Q. How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?
A. The Bible shows itself to be God’s Word by the heavenliness of its doctrine, the unity of its parts, its power to convert sinners and to edify saints; but only the Spirit of God, bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in our hearts, can fully convince us that the Bible is the Word of God.
Commentary
Having established that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God (Q. 4), the catechism now addresses how we may be assured of this truth. The answer identifies two categories of evidence: the external marks of Scripture’s divine character and the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. Both are necessary, yet they are not equal in their power to persuade. The outward evidences commend the Bible to our minds, but only the Spirit’s inward witness brings full, saving conviction to our hearts.
The heavenliness of its doctrine refers to the lofty, holy, and consistent teaching of Scripture that transcends anything the human mind could invent. The Bible reveals truths about God’s nature, man’s condition, and the way of salvation that no philosophy or religion has ever matched. The unity of its parts is a testimony to divine authorship: though written by approximately forty authors over about fifteen hundred years, in multiple languages and literary genres, the Bible tells one coherent story of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. Its power to convert sinners and to edify saints is the ongoing, living proof that God’s Word is not a dead letter. Wherever the Bible is faithfully proclaimed, hearts are broken over sin, eyes are opened to Christ, and believers are built up in holiness, godliness, comfort, and assurance. These are the supernatural fruit of divine speech.
Yet for all these compelling evidences, none of them can ultimately bring a fallen sinner to full assurance that the Bible is God’s Word. Only the Spirit of God, bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in our hearts, can accomplish this. The psalmist prayed for God to open his eyes to behold wonderful things from the law, acknowledging that without divine illumination, the glory of God’s Word remains veiled. The Spirit does not work apart from Scripture or add new revelation to it, nor are the Scriptures efficacious apart from the illumination of the Spirit; He works by and with the Word, removing the blindness of sin and enabling the soul to perceive the self-authenticating majesty of God’s voice in the text. A believer’s confidence in Scripture is not a product of intellectual investigation but a gracious gift of the God who breathed the Word into existence and breathes understanding into the heart.
Scripture Proofs
“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether” (Psalm 19:7–9).
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18).
“Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them” (Psalm 119:129).
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13–14).
“To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43).
“For he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus” (Acts 18:28).
“To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass” (Acts 26:22).
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
“Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory… And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:6–7, 13).
“But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:14–17).
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
“But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge… But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him” (1 John 2:20, 27).
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
1.4: The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, depends 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.
1.5: We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church of God to a 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 does 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.