Introductory text blurb
Chapter 1
Holy Scripture
1. Our natural understanding and the works of creation and providence so clearly show God’s goodness, wisdom, and power that human beings have no excuse for not believing in him.1 However, these means alone cannot provide that knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary for salvation.2 Therefore it pleased the Lord at different times and in various ways to reveal
himself and to declare that this revelation contains his will for his church.3 Afterwards it
pleased God to put this entire revelation into writing so that the truth might be better preserved
and transmitted and that the church, confronted with the corruption of the flesh and the evil purposes of Satan and the world, might be more securely established and comforted.4 Since God no longer reveals himself to his people in those earlier ways,5 Holy Scripture is absolutely essential.6
1. Rom 2.14-15,
1.19-20, Ps 19.1-4, Rom 1.32, 2.1.
2. 1 Cor 1.21,
2.13-14, 2.9-12, Acts 4.12, Rom 10.13-14.
3. Heb 1.1-2, Gal 1.11-12, Dt 4.12-14.
4. Prv 22.19-21,
Lk 1.3-4, Rom 15.4, Mt 4.4,7,10, Is 8.19-20, Lk 24.27, 2 Tm 3.16, 2 Pt
3.15-16. 5. Heb 1.1-2, see General Note.
6. 2 Tm 3.15-16, 2
Pt 1.10, Lk 16.29-31, Heb
2.1-3.
2. What we call Holy Scripture or the written word of God now includes all the books of the Old
and New Testaments which are:
Copy here the list of 66 books
3
Holy Scripture
All of these books are
inspired by God and are the rule of
faith and life.7
7. Lk 16.29,31,
Eph 2.20, Rv 22.18-19, 2 Tm 3.16, Mt 11.27.
3. The books usually called the Apocrypha are not divinely inspired and are not part of the canon
of Scripture. They therefore have no authority in the church of God and are not to be valued or
used as anything other than human writings.8
8. Lk 24.27,44,
Rom 3.2, 2 Pt 1.21. The Canon of Scripture
is not established by
explicit passages, but
by the testimony of Jesus and
his apostles; of ancient manuscripts and versions; of ancient
Christian writers and church councils, and
by the internal evidence
exhibited in the separate books.
4. The Bible speaks authoritatively and so deserves to be
believed and obeyed. This authority does not depend on the testimony of any man or church but completely
on God, its author, who is himself truth. The Bible therefore
is to be accepted as true, because it is the word
of God.9
9. 2 Pt 1.19,21, 2 Tm 3.16,
1 Jn 5.9, 1 Thes 2.13, Gal
1.11-12.
5. We may be influenced by the testimony of the church to value the Bible highly and reverently,
and Scripture itself shows in so many ways that it is God’s word; for example, in its spiritual subject
matter, in the effectiveness of its teaching, the majesty of its style, the agreement of all
its parts, its unified aim from beginning to end (to give all glory to God), the full revelation it makes
of the only way of man’s salvation, its many other incomparably outstanding features, and its complete perfection.
However, we are completely persuaded and assured
of the infallible truth and divine authority of the Bible only by the inward working of the Holy Spirit, who testifies by and with the word in our hearts.10
10. 1 Tm 3.15,
1 Jn 2.20,27, Jn 16.13-14,
1 Cor 2.10-12, Isa 59.21, 1 Cor 2.6-9.
6. The whole purpose of God about everything pertaining to his own glory and to man’s salvation, faith, and life is either explicitly stated in the Bible or may be deduced as inevitably
and logically following
from it.11 Nothing is at any time to be added to the Bible, either from new revelations of the Spirit or from traditions of men.12 Nevertheless we do recognize that the
inward illumination of the Spirit of God is necessary for a saving understanding of the things
which are revealed in the word.13 We also recognize that some provisions for the worship of God and the government of the church are similar to secular activities and organizations; these
are to be directed
according to our natural understanding and our Christian discretion and
should conform to the general rules of the word, which
are always to be observed.14
11. Mk 7.5-7.
12. 2 Tm 3.15-17,
Gal 1.8-9, 2 Thes 2.2. This statement
is an inference from the sufficiency of the Scriptures. 13.
Jn 6.45, 1 Cor
2.9-10, 12.
14. 1 Cor 11.13-14, 14.26,40.
7. The meanings of all the passages in the Bible are not equally obvious, nor is any individual passage equally clear to everyone.15 However, everything which we have to know, believe, and
observe in order to be saved is so clearly presented and revealed somewhere in the Bible that the
uneducated as well as the educated can sufficiently understand it by the proper use of the ordinary means of grace.16
15. 2 Pt 3.16, Jn 6.60, 16.17.
16. Ps 119.105,
130, Acts 17.11-12.
8. The Old Testament in Hebrew (the native language of the ancient people of God) and the New Testament in Greek (the language most widely known internationally at the time the New
Testament was written) were directly inspired
by God17
and have been kept uncontaminated
throughout time by his special care and providence. They are therefore
authentic and are to be
the church’s ultimate source of appeal in every religious controversy.18 The original languages
of the Bible, however, are not understood by all of God’s people. But all of God’s people have
a right to an interest in the Bible and God himself commands them to read it thoroughly
with awe and reverence for him.19 Consequently the Bible should be translated into the native
language of every people to whom it is introduced. Then, the word of God will live fully in everyone; everyone will be able to worship God in an acceptable way; and all believers may
have hope through the endurance and
the encouragement of the Bible.20
17. See
note under Section 3 above.
18. Mt 5.18, Is 8.20, Acts 15.14-18, Jn 5.9,46.
19. Jn 5.39, 2 Tm 3.14-15, 2 Pt 1.19, Acts 17.11.
20. 1 Cor 14.6, 9,
11-12, 24, 27-28, Col 3.16, Rom 15.4, Mt 28.19-20.
9. The infallible standard for the interpretation of the Bible is the Bible itself. And so any question
about the true and complete sense of a passage in the Bible (which is a unified whole) can be
answered by referring to other passages which speak more
plainly.21
21. 2 Pt 1.20-21,
Acts 15.15, Jn 5.46, Mt 4.5-7,
12.1-7.
10. The Holy Spirit
speaking in the Bible is the supreme judge of all religious controversies, all
decisions of religious
councils, all the opinions of ancient writers, all human teachings,
and every private opinion.22 We are to be satisfied with the judgment of him who is and can be the only
judge.
22. Mt 22.29,31,
Eph 2.20, Acts 28.25, Lk 10.26, Gal 1.10, 1 Jn 4.1-6.
