Belgic Confession of Faith (6)

Article 5

Article 5 speaks about the source of the dignity and authority of the Holy Scriptures. In our Reformed churches the pulpit, or actually the Word of God, stands at the center of our worship services. Who gave the Word this place? We read about that in this article.

Our forefathers spent much time in considering the importance, value, meaning and authority of the Word of God from Articles 3 through 7. We have seen in a previous article that the names of the Bible books also have significance, and that these sixty-six books are called “holy and canonical.” That means that they are a rule and a standard for our life. This article defines that further and states that they are “canonical for the regulation, foundation, and confirmation of our faith.”

These three words are very important, for they do not speak of a regulation by emotions, feelings, or opinion of others, but they speak of an unchangeable and everlasting standard for faith. Regulation means not a resting on our feelings or emotions, but that the Word must direct and guide us; it must be the guideline for our life of faith. We all need the prayer of Psalm 43, “O, send out Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me”—that’s regulation, and “let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles.” Whatever is not according to that Word, be it too heavy or too light, is not scriptural, and it will not last.

The second word speaks of a foundation. Our faith should not be based upon what others think of us, the opinions of some theologian or church, but it should be based upon the Word of God and this only; Sola Scriptura — He has spoken to me.

It also speaks of the confirmation of our faith. That which the Lord has spoken will be assaulted by Satan; it will be tested and tried. His promises often seem to fail, and seem not to be realized. The confirmation of that faith also doesn’t come from man, or any other source outside of Scripture. God Himself works faith by His Word, and strengthens it by His Word and Spirit. Scriptures are for the confirmation of our true saving faith.

What does faith believe? It believes “without any doubt, all things contained” in Scripture. If we go back to the beginning of this article, we read, “We receive all these books, and these only, as holy and canonical”; these sixty-six books are Holy Scripture in its entirety. That is the Canon which is closed; therefore our forefathers said with emphasis, “and these only.” Why did they emphasize that? There were, and there still are heretics and churches who do not believe that the canon of God’s Word is closed.

There are about fourteen books written by Jews between the closing of the Old Testament and the opening of the New Testament which are called Apocryphal books. These are books which may have some value, and perhaps can teach us something but they are not infallible; they contain evident errors and therefore they are not canonical. The Roman Catholic Church has added eleven of these Apocryphal books to their bible and ascribes the same authority to these books as the original sixty-six. That is one of the reasons our forefathers said “and these only.” The Roman Catholic Church is not the only one to have added books to the canon. Some sects and cults have also done the same. For example, the Mormons have their own book which their founder, Joseph Smith, claims to have discovered and translated from several golden plates which he found buried in the earth in New York state. This is in evident conflict with the last chapter in the Word of God which says in Revelation 22, “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” That is the one side. The other side states, “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life.”

The Lord has entrusted unto us Scripture as a whole. How careful we have to be that we do not act as if parts of Scripture are not applicable to our days. There are theologians who say, for example, that Paul’s words about homosexuality or the place of women in the church were his own ideas, and it was applicable to the place and time in which he lived, but they are no longer applicable in our day. If we say that, or agree with that, then we take something away from the Word of God. We may also not add unto the Word expressions or writings of highly respected, godly men. Their writings may contain much wisdom and truth, but they should never be placed on the same level with the Word of God. These writings must be founded upon, and confirmed by, the Word of God.

Scripture has divine authority. We have to believe, “without any doubt,” all things contained in them. We firmly reject the opinion of some that the Word of God is just part of the Bible — as for example, a present wrapped within a package. The Bible is God’s Word; we believe that “without any doubt.”

But, you may ask, who gives the Bible that authority? What are the evidences of it? The evidence of the truth of God’s Word you can in the first place find in God’s Word itself, and in the second place through the witness of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God has evidence of its truth within itself. In the Greek that is called auto-pistis (pistis = faith, auto = self) or, the self-witness. In many places in the Word of God we read, “Thus saith the Lord,” or “Hear ye the Word of the Lord.” We also read that the prophets said, “The Word of the Lord came unto me,” or “Thus has the Lord shown unto me.” The Word of God also speaks of the fact that it is inspired in 2 Timothy 3:16 and in 2 Peter 1:19-20. We can find further evidences in the prophecies which have been fulfilled, such as Isaiah’s and Micah’s prophecies regarding the birth of Christ, Joel’s testifying of the outpouring of the Spirit, Isaiah’s testifying of the captivity of the Jews and their return. The Lord also testifies in the Old Testament of the judgments which will come upon His people, the destruction of Jerusalem, and also that “as the waters cover the bottom of the sea, so the gospel will be spread over all the world,” which happened after Pentecost. It also testifies in Matthew 24, for instance, and other places about the last days, the apostasy, the false prophets, and the other signs of the times. My friends, many of these things have or are being fulfilled even today.

There is also the witness of the Spirit in our heart. There is a testimony of the Word of God by the Spirit within our heart. Our Confession of Faith is not only a doctrinal book, but it is also experiential. There is also a subjective element when it is said that the Holy Ghost witnesses in our hearts that they are from God. In 1 John 5:6 we read, “And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.” The apostle writes in 1 Corinthians 2:12, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” The Word of God is a word which is brought within our heart by the Spirit. When God’s Word is brought in such a way, then we receive that Word; we bow under it even if it condemns us. We also embrace that Word and it becomes in us a power unto salvation. There also comes a time that I may embrace that Word and may believe it is a Word for me — a “faithful saying worthy of all acceptation.” We also taste and eat this Word. If there is that witnessing of the Spirit in our heart, then there is a bowing under that Word of God: I surrender; that Word overpowers me. I may taste and eat this Word by moments, as Jeremiah says in chapter 15:16, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by Thy Name, O Lord of Hosts.” If you eat that Word, then it becomes part of you and it gives you new strength; you taste the sweetness and the solemnity of the Word, and you experience it.

You also learn to tremble at His Word, for you feel that a Holy God speaks to one who is of unclean lips. In Isaiah 66:2 we read, “But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.” That is trembling with holy awe and a childlike fear. Luther said, “Those who hear the Word inwardly, receive a flame of fire, so that the heart says, this is eternally true even if I would have to die a hundred deaths for it.” Calvin writes in his Institutes, “The Word must be the object, goal and basis of our faith.”

We saw that there is the evidence in the Word itself, and because of the testimony of the Holy Spirit in our heart. Is everyone in agreement with that? No. In the past Rome did not give the Bible to the laity. Only the clergy had the Bible. Today they do give it into the hands of the common people, but the papal authority decides which translation and which exegesis is the correct one, and there is no real freedom of exegesis among them. What the church states and prescribes as being the right explanation is God’s Word according to Rome.

Not only Rome rules over the Scriptures, however; many other modern theologians say or teach that the Scriptures are true only insofar as they are in agreement with our human understanding. That means if there are miracles which, humanly speaking, could not have taken place, we should consider them as myths, as nice stories, but we cannot take them literally. A number of modern scholars have stated that science is free, and is not bound by, but stands above, the Scriptures. They say that as scholars we have to be independent and our minds have to be free from all kinds of restrictions. We have to search for answers, and if we come to conclusions other than those that are found in Scripture we must promote those findings. Even Reformed scholars separate the tie between science and the Word of God, in fact they separate what God says, and accept only that which they view as supportable by science; the rest, they say, is good for your religious life, your journey to heaven, but is not applicable to our work.

Many others accept the Word of God only outwardly as the Jews did in the days of the Lord Jesus. They boasted that they were Abram’s seed, knew Moses and the prophets; yet Stephen says of them, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.” Our forefathers said it very bluntly. They said, “The very blind are able to perceive that the things foretold in them are being fulfilled.”

Whatever is not according to that Word, be it too heavy or too light, is not scriptural, and it will not last.

The truth of God’s Word is also confirmed in archaeology.

Writing tablets have been found from the time of Abraham. Analysis of the soil in the area of the Dead Sea confirms that there had been a very serious and destructive calamity. In Egypt there are re cords which speak of the captivity of the Israelites. There have also been found evidences of Solomon’s large stables and his copper furnaces, of Hezekiah’s pool, and Sennacharib’s palace in Nineveh.

Not only archaeology, but also Scripture itself shows the prophetical accuracy of God’s Word. In Ezekiel 26, we read about Tyrus, that “she is broken”...“she is turned”...“she is laid waste”; and the nations will come up against thee that “shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape the dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.” That prophecy was written in 590 B.C. In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar came to try to capture Tyrus. It took him thirteen years, but he finally captured the city in 573 B.C The people of Tyrus then fled to an island a half mile from shore, and there built a new city, so the prophecy was not yet fulfilled. In 322 B.C. Alexander the Great came to capture the city. Instead of using ships to capture this island city, he took the stones and rubble of the old city and built a bridge to that island. In so doing he transformed the former city into a flat rock, confirming Ezekiel’s prophecy of 250 years earlier.

I would add one last proof of the truth of the Word of God. There is but one book in the world which pictures man in his total depravity, and in his total dependency on the grace of God. There is only one Book which abases man so deeply that it says, nothing of man, and which exalts God so highly that it says, all from God. Isn’t that proof that this Book is not of human origin? Man would flatter himself at least partially in his writing but the Bible only speaks the truth about man. God’s Spirit testifies of this fact in our hearts by moments, and that is more convincing than anything that I could say or write. If we have really experienced that the Word of God is a sharp, two-edged sword, a power of God, a fire that consumes, a hammer that shatters our resistance and breaks our stony heart in pieces, a lamp in the darkness when we do not know the way anymore, if then the Lord speaks, “This is the way, walk ye in it,” then we feel that this is not the voice of man, this is the true Word of God; for one feels the holiness, majesty and power of it in his own heart

Karl Barth said, “It is not the right human thought about God which forms the content of the Bible, but the right divine thoughts about man.” He further states, “The Bible tells us not how we should talk with God, but what He says to us; not how we find the way to Him, but how He has sought and found a way to us; not the right relation in which we must place ourselves to Him, but the covenant which He has made with all who are Abram’s spiritual children and which He has sealed once and for all in Jesus Christ. It is this which is within the Bible. The Word of God is within the Bible.” Karl Barth has influenced the thinking of many theologians. He seems to be a man who “digs a little bit deeper,” for he speaks with solemnity about what God does. But then he says, “This is within the Bible”; in other words, not all that is in the Bible is God’s Word. He says, “If the Lord speaks to your soul, then it is God’s Word.” “Then,” he says, “it is as lightning which strikes your heart. Then it is God’s Word.” Otherwise, the Word is “within the Bible” and it becomes divine only when the Spirit breaks through all our obstructions and obstacles, and penetrates our heart. No, my friend, this is not true. The Bible is the Word of God, and this Word is a “lamp unto our feet.”

And now, my reader, a question for you. Have you ever bowed under that Word — when, for example, you read how we were created and how we were made very good? Or are you still fighting within, and saying, “Why did not the Lord prevent the fall?” Have we ever had an impression how that God made us very good and in His image, and that we have sought out many inventions, and how we have fallen away from God in total depravity? Have we ever truly bowed under this Word and confessed, “Oh God, how true this is. There is nothing whole in me.” God’s Word cuts off everything outside of Him, for it speaks also of that way of salvation — that only Name — for there is “salvation in none other.” Have we ever confessed, “Yes, Lord, that is true. To whom else should I go?” God’s Word also speaks of the way wherein He leads a sinner through the wilderness of this life, a wilderness where we become poorer and decrease, but He increases. May you be privileged to bow under that Word, but that you may also taste and eat that Word, and by moments tremble under it. May you also know something of that rejoicing in this Word, the Word which has been so wondrously preserved throughout the ages. May that Word make us wise unto salvation by the Spirit’s operation, and may the reading and proclamation of that precious Word be richly blessed to us and our children.

Christ in Every Book in the Bible

In Genesis — He is the Seed of the woman

In Exodus — He is the Passover Lamb

In Leviticus — He is the High Priest

In Numbers — He is the Pillar of cloud by day and the Pillar of fire by night

In Deuteronomy — He is the Prophet like unto Moses

In Joshua — He is the Captain of our salvation

In Judges —He is the Judge and Lawgiver

In Ruth — He is the Kinsman-Redeemer

In 1 & 2 Samuel — He is the trusted Prophet

In Kings & Chronicles — He is the reigning King

In Ezra — He is the faithful Scribe

In Nehemiah — He is the Rebuilder of the broken walls of our shattered lives

In Esther — He is the greater Mordecai

In Job — He is the everliving Redeemer

In Psalms — He is the Lord our Shepherd

In Proverbs & Ecclesiastes — He is the Wisdom

In The Song of Solomon — He is the Bridegroom

In Isaiah — He is the Prince of Peace

In Jeremiah & Lamentations — He is the weeping Prophet

In Ezekiel — He is the wonderful four-faced Man

In Daniel — He is the Fourth Man in the fiery furnace

In Hosea — He is the eternal Husband

In Joel — He is the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost

In Amos — He is the Burden-bearer

In Obadiah — He is the great foreign Missionary

In Jonah — He is the Savior

In Micah —He is the Messenger of beautiful feet

In Nahum — He is the Avenger

In Habakkuk — He is the Evangelist pleading for a revival

In Zephaniah — He is the Lord mighty to save

In Haggai — He is the Restorer of the lost heritage

In Zechariah — He is the Fountain opened to the house of David for sin and uncleanness

In Malachi — He is the Sun of Righteousness

In Matthew — He is the Messiah

In Mark — He is the Wonder-Worker

In Luke — He is the Son of Man

In John — He is the Son of God

In Acts — He is the Sender of the Holy Ghost

In Romans — He is the Justification

In 1 & 2 Corinthians — He is the Sanctifier

In Galatians — He is the Redeemer from the curse of the law

In Ephesians — He is the Christ of unsearchable riches

In Philippians — He is the God who supplieth all our need

In Colossians — He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily

In 1 & 2 Thessalonians — He is the soon coming King

In 1 & 2 Timothy — He is the Mediator between God and man

In Titus — He is the Pastor

In Philemon — He is the Friend of the oppressed

In Hebrews — He is the Blood of the everlasting covenant

In James — He is the Lord who raises the sick

In 1 & 2 Peter — He is the Chief Shepherd who shall soon appear

In 1, 2 & 3 John — He is Love

In Jude — He is the Lord coming with the thousands of His saints

In Revelation — He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, His kingdom shall come and of His kingdom there shall be no end.

Rev. C. Vogelaar is pastor of the Ebenezer Netherlands Reformed Church of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

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