Question 18: What are the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments?
Answer: “We believe that the Holy Scriptures are contained in two books, namely, the Old and New Testament, which are canonical, against which nothing can be alleged. These are thus named in the Church of God.
The books of the Old Testament are the five books of Moses, to wit: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the book of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the two books of Samuel, the two of the Kings, two books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther; Job, the Psalms, the three books of Solomon, namely, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs; the four great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah (Lamentations), Ezekiel, and Daniel; and the twelve lesser prophets, namely, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
Those of the New Testament are the four evangelists, to wit: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the Acts of the Apostles; the thirteen epistles of the Apostle Paul, namely, one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the Ephesians, one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, two to Timothy, one to Titus, one to Philemon; Hebrews; the seven epistles of the other apostles, namely one of James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude; and the Revelation of the apostle John” (Belgic Confession, Article 4).
Question 19: Why do we say that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God?
Answer: God has testified clearly to us that the scriptures of the Old and New Testament are divinely inspired, and that they thus come to us fully as the true, inerrant, authoritative, sufficient, clear, and redemptive word of God.
The scriptures of the Old and New Testaments unapologetically present themselves to be exactly what they are: the word of God. The Old Testament prophets were called and commissioned by God to be his spokesmen, sharing God’s words with his people. Moses, a kind of proto-type prophet in the Old Testament, was called by God to “speak all that I command you” (Ex 7:2), which he was faithful to do (Heb 3:2). The prophets that followed him were likewise called, and God put his words into their mouths and commanded all Israel to listen to them (Deut 18:15-22). God is often said to have put his words into the mouths of his prophets. So it was with the prophet Jeremiah among others: “Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth” (Jer 1:9). In the words of Robert Fugate: “phrases such as “thus says the LORD,” “the LORD said,” “the word of the LORD came to,” “Hear the word of the LORD,” etc. occur over 3,800 times in the Old Testament alone!”” (Fugate, God’s words to you, p.105).
The written word of the prophets is likewise said to be the very Word of God. So in Psalm 119: 160 we read that “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.” Those “rules”, of course, refer back to “When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book” (Deut 31:24). Deuteronomy 28:58, as a seal on the Pentateuch, confirms that God’s words are “written in this book”. So too the ministry of, for example, Jeremiah was very clearly one in which God’s words were committed to writing (Jer 25:13; 36:6). And, of course, the New Testament explicitly confirms that the written word of the Old Testament is the very word of God: “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Tim 3:16; see also 2 Pt 1:21). The Lord Jesus himself explicitly revered the Old Testament in this way, saying that “the scriptures cannot be broken” (Jn 10:35), and confirms the written word to be the very same word of God (Mk 7:8-13). The entire New Testament confirms the authority and inspiration of the Old, in the words of Fugate again: ““The NT contains over 1,600 citations of the OT, and many more allusions to it!” Eighty percent (209/260) of the chapters in the New Testament contain quotations from the Old Testament” (Fugate, God’s words to you, p.118).
What about the written word of the New Testament? It is likewise clearly put in the same category as the Old Testament scriptures as the word of God. Christ himself spoke of the eternal nature of his own words, which is an exclusively divine category (Mt 24:35). So too we see the supremacy of his words in the Great Commission (Mt 28:18-20). The word of the apostles, whom Christ made to be the foundation of his church (Eph 2:20; 1 Cor 12:28), would be the inspired word of God revealed by the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:12-15). The New Testament scriptures are thus affirmed to be the word of God, for they are prophetic (Rev 1:3), the very word of God (Rev 19:9). 2 Peter 3:15-16 is an important passage in this regard, in which the Apostle Peter affirms Paul the Apostle’s words to be of the same class as the Old Testament scriptures. 1 Thessalonians 4:15 is another example, in which Paul says that his words come to the believers as the very word of God. John 20:31 is another clear example of divine character of the New Testament scriptures, for it is only God’s word that imparts life to us (Deut 32:47). In 1 Corinthians 14:36-38 Paul solemnly charges the churches to receive his words as the Lord’s commandment.
The case is clear, in both Old and New Testaments, the scriptures clearly present themselves to be what they truly are: the word of God. Arising from these insights, there is one very clear and towering implication for our lives: that we must give careful heed to the full counsel of God’s word, as written and recorded for us in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. If a monarch or famous person spoke to us personally, we would hang on every word that was said, and likely we would recount what was said to many people. The God of heaven has spoken to us in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Do we treat his words with reverence? Do we hang on his every word? Do we pay careful attention, studying, learning, and labouring in the word? Hiding it in our hearts? The fact that he has spoken to us in the pages of scriptures demands nothing less than our continued, full, reverential, and devoted attention. Does your heart and life show a reverence for God’s Word? Old Testament? New Testament? If not, renew that reverence and dedication today! Take up and read, for it is the very Word of God. Bavinck puts it well:
“we must know that Scripture is the word and truth of God. Without this certainty there [is for us] no comfort either in life or death. And not only does every Christian need this assurance, but the church itself as an institution cannot dispense with this certainty either. For if a minister is not convinced of the divine truth of the word he preaches, his preaching loses all authority, influence, and power. If he is not able to bring a message from God, who then gives him the right to act on behalf of people of like nature with himself?… Both the Christian faith and Christian preaching require divine authority as their foundation. “Faith will totter if the authority of the divine Scriptures begins to waver” (Augustine)”.” (Bavinck, RD I, p.461).
Q.18-19. Scripture is the Word of God.