THE BELGIC CONFESSION OF FAITH – A Commentary – By Dr.
Chuck Baynard
The Belgic Confession of Faith, Article V
Whence the Holy Scriptures Derive Their Dignity and
Authority
We receive all these books, and these only, as holy and canonical, for
the regulation, foundation, and confirmation of our faith; believing without any
doubt all things contained in them, not so much because the Church receives and
approves them as such, but more especially because the Holy Spirit witnesses in
our hearts that they are from God, and also because they carry the evidence
thereof in themselves. For the very blind are able to perceive that the things
foretold in them are being fulfilled.
Another statement that
effectively closes the canon of the Bible and limits it to the sixty-six books
previously named. Since the Bible is the only reliable and true source
concerning God and His will, the statement that it is upon these books alone the
foundation of the church is built and regulated is here extended to the
individual believer. Since the Scriptures are those that speak of Christ to say
we believe without doubt requires faith since none can believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God unless the Holy Spirit reveals it as Paul affirms in his
epistle to the church at Corinth. What we today define as infallible and
inerrant the Belgic confession simple states we believe all things in these
books.
The Roman Catholic Church still
affirms that the Bible receives its authority from the church, which revealed it
as Scripture and in some places has claimed the authorship of the Bible. This is
contrary to the Bible itself and has always been denied by the Reformed
churches. The authority of the Bible is within the Bible and it receives
authority with the individual by the testimony of the Holy Spirit with the
spirit of the believer. Believers, individual and corporately compose the body
of Christ. The message of God is to the whole covenant family but has always
focused on the individual soul and its relationship to God.
The authority of Scripture is
then from God and received by man not because the church has said “Thus saith
the Lord” but because God the Holy Spirit says to the believer, this is truth.
The appeal to fulfilled and continuing fulfillment of prophecy is unique to the
Belgic Confession. This is both an objective standard in the prophecies that
have been fulfilled and a subjective tool in that continuing unfolding of
prophecy is subject to interpretation and the events known to the individual as
fact in the flesh. However this is not a distraction in that the Bible is both
factual and objective as proven in history and subjective as the individual is
able to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit testifying to his spirit.
The heart of the proof however
is objective in that all that God has said has been proven truth with the
passage of time and the unfolding history of man exactly as foretold in the
Bible. Not one single word of prophecy in the Bible that has come to pass has
been proven to be in error in the slightest detail. This gives the believer an
anchor in a world of uncertainty. God has provided His own word so the believer
can know and practice solid and established doctrine as the only rule of his
faith and practice.
All this said, the church has
not ignored the voices of the fathers and has used what the church said
concerning the individual books of the Bible as one of the marks to determine
what is canon and what is not. However the tradition of man is never to be taken
above what the revealed word of God clearly establishes. When the individual or
church finds itself in uncharted waters where the fathers of the faith dared not
go or went in another direction should use the utmost care before changing
existing tradition or establishing new doctrines. The communion of saints means
every believer has the same access to the very mind of Christ as the Holy Spirit
speaks from Scripture and will come down at the same place or close enough to
agreement that small details are a thing indifferent and should not cause
division within the body. The canon was not established in a vacuum, but duly
considered the opinions of all the saints who went before the generation of
reformers that declared, this is the complete revelation of God, and it may not
be deleted from, added to, or changed.
The age of the tradition or the
era of the church father in the supposed fact they lived closer to the time of
the revelation does not mean it is correct or that father was without error.
Every believer today has the same ability to reach the clear conclusion of what
God has said as the ancients. Each generation then is bound to examine the
traditions of the church in light of the Bible and reform where necessary to
conform to the clear teaching of the Bible. This will not uncover anything new,
but bring to perfection or maturity God’s will for each generation.
