December 31, 2013

Belgic Confession Article 3: "The Written Word of God"

Article 3 begins right where Article 2 left off with speaking about "special revelation"; Article 3 goes like this:

We confess that this Word of God was not sent nor delivered by the will of men, but that holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit as Peter says (2 Peter 1:21 "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.")
Afterwards our God--because of the special care He has for us and our salvation--commanded His servants, the prophets and apostles, to commit this revealed Word to writing (Exodus 34:27; Psalm 102:18; Revelation 1:11, 19) 
He Himself wrote with His own finger the two tables of the law (Exodus 31:18)
Therefore we call such writings holy and divine Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16).


I absolutely love this article and I just want to point out the nature of the inspiration of Scripture. And there are three options when we speak of the written Word of God.

First, we can speak of men simply being inspired to write just as the famous Shakespeare was inspired to write his plays. 

Secondly, we can speak of men being told every single word to be written down by God; for example, God told Moses to write, "in" so Moses wrote, "in". Then God said, "Moses, write 'the'". So Moses wrote, 'the'. 

And thirdly, we can speak of God using men's natural abilities and talents through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit guiding them as they wrote.

Now, these all can seem correct and yet not so correct also. However, there is one that clearly stands out and that is the third view, known as the organic view. God used men's natural abilities and talents to reveal Himself by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

And notice the comfort that is included in this article, "because of the special care He has for us and our salvation..." Seriously, remember that Guido de Bres is writing this with the threat of persecution all around him. Yet Guido considered God to be a caring God.




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