"Let this point therefore stand: that those whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught truly rest upon Scripture, and that Scripture indeed is self-authenticated; hence, it is not right to subject it to proofs and reasoning. And the certainty it deserves with us, it attains by the testimony of the Spirit. For even if it wins reverence for itself by it's own majesty, it seriously affects us only when it is sealed upon our hearts through the Spirit. Therefore, illumined by his power, we believe neither by our own nor by anyone else's judgment that Scripture is from God; but above human judgment we affirm with utter certainty (just as if we were gazing upon the majesty of God himself) that it has flowed to us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men. We seek no proofs, we subject our judgment and wit to it as to a thing far beyond any guesswork! This we do, not as persons accustomed to seize upon some unknown thing, which, under closer scrutiny, displeases them, but fully conscious that we hold the unassailable truth!" J. Calvin, Institutes, Book One, Chapter 7
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1 comment:
This is interesting. Just today I read an article entitled "Can the words of men be the words of God?" by Vishal Mangalwadi (one of my favorite authors on int'l development) here http://www.vishalmangalwadi.com/vkmWebSite/WordofMan_WordofGod.pdf
So good.
The thoughts this post conjures in my head are...
Is my faith in Jesus based on my faith in the infallibility of scripture, or can I subject the Bible "to proofs and reasoning" and still be right with God in my faith in Jesus? What I know about Jesus comes from the Bible but Jesus saves, not the book.
Also, when the cannon was being decided upon they had to subject all the books to proofs and reasoning, right? To see if they made it into the cannon? But now that they're decided on, we shouldn't critique them and pull them apart?
I guess it's about our attitude as we read- are we trying to disprove it and discredit it or are our questions based on a desire to know God better and get to the root of the Bible?
Thanks for a stimulating blog post!
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