THE BELGIC CONFESSION OF FAITH

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THE BELGIC CONFESSION OF FAITH – A Commentary – By Dr. Chuck Baynard

The Belgic Confession of Faith, Article VI

The Difference Between the Canonical and Apocryphal Books

We distinguish those sacred books from the apocryphal, viz: the third and fourth books of Esdras, the books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Jesus Sirach, Baruch, the Appendix to the book of Esther, the Song of the Three Children in the Furnace, the History of Susannah, of Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasseh, and the two books of the Maccabees. All of which the Church may read and take instruction from, so far as they agree with the canonical books; but they are far from having such power and efficacy that we may from their testimony confirm any point of faith or of the Christian religion; much less may they be used to detract from the authority of the other, that is, the sacred books.

We considered this topic briefly in the introduction to the canon and the deliberate exclusion of all other books other than the sixty-six named in the confession. There was a process used long before the author of the Belgic Confession put pen to paper to decide what was in the canon. It has never been concealed that other works of equal or greater age existed. It is denied they ever were of God and intended to be in the Bible.

What a farce that today we still see those who speak of the Lost Books of the Bible. Satan never rests, and the lie continues. The Bible is complete under the protection of God Himself, and there is not one word God intended to be in the canon that has been excluded. Thus these books do exist, they however are not Scripture. They can be interesting reading, and perhaps here and there a jewel of understanding of the culture or history of the Bible extracted that helps a person understand the intent of God in certain places within the Holy Writ. Nonetheless, they are not canon as so aptly spoken in this paragraph of the Belgic Confession. Above all listen to none who claim to have found lost or unknown books or any other word that is equal to the Bible as received by the reformed church from her birth and the universal church before that. The one who says the Bible is the Word of God, but needs anything other than God the Holy Spirit to provide illumination is a false prophet and to be resisted by all means available. Two well known sects fit this description today: The Jehovah’s Witness, and the Mormon Church, each require their own writings in addition to the Scriptures to obtain God’s light for life and eternity.

The Belgic Confession c. 1561 is in agreement with all reformed confessions. The Second Helvetic Confession c. 1566 helps us see the conclusion was well established very early in the reformed church and was held by other confessions and catechisms that followed these pioneers. The First Helvetic c. 1536 which only differed significantly in regards to the wording concerning the real presence of Christ in the Supper was an attempt to solidify the beliefs of the reformers. The Second Helvetic was written with a background of the completion and publication of Calvin’s Institutes, however the earlier confessions standing in essential agreement help us understand these were all concerns of the reformers from day one and not a result of later theologians to introduce new concepts or add their own flavor to the reformation and especially not additions to counter the counter-reformation of the Council of Trent.

The reformation was well on its way when God used Martin Luther to set an official point in time with his Ninety-five Theses. There was much dissent with Rome and her practices before Luther, Calvin, Bullinger and Guido de Bres (the chief author of the Belgic Confession) began their public ministries. The Belgic was primarily a Dutch confession and the Helvetic was Swiss (German) thus we see very early that even under heavy persecution the reformation was essentially throughout continental Europe. This does not claim all these men worked in isolation, but that they worked toward a unified concept of what the true Church should be in accordance with the Bible. They were known to each other and many were in regular correspondence with each other during the era of the first reformation.