Institutes of the Christian Religion, book 1, chapter 7

Institutes of the Christian Religion,
by John Calvin

Book 1
Chapter 7

The authority of the Bible is totally depends on the witness of the Holy Spirit, if the church becomes the judge of the authority of the Bible, Calvin said it is baseless and it is ungodly!


This is the summary of the chapter:

The Bible is accepted by the public as the Word of God. Unless one was ignorant, one will not doubt and destroy the faithfulness of the Speaker.

And because we cannot receive the revelation from God every day, and furthermore the Lord have preserved His truth only in the Bible, so if the believer believe the Bible is from God, and the believers obeyed and submitted to the Bible truth and authority, they are actually hearing God speaking to them.

But, Calvin wrote that at the moment he wrote the Institute, there was a grave error, and it was a trend, the Church become the judge of the authority of the Bible, the authority of the Bible was limited by the church, this is look like what? Calvin said this is wrong, it means that the eternal truth, the unbreakable truth was under the will of man, based on the human wrong perception!

Calvin continues to explain, there were people who despise the Bible, to ask a kind of question like this, “who can guarantee God is the author of the Bible? Who dare to confirm the authentication of the Bible, that the Bible was preserved until today? Who can make us to believe that which book has to be received, and which book has to be removed? Unless the book of the Bible was decided by the Church and his council.” So those who despised the Bible said that, the canon and the honor of the bible was decided by the church.

Calvin, said to refute those argument, and those who argued, he rather used Paul’s saying, and one sentence is enough to refute, he had proven that the church is build on “the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” (Eph 2:20)

Those who criticize that the Bible was under the church, and the content of the Bible was base on the church, this is totally wrong. Calvin stressed here, he said, that church had accepted the Bible, not base on the effort in clarifying arguments, not base on the effort in settling the doubts, nor because the solution for the problems from those arguments, Calvin said clearly, one thing he is very sure of, that the Bible is the truth of God, in the duty of a saint, and in the duty of a devoted Christian, he must respect the Bible.

And to make his point clearer, the Bible has proven it’s truth, it is very clear cut, like black and white, bitter and sweet.

So Calvin said that we must not satisfy about our personal opinions, we must build our foundation in the strongest truth. Like he said before, we have to believe strongly a teaching, first of all, we must believe God is the creator of that teaching.

Even the prophets and apostles did not boast about their wisdom or the ability in preaching, they were even not to argue about philosophy, they did not base their thesis on logic, one thing Calvin stresses that they were only preaching the Holy Name of God, and let the world follow Him.

Calvin said that we must not use the name of God in vain, we must not careless, we must base on truth, and not on personal view.

Calvin said God is speaking in the Bible, so the teachings in the Bible are from the will of God.

Calvin wrote that the Bible is higher than other writings, the dignity of God is involved, we must obey. But there are arguments, trying to argue about the purity of the truth of the Bible, this is wrong, it is unreasonable. They were those who boast about themselves, they were trying to reduce the authority of the Bible, despising God, Calvin said they were producing subtle arguments, and Calvin himself find no difficulty in stopping their mouth…..


Calvin wrote here, that only God can witness for His Word, he explained, that the Bible was trusted because of the working of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the reader.

The Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet, this same Spirit, must goes into our hearts, the Holy Spirit making us to believe what the prophet said is actually from God.

Isaiah 59:21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

So he wrote, we must admit, all those who received the teaching from the Holy Spirit, he will agree totally with the Bible, and believe the Bible has it own proof, this is wise, it should not become our argument or problems, because we have the witness of the Holy Spirit, we must believe the Bible.

Calvin lastly wanted us to understand, that is, only with the Holy Spirit witness in our heart, our belief become the true belief, ….Isaiah 54:13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.

We must remember, God spoke through Moses’ mouth, Romans 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) Romans 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

Conclusion:

No doubt that Calvin was very sure God had preserved the truth in the beginning of this chapter. So as a Calvinist, we must believe the Preservation of the truth of the Bible like John Calvin did!

I felt that, to the VPP reader, The Bible authority is higher than the church, we should not limit the authority of the Bible to few Bible version. John Calvin did not limit the study of the Word of God to any Bible versions!

There are people who despised the Bible in Calvin’s time. Are we?

Calvin said clearly, one thing he is very sure of, that the Bible is the truth of God! The Bibles of Calvin’s time, in this he meant all bible versions, the Latin, LXX and Greek NT is the Word of God….he did not argue which version is perfect, which version is not, he is silent about the VPP.

So it is clear that, Calvin believes God preserved the Truth in the Bible. But he did not go to the extent that God preserved the truth only in a single TR, he never did.