The Larger Catechism

Question 4: How does it appear that the Scriptures are the Word of God?

Answer: The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the Word of God, by their majesty and purity; by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very Word of God.

"Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul observes them."

Psalm 119:129

One of the features of the Westminster Catechisms is that each question follows the previous one in a logical order. There is a flow to the teaching. Question 3 dealt with the identification we must make between the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the very Word of God. But that begs another question -- how can we be sure that the Bible IS actually God's Word, and not simply an impostor? What are the evidences that lead us to conclude that what was written over many years and brought together in the book we know as the Holy Bible? The logic here is simple -- what will constrain us to yield to the authority of the Bible unless we are persuaded that it is more than a collection of human writings? Unless we are convinced that this is indeed the Word of God, and therefore trustworthy to its last letter, we will never give practical obedience to it.

It is not surprising to discover, therefore, that one of the devil's most subtle and persuasive attacks on Christianity has been on the authority of the Bible. The very point raised in Question 4 of the Catechism is the fundamental and foundational element of our religion: that the Bible IS the Word of God. In his lectures on "The Christian Faith in the Modern World" (1947), Professor J. Gresham Machen of Westminster put it like this: "The Bible is perfectly plain in the things that are necessary for your souls ... Read it, my friends. It is God's Book, not man's book. It is a message from the King. Read it, study it, trust it, live it. Other books will deceive you, but not this book. This book is the Word of God" (p44).

Machen was aware of the many questions being raised in contemporary scholarship about the trustworthiness of the Bible as holy Scripture. He did not eschew scholarship for that reason -- in the same volume he says "I do think that careful Christian scholarship is a very important thing" (p43). And it was by careful Christian scholarship that he concluded himself, and persuaded others, that the Bible is indeed the Word of God, and therefore its doctrines can be urged by the Christian church as authoritative and final.

What, then, are the evidences that the Bible is the Word of God? The answer to this question, according to the Catechism, is twofold. We could describe them as being objective and subjective -- the former relating to the kind of book the Bible is, and the second relating to the kind of reader the Bible has.

OBJECTIVE EVIDENCES -- WHAT KIND OF BOOK?

By 'objective' I mean evidences that are external of us, or that are internal to the Bible itself. These reflect the teaching of the Confession at 1.5 that there are certain characteristics of the Bible which lead us to be convinced of the infallible truth of the Scriptures (see William Cunningham's excellent Theological Lectures Chapter XXII for a treatment of this passage in the Confession).

The nature of the Bible writings is described as follows:

It Is A Majestic Book

The Bible speaks of great things, of wise things, of wonderful things. It stretches both our minds and our imaginations. It deals with issues greater than ourselves, taking us to the very heights of heaven and the depths of our need. It scales great heights and points to fathomless depths. It leaves us wide-eyed and open-mouthed; like the psalmist we say "your testimonies are wonderful" (Psalm 119:128).

It Is A Pure Book

Purity is ascribed to God's words in Psalm 12:6 and in Psalm 119:140. It has the idea of being unalloyed and unmixed. God reveals himself to us through the writings of men, but what we have in the Bible is not a mixture of divine thoughts and human thoughts combined. And although we have a record in the scriptures of impure deeds and sinful actions, nonetheless the purity of the Bible itself, in its faithful reporting of even the vilest of men's actions, is an evidence of its being the Word of God.

It Is A Unified Book

The Catechism speaks of 'the consent of all the parts'. This means that there is a harmony between the authors, and that there is a unity in the message the Bible proclaims. It would be difficult to achieve that kind of harmonious consent were the writers simply left to note their own ideas and insights. But under the supernatural care and guidance of God, the writings they produced, and the redemptive scheme of salvation they proclaimed, is so remarkably free from contradiction and disharmony that the unity of the Bible furnishes evidence for its divine character and origin. As Cunningham puts it, "the harmony which we find as a matter of fact to pervade the whole Bible from beginning to end could not have existed -- must be regarded as an impossibility -- had the books which composed it been the productions of unassisted men" (Theological Lectures, p287).

It Is A Book With One Great Purpose

The scope of the whole of the Bible, according to the Catechism, is to give glory to God. The writers cut a channel so deep in their work that we lose sight of them and of their penmanship, and we come face to face with the God of all grace in these holy writings. God is magnified and exalted as the biblical revelation unfolds. It begins and ends with a doctrinal emphasis on the majesty and glory of the Creator, and at every stage of writing, the Scripture glorifies the God who is revealed there.

It Is An Effective Book

Another of the evidences of the divine nature of the Bible is that it has the power to change the lives of men. It is, to quote its own teaching, a 'living and powerful' book (Hebrews 4:12). It contains light and power -- the former to assist us in our darkness, the latter to help us in our weakness. Sin has both blinded and maimed us, but there is light and power in God's Word. That is developed in this way:

1. the Bible can convince and convert sinners. It can do what no human argumentation can do -- it can show us what we are really like, what we can truly become, and what God, by his grace, can help us to be. The power of the Word of God is such that a verse here, or a passage there, can shed light for us on the deepest needs of our souls as sinners, and the remedy that there is for us in Christ. Every convert -- every changed life -- is testimony to the light and the power that belong to the Word of God. Other books can make us change our minds, or thoughts, or opinions -- but this book alone can be described as truly life-transforming.

2. The Bible can comfort and build up believers. At a personal level, God's word has the power to strengthen us when we are weak and comfort us when we are sad. It can move our hearts and lift our spirits. It can 'strengthen weak hands and confirm feeble knees' (Isaiah 35:3). And on a congregational level, God's word can transform churches and denominations, giving new life and reviving power. Look at the changes that the Bible has wrought in the histories of men and churches, and tell me that it is not the Word of God!

SUBJECTIVE EVIDENCE -- WHAT KIND OF READER?

But there is another element to all of this. The Catechism recognises that if we were what we ought to be, unaffected by the Fall and pure in our thinking, then we would acknowledge the Bible for what it is and gladly bow to its divine authority. But by nature we do not do that. Instead, we rebel against God's commands and fail to live according to his word. Pointing out the intrinsic, native, original qualities of the Bible is not enough. There must be a change in the reader as well as a recognition of the nature of the writings.

The Holy Spirit must do his work in our hearts if we are to be fully persuaded that the Bible is the Word of God. Without the Spirit we may have some appreciation of the beauty of the Biblical language, literature, style and content; we may learn it and recite it and even preach it. But we will never be fully persuaded of our need to yield to its doctrines and to its insights unless and until the Holy Spirit works in our hearts.

Christ gave the Holy Spirit to the church in order that the Church would be built up by the truth, and in order that Christ might be exalted. The Spirit does not speak about himself, but testifies about Christ (John 16:14ff). A Spirit-filled church is one that proclaims Christ, and is bold in making Christ known. A Spirit-filled man is one who has come to trust in Christ and to recognise that God speaks to him through the Bible.

This is subjective -- this is evidence internal to us, not internal to the Bible. Sometimes we forget the extent of the damage sin has done -- it has left the natural man unable to receive the things of the spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). When we fail to get a clear picture on a television set, or a clear message on the radio, there is a fault somewhere. Either the fault is in the transmission or in the reception. If the transmitter is not working, we certainly will get no reception. But even if the programme is going out over the air, and everything else is working aright, we will not receive the message if something is wrong with our equipment.

Like a faulty receiver, our hearts and minds are faulty through sin, and we cannot tune in to the message God is sending us. But when the Holy Spirit works in individual lives, so that we see, hear, feel and experience the voice of God in the Bible, then we will be fully persuaded that what we have here is nothing other than the voice of God to our very souls.