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Article 3: The Written Word of God
We confess that this Word of God
was not sent nor delivered “by human will,”
but that “men and women moved by the Holy Spirit
spoke from God,”

as Peter says.1

Afterward our God—

with special care
for us and our salvation—

commanded his servants, the prophets and apostles,
to commit this revealed Word to writing.
God, with his own finger,
wrote the two tables of the law.

Therefore we call such writings
holy and divine Scriptures.

2 Pet. 1:21
21 because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

GOD'S SPOKEN WORD We can mention two means by which God spoke His word: 1) Theophany, and 2) Prophecy. Theophany means 'an appearance of God.' For example, in Genesis 28:12, 13 we read that the Lord God Himself appeared to Jacob in a dream. None less than God Himself came to Jacob so that Jacob saw the Lord at the top of the ladder, and God spoke to Jacob. In Exodus 19:18-20 we read of God descending upon Mt Sinai. This too was a theophany. Although it was markedly different than His appearance to Jacob, God nevertheless came and spoke. Other examples of theophanies are God speaking to Moses in the burning bush, and God's revelation to John on the island of Patmos. Prophecy refers to God causing people to say certain things. For example, Amos 3:7,8:"Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?" Just as the obvious, predictable, compulsory reaction to a lion's roar is fright, so prophecy is the necessary, predictable, compulsory reaction to God urging one to speak. In Jeremiah 20:14 we read that Jeremiah is far from being happy at being alive. What is the cause of his unhappy disposition? In verse 7 we read that he was derided daily because he spoke God's Word. He wants to quit with speaking God's Word because it proves to be too problematic for him. He does not want to be a prophet. But God's Word is in him like a burning fire. God moved him so he had to say what God wanted him to say. In 2 Peter 1:21 we read that God, through the Holy Spirit, moved men to say what He wanted them to say. I don't know how God did it, I don't understand how God did it, but the fact is that God did. When God speaks, His Word is made known. God wants people to know Him. GOD'S WRITTEN WORD Wonderful as it is that God spoke, it is even more wonderful that He caused what He spoke to be written down. 1. What is written down is more durable. It lasts over the span of many years, despite the death of the writer. 2. A written document is also reliable in that it does not change with the passing of the years, unlike the message that is passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth. Think of the Chinese whisper. If the word God spoke so long ago had not been written down, we would have but little guarantee that the message we today have is the very same message which God spoke to Moses, to the prophets, to Paul, etc. Long ago, God already loved us who live today. On account of that fact He caused His Word of long ago to be written down. "In His special care for us and our salvation..." By 'us' deBres meant himself and the rest of the people in the little town of Doornik in the midst of their persecution. These people held on to God's Word and believed that God had caused Moses and Paul to write what they wrote because of His special care for them in their situation in Doornik so many years later. As the apostle had written: "Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition..." (1 Corinthians 10:11). The words 'all these things' refer to those things written in the previous verses concerning Israel being led out of Egypt, being taken through the Red Sea, being fed with manna and provided with water in the wilderness (Exodus 16 & 17), refer also to the fact that many Israelites died in the wilderness (Numbers 14). Paul writes that this was recorded and written down the admonition of the Corinthians of his day. The book of Exodus was written in the days of Moses, and Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians a thousand years later that God saw to it that Moses would record specific events for the benefit of the Corinthians. This is the thought that deBres and his followers in Doornik confessed in Article 3, when they spoke of God's special care "for us and our salvation. The same truth is valid for us today. All that God spoke so many centuries ago through Moses, Jeremiah, Amos and Paul (to mention only these) was written down because God loves me. God did this as part of His special care for me TODAY. What love, what mercy, what care!! God's care for me didn't start when I was born; it started many centuries before that. So very long ago God knew what situation I would be in today, would know my moments of anguish and moments of joy, and therefore caused His Word as He revealed it centuries ago to be written down so that I might have it today. Truly, I have a God who cares for me much! "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16,17). 'The man of God' spoken of here refers to the believer, and so includes, among others, also myself. The God Who by His grace allowed me to be His, wants me to be thoroughly equipped for every good work in all circumstances, and therefore He has given His Word, so that I might be complete. He caused His spoken Word to be written (be a "Scripture") for my benefit today. God's care spans the centuries. Therefore it is not surprising that David says, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb," (Ps. 19:9,10) and "Oh how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day," (Ps 119:97). Likewise we can say: if that is what God does for me, namely, caused His Word to be written down for me, I not only stand in awe in Him, but I equally treasure that Bible. For my sake, sinner though I am, He shows Himself in nature plus I get to read what He said so long ago for my benefit today. What, then, is the Bible? It is Father's letter to His child, a letter which expresses His love, His mercy. I do not just shelve this letter unopened, but I treasure it, I read it. God has given me the Bible so that He may speak to me in my circumstances. THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE Article 3 tells us that the Word of God is inspired: "We confess that this Word of God did not come by the impulse of man, but that men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." The word 'inspiration' in 2 Timothy 3:16 means literally "God-breathed." The point here is that God prompted human authors in such a way that they wrote what He wanted them to write. In 2 Peter 1:21 we find a reference to speaking as a result of having been moved by the Holy Spirit: "for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." In 2 Timothy 3:16 we read that the same principle is applied to the written word, for it is stated that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God." So all Scripture has the stamp of God upon it.In an attempt to explain how this inspiration actually worked, a number of theories have been formulated over the centuries: 1. The Mechanical Theory of InspirationThis theory, promoted especially in the days following the Great Reformation, claimed that human authors were merely 'machines,' 'typewriters' moved by God to put down on paper what He desired to have on paper. Every sentence, every word, every comma comes then directly from God and God alone. Men were thoughtless agents putting to paper what God prompted so that the Bible is a book void of any active human thought or feelings. The problem with this theory is that human feelings are in fact quite evident in the Bible: e.g. the Psalms of David which so clearly speak of his struggles, emotions, problems. See also Luke 1:1-4, where Luke tells his readers that he made a conscious effort of doing the research needed to know what to write in his gospel (see below). 2. The Dualistic Theory of Inspiration This theory was a reaction to the Mechanical Theory, and was embraced by rationalists, for example, the Remonstrants, at the time of the Synod of Dort. This theory claims that the Holy Spirit is the actual author of those parts of Scripture dealing with religion per se. Human authors wrote those parts of Scripture dealing with history, geography, human emotions, etc. Hence the Bible consists of two parts: writings from God and writings from people. The problem with this theory is the question of who is going to determine which writings are of the Spirit and which writings are of human origin? If each person is to judge that for himself, the consequence will be that anything in the Bible requiring, say, more self-denial than I am will to will be written off as mere human writing, with no divine authority. 3. The Dynamic Theory of Inspiration This theory claims that the Bible was written by human authors who lived very close to God, who knew God very well and consequently wrote down their thoughts of God. It is said, then, that David and Habbakuk lived close to God, loved God, struggled much in their daily lives with questions about God's nearness, how God works in history, etc, and they recorded their thoughts and emotions in what is known to us as the Bible. We for our part can benefit from their thoughts and insights. The problem with this theory is that the Bible is then essentially a collection of books written by man, a collection of human thoughts. Hence there is then really no essential difference between the poetry of David and that of, for example, Helen Steiner Rice. 4. The Actualistic Theory of Inspiration According to this theory the Bible is not the Word of God, but can become the Word of God when one reads it and is taken in by what is read. Only when the written word does something to the reader, touches him, is one able to say of that portion that it is the Word of God. The problem with this theory is that the work of the Holy Spirit is moved from the time the author wrote the Bible book to the time the reader reads that Bible book. The various books of the Bible are then simply human products, essentially no different from any other human book, and becomes the Word of God today when the Holy Spirit touches the reader through his reading the Bible. One can then never lay one's hand on the Bible and say, "This is the Word of God."
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