Journal: Journal of the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies
Volume: JIRBS 02:1 (NA 2015)
Article: Sufficient, Certain, And Infallible: The Inscripturated Word
Author: James M. Renihan

JIRBS 2 (2015) p. 43

Sufficient, Certain, And Infallible:
The Inscripturated Word

James M. Renihan*

* James M. Renihan is Dean and Professor of Historical Theology at the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies in Escondido, CA. This material is from his forthcoming exposition of the Second London Confession of Faith.

In his extremely helpful Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms, Richard A. Muller comments on the central role Scripture plays in the formulation of Christian theology. He states:

[T]he principium cognoscendi, the principle of knowing or cognitive foundation, is a term applied to Scripture as the noetic or epistemological principium theologiae, without which there could be no true knowledge of God and therefore no theological system.1

Orthodox post-Reformation theologians would concur without dissent. The only saving means of knowing God is through the revelation he has given of himself.

This is the context out of which the Second London Confession (2LCF) of Particular or Reformed Baptists was born. Believing that God’s purpose for humanity required a sufficient, certain, and infallible word from God, they identified this word as the ‘Scripture of Truth’ (a common phrase used to refer to the Bible) and set about building a system of theology from its materials. Our task in this article is simply to notice and understand how they began to form these divine resources into a cohesive whole. We shall do so by examining the first paragraph of the 2LCF.

JIRBS 2 (2015) p. 44

Chapter 1 Of The Holy Scriptures

Paragraph 1. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving Knowledge, Faith and Obedience; Although the light of Nature, and the works of Creation and Providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and His will, which is necessary unto Salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that His will unto his Church; and afterward for the better preserving, and propagating of the Truth, and for the more sure Establishment, and Comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan, and of the World, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of Gods revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.

1. General Comments On The First Sentence

The first part of the initial sentence of this paragraph, The Holy Scripture is the only sufficie...