This article looks at Bavinck's explanation of the doctrine of special revelation. Included in this survey are the subjects of inspiration and the infallibility of the Bible.

Source: The Outlook, 2009. 9 pages.

Bavinck on the Doctrine of Inscripturated Special Revelation

After his extended treatment of the doctrine of revelation and the distinction between general and special revelation, Bavinck concludes his introductory volume in Reformed dogmatics with a consideration of the doctrine of Scripture. The inscripturation of special revelation represents the provision within God's providence of a permanent and fixed form of revelation. Just as the whole of special revelation finds its focus and fulfillment in the event of the incarnation of the Son of God, so the entire history of special revelation and the meaning of this great event find their climax in the written form of holy Scripture. According to Bavinck, there is a broad analogy between the history of redemption, which reaches its climax in the event of God's Son taking the form of a servant, and the history of special revelation, which reaches its apex in the Word assuming the "servant form" of Scripture.

The importance of the doctrine of Scripture to dogmatics is not difficult to discern. Since we have access to God's special revelation, which makes known his work of salvation in Jesus Christ, through the inscripturated Word, the Scriptures are the primary source and norm for Christian theology. Contrary to the tendency in modern theology to drive a wedge between the knowledge of Jesus Christ and submission to the authority of the Scriptures, Bavinck insists that all knowledge of the person and work of Christ is mediated by God's design through the revelation that is given to us in the Scriptures. Therefore, we conclude our review of Bavinck's introductory volume with a consideration of his doctrine of Scripture.

The Inspiration of Scripture🔗

Bavinck begins his treatment of the doctrine of Scripture with the subject of inspiration. Testimony to the inspiration of Scripture is already provided in the Old Testament. For example, the prophets of the old covenant were deeply conscious that they were called by the Lord and that the Word they spoke was not their own but was given to them by God. The prophetic word did not arise from within the heart of the prophet, but was communicated by dreams and visions and represented the Word that the Lord desired to be communicated to his covenant people. Furthermore, all the historical books of the Old Testament were written by the prophets and record history in a "prophetic" manner (RD 1:393). The interest of the authors of these historical books is not like that of modern historiography, which aims to offer a kind of detailed and "objective" report of what transpired. Rather, the historical books of the Bible offer a kind of inspired "commentary" or interpretation upon the course of history under the superintendence of the Lord of the covenant, who was preparing the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the fullness of time.

Not only do we find a considerable body of testimony to the divine origin of the Word in the books of the Old Testament, but we also find a comprehensive testimony to the inspiration of the Old Testament in the New Testament. Everywhere throughout the New Testament writings, we find a uniform witness to the truth that the Old Testament canon was not of human origin but ultimately of divine origin. Bavinck cites several kinds of New Testament evidence that confirm the divine inspiration of the Old Testament.

  • First, the formulas used in the New Testament when quoting the Old Testament vary (e.g., "it is written", "God says", "Scripture says"), but they always express the conviction that what the Old Testament says is equivalent to what God says.
  • Second, Jesus Christ and his apostles often directly affirmed the divine authority of the Old Testament Scriptures (e.g. Matthew 5:17; John 10:35; 2 Peter 1:19, 21; 2 Timothy 3:16).
  • Third, there are no instances in the New Testament where Jesus or the apostles takes a critical stance toward what is written in the Old Testament.
  • And fourth, for "Jesus and the apostles the OT is the foundation of doctrine, the source of solutions, the end of all argument" (RD 1:395).

The cumulative weight of these lines of evidence, according to Bavinck, can only yield the conclusion that the Old Testament writings were regarded to be of divine origin and therefore fully authoritative.

In addition to the evidence for the inspiration of the Old Testament, Bavinck also observes that there are several lines of evidence in the New Testament for the inspiration of the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. Jesus Christ, who is the last and chief of the prophets, is the Word become flesh, and his witness is regarded in its totality as having the authority of God himself. In an important statement, which has implications for Bavinck's understanding of the infallibility of the Word of God, Bavinck notes that Jesus was not only "holy and without sin in an ethical sense but also intellectually he is without error, lies, or deception" (RD 1:398). Were Jesus to have erred in any respect, his teaching would not have full authority, including his teaching that the inscripturated Word is of divine origin. After noting the divine inspiration of Jesus' teaching, Bavinck further observes that our access to Jesus' teaching is by means of his appointed apostles and servants. In order to ensure the preservation and propagation of Jesus' witness, it was necessary that provision be made for the inscripturation of the message of the New Testament apostles and prophets. The apostles of Jesus Christ were authorized by Christ and uniquely indwelt of the Holy Spirit in order that they might fulfill the particular commission as authoritative witnesses to the person and work of Jesus Christ. From the beginning of the church's existence, the unique authority and significance of this witness concerning Jesus Christ was recognized. For this reason, the writings of the New Testament apostles were widely circulated in the churches and carefully preserved. The historical process by which the church came to acknowledge the New Testament Scriptures involved a gradual recognition of the divine inspiration and authority of these New Testament writings. Rather than this recognition being constitutive of their divine authority, it was an acknowledgement of what had been true from the beginning, namely, that Christ was pleased to make himself known and build his church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets of the new covenant (Ephesians 2:20).

With only a few exceptions, the OT and NT writings were immediately, from the time of their origin and in total, accepted without doubt or protest as holy, divine writings. The place and time at which they were first recognized as authoritative cannot be indicated. The canonicity of the Bible books is rooted in their existence. They have authority of themselves, by their own right, because they exist. It is the Spirit of the Lord who guided the authors in writing them and the church in acknowledging them. (RD 1:401).

Before treating more directly the nature of the inspiration of Scripture, Bavinck follows his summary of the biblical testimony to its own inspiration with a survey of the testimony of the church throughout its history. From the beginning, the Christian church has universally received and acknowledged the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God. The early church immediately recognized the authority of the Old Testament, and from its inception the writings of the New Testament apostles and prophets were placed on a par with the books of the Old Testament. Though the patristic period did not give much attention to the nature of inspiration, there are frequent instances where the church fathers described the event of inspiration "as an act of driving or leading but especially as an act of dictation by the Holy Spirit" (RD 1:404). Even though the language of dictation might suggest a mechanical view of inspiration, the writings of the church fathers exhibit familiarity with the diversity of the language and style of the biblical authors. Therefore, the use of the terminology of "dictation" ought not to be pressed literally, as though the fathers viewed the human authors as merely passive in the production of Scripture.

According to Bavinck, little advance in the doctrine of inspiration occurred during the period of the medieval Christian church. However, at the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth-century, the Roman Catholic Church did set forth an explicit doctrine of Scripture at the Council of Trent. In response to the Reformation's insistence upon the supreme authority of Scripture (sola Scriptura), Tridentine Catholicism extended the doctrine of inspiration to include the unwritten tradition of the church, which was subject to the church's teaching authority and interpretation. In later eighteenth and nineteenth century Catholicism, there was a tendency to limit inspiration to a "passive or negative assistance that preserved the (biblical) authors from error" (RD 1:410). With the rise of biblical criticism, many Roman Catholic scholars tended to restrict the inspiration of the Scriptures to the religious-ethical content of the Bible, and acknowledged a greater or lesser degree of fallibility to the remainder of its content. Even though the Roman Catholic Church continues to affirm formally a doctrine of Scriptural inspiration, the emphasis upon the church's teaching authority (magisterium) and infallibility allowed many Roman Catholic theologians to embrace a kind of "concessionism." So long as the infallibility of the church's dogmas is acknowledged, it is possible within the Roman Catholic Church to concede much to biblical criticism.

In his survey of the church's testimony to the inspiration of Scripture, Bavinck devotes considerable attention to what he regards as the most important development in recent times, namely, the rise of biblical criticism within Protestantism. In the modern period, the historic doctrine of Scripture's inspiration has suffered a series of attacks. At the time of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, the content of Scripture was subjected to sifting in accord with what conformed to the dictates of human reason. In the nineteenth-century, the tendency was to call into question the authenticity of the Scriptural writings and their historical veracity. When judged by the standards of modern historiography, biblical criticism has concluded that the Scriptures fall short of full truthfulness and accuracy. For biblical criticism, the Bible is a thoroughly human book and exhibits few, if any, traces of its divine authorship. According to Bavinck, the consequences of modern biblical criticism for the doctrine of Scripture are evident in a new definition of what is meant by inspiration. Rather than viewing the Scriptures in their entirety as the Word of God, biblical critics have tended to distinguish between the religious-ethical content of the Bible and its "incidentally historical" form. Though the kernel of religious truth that is communicated through Scripture bears evidence of divine authorship, the husk of the actual writings of Scripture bears evidence of the thoroughly human and errant form in which this kernel is contained. In the theology of Schleiermacher, a new doctrine of inspiration emerged to resolve the problems generated by biblical criticism. In Schleiermacher's conception of inspiration, there is a general divine influence upon the biblical authors, a "dynamic" empowerment that enables them to express the highest truth, even though it is cast in an undeniably fallible form. In this understanding of inspiration, the biblical authors differ from other believers only in the degree of God's influence upon them. Rather than affirm the inspiration of the biblical writings themselves, this view emphasizes the subjective influence that inspires the biblical writers to express divine truth in a form that it is undeniably errant and imperfect.

"Organic" Inspiration🔗

In his survey of the development of modern biblical criticism, Bavinck is surprisingly frank regarding the implications of this approach for the older doctrine of inspiration.

As he observes, the Christian theologian "does not resolve the dilemma (of the inspiration and absolute authority of Scripture) in all its sharpness by closing one's eyes to the serious objections that careful Bible research derives from the facts it discovers and can advance against the self-testimony of Scripture."  RD 1:420

Contemporary Reformed theology is obliged to reckon with the challenges to the divine authority and authorship of Scripture that such criticism has expressed. In the formulation of the doctrine of inspiration, therefore, Bavinck steers a careful course between a kind of obscurantism, which refuses to engage the challenges of modern biblical studies, and a kind of accommodationism, which abandons the historic doctrine of Scripture as no longer tenable. In order to articulate the doctrine of Scriptural inspiration in a responsible manner, Bavinck notes that many biblical critics appeal to the "phenomena" of the Bible to undermine the clear testimony of Scripture to its divine origin. However, the Scripture's self-testimony to its inspiration is so clear and compelling that it is impossible to appeal to the phenomena of Scripture in this way. Even though the doctrine of inspiration must be formulated in a manner that does justice to the kind of writings that comprise the Scriptures, the fact of Scripture's inspiration may not be denied without impugning the compelling testimony of Scripture itself.

Bavinck defines what is meant by inspiration by noting the significance of the term the apostle Paul uses in 1 Timothy 3:16. Though we are accustomed to the term "inspiration," which derives from the Latin (Vulgate) rendering of the Greek term, theopneustos, the literal sense of Paul's term is that the Scriptures are "God-breathed". Like his contemporary, the Presbyterian theologian B. B. Warfield, Bavinck observes that this term should be taken in a passive sense to denote the divine origin or authorship of the Scriptures. The Word of God is the product of God's divine power and wisdom, and should be received accordingly as possessing full divine authority. Though Bavinck acknowledges the impenetrable mystery of the Spirit's work in the production of the Scriptures, he maintains that this work occurs within the framework of the Spirit's "immanence in everything that has been created" (RD 1:426). The inspiration of the Scriptures is not to be viewed as an "isolated event." Rather, it reflects the "crown and zenith" of the comprehensive work of the Spirit in perfecting and utilizing the created order. Here too we have an instance of the inter-relation between creation and redemption; the same Spirit who is at work in the whole creation is now at work in the context of redemption or re­creation. The work of the Spirit in the inspiration of the Scriptures is, nonetheless, a unique and intermittent work, which must be distinguished from the broader work of the Spirit in creation and in the regeneration of believers.

In order to provide a more definite view of the nature of inspiration, Bavinck distinguishes between "mechanical," "dynamic" and "organic" inspiration. While Bavinck rejects the first two views as incompatible with the testimony of Scripture and the nature of the biblical writings, he defends the third or "organic" view as one that is consistent with the historic conception of the church, but that does greater justice to the historical character of the Scriptures. Only an "organic" view of inspiration is able to account simultaneously for the divine origin and authorship of the Scriptures and the full humanness of the Scriptural writings.

As the language intimates, "mechanical" inspiration is the view that the biblical authors were mere conduits through whom the Holy Spirit channels divine revelation. Rather than doing justice to the full engagement of the human authors in the production of Scripture, the mechanical understanding tends to lift the human authors out of their historical context and disregards their connections with their environment. In this conception of inspiration, God is not only the primary author of the biblical writings, but he is really the only author.

In Bavinck's estimation, a "mechanical notion of revelation one-sidedly emphasizes the new, the supernatural element that is present in inspiration, and disregards its connection with the old, the natural. This detaches the Bible writers from their personality, as it were, and lifts them out of the history of their time."

RD 1:431

While it is often alleged that this mechanical understanding of inspiration was the teaching of the church throughout much of its history, Bavinck demurs from this assessment and wisely notes that this generalization needs to be tested against the particular statements of older writers on the subject.

Bavinck expresses even greater dissatisfaction with the "dynamic" view of inspiration, which has become the favored view of modern liberal theologians. The dynamic view, which emphasizes the inspiration of the biblical authors but not the inspiration of their writings as such, reduces the Bible to an "inspiring" book that contains many elevated religious sentiments but is not the Word of God as such. The insuperable problem with this conception is that it places an impossible burden upon the interpreter of Scripture, who is obliged to determine what in the Scriptures is of divine inspiration and what is not. On this approach, the doctrine of Scriptural revelation is thoroughly undermined.

With his contemporary, Abraham Kuyper, Bavinck maintains that we should speak of the "organic inspiration" of Scripture. Without denying the fundamental truth of Christian orthodox theology, namely, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, the organic view aims to do justice to the human authorship of Scripture. The Holy Spirit does not "coerce" or displace the human authors in the production of Scripture. The Spirit uses the human authors as "human beings, not as blocks of wood, but as intelligent and moral beings" (RD 1:432). The language of the various books of the Bible exhibit clear and compelling evidence that the human writers were "authors" in the proper sense of the term. These writings reflect the character, language, and style of their authors. Nothing that is genuinely human or properly illustrative of the personality and times of the biblical writers is suppressed. Within God's providence and superintendence, the human authors of Scripture are used by the Spirit in a way that fully honors their distinctive personalities, gifts and powers. All of these are made serviceable to the Spirit's aim, which is to communicate the Word of God in human language so that the Scriptures might become the "possession of the whole human race" (RD 1:433). In the preparation for their writing, these authors engaged in research, made use of various sources, and enlisted all of the various means ordinarily employed in the production of any human writing. Even though the language of these authors does not display a consistent beauty or elevated style, the thoroughly human character of their writings serves the purpose of communicating the Word of God to all human beings. The humanity of Scripture, far from being an embarrassment, is precisely the reason the biblical writings continue to speak in a clear and compelling manner to all peoples and at every stage in human history.

In view of all this, the theory of organic inspiration alone does justice to Scripture. In the doctrine of Scripture, it is the working out and application of the central fact of revelation: the incarnation of the Word. The Word (Logos) has become flesh (sarx), and the word has become Scripture; these two facts do not only run parallel but are most intimately connected. Christ became flesh, a servant, without form or comeliness, the most despised of human beings; he descended to the nethermost parts of the earth and became obedient even to the death of the cross. So also the word, the revelation of God, entered the world of creatureliness, the life and history of humanity, in all the human forms of dream and vision, of investigation and reflection, right down into that which is humanly weak and despised and ignoble. The word became Scripture and as Scripture subjected itself to the fate of all Scripture. (RD 1: 434)

"Organic Inspiration" and the Infallibility of Scripture🔗

Some interpreters of Bavinck's doctrine of Scripture have argued that his view of organic inspiration allows for a broad affirmation of Scriptural infallibility, but not a strict affirmation of Scriptural inerrancy. This is the claim, for example, of Jack Rogers and Donald McKim in their controversial book, The Authority and Interpretation of the Bible.1 In somewhat more moderate form, it is also the view of A.T.B. McGowan in his recent book, The Divine Spiration of Scripture: Challenging Evangelical Perspectives.2  Since Bavinck places so much emphasis upon the humanity or "servant-form" of Scripture, and since he acknowledges the need to approach the challenges of biblical criticism in a careful and responsible manner, it has been suggested that Bavinck leaves the door open to a doctrine of Scripture that speaks of its truthfulness in respect to the revelation of the person and work of Christ, but not of its full truthfulness or inerrancy in respect to its historical reporting and the like. In particular, it has been argued that Bavinck's cautious doctrine of Scripture, and even his infrequent use of the terminology of "infallibility" or "inerrancy" in his Reformed Dogmatics, distances Bavinck's doctrine from that of the Princeton theologians who were his contemporaries.3  For example, B. B. Warfield's strict definition of Scriptural inerrancy in the autographa or the original manuscripts, is said to differ significantly from Bavinck's view. In order for our survey of Bavinck's doctrine of Scriptural inspiration to be complete, we need to address this claim directly.

It is certainly true that Bavinck, in his handling of the subject of organic inspiration, does not often employ the language of Scriptural "infallibility." Nor does he employ the language of "inerrancy," except when he refers critically to those who would posit the presence of "errors" or distortions of the truth in the biblical writings. Does this mean, therefore, that Bavinck was open to a modified doctrine of Scriptural infallibility that limited its truthfulness in some respects, or that he regarded his doctrine to be significantly divergent from the Princetonian understanding of Scriptural inerrancy? In my reading of Bavinck's treatment of Scriptural inspiration and authority, I do not believe this would be a faithful interpretation of his view. There are several features of Bavinck's position that lead me to conclude that he affirms the full truthfulness of the inspired Scriptures, and that his position cannot be described as in any substantive manner divergent from that of his contemporaries at Princeton.

  • First, in Bavinck's survey of the doctrine of Scripture in the history of the church, he draws a sharp distinction between those who represent the historic confession of the church and those who, under the influence of the Enlightenment and subsequent critical approaches to the Scriptures, have abandoned this confession. While Bavinck acknowledges the need for Reformed theology to engage responsibly the challenges of biblical criticism, he never concedes the propriety of abandoning the confessional view that the Scriptures are to be received as divine revelation or testimony. At a number of critical points in his treatment of this history, Bavinck cites his contemporary, B. B. Warfield, in a uniformly positive manner, encouraging his readers to read Warfield's thorough and persuasive case for the full inspiration and authority of Scripture (RD 1:425, fn78; 1:429, fn 82).
  • Second, throughout his lengthy exposition of the doctrine of Scripture, Bavinck notes on a number of occasions that modern biblical scholarship often posits a divergence between the "message" and the "phenomena" of the biblical texts, or, alternatively expressed, between the "content" and the "form" of the Scriptures. Rather than abandon altogether an adherence to the authority of the Bible, modern theologians employ this distinction in order to defend a doctrine of divine revelation through the Scriptures, even though the biblical texts often betray the marks of human fallibility and weakness. In Bavinck's estimation, this distinction represents a concerted effort on behalf of Protestant and Roman Catholic theologians to retain the "ethical-religious" truth of the Scriptures, or its testimony to Jesus Christ, while jettisoning the older conception of inspiration that spoke of the Bible in its totality and in all of its parts as the true Word of God. However, it is an approach that is bound to fail, since it separates what may not be separated. According to Bavinck, "(t)he split between 'that which is needed for salvation' and 'the incidentally historical' is impossible, since in Scripture doctrine and history are completely intertwined" (RD 1:417). When this "dualistic" approach is taken to the biblical texts, it soon becomes apparent that the so-called "imperfections" and "errors" of the biblical texts reach to the "central truth of Scripture itself" (RD 1:420). The halfway house of an errant text that carries a message of truth eventually shipwrecks as the critical deconstruction of the Scriptures is pursued to its inevitable conclusion. Furthermore, those who appeal to the Scriptures' reliable testimony to Jesus Christ in distinction from its thoroughly human, errant servant-form, neglect to acknowledge that Christ himself "appointed his apostles as totally trustworthy witnesses who by his Spirit would guide them into truth. Surely this also includes the truth concerning Holy Scripture" (RD 1:423). If the "apostolic witness concerning Christ is not reliable, no knowledge of Christ is possible. Add to this that if Christ is authoritative he is authoritative also in the teaching concerning Scripture" (RD 1:437). The Scriptural testimony to its own inspiration, authority and reliability, simply cannot be undone by an appeal to the "so-called phenomena of Scripture" (RD 1:424).
  • Third, on two occasions, Bavinck explicitly links his understanding of the infallibility of the Bible with the church's confession regarding the Person of Jesus Christ. This link is of particular importance to any evaluation of Bavinck's doctrine of Scriptural infallibility and inerrancy, since Bavinck employs in an extensive manner the analogy between Christ's Person as One who is fully divine and yet fully human and the manner in which God speaks through the human words of the Scriptures. On the first of these occasions, Bavinck argues that the church's confession of the holiness and sinlessness of Christ obliges us to insist that Christ was "intellectually ... without error, lies, or deception" (RD 1:398). Though it is certainly true that Christ was not "active in the field of science in a restricted sense," the doctrine of Scripture, which he taught and upheld throughout his ministry, is a "religious truth" of the first order. If Christ's teaching regarding the truthfulness of the Scriptures is in error, then he erred at a most critical point and can no longer be regarded as "our highest prophet." On the second of these occasions, Bavinck draws a connection between the sinless humanity of Christ and the errorlessness of the Scriptures.

The incarnation of Christ demands that we trace it (the Scripture) down into the depths of its humiliation, in all its weakness and contempt. The recording of the word, of revelation, invites us to recognize that dimension of weakness and lowliness, the servant-form, also in Scripture. But just as Christ's human nature, however weak and lowly, remained free from sin, so also Scripture is 'conceived without defect or stain'; totally human in all its parts but also divine in all its parts. (RD 1:435)

  • Fourth, in his argument for an "organic" approach to the inspiration of Scripture, Bavinck observes that the "mechanical" approach fails to reckon adequately with "the historical and psychological mediation of revelation" that has only come "to full clarity in modern times" (RD 1:431). In this connection, Bavinck is very candid regarding the challenges to Scriptural reliability in the modern period. As he puts it, "for those who in childlike faith subject themselves to Scripture, there still remain more than enough objections. These need not be disguised. There are intellectual problems (cruces) in Scripture that cannot be ignored and that will probably never be resolved" (RD 1:442). However, in the immediate context of his candid assessment of the challenges facing the historic doctrine of Scripture in the modern period, Bavinck maintains that believers do not need to wait until all these challenges have been addressed before they arrive at faith. Conviction regarding the inspiration and authority of Scripture should not be suspended upon our ability to resolve all the problems or answer all of the critic objections. Just as there are objections and conundrums in every science, so there are in the science of theology. It would be naïve, however, to think that these objections and challenges are not often motivated by hostility toward the authority of Scripture. We should recognize, Bavinck notes, that the same opposition that Christ encountered will manifest itself in a similar hostility toward the Scriptures that bear witness to him.
  • And fifth, perhaps the most significant clue to Bavinck's adherence to the full infallibility of the Scriptures is to be discerned in the way he addresses a series of common objections to the reliability of the biblical testimony. At the close of his discussion of the inspiration of the Bible, Bavinck offers several observations that answer to typical critical claims regarding the church's confession of the truthfulness of the biblical witness. In his reply to these claims, Bavinck does not concede any ground to the critical argument that a number of traits of the biblical texts are incompatible with their trustworthiness. Rather than viewing these features of the biblical texts in a negative light, Bavinck insists that they actually enable the Scriptures to continue to speak in a fresh way to every generation.

The second observation of Bavinck focuses upon the way the Scriptures make full use of what belongs to "ordinary human life and natural life" to serve the purpose of divine revelation. The Scriptures do not speak a strange language that is divorced from the fabric of the created order or the natural way in which human language functions. Rather, the Holy Spirit chooses to reveal the truth concerning Jesus Christ, who is the center of all Scripture, in the simple but eloquent form of ordinary human language. According to Bavinck, even if a book of geography were to be "inspired from cover to cover and was literally dictated word-for-word,'' it would not be the inspired Word of God in the sense in which Scripture is the Word of God. For in the Scriptures, we have a wonderful interpenetration of form and content, of human words and the Word of God, of ordinary human language and the extraordinary truth as it pertains to God's grace in Jesus Christ. The full and genuine humanity of Scripture is, accordingly, a testimony to the integrity and goodness of creation, including human language, as a suitable medium for the disclosure of God's will and purpose in Jesus Christ. In the doctrine of Scripture, as in other areas of Christian theology, we witness the truth that grace does not oppose but rather perfects nature. The created order is placed in the service and taken up directly into God's purposes of recreation.

The third observation that Bavinck makes regarding the biblical texts is that they must be read, interpreted and evaluated in terms of the peculiar "intent and purpose" of Scripture (RD 1:444). Whenever the Scriptures are evaluated, they must be evaluated in terms of their own testimony to their focus and message. It is a serious category mistake to approach the Scriptures as though they were "designed to be a manual for the various sciences." Rather than speak the language of science or contribute directly to the pursuit of any one of the scientific disciplines, the Scriptures speak as a theological book whose aim is to testify to the riches of God's grace in Jesus Christ, which are revealed throughout the course of the history of redemption that the Scriptures recount. At every point, the purpose of the Bible is to make its readers "wise unto salvation through faith in Christ." The problem with biblical criticism, according to Bavinck, is that it neglects to reckon adequately with the implications of this peculiar focus and interest. When biblical critics impose the demands of "notarial preciseness" or "exact knowledge" upon the biblical texts, they impose a completely alien standard upon the Scriptures. These demands do not correspond to the kind of book the Bible is, or to the kind of purpose that the biblical writings aim to fulfill. Indeed, these demands would frustrate and inhibit the Scriptures' ability to bear witness to the gospel in a way that is directed to and accessible to the whole of the human race in every age.

The final observation that Bavinck offers regarding the challenges of biblical criticism is in some respects the most important. This observation focuses upon the relation between the Scriptures and the other sciences. Though the Word of God in Scripture has a profound significance for the pursuit of all the sciences, it is not a Word that ever "intentionally concerns itself with science as such" (RD 1:445). Just as Christ himself, though he was free from all error and sin, did not speak or engage actively in the field of the sciences, so the inscripturated revelation of God does not communicate directly in the language of any specific science.

The Scriptures always communicate "theologically," in accordance with their purpose and aim to give a knowledge that is unto salvation in Christ. Rather than employ the "exact language of science and the academy" the Scriptures employ "the language of observation and daily life." There is an impressionistic quality in the way the biblical writers describe history and reality from the standpoint of ordinary observation and experience. In the Scriptures, the sun "rises" and "sets"; the "heart" is the seat of human thoughts and actions; the "blood" is the soul of an animal, etc. Far from limiting the authority or undermining the truthfulness of the Scriptural writings, these characteristics of observational language and description serve the authority of Scripture. Indeed, if the Scriptures spoke the language of science, they would speak with less authority and freshness to each generation of human beings.

In his observation about the non­scientific nature of the biblical writings, Bavinck also notes that none of the biblical writers appears to have surpassed his contemporaries in scientific knowledge or expertise. However, he resists the critical argument that this implies that the "historiography" of the biblical writers might include the giving of a "false impression" of what took place or the use of "myth" or "legend" in recounting the history of redemption. If the biblical authors present their accounts as a recounting of what took place in history, the interpreter of Scripture is not at liberty to treat the story as myth. Admittedly, we must interpret the biblical record of history from the standpoint of the Bible itself, and not require the biblical authors to meet the standards of contemporary biblical critics.

Considered from the viewpoint and by the standards of secular history, Scripture is often incomplete, full of gaps and certainly not written by the rules of contemporary historical criticism. From this it surely does not follow that the historiography of Scriptures is untrue and unreliable. (RD 1:447)

In the same way that a person may present a logical argument without being a student of the discipline of formal logic, the biblical writer presents an accurate historical account without following the dictates of the science of historiography. Here as elsewhere the Bible is a unique book with a unique purpose. Though the form in which the story is cast by the biblical author may be distinguished from the events that took place, this in no way compromises the truthfulness of the biblical account. In this area, there is room for ongoing study of the biblical writings and specialized studies of aspects of the biblical record, including the free citation of sources and the like. We should not view the humanity of the Scriptures to be in any sense inimical to their full trustworthiness. Rather, the humanity of Scripture accounts for their continued vitality and freshness.

(The Bible) always speaks of the highest and holiest things, of eternal and invisible matters, in a human way. Like Christ, it does not consider anything human alien to itself. But for that reason it is a book for humanity and lasts till the end of time. It is old without ever becoming obsolete. It always remains young and fresh; it is the word of life. The word of God endures forever.

RD 1:448

The significance of these considerations for an evaluation of Bavinck's view of the reliability of the Scriptures cannot be overstated. Bavinck does not offer them in order to concede the historic view of the Scriptures' inspiration. Nor does he offer them in the interest of separating between the imperfect form and the true content of the biblical texts. He offers them in defense of the full truthfulness and reliability of the biblical writings in the face of the hostility of modern biblical criticism. The implication of Bavinck's observations regarding the challenges of such criticism is that there is a responsible manner in which they can be answered without abandoning the ancient dogma of the church regarding Scripture as the Word of God. In this area, we are obliged to proceed from the settled conviction that the Scriptures are the Word of God and they are to be measured by no standard that does not itself correspond to the Scripture's own witness concerning itself.

Endnotes🔗

  1. ^ (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), pp. 388-93. Rogers/McKim argue that Bavinck, like his contemporary Kuyper, distinguishes the "saving content" or "center" of Scripture from its "form" or "periphery" They also maintain that Bavinck did not share his contemporary, B.B. Warfield's, doctrine of Scriptural "inerrancy" in the original autographa. For an excellent assessment and refutation of these claims, see Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., "Old Amsterdam and Inerrancy? Westminster Theological Journal 45 (1983): 219-72.
  2. ^ (Nottingham, England: Apollos, 2007), pp. 139-161. McGowan goes so far as to speak of a "fundamental contradiction" between Warfield's view of the "inerrant autographa" of Scripture and Bavinck's view of the "infallibility" of Scripture so far as its function to achieve the purposes for which God gave it (pp. 211-12). In my judgment, Gaffin's argument is more compelling for the view that there is no substantive difference in position between Bavinck and Warfield. McGowan's argument suffers from a serious absence of clear and consistent definition regarding such terms as "infallible" and "inerrant." At no point in his discussion of Scripture's inspiration and authority does Bavinck embrace the view that McGowan ascribes to him, namely, the Scriptures are infallibly effective in fulfilling their purpose, though in the strict sense comprised of texts that may be, in some sense, errant or inaccurate.
  3. ^ However, Gaffin, "Old Amsterdam and Inerrancy?," p. 269, cites an important passage where Bavinck does explicitly contrast the "infallibility" of the Bible with the position of some who speak of its "fallible elements." In this passage, Bavinck opposes those who claim that "the Holy Scriptures are not the infallible Word of God, but contain the Word of God; and side by side with its divine elements, the Bible has also its human and fallible elements" ("The Future of Calvinism," Presbyterian and Reformed Review 5 [1894]: 17).

Add new comment

(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.
(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.