Chapter 7

Let's talk about the Bible. Calvin let's it be known that Scripture is the authority and it is not limited by the Church. He is very resistant to the Church having authority over scripture, seeing the fallible have authority over the infallible. Calvin rightly points out that the Church is built on the Apostles' testimony and not vice versa.

But, how can we determine what is scripture and what is not scripture? Doesn't that responsibility lie with the Church? No, says Calvin, scripture reveals itself to the world. Scripture is so holy that it sticks out like white in a sea of black. The Church does not hold the authority to determine the veracity of scripture because the Church is a conglomeration of human beings, whom Calvin has gone to great links to declare wretched.

So, what does determine the veracity of Scripture? Calvin says that Scripture displays the 'character of the Divine Speaker.' In other words, if it sounds like God, it must be God. How do we know that it sounds like God? Well, God's spirit dwells within us and that spirit will resonate with the words that it originally inspired within the Scriptures.

So, we know that Scripture is the word of God by faith - not faith in the Church or our own faculties, but faith in the Holy Spirit. Of course, if you are not housing a Holy Spirit, you won't get it. Sucks to be you, says Calvin, you wouldn't know Scripture if you saw it, so anything you say is irrelevant. God gave his Word to his children, and not to the whole 'vulgar herd of mankind.'

'Remember,' writes Calvin, 'none but those to whom it was given, have any apprehension of the mysteries of God.'

So, to summarize, we know that Scripture is God's word because we have been given the Holy Spirit which resonates with its own inspired words. Not everybody is a part of this resonance, because not everybody is chosen by God.