is only after he has laid      essary even to know God rightly as
Reformation held those Scriptures to          down the principle of biblical author-        Creator. Repeatedly he emphasizes
be. "It was Calvin's Insfihrtes which,        ity that he allows himself and the            that "God uses not only mute teach-
with its calm, clear, positive exposi-        reader to proceed to a consideration          ers (creation, DHK), but even opens
tion of the evangelical faith in the          of the doctrines of God, man, Christ,         his own sacred mouth; not only pro-
irrefragable authority of Holy Scrip-         salvation, and the church. After sev-         claims that some god ought to be
ture, gave stability to waveringminds,        eral chapters in which he treats such         worshipped, but at the same time
and confidence to sinking hearts, and         subjects as the connection between            pronounces himself to be the Being to
placed upon the lips of all a brilliant       the knowledge of God and the knowl-           whom this worship is due" (p. 81). He
                                                                                            reminds us that he is not treating the
                                                                                            covenant or salvation here, "but only
Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Prot-      * All quotations are taken from Calvin's      showing how we ought to learn from
esfant Reformed Church in Grand Rap-          Instifufes,  translated by John Allen         Scripture, that God, who created the
ids, Michigan.                                (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949).               world, maybe certainly distinguished

42lStandard Bearer/October l&1993


from the whole multitude of fictitious       of piety, by treatingit withimmediate        ness of faith which believes this is so.
deities" (p. 81).                            veneration" (p. 87).                         "It is such a persuasion, therefore, as
    It is clear, therefore, that Calvin          The enemies of biblical authority        requires no reasons; such a knowl-
taught that the study of creation by         like to quote Augustine's line fl that he    edge as is supported by the highest
science, although more than sufficient       would not believe the Gospel unless          reason, in which, indeed, the mind
to deprive the ingratitude of men of         he were influenced by the authority          rests with greater security and con-
every excuse, was not sufficient to          of the church." Calvin calls this false      stancy than in any reasons; it is, fi-
give anything more than confused             and unfair because the context of his        nally, such a sentiment as cannot be
notions of deity. There is not, in his       statement is ignored. Augustine,             produced but by a revelation from
view, a reciprocal relation between          when arguing against the Manichees,          heaven" (p. 91). This is what every
Scripture and scientific findings by         writes this only of aliens from the          believer experiences in the depths of
which each casts true light upon the         faith who could not be persuaded to          his heart. This is what Isaiah means
other, as the theistic evolutionist holds    believe the Gospel as the truth of God       when he states that "all the children
today. Calvinists must avoid that            unless they saw uniform agreement            shall be taught of God" (Is. 5413).
proud pitfall and confess that Scrip-        in the church. For how can the church        And this great gift of faith is what
ture alone gives us the truth regard-        command the obedience of faithif she         distinguishes the elect from the rest of
ing creation and the Creator.                herself does not agree on doctrine?          mankind. Only the elect are given to
                                             Augustine held that the authority of         understand the mysteries of God.
The Establishment of Scripture's             the church was only an introduction
Authority                                    to prepare the hearer for the faith of       Rational Proofs Assist
    In chapter seven Calvin teaches          the Gospel.                                  Belief in Soripture
that unless the authority of Scripture           Calvin insists that the principal            Although faith is necessary to
isfirmlyestablished,doubtswillflour-         proof for the authority of the Bible is      establish the truth and authority of
ishinthemindandtherewillbealack              derived from the character of the Di-        Scripture in one's heart, Calvin con-
of reverence for the Word. "But since        vine Speaker. "The prophets and              cedes that certain rational proofs can
wearenotfavouredwithdailyoracles             apostles boast not of their own ge-          help the believer in his confession and
from heaven, and since it is only in the     nius, or any of those talents which          defense of biblical doctrine - but
Scriptures that the Lord hath been           conciliate the faith of the hearers; nor     only if the foundation of faith has first
pleased to preserve his truth in per-        do they insist on arguments from             been laid. Whilst, on the contrary,
petual remembrance, it obtains the           reason; but bring forward the sacred         when, regarding it in a different point
same complete credit and authority           name of God, to compel the submis-           of view from common things, we have
with believers, when they are satis-         sion of the whole world" (p. 89). He         once religiously received it in a man-
fied of its divine origin, as if they        .immediately  adds that "the testimony       ner worthy of its excellence, we shall
heard the very words pronounced by           of the Spirit is superior to all reason.     then derive great assistance from
God himself" (p. 85) He calls it a           For as God alone is a sufficient wit-        things which before were not suffi-
pernicious error that the Scriptures         ness of himself in his own word, so          cient to establish the certainty of it in
derive their authority and weight by         also the word will never gain credit in      our minds" (p. 93). Calvin has in
the suffrages of the church, or that the     the hearts of men, till it be confirmed      mind the "order and disposition of
church decides what reverence is due         by the internal testimony of the Spirit"     the Divine Wisdom dispensed" in
the Scriptures, and what books com-          (p. 90). What must we think of Cal-          Scripture, the "heavenly nature of its
prise the canon.                             vinists who wonder at the nature and         doctrine which never savours of any
    Calvin destroys the argument that        extent of biblical authority in the twen-    thingterrestrial," the "beautifulagree-
the Scriptures depend on the church's        tieth century? Why appoint commit-           ment of all parts with each other,"
decisions by quoting Ephesians 2:20,         tees to study such a question? It is         and the "dignityof the subjects rather
where we read that the church is built       faithless conniving against the funda-       than the beauties of the language."
upon the foundation of the apostles          mental principle of the Reformation.         He believes that "the force of truth in
and prophets. If the foundation of the           After callingit an undeniable truth      the sacred Scripture is too powerful
church is Scripture, Scripture pre-          that "they who have been inwardly            to need the assistance of verbal art"
cedes the existence of the church, and       taught by the Spirit feel an entire          and that 0 the sublime mysteries of the
the church cannot exist without Scrip-       acquiescence in the Scripture, and           kingdom of heaven are communi-
ture. How, then, can she be the judge        that it is self-authenticated, carrying      cated, for the most part, in humble
of them? "Wherefore, when the                with it its own evidence" (p. 90), a         and contemptible style" (p.  93,94).
church receives it, and seals it with        grand statement echoed in Article 5              Nevertheless, the "diction of
her suffrage, she does not authenti-         of our Belgic Confession, Calvin is not      some of the prophets is neat and el-
cate a thing otherwise dubious or            afraid to place the inability of reason      egant, and even splendid; so that they
controvertible; but knowing it to be         to establish the Bible as the Word of        are not inferior in eloquence to the
the truth of her God, performs a duty        God right alongside the reasonable-          heathen writers. And by such ex-

                                                                                                 October 15,4 993lStandard  BeareM3


amples the Holy Spirit has been             been confirmed by the blood of so             coin a new system of doctrine, which
pleased to show, that he was not de-        many saints. "Having once received            would seduce us from the received
ficientineloquence,thoughelsewhere          it, they hesitated not, with intrepid         doctrine of the Gospel, but to seal to
he hath used a rude and homely style"       boldness, and even with great alac-           our minds the same doctrine which
(p. 94). Whether biblical language is       rity, to die in its defence: transmitted      the Gospel delivers" (p. 106). Since
a sweet flow of words or character-         to us with such a pledge, how should          the Spirit is the author of Scripture,
izedbyrusticity, theinspiration of the      we not receive it with a firm and             He cannot by secret revelations be
Spirit is everywhere in evidence.           unshaken conviction? Is it therefore          inconsistent with Himself. He al-
    Anotherassistingprooftofaithin          no small confirmation of the Scrip-           ways testifies to His own truth which
Scriptureis the endurance of the Word       ture, that it has been sealed with the        He has expressed in Scripture, with
of God throughout all generations.          blood of so many martyrs" (p. 103)?           the result that "he only displays and
Himself in awe, he writes, "For it is       Calvin closes chapter ten with the            exerts his power where the Word is
not an unimportant consideration,           reminder that "the Scripture will then        received with due reverence and pi-
that, since the publicationof the Scrip-    only be effectual to produce the sav-         ety" (p. 108). The antidote to the
ture, so many generations of men            ing knowledge of God, when the cer-           growing mysticism and improper
should have agreed in voluntarily           tainty of it shall be founded on the          emphasis on the Spirit in our day is
obeying it; and that however Satan,         internalpersuasionoftheHolySpi.rit.           the Reformation doctrine of the suffi-
together with the whole world, has          Thus those human testimonies, which           ciency of Holy Scripture.
endeavored by strange methods to            contribute to its confirmation will not           In summary, Calvin sharply lim-
suppress or destroy it, or utterly to       be useless, if they follow that first and     its what can be known from creation
erase and obliterate it from the            principal proof, as secondary to our          to confused notions of deity, denies
memory of man, yet it has always,           imbecility" (p. 104).                         that the authority of Scripture de-
like a palm-tree, risen superior to all                                                   pends on decisions of the church,
opposition, andremainedinvincible"          Claims of Special Revelations                 warns against rational arguments for
(p. 103). Calvin ascribes the preserv-      Subversive to Piety                           biblical inspiration if faith is not first
ing of Scripture throughout the ages,           Calvin is intolerant of those who         present, and concludes with severe
not to the church or the faithfulness of    pretend not to need the Scripture be-         criticism of those who would sepa-
men, but to the providence of God.          cause they have received special rev-         rate Word and Spirit. We have quoted
This comforting, historical fact is fur-    elations from the Spirit. He calls this       extensively from the Institutes to
ther proof that the Bible is a Divine       attempt to separate Word and Spirit           show this. But we have another rea-
Book.                                       ridiculous, puerile, mean, and sub-           son for doing this. Is not your appe-
    The final proof that can assist our     versive. "The office of the Spirit, then,     tite whetted to give the Institutes a
faith in receiving the doctrines of the     which is promised to us, is not to feign      first, or another, careful reading? 0
Bible with confidence is that it has        new and unheard of revelations, or to





         Doctrine of Scri ture in.the
                            Reformed reeds
                                                                        8

    For the sake of space we cannot         Westminster Confessions. The reader           this doctrine indicate how basic and
quote here the Articles of Reformed         will have to peruse them on his own.          vital for true faith and a true church
creeds that most fully articulate the       The Belgic Confession devotes five            their writers considered a proper con-
doctrine of the Scripture. Those two        full articles to the doctrine (Arts. III -    fession of the Scriptures to be.
creeds are the Belgic and the               VII).    The Westminster's opening                What is striking is how similar in
                                            chapter sets forth the doctrine, and it       content and expression the two creeds
                                            does so in no fewer than ten articles.        are. To be sure, the Westminster's
Rev. Koole is pastor of Faith Protestant    In both confessions the early place-          treatmentofthedoctrineisabitlonger
Reformed Church in Jenison,  Michigan.      ment and the length of treatment of           than that of the Belgic and shows

WStandard BeamriOctober  15,1993


 maturing of thought and expression.             Christ and His Word, because they            Psalms, Gospels, andEpistles,belong
 For instance, the Westminster ad-               are always so contemporary and up-           to the sacred Canon of Scripture, or,
 dresses the importance of good trans-           to-date." Churchmen will lead the            in the language of the Belgic Confes-
 lations for the people (1,8), and it sets       church out of the deadness of                sion, are to be received as "holy and
 forth the regulative principle of bibli-        confessionalismbackto the Scriptures         canonical, for the regulation, founda-
 calinterpretion, namely, Scriptureby            and their primitive, simple, pristine        tion, and confirmation of our faith..."
 Scripture, the more difficult, pres-            teachings.                                   - which are indeed truly  "God-
 ently obscure passages explained in                   My, such reborn zeal! Be not           breathed."
r the light of the more                                        deceived.     These men            To this issue of whichbooks (66in
 clear (1,9). That thereis         `I                          are about as interestedin      all) belong in the Holy Scripture we
 thismaturityshouldnot                                         a return to the Scriptures     give scarcely a thought.        For us,
 surpriseus. It waswrit-                  The issue            as the infallible, authori-    adding to the approved books is un-
 ten 80 years after the                  of the day            tative Word of God as          thinkable. At times however this was
 Belgic Confession, and          is the authority              they are in becoming           a burning issue. The early church had
 bya"multitudeofcoun-            and sufiiciency               Nazarites and eating           to distinguish between the pseudo-
 sellors."                               of the Bible          grasshoppers with John         apostolic writings and the genuine
     But it is obvious                                         the Baptist in the desert.     ones. And the Reformers had to rid
 that the Westminster               as the Word                These men simply want          the church of any reliance upon the
 Confession is the child                   of  God.            to get rid of the creeds in    writings of the  Apocrypha. The
 of the Belgic, and was           The issue has                order to get rid of their      Romish Church had elevated them to
 writtenbymenwhohad                 not changed                bindingview of the Scrip-      the status of sacred Scripture. Any
 the Belgic open before           since the day                tures, and thus to be rid      number of unbiblical and supersti-
 them, along with the                                          of believers looking over      tious teachings (such as purgatory)
 Scriptures, as they dis-       these two creeds               their shoulders with con-      had slipped in via this addition to the
 cussedandwrote. Any-             were written,                fessions in hand point-        received canon.       The Reformers,
 one who has any respect                 except now            ing out every departure        through the confessions, returned the
 fortheworkoftheSpirit            the Scriptures               from the historic, Re-         church to the decisions of the earliest
 in the church of the past                are being            formed, and Apostolic          church councils on this matter. The
 could do no less.                                             faith.    And especially       Westminster is especially sharp in its
     To anyone who is                     betrayed             they want to be rid of         rejection of the claims of the apocry-
 at all current,with  what          in the house               common believers judg-         phalwritings. We canbe thankful the
 is taking place in apos-         of  her friends.             ing their doctrine of the      confessions dealt with this issue so
 tate protestantism to- L                                      Scriptureitself (not  God-     decisively, thus settlingtheissuewith
 day it shouldbe asclear                                       breathed and binding in        us. We have been spared much con-
 as the sun in the heavens that the              everylastpart!)asdefectiveand"anath-         fusion.
 confessionsarenot archaicdocuments              ema" (Gal. 1:8-12, B.C. VII).                    In the area of apologetics (or con-
 which deserve to be consigned to                      In their treatment of the doctrine     troversy) the central concern of the
 somemuseumof interest only to schol-            of Scripture the two confessions are         confessions is the relation between
 ars of ancient history. They are as             concemedbasicallywith three things:          the authority of the church and that of
 relevant and pertinent to the need              with the Canon of Scripture (which           the Scriptures - i.e., which is the
 and issues that confront the church of          writings [books] were divinely in-           supreme or final authority, which de-
 Christ as the day they were written.            spired), with the authority of Scrip-        rives authority from which. The ge-
 This is especially true in light of the         ture (especially whence it derives its       nius of the confessions is their articu-
 growing assault upon the trustwor-              authority - from the Church?), and           lating the doctrine of the self-attesta-
 thiness of the Scriptures themselves.           with the sufficiency of Scripture (the       tion of the Scriptures.
     The issue of the day is the author-         only trustworthy and needed rule of              The Belgic Confession declares
 ity and sufficiency of the Bible as the         faith in every age).                         that we believe all things contained in
 Word of God.         The issue has not                Both theB.C. and the W.C. speak        the Scriptures, "not so muchbecause
 changed since the day thesetwocreeds            of and set forth the "canon" of Scrip-       the Church receives and approves
 were written, except now the Scrip-             ture (Arts. 4,5,6 & 1.2,3). The word         them as such, but more especially
 tures are being betrayed in the house           "canon" comes from the Greek and             because the Holy Ghost witnesseth in
 of her friends.      There is a cry in          denotes "any straight rod or bar, es-        our hearts, that they are from God,
 Frotestantism to retire the confes-             pecially to keep a thing straight." It       whereof they carry the evidence in
 sional standards from active service.           has reference then to an official, rec-      themselves" (Art.  V).
 This is done in the name of returning           ognized.standard  by which all else is           The Westminster declares, "The
 to the direct, unfettered study of the          measured. The confessions list which         authority of the Holy Scripture . . .
 pages of Scriptures. "No creed but              writings, which prophetic books,             dependeth not upon the testimony of
                                                                                                     October 15, IQ03lStandard  Bear&a
                                                                                i


--



any man or Church, but wholly upon              be moved and induced by the testi:               was brought home by a statement
God (who is truth itself), the author            many  of the Church to an high and              made by the well-known author and
thereof; and, therefore, it is to be            reverent esteem of the Holy Scrip-               Anglican theologian, J.I. Packer, in an
received, because it is the Word of              ture; . . . yet, notwithstanding our full       article in the April 5, 1993 issue of
God" (Sect. 4).                                 persuasion and assurance of the infal-           Christianity Today. There Packer
     Note the decisive language of the          lible truth, and Divine authority                explains his reasons for finally part-
Belgic Confession. "... not so much              thereof, is from the inward work of             ing ways with the World Council of
because the Church receives and ap-              the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by             Churches (WCC), which, in the judg-
proves them as such . . . . N This was the       and with the Word in our hearts"                ment of this writer, has epitomized
contention of Rome as she insisted               (Sect. 5).                                      the worst of what has characterized
that the authority of Scripture and                   Note that the church is called to          theliberalecumenicalmovement. He
what it taught depended on her ap-               direct the believer (and all men) to            makes a telling statement. It became
proval.                                                              submit to the supreme       plain, he says, as far back as the 1960s
     In his book Captive                                             authority of the Bible.     that the WCC then already "... ap-
To The Word,  A.S. Wood                                              The one who will actu-      peared as sponsoring a consensus
writes that Rome claimed                The authority                ally do the convincing      theology that celebrated the Bible
N that the Church is supe-         of the Scriptures                 and convicting is the       without encountering its authority."
rior to Scripture because                   is not                   HolySpirit. Itisnotjust         Now, read that sentence over.
it was responsible for se-                derivative,                the Word alone, and it      Consider: "consensus theology" -a
lecting the books  in-                                               is certainly not the        creed of theology to. which, in the
cludedin the canon. The                 depending on                 church, which is able to    name of Christianity, nearly every
thesis of the ecclesiasti-              the witness of               persuade men to ac-         one could subscribe.          How to be
cal sophists ran like this,                   men                    knowledge Scripture as      achieved? While you praise the Bible,
accordingtoluther:  `The                    or the                   the Word of truth. It is    you strip it of its authority. This has
Church has approved                      verification                the Holy Spirit.    But     always been the heart and method of
only four Gospels, and                                               what He convinces men       apostasy.       Somehow, set aside
therefore there are only                of  the church,              ofisnottheunassailable      Scripture's supreme authority.
four. For if it had ap-                 but is primary               authority of the church.        The venerable creeds of the Re-
proved more, there                            and                    Rather it is of the         formed and Apostolic faith encoun-
would have been more.                   self-contained.              unassailable authority      ter this `unclean spirit,' expose it for
Since the Church has the L                                           and pertinency of the       what it is, `extra-celestial,' and dis-
                                                               IJ
right to accept and ap-
                   -                                                 Scriptures.                 miss it as militating against the true
prove as many Gospels as it wishes, it                And finally, for the work of the           unity of Christ's church. Thank God
follows that the Church is superior to          Spirit to bring the elect to saving faith        for the confessions written by men
the Gospels' N (p. 124).                        and to preserve the church from all              who were boundby  the Word of God.
     WithonedazzlinganalogyLuther               error and evil, the Scriptures are               0 . .
demolished the argument. "What a                wholly sufficient (Art. 7 & 1.6). This
splendid argument! . . . I approve Scrip-       is relevant to the spirit of our age. Not
ture.      Therefore I am superior to           only does it dismiss the "traditions"
Scripture. John the Baptist acknowl-            of Rome, her papal "ex cathedra"
edges andconfesses Christ. He points            pronouncements, and all writings of
to Him with his finger. Therefore he            men, no matter what their antiquity,
is superior to Christ. The Church               from competition with (and contra-                            I?ltrodiKtoly
approves Christian faith and doctrine.          diction of) the Scriptures, but also the
Therefore the Church is superior to             Spirit's promise to bind Himself to                           su6scriptions
them" (p. 124).                                 the Apostolic Word exposes the new                               t o   tfw
    The authority of the Scriptures is          revelations and prophecies of the                    STANDARD   BrnRER
not derivative, depending on the wit-           modem day charismatic movement,
ness of men or the verification of the          as false and not of the Spirit of God (I                        are  still
church, but is primary and self-con-            John 41). There ought to be no more                            lidjfprice!
tained. They carry the proof and                confusion on this in Christ's church
weight of this authority within them-           than on the matter of the received
selves. Indeed, Rome's contention in            canon of Scripture.                                           D o   aj%end
this matter is mere sophistry.                        In the interests of true unity of                         a fauor!
    This does not mean that the testi-          faith, the teachings of the confessions
mony of the church has no value. As             on the doctrine of Scripture are as
the Westminster points out, "We may             relevant and needed as ever. This

46lStandard  BearerlOctober  15,1993


TheRevival of theEcclesiastical  Text              New Testament, is scholarly. Letis is      area of Scripture translation. Just as        1
and the Claims of theAnabaptists,by                knowledgeable in the field of textual      the anabaptists posed a threat to the
Theodore P. Letis. Fort Wayne, Indi-               criticismandthoroughlyfamiliarwith         Reformation, so this fundamentalism
ana: The Institute for Reformation                 the issues. He is also concerned to        poses a threat to an orthodox Protes-
Biblical Studies, 1992.54pages.  $4.00             bring the confessional orthodoxy of        tant position on the translation of
(paper). [Reviewed by the Editor.]                 the Protestant Reformation to bear on      Scripture. The danger is not only
                                                   the matter of Bible translation.           from the left (the NIV), but also from
    Theodore P.  Letis is a young                      In this 54-page monograph, Letis       the right.
scholar who will be heard from and                 reacts against the radicalism of some          The stage for this charge is set at
ought to be listened to on the subject             American fundamentalists in their          the beginning of the booklet by a brief
of the Greek text of the New Testa-                exalting the KJVunduly.  They regard       historical sketch of the struggle of the
ment and the English version of Holy               the KJV as the perfect Bible. Superior     Reformation with Luther's "Schwar-
Scripture. Standingin the tradition of             to theHebrew  and Greekmanuscripts I  merein  ("fanatics").
Burgon  and Hills, Letis is a defender             that have come down to us, it is not to        This little book is helpful espe-
of the Greek text used in the transla-             be correctedbythe originallanguages,       cially to ministers and seminarians.
tion of the King James Bible and an                but the original-language documents        It can be obtained from Old Path
advocate of the King James Version.                must be corrected by the KJV.              Publications, 223 Princeton Road,
    Letis' defense of the KJV, particu-                This, says Letis,is the anabaptistic , Audubon, NJ 08106. 0
larly as regards the Greek text of the             threat to Protestant orthodoxy in the




  Annual Reformation Day Lecture
      Thursday, October 28,1993                                                                                Celebration
              in the auditorium of                                                                                 of the
      South Christian High School                                                                    Protestant Reformation
              160 68th St. S.W.                                                                     Not mere nostalgia over inter-
            Grand Rapids, Michigan                                                              esting history! The church today
                    8:00 P.M.                                                                   must rememberthe glorious  frufhsof
   Rev. Barry Gritters will speak on:                   REFORMATION DAY                         God which were restored to the
     She Shall Be Called Woman.                                LECTURE                          church by this wonderful event. Join
  Two follow-up Bible Study classes:                                                            us therefore at:
                 Byron Center                                      Topic:                             Hope Prot. Ref. Church
      Protestant Reformed Church                             Soli Deo Gloria                                1307 Brockton Ave.
          Thursday  P.M.,  November 4                             Speaker:                                  Redlands, California
      Thursday  P.M.,  November 11                            Rev. Carl Haak                    for a Conference`on
  Questions to be addressed at the                                 Date:                          Lufher, Reformer of  the Church.
  lecture and follow-up classes:                             October 28, 9 P.M.                       Fri., Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m.
          For what purpose did God create                          Place:                           Luther, Man of Conviction
  woman?
          What does the Bible teach concem-                 Lynden Protestant                        Sat., Oct. 30, 10:00 a.m.
  ing the calling of the Christian woman to-                 Reformed Church                                      Luther,
  day?                                                       315 N. Park Ave.                    Theologian of the Glory of God
          What duties and responsibilities does            Lynden, Washington                                    Lecturer:
  the woman have in her home and church                                                               Prof. David Engelsma,
  today?                                                      Sponsored by:                         from the Theological School
          How has the Women's Liberation                    Lynden Protestant                                   of the PRC
  Movement changed the role ofthe woman                Reformed Church Extension                (Directions to the church: Take the
  since the Reformation ofthe 16th century?                     Committee
          How can women learn contentment in                                                    10 freeway to the University exit. Go
  their all-important calling?                                                                  north to the corner of the campus of
          What should be the goal ofthe Chris-                                                  the University of Redlands, and take
  tian woman in the 21 st century?                                                              Brockton Ave. about four blocks east
                                                                                                to the church.)
            Mark your calendars
             and plan to attend!

                                                                                                     October 15,1993/Standard  Bearer/47


                                                                                                                                   SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                                   Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                   Grandvillb, Michigan
         P.O. Box 603
        Grandville,  MI 49468-0603


          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
          On October 16, 1993, our be-                          On October 18, 1993, the Lord                     The Lord willing, on October 20,
     loved parents,                                         willing, our parents and grandparents,            1993, our parents and grandparents,
             GORDON and EILEEN                                 ROGER and PHYLLIS KING,                         JO,HN and ANNElTE OUDMAN,
                   TERPSTRA,                                will celebrate their 30th wedding anni-           will celebrate their 45th wedding anni-
     will celebrate their 40th wedding,anni-                versary.                                          versary. We rejoice with them and
     versary. We their children and grand-                      With much thankfulness to our                 thank God for the years they have
     children express our hearty congratu-                  heavenly Father for providing us with             shared together. It is our prayer that
     lations to them and our gratitude to                   parents who gave us love and cov-                 the Lord will continue to bless and
     God for their Christian instruction,                   enant instruction, we rejoice with them           keep them.
                                                            and pray that God will bless them and                 "Whither thou goest, I will go; and
I    counsel, and example'to us over the
     years. May the Lord continue to bless                  keep them in His care.                            where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy
     them and provide for them in the days                      "Therefore now let it please thee             people shall be my people, and thy
     to come. "The lines are fallen unto-me                 to bless the house of thy servant, that           God my God" (Ruth 1:16).
     in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly               it may continue forever before thee:              0 Jack and Ann Oudman
     heritage" (Psalm 16:6).                                for thou, 0 Lord God, hast spoken it:                    Brian, Karen, Michael
     +. Sue Looyenga                                        and with thy blessing let the house of            0 Jim and Margaret TeVelde
            Lisabeth,  Brendan, Brianna, Caitlin,           thy servant be blessed forever" (II                      John, Roger, Heather
                                    Meghan, Drew            Samuel 7:29).                                     9 Ray and Pauline Prins
     + Tom  and`luanne   Schipper                           + Lou and Cheryl Regnerus                                Julie, Mark, Wayne, Lorne
            Jason, Dirk, Nicole, Andrew, Betsy                       Luke, Jade, Leah, Glen                   0 Clarence and Patty Oudman
     +Z+ Rev. Charles and Verna Terpstra                    4 Marcia King                                           Tim, Julie,  Rebekah
            Corey, Amber, Kimberly, Thad,                   4 Michael King                                    6 Howard and Fran Oudman
                                        Kyle, Justin        0 Bill and Lori Smeda                             Q, Ron and Teresa Gyori
     + Todd and Val Terpstra                                         A s h l e y                                     Crystal, Angela, Lisa, Rachelle,
            Gordon, Jillian                                 0 David King                                                                          Nicole
     + J.eff and Kathy Terpstra                                                     Grand Rapkls, Michigan    6 Gordon and Maureen Oudman
            Lindsey, Kelsey  '                                                                                                          Lacombe, A& Canada
                                  Grand Rapids, Michigan

                                                                            N O T I C E !
                                                               `The Randolph, WI Protestant
                                                            Reformed School Society continues
        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                              to, make progress toward opening
          The Council of the. Protestant                    school in the Fall of 1994. Preliminary
     Reformed Church of South Holland,                      plans include hiring of two teachers                j3ESOLUTlON OF SYMPATHY
     IL expresses its heartfelt sympathy to                 for a multi-grade setting; one for K-4,               The consistory and congregation of
     its fellow officebearer, Elder Menno                   one for 5-8. One teacher also will                the Lynden PRC extend their sympathy to
     Smits, and his wife Sadie, in the pass-                serve as principal. Because of the                Mrs. Marie Kaptein and her children in the
     ing of her brother and sister:                         newness of the venture and the.need               death of her husband and their father,
             MR. TED ENGELSMA                               for advance planning, we would like to                  MR. ALBERT KAPTEIN.
                         and                                establish talks with interested teach-            Maythe  Word of Jehovah be their abiding
          MISS SYBIL ENGELSMA.                              ers prior to contract time in Spring,             comfort:  "Whom have I in heaven but
     May the comfort of the family be in                    1994.                                             thee?  and there is none upon earth that
                                                                                                              I desire beside thee. My flesh and my
     this, "For me to live is Christ, and to die                Protestant Reformed teachers                  heartfaileth: but God isthestrength of my
     is gain" (Philippians 1:21),.                          who may be interested in these posi-              heart, and my portion for ever" (Psalm
             Rev. Charles Terpstra (Pres.)                  tions are asked to contact Gary Buteyn            73:25, 26).
                 Mr. George Vroom (Clerk)                   at (414) 326-5666 or Pastor Key at                                  Lynden PRC Council
                                                            (414) 326-5642.                                                     Mel Yonkman, Clerk

     48lStandard  BearetfOctober  15,1993


