Rev. Angus Stewart
Belgic Confession 3: The Written Word of God
We confess that this Word of God was not sent, nor delivered by the will of man, but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, as the apostle Peter saith. And that afterwards God, from a special care which He has for us and our salvation, commanded His servants, the prophets and apostles, to commit His revealed Word to writing; and He Himself wrote with His own finger the two tables of the law. Therefore we call such writings holy and divine Scriptures.
Belgic Confession 3 can be used to give us a three-part history of verbal revelation in terms of God’s making Himself known in (human) language by words uttered and/or written.
1. Spoken Word, No Written Word
There was a time when there was the spoken Word of God but not the written Word of God. When was that? The period from creation to Moses’ writing the Pentateuch or the writing of Job (whichever work was penned earlier).
Almighty God revealed Himself to the ancient prophets. He spoke to Adam in the Garden of Eden. He revealed His will to prediluvian Enoch:
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him (Jude 14-15).
The covenant revelation given to Adam (Gen. 3:15) was further unfolded to Noah, with whom the cosmic dimension of God’s covenant of grace is especially prominent. One thinks also here of the three patriarchs to whom God spoke directly: Abraham (who is called a prophet in Genesis 20:7), Isaac and Jacob. Of these men, we read that Jehovah “suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm” (Ps. 105:14-15).
God communicated to people in those days in various ways. He spoke to Adam and Eve (Gen. 1-3), Cain (Gen. 4), Noah (Gen. 6-9), Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc. We read of theophanies (appearances of God), Christophanies (appearances of Christ) or angelophanies (appearances of angels) to unfallen and fallen Adam (Gen. 1-3), Abraham (Gen. 15; 18), backslidden Lot in Sodom (Gen. 19), wrestling Jacob at Peniel (Gen. 32), Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3-4), the Israelites at fiery Mount Sinai (Ex. 19-20) and Job to whom God spake “out of the whirlwind” (Job 38:1; 42:3). He gave dreams to Eliphaz (Job 4:12ff.), Abimelech (Gen. 20), Jacob (Gen. 28) and Joseph (Gen 37). God’s will was communicated to others through the interpretation of dreams (Gen. 40-41) and the proclamation of godly prophets, such as Noah, who was “a preacher of righteousness” (II Pet. 2:5), as well as a covetous, reprobate prophet, Balaam (Num. 22-24; II Pet. 2:15), and even his donkey (Num. 22:28-30; II Pet. 2:16)! The handing down or passing on of God’s Word (cf. Ps. 78:3-7) was facilitated by the longevity of the prediluvians. For instance, since Adam died aged 930 (Gen. 5:5), Lamech, Noah’s father, could have talked with him.1
2. Written Word and Spoken Word
After this came a period in which there were both the spoken Word and the written Word. When was that? The period from the writing of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) or Job (whichever work was penned earlier) to the writing of the book of Revelation. This is about 1½ millennia, from about 1,400 BC to AD 100. There was especially one significant gap during this period: the 400 silent years after Malachi, God’s last Old Testament prophet.
So, from Moses on, we have both the spoken Word and the written Word in Old Testament days for about 1,000 years. The first parts of canonical Scripture were the Pentateuch, Psalm 90 (see its heading) and Job, to which were added Joshua, Judges, Ruth and I and II Samuel. Around this time came the poetical or wisdom books (other than Job) written (at least mostly) by David and Solomon, namely, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. Then were added the remaining historical books (I Kings – Esther) and the 16 writing prophets: the 4 major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah with Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel) and the 12 minor prophets (Hosea – Malachi). Many Old Testament prophets uttered inspired oracles but left no inspired writings, such as Nathan, Gad and Jehu, the son of Hanani.
The New Testament period (the first century AD) had the most concentrated revelation in terms of both the speaking and the writing of God’s Word. Inspired utterances were made by Christ, the apostles, the New Testament prophets and others, such as Elisabeth (Luke 1:41-45), Zacharias (Luke 1:67-79) and various angels. The New Testament written Word consists of the 4 gospel accounts, the Acts of the Apostles, the 21 epistles and the book of Revelation.
The New Testament Scriptures contain only a tiny portion of the inspired spoken Word of those days. Think of how many spoken words the Lord Jesus must have uttered during His public ministry! Likewise, had He willed, God could have given us a written record of many more of Christ’s miracles and deeds:
And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (John 20:30-31).
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen (John 21:25).
How many of the 12 apostles (and Paul) wrote New Testament books? Only 4: Matthew (who wrote 1 canonical book), John (5), Paul (13 or 14) and Peter (2). The other 9 apostles, such as Bartholomew and Andrew, wrote no New Testament Scripture.
What about the New Testament prophets? Only 4 of them wrote books in the New Testament canon: Mark (who wrote 1 canonical book), Luke (2), James (1) and Jude (1). (I take the last two men to have been the Lord Jesus’ half-brothers and not apostles.) Prophets such as Agabus, Silas, Barnabas, etc., did not write any part of the New Testament (though a few have claimed that Barnabas wrote Hebrews).
3. Written Word, No Spoken Word
Since the apostolic age, we have the gloriously complete inspired written Word and not the inspired spoken Word. The inspired written Word consists of the 39 Old Testament books and the 27 New Testament books. We will consider this more fully, DV, when we come to the canon of Scripture in Belgic Confession 4.
The church no longer has the inspired spoken Word, for there are no extraordinary church office-bearers (e.g., apostles or prophets) in the post-apostolic age. We have no need of extraordinary church office-bearers or inspired spoken words for we are have been lavishly endowed with the complete canon of Holy Scripture. God has blessed the church ever more richly through the progression from the days in which there was the spoken Word but no written Word, to the days when there was the written Word and the spoken Word, to our day when we have the whole canon, revealing the mind of God in Jesus Christ for the whole catholic or universal church until Christ’s bodily return. We will say more about the sufficiency of Scripture when we come to Belgic Confession 7, DV.
This distinction between the spoken Word and the written Word is, perhaps, a bit unusual for, or unfamiliar to, Protestants, though it is biblical and confessionally Reformed, as per Belgic Confession 3. Which of the two main groups (Romanists or Anabaptists) that the Belgic Confession chiefly opposes would seek to instil a wrong view of this distinction? The answer is the former. Rome believes that extra-canonical words of the apostles and prophets are preserved and developed in Roman Catholic tradition. These alleged apostolic words are then used to buttress Rome’s heretical doctrines, e.g., its Mariolatry. Rome’s false view of tradition is also used to undermine the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures.
Belgic Confession 3 acknowledges that, in general, the spoken Word precedes the written Word: “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost … afterwards God … commanded His servants, the prophets and apostles, to commit His revealed Word to writing.”Now all we have, by God’s purpose and providence, is the written Word, which is far better, from various perspectives, than the spoken Word. Indeed, this is “from a special care which He has for us and our salvation,” as we will see more fully next time, DV.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. From the beginning of the written Word of God to the completion of the last canonical book, in which period was the spoken Word of God least present? Which period received the most concentrated revelation in terms of both the speaking and the writing of God’s Word?
2. Explain the difference between the Reformed and Roman Catholic conceptions of the spoken Word.
3. Does this article help you better understand Hebrews 1:1-2? How?
This article is based on part of the audio of this doctrine class: “(3) The Written Word of God (I)“
