Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 1 Chapter 2.22 Reevaluating the Testimony of the Spirit to Scripture Does the Holy Spirit Tell Us What is Scripture? Training Timothys Overall Objective To offer a biblical and practical evaluation of the popular suggestion that the Holy Spirit subjectively authenticates Scripture. Primary Points In popular theology, a testimony of the Spirit is claimed to enable us to determine what is Scripture and what is not. There is no clear biblical support for this application of the work of the Holy Spirit. The doctrine leads to a pragmatic approach to identifying Scripture in that it is based on whatever works. Rather than securing the certainty of Scriptural authority, the testimony undermines it by subjecting it to the subjective experience of the individual. The supposed effects of the testimony are difficult to distinguish from those that may be experienced from communication other than Scripture. If the testimony is as effective as many claim, then we would expect a new Christian to identify all or only the sixty-six books of our present biblical canon out of a larger selection of literature. The testimony must not have operated for many early Church leaders who accepted the OT Apocrypha as Scripture. Most Christians accept the biblical canon on the human testimony of the Christian community in which they grow up in. Unlike testimony proponents, we claim that nothing in all of Creation is selfauthenticating, nor did God intend it to be so. The key to identifying Scripture is to know what documents were written by supernaturally educated and authenticated men. Such a determination can only be based on historical research.
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 2 A) A Definition & Description of the Testimony of the Spirit Elsewhere in Knowing Our God we have written: The question of how do we know what Scripture says is obviously an important one. However, an even more fundamental question is, How do we know that God has spoken in Scripture? In other words, what is the method by which a Christian can know that a document, such as Micah or Matthew is direct divine revelation from God recorded by a man and having divine authority such that if we disregard or disobey it we automatically sin against God? For example, when we read in 1 Corinthians that, homosexual offenders will [not] inherit the kingdom of God (6:9-10), do we have divine authority, rather than just human opinion, to claim that homosexuality is unacceptable to God and will be eternally judged? Of course many will answer immediately that the issue is a matter of interpretation. But the real first question to answer is did God even say such a thing? 1 We have also stated elsewhere that we believe a conviction that Scripture is divine revelation, is a matter of private judgment conducted by human research through our Spirit-liberated reason. More specifically, we have written: [W]e have yet to mention the manner in which the vast majority of Christians come to believe that their Bible is the Word of God: people they trust have told them so. In other words, most Christians simply accept the testimony of their branch of Christianity without question. This is both understandable and acceptable as such Christians are simply responding to the God-ordained value and authority of human testimony 2 and have used their own private judgment to evaluate the opinion of their respected peers and decided to adopt it. This is why Christendom essentially has two different Bibles. Scholars from both main branches of Christianity have studied the literary evidence and testimonies of Jewish and early Christian history to determine which writings our spiritual ancestors believed to be authored by supernaturally authenticated messengers of God. This is the fundamental method of how both Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity have made the critical epistemological distinction between what documents will exercise divine authority, as opposed to those that have been written by good spiritual men, but merely exercise human authority. Subsequently, most individual Christians in each branch of Christianity, exercising their God-given right and responsibility of private judgment, have accepted the testimony of their scholars and leaders, therefore granting these documents divine authority in their own lives. More specifically, it can be said that Protestant and Catholic scholars have exercised their God-given reason and private judgment to determine the limits of authoritative Scripture. Accordingly, the determination of the correct collection of Scripture has not been a matter of direct divine revelation from God, but rather, a matter of careful human research based on the historical evidence God has sovereignly preserved. Accordingly, it is because God has not granted a revelation of what documents are Scripture, that we suggest this is a matter of private judgment conducted by human research through our Spirit-controlled liberated reason. 3 Accordingly, it has not been by some testimony of the Spirit that has led the majority of Protestant Bible scholars to reject the Roman Catholic OT Apocrypha. 4 Rather, they have researched the matter and reasoned from both historical and internal textual evidence that these documents were not written divine revelation. However, many Christians claim otherwise, referring to a testimony of the Holy Spirit that enables us to know what is Scripture. The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology defines this concept as, The theological designation of the Holy Spirit's
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 3 activity in bringing about the believing acknowledgment of Scripture's inherent authority. 5 The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states that: The witness of the Spirit... has as such the irrefutable force of testimony to Scripture as God's Word, definitively establishing for believers its authenticity and authority. The Spirit's witness is naturally and necessarily a witness to Scripture inasmuch as it provides it with the supreme proof, "that God in person speaks in it" 6 Simply put, it is being claimed that the Holy Spirit somehow tells us that a particular writing or document is the divinely imparted word of God, as opposed to the mere writing of a human. 7 While other theologians had discussed the revelatory ministry of the Spirit, it was John Calvin (1509 1564) in his Institutes of the Christian Religion who first fully developed the doctrine under the heading: Scripture Must Be Confirmed By The Witness Of The Spirit. Thus May Its Authority Be Established As Certain; And It Is A Wicked Falsehood That Its Credibility Depends On The Judgment Of The Church. 8 As the heading suggests, Calvin s immediate concern was that the Roman Catholic Church of his day claimed it alone had the authority to decide, by the decrees of councils, what literature was divine Scripture and what was not. 9 Accordingly, Calvin wrote: [A] most pernicious error widely prevails that Scripture has only so much weight as is conceded to it by the consent of the church. As if the eternal and inviolable truth of God depended upon the decision of men!... they ask: Who can convince us that these writings came from God? Who can assure us that Scripture has come down whole and intact even to our very day? Who can persuade us to receive one book in reverence but to exclude another, unless the church prescribe a sure rule for all these matters? What reverence is due Scripture and what books ought to be reckoned within its canon depend, they say, upon the determination of the church.... Yet, if this is so, what will happen to miserable consciences seeking firm assurance of eternal life if all promises of it consist in and depend solely upon the judgment of men? 10 Obviously, the questions that Calvin mentions are incredibly important, and, in fact, the Roman Church did precisely what Calvin was accusing them of at the Council of Trent (1545-63), adding the Apocrypha to the OT. In his effort to deny the Roman Church s authority in this matter, Calvin promoted the personal ability of each and every Christian to recognize what was authentic written divine revelation, and what was not, by virtue of the Holy Spirit that worked in them. His description of the Spirit s ability to enable us to make such a judgment is found in the following: If we desire to provide in the best way for our consciences that they may not be perpetually beset by the instability of doubt or vacillation, and that they may not also boggle at the smallest quibbles we ought to seek our conviction in a higher place than human reasons, judgments, or conjectures, that is, in the secret testimony of the Spirit.... [I]t is clear that the teaching of Scripture is from heaven... all the books of Sacred Scripture far surpass all other writings.... The same Spirit, therefore, who has spoken through the mouths of the prophets must penetrate into our hearts to persuade us that they faithfully proclaimed what had been divinely commanded.... Let this point therefore stand: that those whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught truly rest upon Scripture, and that Scripture indeed is selfauthenticated; hence, it is not right to subject it to proof and reasoning. And the certainty it deserves with us, it attains by the testimony of the Spirit. For even if it wins reverence for itself by its own majesty, it seriously affects us only when it is sealed upon our hearts through the Spirit. Therefore, illumined by his power, we believe neither by our own nor by anyone else s judgment that Scripture is from God; but above human judgment we affirm with utter certainty (just as if we were gazing upon the majesty of
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 4 God himself) that it has flowed to us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men. We seek no proofs, no marks of genuineness upon which our judgment may lean; but we subject our judgment and wit to it as to a thing far beyond any guesswork!... Such, then, is a conviction that requires no reasons; such, a knowledge with which the best reason agrees in which the mind truly reposes more securely and constantly than in any reasons; I speak of nothing other than what each believer experiences within himself though my words fall far beneath a just explanation of the matter. 11 It should be noted that Calvin s promotion of the testimony did not keep him from seeing value in reasonable proofs for the authority of Scripture. Accordingly, Richard Muller writes: Calvin's often-cited comments on certainty [in the authority of Scripture] point out the difficulty, not the resolution, of the question: He affirms, strongly, against Roman Catholic approaches to the problem of authority and certainty that "the testimony of the Spirit is more excellent than all reason" and that "the highest proof of Scripture derives... from the fact that God in person speaks in it," and that, therefore, Scripture is "self-authenticating." But he then devotes an entire chapter of the 1559 Institutes-longer and more detailed than his discussion of the self-authenticating character of the text-to his discussion of rational evidences of the divinity and "credibility" of Scripture. Indeed, Calvin discusses these evidences of divinity at greater length than either Bullinger or Musculus [post-reformation theologians often criticized today for their commitment to reason]. 12 Nevertheless, with the teaching of Calvin, the doctrine of the testimony became the standard approach to establishing the authority of the Scriptures. Accordingly, when Calvin wrote the Gallic Confession (1559) stated: We know these books to be canonical, and the sure rule of our faith, not so much by the common accord and consent of the Church, as by the testimony and inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to distinguish them from other ecclesiastical books which, however useful, can never become the basis for any articles of faith. Subsequently, when the English Reformers authored the very influential Westminster Confession (1646), it included the following: (I:4) The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God (1 Thes 2:13; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:19, 21; 1 John 5:9) (1:5) We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to a high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture (1 Tim 3:15). And the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, 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, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection 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 (Isa 59:21; John 16:13, 14:1 Cor 2:10-12; 1 John 2:20, 27). (underlining added) While proponents of this view may not wish to claim as much, the inevitable conclusion to such a doctrine is that the testimony of the Holy Spirit gives the Christian the ability to confidently discern between various documents what is divinely imparted by God and possessing divine authority, from documents merely
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 5 written by spiritual men. This is why Calvin clearly rejects the idea that the determination of the biblical canon rests on human research, but rather, claims that such knowledge comes by divine revelation. It is, no doubt, an ingenious idea, and admittedly, a much more spiritual sounding approach to the authentication of Scripture than the approach of reason. Unfortunately, we do not think there is sufficient biblical or practical support to accept Calvin s answer to the critical question of how do we know what documents are divinely imparted by God. What the testimony of the Spirit claims to do is rather clear: revealing to the Christian the divine inspiration of Scripture. How it supposedly does this is difficult to understand. Accordingly, William Abraham writes: What Calvin exactly means by this [testimony of the Spirit] is notoriously difficult to determine, but there is no doubting its central place in his epistemology.... [I]n essence, appeal to the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit is an appeal either to an internal divine revelation or to the personal experience of the believer. 13 Here, Dr. Abraham offers what seems to be the two possibilities of how proponents of the testimony describe its working. Some speak of it as an internal divine revelation. For example, the well-known Protestant theologian Bernard Ramm writes in what is probably the most detailed defense of the testimony of the Spirit : This confession (Matt 16:16-17) [revealed to and made by the Apostle Peter] was a statement of revelation, namely, that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God; it was made by an inward revelation, a testimonium. This confession, and the certainty that accompanied it, was the product of the inward revealing act of God the Father and is a reflection of that total New Testament doctrine of illumination. 14 Dr. Ramm speaks of the testimony as a revelation of the Spirit, about Scripture, but separate from it. This would seem to be precisely what Calvin said at times, including in his commentary on 2 Timothy 3:16 where he writes: If someone objects, "how can this be known?" [that all Scripture is authored by God], I reply that God is made known to be the author, both to teachers and pupils, by the revelation of the same Spirit... The same Spirit, therefore, who made Moses and the prophets certain of their own calling now also testifies to our hearts that he has used them as his servants to instruct us. 15 Clearly, then, there is information being divinely revealed here that is about Scripture, but separate from it. This revelation of the testimony of the Spirit is commonly described as an illumination which Webster s defines as: to give knowledge to; to give spiritual insight. 16 Clearly the term conveys the idea of giving information of some kind. The same is true of the word persuasion, which is used by Calvin and the Confessions quoted above. It is important to recognize here that persuasion of any kind requires evidence and information apart from what we are being persuaded about. In other words, if the Holy Spirit is persuading us that a particular document is Scripture, then He is providing us with divine revelation and knowledge apart from what Scripture is actually saying. For example, we read the biblical quote: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. (Eph 1:3-4) How do we know this is divine revelation concerning the truth of our predestination to salvation? What is being claimed by proponents of the testimony is that when reading this we are not only receiving information about our predestination to salvation, but by virtue of the testimony of the Spirit I am also
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 6 receiving information, or a persuasion that this quote was divinely imparted by God, not just written by a man. 17 Does the Spirit give us such a revelation about Scripture but apart from it? We will refute such an idea below by demonstrating that no Scripture promises or describes such a thing, nor does such an approach work in practical experience. While some describe the testimony as an internal divine revelation, others refer to it as what Dr. Abraham called a personal experience of the believer. What seems to be meant by this is that when we are exposed to Scripture and feel comforted, encouraged, or guided, that this supposedly unique experience authenticates the words as divine. For example, Paul Helm in his entry to the Evangelical classic, Scripture and Truth edited by D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge is given the task of explaining, What evidence ought to persuade people that the Bible is the Word of God? 18 Helm s answer is, the certainty of the Scriptures as revelatory documents lies in their being confirmed in experience... the impact of the revelation on the lives of those who receive it. 19 So, in this view of the testimony of the Spirit to the divinity of Scripture, it is the claim of a unique experience through which the Spirit does its convincing work. However, we should immediately recognize the dangers of authenticating divine revelation by how it makes us feel. In addition, as we will discuss further below, such a testimony of experience does nothing to distinguish Scripture from other types of mere human communication (books, sermons, counsel) that may be equally edifying, encouraging, or comforting at times. Other advocates of the testimony of the Spirit to the divinity of Scripture claim that it simply communicates and authenticates the truth or authority of Scripture, not so much its inspiration or canonicity. Such confusion is illustrated when Dr. Ramm writes that the testimony : [E]stablishes the reality of a canon, but not its limits. The reality of the canon means a truth of God, a giveness of revelation, and its fixation in Scripture. The New Covenant is written, and the life of Christ is documented, and the revelation given the apostles is inscripturated. The reality of a canon is involved in the testimonium... No critical or historical study can deliver to the consciousness of the believer anything but a probable judgment; but only in the testimonium do we arrive with certainty at the notion of a written revelation of God. But the testimonium cannot settle the limits of the canon. Here the way of faith must yield to the way of science [historical research]. "The contention, that the testimony of the Spirit revealed in Christian experience is the test of canonicity," writes de Witt, "is as wide of the mark, and it is an error of the same kind, as the contention that the musical enjoyment of the music of Handel's Messiah is testimony to the historical fact that Handel was its author, which is nonsense. " 20 What is nonsense is trying to say that the Holy Spirit gives us certainty that something is divine revelation but then deny it has anything to do with determining what documents are to be included in the Bible. In response, the well-regarded Lutheran theologian J. W. Montgomery states the obvious: One cannot dualistically split the truth and authority of the Bible from its inspiration and canonicity, claiming that the witness of the Spirit applies to the former and not to the latter. This is because truth, authority, inspiration, and canonicity are integrally connected (a problem with any one of them will be a problem for all); if the Holy Spirit is the sine qua non for establishing one, He will likewise be essential for validating the rest. 21 Finally, we would clarify that if proponents of the testimony of the Spirit wanted to define it as simply the Spirit s work in regeneration to renew the human heart such that we can now recognize and appreciate truth in the Gospel and Scripture, then we would have little argument with them. 22 This is precisely the process and affect we have described elsewhere, including the following:
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 7 Some of us may remember trying to understand the Scriptures before we were born again. Even though the words were in English, the meaning seemed like Mandarin Chinese. Still, even though we may have understood the meaning of the words in Scripture, we did not understand their significance. Then, after being born again, the Scriptures came alive! The difference was simply that our devil-darkened reason was liberated to discern and recognize truth as God intended.... 23 This is what the Apostle is describing regarding the Jews and their need to be regenerated in order to see Christ in Scripture. He writes: But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is [epistemological 24 ] freedom. (2 Cor 3:14-17) We suggest that the Apostle is pointing out that the Jews were epistemologically blind to the Christ revealed in the OT Scriptures. Because of this dullness of mind and their veiled hearts they could not properly interpret Scripture, but with the regenerating work of the Spirit of the Lord their minds and hearts are freed to do so. 25 Indeed, the Spirit-controlled moral and logical reasoning of the Christian will perceive in the Bible that here is the greatest concentration of the most important truths in the world, and truth that is confirmed in experience. For example, the new moral nature in us would certainly validate the moral commands of Scripture. Not only that, but these documents contain the Gospel that saved us and was the cause of our spiritual regeneration. However, no matter how wonderful these things are, they are not found in every part of the Bible. Therefore, while the Gospel and moral commands contained in Scripture may be validated by our experience of moral regeneration, its historical and amoral doctrinal contents need some other objective criteria. And even the way in which these things are validated, does not constitute a revelation from the Spirit, but a reasoned evaluation of our experience. This is perhaps our greatest disagreement with those who promote the testimony doctrine. While we claim the recognition of Scripture is a matter of research with our God-given and Spiritcontrolled reason, proponents of the testimony want to claim that an unauthenticated, subjective, secret revelation of the Spirit tells us what is Scripture. It is obvious then that this is a critically important issue. There are few questions more important than, How do we know if the sixty-six books in the Bible are the words of God instead of merely the words of men? B) Promoters & Critics of the Testimony of the Spirit The promoters of the doctrine of the testimony of the Holy Spirit include the vast majority of the most influential Christian scholars, theologians and historians in the last 450 years, including today. The names include Calvin, Zwingli, Turretin, Owen, Edwards, 26 Hodge, Bavinck, Kuyper, Young, Richardson, Berkhof, Van Til, Packer, Ramm, Schaff, Carnell, Sproul, Reymond, Grudem, Ryrie, Waltke, Bruce, Bromiley, Bloesch, Frame, and Carson. Because of its promotion by Calvin and its existence in the Church s most respected confessions, it should not be surprising that the idea has been overwhelmingly popular, particularly among Reformed theologians. For example, the
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 8 greatly admired seventeenth century Puritan theologian John Owen (1616 1683) wrote in his massive study of the Holy Spirit: Wherefore, I say in general, that the Holy Spirit giveth testimony unto and evinceth the divine authority of the word by its powerful operations and divine effects on the souls of them that do believe.... [The Holy Spirit] effectually ascertains our minds of the Scriptures being the word of God, whereby we are ultimately established in the faith thereof. And I cannot but both admire and bewail that this should be denied by any that would be esteemed Christians.... God by his Holy Spirit doth secretly and effectually persuade and satisfy the minds and souls of believers in the divine truth and authority of the Scriptures, whereby he infallibly secures their faith against all objections and temptations whatsoever. 27 Likewise, J. I. Packer, another Puritan theologian, at least in heart, describes the testimony of the Spirit to Scripture when he says: Through the inner witness of the Spirit, Christians recognize that the Scriptures "breathe out something divine" and come with God's own authority to all who hear or read them.... The church's certainty about the canon rests finally, after all has been said that can be said about the history and pedigree of the separate books, on the Spirit-given awareness that they bear divine witness to Christ, and God himself speaks to us what they say. 28 [R]ecognition of canonical Scripture depends ultimately on the covenanted inner witness of the Spirit, whereby the divine source and authority of those books which the church has historically attested to (not, therefore, the apocrypha) is made evident to faith. 29 The ground of faith is the recognition of man s word as God s word. How does it come about? Through the work of the Holy Spirit, opening and enlightening the eyes of the mind so that man sees and knows the divine source... of the message that confronts him. 30 Dr. Packer s emphasis on this doctrine is especially important to note. Not only because of his stature as a great theologian, but because few others have been as involved in the battle for the authority of Scripture, and Dr. Packer consistently falls back on this doctrine as an argument. Likewise, the renowned OT scholar Bruce Waltke writes: The fact is that the Holy Spirit offers conviction that the Bible is truth.... It is well known that the Bible claims to be the Word of God, but what is not as well known is that the truthfulness of the Bible depends on the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and not on human reason. My conviction that the Bible can be trusted as God's Word does not come from human reason, but from the Holy Spirit. If Scripture's claim to truth must be validated by finite, fallible human reason, then even if it is inspired revelation of truth, humanity cannot know it and must continue to despair of attaining the meaning and value they seek. 31 One of our favorite theologians, Herman Bavinck (1854 1921), is even more dogmatic about the centrality of the testimony not only to epistemology, but Christianity itself: The testimony of the Holy Spirit is so far from being the Achilles' heel of Protestantism that it should rather be called the cornerstone of our Christian confession, the crown and seal of all Christian truth, the triumph of the Holy Spirit in the world. Take away the testimony of the Holy Spirit, not only in relation to Scripture, but to all the truths of redemption, and there is no more church.... the apologetic value of the testimony of the Holy Spirit is second to none. 32
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 9 Likewise, the very highly respected NT scholar F. F. Bruce (1910-1990) has written some of the most detailed descriptions of the historical evidence for the authenticity, apostolicity, and authority of Scripture. Nonetheless, he writes: The work of the Holy Spirit [i.e. the fact that He has inspired a document] is not discerned by the means of the common tools of the historian s trade. His inner witness gives the assurance to hearers or readers of scripture that in its words God himself is addressing them. 33 Finally, the very important Chicago Statement of Inerrancy (1978), developed by many of the finest Evangelical scholars of our day states: We affirm that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Scriptures, assuring believers of the truthfulness of God s written Word. 34 We see then that the idea that the Holy Spirit supernaturally authenticates Scripture is deeply embedded in the best of Christian theology. Still, the doctrine has not been without its opponents, even within the Reformed camp. First of all, the historical support for the doctrine has been relatively thin. The Dutch Reformed theologian, Valentine Hepp, writing in the 1960 s in support of the doctrine, admits that before, and even after Calvin, There has been... very little recognition of the existence of the general testimony of the Spirit. 35 For example, even men such as Augustine (354-430) and Aquinas (1225 1274) who thought and wrote extensively on such epistemological/philosophical subject, and many Reformed theologians have not included this doctrine in their epistemologies. 36 The Puritan divine, Richard Baxter (1615-1691) wrote: I confess, for my part, I could never boast of any such testimony or light of the Spirit or reason; neither of which, without human testimony or tradition, would have made me believe that the book of Canticles [Song of Solomon] is canonical and written by Solomon, and the book of Wisdom apocryphal and written by Philo, as some think, or that Paul's Epistle to the Laodiceans and others is apocryphal [not Scripture], and the second and third Epistle of John canonical. Nor could I ever have known all or any historical books, such as Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, to be written by divine inspiration, but by tradition. 37 Likewise, Eduard Ruess, well known for his multi-volume work on the canon of Scripture in the nineteenth century, wrote concerning how the Reformers distinguished the documents of Scripture: Was it really in virtue of the sovereign principle of the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit? Would it be quite true to say that the first Protestant theologians, while unmoved by the enthusiastic eloquence of the author of [the apocryphal] Wisdom, so much extolled by the Alexandrians, felt the breath of God in the genealogies of Chronicles, or the topographical catalogues of the book of Joshua?... I have some difficulty in believing that they arrived at the distinction they drew by any test of that kind. 38 In a similar vein, the seventeenth century Jesuit theologian St Francis de Sales (1567-1622), exposed the difficulty of appealing to the inner witness as follows: Now let us see what rule they [the Reformers] have for discerning the canonical books from all of the other ecclesiastical ones. 'The witness,' they say, 'and inner persuasion of the Holy Spirit.' Oh God, what a hiding place, what a fog, what a night! We are not in this way very enlightened in so important and grave a manner. 39 The eminent Reformed theologian B. B. Warfield (1851-1921), in his explanation of classic Augustinian epistemology, clearly had little use for the doctrine of the testimony of the Spirit in order to establish the authority of the Scriptures. Accordingly he wrote:
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 10 The "testimony of the Holy Spirit in the heart" does not communicate to man any new powers, powers alien to him as man; it is restorative in its nature and in principle merely recovers his powers from their deadness induced by sin. The knowledge of God to which man attains through the testimony of the Spirit is therefore the knowledge which belongs to him as normal man; although now secured by him only in a supernatural manner. 40 Warfield is describing what we have referred to as the spiritual liberation of reason in regeneration, and it probably was not helpful to refer to it as the testimony of the Spirit. 41 Along these lines, Avery Dulles writes: [B. B.] Warfield, while greatly admiring [Abraham] Kuyper and [Herman] Bavinck [and certainly Calvin], criticizes their views on faith and reason. The Amsterdam theologians, he objects, indulge a mystical tendency that substitutes the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit for the objective grounds perceptible to reason.... The Holy Spirit does not produce faith without grounds but enables us to grasp the objective validity of the grounds. 42 More recently, one of the most respected Reformed theologians of our day, John Gerstner (1914-1996), is quite critical in his estimation of the doctrine in his very helpful little book, A Bible Inerrancy Primer. While Dr. Gerstner did not reject some place for the testimony of the Spirit in the Christian s life, he believed the concept was misused when the Internal Testimony is submitted as proof that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. 43 Likewise, the renowned Evangelical theologian Carl F. H. Henry (1913-2003) has written: While inner evidence for the canonical books may be useful, the question remains whether a sincere Christian left to himself would identify all or only our present twenty-seven New Testament books out of a larger selection of literature. Would he include all the canonical books and exclude all apocryphal books? Even pious men have at times questioned the canonical status of some of these writings.... Can the canonical works be discriminated solely in terms of one's inner spiritual response?... [T]he Bible's authority does not rest upon our experience of the truth of Scripture. Scripture does, indeed, manifest its power in inner experience, but this experience is not the basis and ground of its claim to be authoritative. Not only does such an appeal by-pass historical concerns [and evidence] crucial for the efficacy of the Bible, but it also confers upon other Christian literature through which the Spirit may speak [to some] a dignity equal to that of the Bible. 44 We could hardly state our view any clearer, and those who propose some testimony of the Spirit should more seriously consider the words of such a respected, evangelical, and learned theologian as Dr. Henry. C) Suggested Problems with the Testimony of the Spirit Doctrine 1) The Doctrine s Lack of Scriptural Support In our critique of the doctrine of the testimony of the Spirit we will argue first that we see no Scriptural support for it. 45 Calvin, uncharacteristically, does not even offer any Scriptures in support of his discussion on the topic. Accordingly, Geoffrey Bromiley writes: The Reformers might advocate Scripture as a norm, but they offered little biblical support for their specialized use of the phrase "witness of the Spirit."
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 11 They did not do so, however, because they regarded the matter as self-evident. 46 Needless to say, it is not self-evident to all Spirit-filled Christians and we need some scriptural support for such a critical doctrine. Others, however, have suggested supporting verses, although they are consistently in a mere footnote or parentheses, with no discussion of them whatsoever. 47 The popular Reformed theologian R. C. Sproul, for example, says: [T]he New Testament is replete with allusions to the work of the Spirit in securing our confidence in the Word. These references are scattered throughout the New Testament and include such classic texts as 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; 1 John 1:10; 2:14; 5:20; Colossians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15-16; and others. 48 Likewise, after suggesting that 1 John 5:7-13 supports the doctrine, Bernard Ramm says in a footnote: For other verses on the interior witness of the Spirit see John 15:26 ("he shall bear witness of me"); Romans 8:14-16 ("the Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit"); Gal. 4:6; 1 John 2:27 ("his anointing teacheth you"); 3:24 ("And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he gave us"); 4:13; 5:10-13; and 5:20. We must also keep in mind the numerous acts of the Spirit in the book of Acts [whatever that has to do with it]; and the powerful renewing effects of the Holy Spirit on the human mind (Rom. 8:4-27, John 3:3, and Titus 3:5). 49 J. I. Packer offers the following verses in a footnote for support after his discussion of the doctrine: John 3:3; 1 Cor 2:14-15; 2 Cor 4:6; Eph 1:18; 1 John 2:20, 27; 5:7, 20. 50 The Westminster Confession quoted above provides the following verses for its statement that: Our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority [of Scripture], is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts. (Isa 59:21; John 16:13, 14; 1 Cor 2:10-12; 1 John 2:20, 27). Finally, John Frame suggests that Ephesians 1:17ff; 3:14-19; and 5:8-21 speak of the testimony of the Spirit. Obviously and understandably there is a good deal of redundancy in these lists. Still, they demonstrate that there certainly is no shortage of suggestions for Scripture that supports Calvin s version of the doctrine of the testimony of the Spirit. Before discussing these passages, it is important to be reminded once again what specifically is said to be taught in these Scriptures. In other words, the question to ask is do any of these verses clearly teach us that the Holy Spirit enables us to confidently discern literature that is the written recording of direct revelation from God, from that which is merely the recording of the thoughts of men? Do they teach that the Spirit helps us detect Scripture? In all the flurry of verses thrown at this doctrine, none of them support what these authors suggest they support. a) Scriptures that are irrelevant First of all, many of the verses provided by the above authors seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with the Holy Spirit enabling us to discern the writings of God from the writings of men. For example, the Westminster Confession suggests Isaiah 59:21: As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the LORD. My Spirit, who is on you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 12 the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever, says the LORD. Most commentators believe this promise applies to the end-time restoration of Israel, not an operation of the Spirit in the Church. Even if some would apply it somehow to the Church today, it speaks of direct divine revelation, not a testimony to written Scripture. Likewise, R. C. Sproul lists 1 John 1:10 above as a classic text supporting the testimony of the Spirit to Scripture. It says, If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives. This verse would seem to simply affirm that Scripture has no authority for the unbeliever. Dr. Sproul cites other texts that have nothing to do with the doctrine of the testimony of the Spirit, including 1 John 2:14 in which John tells, young men that the word of God lives in them and Colossians 2:2 where the Apostle writes, My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ. For our part, we do not see what these passages have to do with a testimony of the Spirit to the divinity of Scripture. Similarly, John Frame suggests that Ephesians 5:8-21 speaks of the testimony of the Spirit. However, the Apostle simply introduces this section with the statement, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, and proceeds to describe the virtues that Christians should have. Finally, Bernard Ramm comments, In its own way the most remarkable verse upon this subject is I John 5:20. 51 There we read: We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Neither the source nor the content of the revelation John speaks of has anything to do with a revelation from the Spirit to the divinity of Scripture. Here, the revealer is Christ and the revelation of Himself grants us knowledge and certainty of Him, not Scripture. b) Scriptures that refer to regeneration in salvation Most verses used to support a testimony of the Spirit to the divinity of Scripture actually apply to the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in conversion. This simply (and wonderfully!) exchanges our rebellious nature with the Spirit, and liberates our reason, allowing us to do the most reasonable thing in the world: receive the free gift of salvation in Christ. 52 For example, both Drs. Sproul and Packer cite 2 Corinthians 4:6 as support for the testimony of the Spirit to the divinity of Scripture. There the Apostle writes: For God, Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. This applies to how we get saved, not how we know what documents are Scripture. Other verses cited for support simply describe the convicting work of the Holy Spirit to the Gospel. For example, many proponents of the testimony of the Spirit to Scripture cite 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5 which reads: For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our Gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. Here, as in many other places, we see a description of the Spirit s work in the process of salvation.
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 13 Proponents of the testimony of the Spirit to the divinity of Scripture commonly suggest that the work of the Spirit in enabling us to receive the Gospel, continues in some way to tell us what is Scripture as well. Accordingly, this is a primary approach of Bernard Ramm who claims: Whatever differences Luther and Calvin may have had in regard to the testimonium and the relation of Word to Spirit, they were one in their belief in the reality and necessity of the testimonium. In his Small Catechism Luther wrote: "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Ghost has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me by his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith."... Thus the witness of the Spirit is precisely the taking of Christ out of the domain of historical faith and making him the reality he is in justifying faith.... The conviction of divinity associated with the Gospel spreads to include the total canon.... The testimonium, which is related immediately to the Gospel, relates itself immediately to the entire Scripture. 53 In response, we would first suggest that there is no biblical or practical reason to suggest that the regenerating work of the Spirit in conversion applies to the total canon of Scripture, because not everything in Scripture is the Gospel. In addition, there is an underlying misapplication of the Spirit s work in salvation here. It is not a revelatory work, but a regenerating and releasing work. In other words, the Spirit does not reveal or communicate the Gospel, but it is proclaimed in a variety of ways just like any other information in this world. Rather, the Holy Spirit gives us a new heart to be able to receive the Gospel, which we believe in the same way we believe other things. 54 Therefore, there is no warrant in using Scriptures that speak of spiritual regeneration to support the idea of an ongoing revelation or communication from the Spirit that tells us what documents are Scripture (e.g. John 3:3; Eph 3:14-19; Tit 3:5). The born again experience is unique to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and cannot be applied to any other Gospel, or to any other Scriptural truths. 55 The doctrine of the Trinity, for example, will not cause regeneration, nor can its truth be authenticated in the same way as the Gospel. Accordingly, while we do not support the idea that a superior experience authenticates each and every one of the sixty-six books of the Protestant Bible, we have suggested elsewhere that superior virtue and life transformation is the ultimate authentication of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 56 We would simply claim that there is no biblical or practical evidence to apply this objective authentication of the Gospel to some subjective authentication of say, the Song of Solomon or Jude. Accordingly, some theologians use the testimonium to refer to the work of the Spirit in salvation, as the highly respected Evangelical theologian Peter Jensen writes: It is no accident, then, that what has been known inadequately as the 'internal testimony of the Spirit' should turn out to refer to the way God, through the Gospel, draws his people into the supremely loving relation of the Trinity, into the love of God, the communion of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Spirit, so defined, is his special work in relation to the Gospel, and, from the point of view of the saved, it is one of the glories of what God has done for them in Christ. 57 Likewise, another respected theologian, J. W. Montgomery writes: [T]he testimonium has to do with soteriology (how one is saved), not with bibliology (how Scripture is validated). Calvin was... not correct... when he suggested that the objective evidence for scriptural truth is inadequate in itself apart from the Spirit s working. 58 Indeed, the real testimony of the Holy Spirit is the supernatural virtue produced by our regeneration in salvation, which authenticates the exclusivity of the Gospel for salvation. 59
Ch. 2.22: The Testimony of the Spirit & Recognizing Scripture 14 c) Scriptures that refer to assurance of salvation Other verses used to support the testimony of the Spirit to the divine inspiration of Scripture actually refer to our assurance of salvation (e.g. Rom 8:15-16; Gal 4:6; 3:24; 4:13; 5:7-13). For example, Bernard Ramm writes: The two classical passages of the testimonium are Galatians 4:6 ("and because ye are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'"); and Romans 8:15-16.... 1 John 5:6-12 is a most remarkable passage in connection with the testimonium. 60 Not only do such verses have nothing to do with the authentication of the canon of Scripture, they are not even speaking of some subjective direct revelation of the Spirit either, but rather, the objective, observable fruit the Spirit produces in our life (cf. Gal 5:18-23), or the miracle working of Christ (cf. 1 John 5:6-12). This is discussed further elsewhere. 61 d) Scriptures that refer to revelation and inspiration Finally, many of the Scriptures used to support the testimonium to Scripture speak of some sort of revelation from the Holy Spirit, but do not tell us that the content of that revelation is information about what documents are Scripture and which are not. For example, the great Dutch Reformed theologian Abraham Kuyper (1837 1920) wrote: Jesus said, "He [the Holy Spirit] abideth with you forever"; and this has primary reference to this testimony concerning the Word of God. In the believing heart He testifies continually: "Fear not, the Scripture is the Word of your God." 62 Again, the claim is that the Spirit is providing an extra-biblical revelation about the Bible that tells us the Scripture is the Word of your God. The question of whether or not the Holy Spirit is revealing anything today apart from Scripture demands more discussion than we will provide here. Therefore, verses commonly used to support the idea that the testimony of the Spirit is a revelation about Scripture are discussed elsewhere including: John 10:37; 14:16-17; 15:26-27; 16:13-14; 1 Cor 2:10-15; Eph 1:17-18; and 1 John 2:20, 27. 63 Briefly, we can first say that many of these passages apply directly to the divine inspiration of the Apostles, not to divine revelation that all Christians are receiving today. Secondly, even if these passages are interpreted to mean that the Holy Spirit is revealing information apart from Scripture today, they say nothing about the fact that such information includes what is the correct collection of divinely given documents. Finally, most proponents of the testimony want to deny that it is a revelation at all, and therefore, Scriptures that speak of an extrabiblical revelatory ministry of the Spirit do not serve them well anyway. Admittedly, many verses used to support the testimony of the Spirit to the divine inspiration of Scripture are not discussed in detail here, but elsewhere. Nonetheless, we will make the claim here that such an application of the testimony of the Spirit has no Scriptural backing. We can go on and demonstrate as well that it is not demonstrated in our practical experience either. 2) The Doctrine s Practical Ineffectiveness Proponents of the view we are discussing suggest that the Spirit allows us to detect and distinguish the written word of God from what is merely the written words of men. This process is described either as some sort of divine revelation or an inner experience. Here we will deal specifically with the idea that the divine inspiration of Scripture is authenticated by its affects on us. As noted above, the Evangelical