I'm not really interested in arguing. You likely won't agree with me, let's leave it at that.
LBCF 1689 Chapter 1
1. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience, although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary unto salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in divers manners to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his church; and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan, and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.This is partially incorrect, for it implies that there is a critical mass of knowledge of God that is necessary for salvation. It is more accurate (and avoids a pesky influx of Gnosticism) to say this: we are to act as if there is a "quantity" of knowledge of God that is sufficient and necessary for salvation, and to be bandwidth providers of that knowledge. But we must also acknowledge that God, in his sovereignty, is free to have mercy upon whom he will have mercy. Clearly the normal way this occurs is after or during a period in which the knowledge (here being called sufficient and necessary) is provided so that the one whom God has converted has a context to understand what happened, and will likely even feel as if the knowledge attained was the primary cause of his conversion.
There is also a common inconsistency regarding the “without excuse” passage of Romans 1:20. Creation can not both render one “without excuse” and yet in any way be insufficient. That is as nonsensical as this: We have given you instruction in Calculus I so you are without excuse, even though the final exam will be on Calculus II.1
2. Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testaments, which are these: Of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, I Chronicles, II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomen, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations,Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi Of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The Acts of the Apostles, Paul's Epistle to the Romans, I Corinthians, II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I Thessalonians, II Thessalonians, I Timothy, II Timothy, To Titus, To Philemon, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Epistle of James, The first and second Epistles of Peter, The first, second, and third Epistles of John, The Epistle of Jude, The Revelation All of which are given by the inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life.My only comment here is that while we can agree that all scripture is inspired, it still leaves us with the question: what is scripture? How can we be sure that Jude is, in fact, scripture? To me the only answer is that we assume that the Holy Spirit guided the process. It is, for Protestants, our version of Catholic “sacred tradition.”
3. The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon or rule of the Scripture, and, therefore, are of no authority to the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other human writings.Agreed. They are not scripture and they are also not (some of them) without value.
4. The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.Agreed. Scripture is received and is independent of the authority of man or church. Of course, in paragraph 2, above, the confession itself gives testimony to the authority of scripture—a slight bit of irony.
5. We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church of God to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scriptures; and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, and the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, and many other incomparable excellencies, and entire perfections thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God; yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.Agreed. And if I may say so, somewhat inconsistent with describing scripture as necessary and sufficient. It is neither. It provides knowledge and context through which, and in conjunction with God’s sovereign decree and the working of the Holy Spirit (that’s what’s necessary and sufficient) we can in our own flawed manner, glorify God.
6. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word, and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.To the extent that this is taken as a statement of completion of scripture and of God’s special revelation, I agree. However, God’s general revelation (which leaves us, recall, without excuse) is a continuously growing body of evidence, and it is achieved (primarily) through science. If you were without excuse because of the awesomeness of creation in ancient times, you are in even deeper trouble now that we are detecting gravity waves and imaging black holes.
7. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of ordinary means, may attain to a sufficient understanding of them.Oh, if only all my reformed brethren would only take this point seriously. It means this: esoteric doctrines that may indeed be valuable and correct but are, to many in the church, impenetrable, cannot ever be used as cardinal line-in-the-sand doctrines. This is probably the most disregarded paragraph in the entire confession.
8. The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentic; so as in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to them. But because these original tongues are not known to all the people of God, who have a right unto, and interest in the Scriptures, and are commanded in the fear of God to read and search them, therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation unto which they come, that the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner, and through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope.Awesome. Converting scripture to the vernacular continues to be one of the most worthy missionary endeavors.
9. The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and therefore when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly.Agreed. Sometimes my fellow reformed abuse this paragraph. They will use this confession (or its first cousin, the WCF) to interpret scripture or to prove doctrine. The confession should only be used to explain. It should never be part of any proof.2
10. The supreme judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Scripture delivered by the Spirit, into which Scripture so delivered, our faith is finally resolved.Amen.
1 I tried to make this point through the use of a play in one act, which you can find here.
2 I have an unscientific rule of thumb: The more someone goes to great lengths to assure you that they understand that the LBCF (or the WCF) is not scripture, the more likely it is that they are about to use it in exactly that manner.
"If you were without excuse because of the awesomeness of creation in ancient times, you are in even deeper trouble now that we are detecting gravity waves and imaging black holes." Yes. and there's also DNA and other cellular mechanisms.
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