Q. 3. What has God given to direct us how to be saved from sin?

• Articles of Religion, 6–7
• Westminster Shorter Catechism, 2
• Westminster Confession of Faith, 1
• Belgic Confession, 2–7

Scriptures. The word “Scriptures” means “sacred writings” (2 Timothy 3:15). The canon is the collection of books that are recognized as Holy Scripture. The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament are distinguished by their divine quality, authorship (e.g., by the apostles or their close associates), and reception by the whole Church. “We receive all these books and these only as holy and canonical, for the regulating, founding, and establishing of our faith” (Belgic Confession 5).

Old and New Testaments. The two testaments tell one unified story which centers on Jesus Christ. Christ came to fulfill the plan and promises of God in the Old Testament. “The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and Man, being both God and Man” (AOR 7). “The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed” (Augustine, Questions on the Heptateuch 2.73). “All the divine writings are at peace and consistent with each other” (Augustine, Sermon 1).

Word of God. “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). This is commonly called the inspiration of Scripture. The human authors of Scripture were “carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21) so that they wrote exactly what God wanted them to write. The Bible is the Word of God through the words of men. No other human writing is the perfect and unfailing Word of God. “We must not consider human writings—no matter how holy their authors may have been—equal to the divine writings” (Belgic Confession 7).

All things necessary. “Everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it” (Belgic Confession 7). Because of the sufficiency of Scripture for salvation, “whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation” (AOR 6).

Salvation. The Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). “This salvation which we believe depends not on ingenious reasoning , but on demonstration of the Holy Scriptures” (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 17). John Wesley wrote, “I am a creature of the day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God and returning to God; just hovering over the great gulf, till a few moments hence I am no more seen—I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing, the way to heaven—how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way: for this very end he came from heaven. He has written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God! I have it. Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri [a man of one book]” (Preface, Sermons on Several Occasions).

Final authority. The Protestant commitment to sola Scriptura (“Scripture alone”) means that, in the final analysis, Scripture alone is the final or ultimate authority for deciding on questions of doctrine and practice (what to believe and how to live or worship). It does not mean that Scripture is the only source or authority for Christian theology. Protestants recognize the authority of the ecumenical Creeds (AOR 8) and of the church fathers (Augsburg Confession 27.35). These sources derive their authority from Scripture insofar as they faithfully interpret it. Scripture must be interpreted, and Christ promised that the Holy Spirit would lead the Church as a whole into all truth (John 16:13); therefore, when there is a consensus of the Church throughout history on how to interpret Scripture, it should be viewed as normative, though Scripture alone is the norma normans (the norm of norms). “All the fathers concede their own obscurity and illuminate Scripture by Scripture alone. And, indeed, that is the right method. Scripture should be placed alongside Scripture in a right and proper way. He who can do this best is the best of the fathers” (Luther, Reply to Emser). The Protestant Reformers of the 16th century did not understand themselves to be returning to the Bible instead of Tradition. Rather, they understood themselves to be returning to the true Tradition—the Church’s historic consensus of faith, from which Roman Catholicism had begun to depart in the late Middle Ages. While the Bible condemns merely human tradition which violates God’s Word (Colossians 2:8; Mark 7:8), the Bible also uses the word “tradition” in positive ways: “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (2 Thessalonians 2:15; cf. 3:6; 1 Corinthians 11:2). “Tradition” simply refers to “that which is handed down.” The Church has handed down a rich history of biblical interpretation and theological reflection. The Protestant Reformers refused to read Scripture without regard for this Tradition. The Augsburg Confession begins by affirming “the decree of the Council of Nicaea” (1) and repeatedly cites church fathers such as Augustine, noting that “his authority is not lightly to be esteemed” (27). The main doctrinal portion of the Confession concludes by saying, “This is about the Sum of our Doctrine, in which, as can be seen, there is nothing that varies from the Scriptures, or from the Church Catholic, or from the Church of Rome as known from its writers” (21). Moreover, “Our churches dissent in no article of the faith from the Church Catholic, but only omit some abuses which are new, and which have been erroneously accepted by the corruption of the times, contrary to the intent of the Canons” (21). The Confession concludes by insisting that “in doctrine and ceremonies nothing has been received on our part against Scripture or the Church Catholic. For it is manifest that we have taken most diligent care that no new and ungodly doctrine should creep into our churches.” The Reformers did not set out to break from the Roman Catholic Church, or to start a new Church; rather, they sought for disagreements to “be harmonized and brought back to the one simple truth and Christian concord” (Augsburg Confession, Preface). To read the Bible in isolation from the Church, disregard classic consensual ecumenical teaching, or claim to have “no Creed but the Bible,” is completely antithetical to classical Protestantism.