-- C. The necessity of Scripture.
of Scripture, qua Scripture assensum credendorum in intellectu hominis generat et confirmat, Schmid, Dogm. der ev. luth. K. § 8.
C. The necessity of Scripture.
8. In the authority of Scripture there is great agreement among the Christian Churches, but in the three other characteristics which now follow there is considerable difference. Rome, because of the relation which it assumes between Scripture and church, cannot see or acknowledge the necessitas S. Scripturae. With Rome, the Church is αντοπιστος, self-sufficient, living out of and through the Holy Spirit; it has the truth and preserves it faithfully and purely through the infallible teaching office of the Pope. Scripture, on the other hand, which springs from the Church, may be useful and good as norma, but it is not principium of truth. It is not necessarily ad esse ecclesiae. In fact, the Church does not have Scripture, but Scripture needs the Church for its authority, completion, interpretation, etc.
The grounds for this teaching are found in it. The grounds for this doctrine are derived from the fact that the church before Moses and the first Christian congregation had no Scriptures, and that many believers under the O. and also still under the N. Test, never possessed and read the Scriptures but lived solely by tradition,
Bellarminus, de verbo Dei IV c. 4. Heinrich, Dogm. I 735 f.
Liebermann, Instit. theol. 1857 I p. 4-49 sq. Dieringer, Lehrb. der kath. Dogm. 4-e Aufl. 633. Gutberlet, Lehrb. der Apol. III 1894 S. 221 f. Jansen, Prael. theol. I 786 sq. etc.
But not only Rome disputes the necessity of the Scriptures in this way; all kinds of mystical directions have also weakened and misunderstood the significance of Scripture for the church and theology. Gnosticism not only rejected the O. T. but applied to the N.
T. the allegorical method and thereby tried to bring its system into line with Scripture. The sensory forms and historical facts have only symbolic significance; they are a colouring, which is necessary for people from a lower point of view, but is not necessary for the more highly educated, the πνευματικοί. Scripture is not a source of truth,
but only a means to elevate oneself to the higher standpoint of gnosis, Herzog2 5, 209 f. Harnack, D. G. I 214 f. Montanism introduced a new revelation, which completed and improved that of the N. T. Montanism, especially in its moderate form with Tertullian, on the one hand wanted nothing new and to maintain the authority of Scripture in full; and on the other hand it welcomed in Montanus a prophet in whom the Paraclete promised by Jesus, the last and highest revelation, had appeared. In this way Scripture had to give way to the new prophecy, which Montanus proclaimed, Harnack, D.
G. I 353 f. Herzog2 10, 258 f. The church condemned these directions, and the church fathers fought against this spiritualism.
Augustinus wrote against it in the prologue to his book the doctrina Christiana ; but still Augustine also assumed that the pious, especially the monks, could be equipped with such a degree of faith, hope and love, that they could do without the Scriptures for themselves and live without them in solitude, the doctr. christ. I c.
39. Spiritualism emerged again and again, reacting against the pinching power of church and tradition. Several sects, the Cathars,
Amalrik of Bena, Joachim v. Floris, the brothers and sisters of the free spirit and later the Libertines in Geneva, considered that after the era of the Fathers and the Sons, that of the Holy Spirit had arrived, in which all lived by the Spirit and no longer needed the external means of Scripture and the church, Kurtz, Lehrb. der
Kirchengesch. § 108, 116. Reuter, Gesch. der relig. Aufklarung im M.
A. II 198 f. Herzog2 2, 677. 6, 786. 8, 652 f. Hahn, Gesch. der Ketzer im M. A. II 420 f. III 72 f. Gieseler, Kirchengeschichte, II, 2, 1826 S.
437 f. Hagenbach, Kirchengesch. in Vorlesungen II 1886 S. 480 f.
Mysticism, which flourished in France and Germany in the Middle Ages, sought by means of askance, meditation and contemplation to attain a communion with God which Scripture could lack. Scripture was necessary as a ladder for climbing to this height, but became superfluous when unity with God, the visio Dei, was attained,
Herzog1 12, 427 f. Harnack, D. G. III 374 f. The Anabaptists in particular elevated the inner word at the expense of the outer.
Already in 1521 the opposition was made between Scripture and Spirit, and this opposition has become a lasting feature of
Anabaptism, Sepp, Kerkhist. Stud. Scripture is not the true word of God, but only a testimony and description; the real, true word is that which is spoken into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is only a book of letters; it is Babel, full of confusion; it cannot work faith in the hearts, only the Spirit teaches us the true word. And if that Spirit teaches us, then we can do without Scripture; it is a temporary aid but not necessary for the spiritual man, A. Hegler, Geist u. Schrift bei
Sebastian Franck, Freiburg 1892. J. H. Maronier, The inward word, Amst. 1890. Vigouroux, Les livres saints et la critique rationaliste, 3e ed. I 435-453. Hans Denck already identified that inner word with natural reason, and pointed out many contradictions in Scripture.
Ludwig Hetzer did not consider Scripture necessary at all.
Knipperdolling demanded at Munster that Holy Scripture should be abolished and one should live only by nature and spirit, Herz.2 10,
362. Mysticism turned into rationalism. The same phenomenon was seen later in the Anabaptist and Independent sects in England during the time of Cromwell, in the Quakers and in Pietism. The elevation of the internal over the external word has always led to the identification of the instruction of the Spirit with the natural light of reason and conscience, and thus to a complete rejection of revelation and Scripture. No one has more sharply contested the necessity of Scripture than Lessing in his Axio mata against Goeze. He, too, distinguishes between letter and spirit, Bible and religion, theology and religion, the Christian religion and the religion of Jesus, and now says that the latter existed and can exist independently of the former.
Religion existed before the Bible. Christianity existed before the evangelists and apostles wrote. The religion they taught can exist, even if all their writings have been lost. Religion is not true because the evangelists and apostles taught it, but they taught it because it is true. Their writings may and must therefore be explained according to the internal truth of religion. An attack on the Bible is not an attack on religion. Luther liberated us from the yoke of tradition, who will liberate us from the even more unbearable yoke of the letter?
9. These thoughts about the non-necessity of Scripture were introduced into the newer theology mainly by Schleiermacher. In his Glaubenslehre § 128. 129 he says that faith in Christ does not rest on the authority of Scripture, but precedes the faith of Scripture and it is precisely Scripture which gives us a special prestige. For the first
Christians, belief in Christ did not arise from Scripture, and it cannot arise from Scripture for us either. ground. Scripture, then, is not the source of religion, but it is the norm; it is the first member of the body of Christian writings, it is closest to the source, i.e., the revelation in Christ, and therefore was in little danger of containing impure elements. But all the writings of the evangelists and apostles, as well as all subsequent Christian writings, originated from one and the same Spirit, the Jointist of the Christian Church. The Church is not built on the Scriptures, but the Scriptures originated from the Church. Through Schleier-Macher these thoughts have become the common property of the newer theology. They seem so true and so self-evident that no doubt or criticism is thought of. Virtually all theologians hold the view that the church existed before Scripture and therefore can exist independently of it. The Church rests in itself; it lives by itself, i.e., by the Spirit who dwells in it. The Holy
Scriptures, which originated from her in the freshness of her youth, are norma but not a source. The source is the personal, living Christ, who dwells in the congregation; dogmatics is a description of the life, an explanation of the religious consciousness of the congregation, and is guided by the Scriptures, which have first and most clearly expressed that life. Thus the church is actually the Verfasserin der
Bibel, and the Bible is the Reflex der Gemeinde, Lange, Philos.
Dogm. § 77. Rothe, Zur Dogm. 333 f. Frank, Syst. der chr. Gewissheit II57 f. Philippi, Kirchl. Glaub. I3 190 f. Hofstede de Groot, De Gron.
Godg. 71 v. 97 v. Saussaye, mijne Theol. van d. 1. S. 49 v. Gunning and de la Saussaye Jr. The ethical principle of theol. 34. etc.
All these thoughts, of Rome, Anabaptism, Mysticism, Rationalism, of Lessing, Schleiermacher, etc., are closely related to each other.
Schleiermacher in particular, by his reversal of the relationship between Scripture and church, has given Rome powerful support. All
agree that Scripture is not necessary but at most useful and that the church can exist of and through itself. The only difference is that Rome seeks the basis and the possibility for the continued existence of the Christian religion in the institutional Church, i. e. in the infallible Pope, Schleiermacher et al. in the congregation as an organism, i. e. in the religious community, and mysticism and rationalism in the religious individuals. All seek the continuity of the Church in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in the indwelling of Christ, but this has with Rome its organ in the Pope, with Schleiermacher in the organism of the congregation, with Anabaptism in the believer head by head. It is easy to see that Rome occupies the strongest position here. Christ has risen from the dead, lives in heaven, and lives and works in His Church on earth. There is a mystical union between Christ and His body. The word alone is insufficient; the principium externum also demands a principium internum.
Protestantism knew all this very well and professed it wholeheartedly. But the question was whether or not the church was bound by the word and the Scriptures for the conscious life of religion. Religion is not only a matter of the heart, the mind, the will, but also of the head. God must also be served and loved with the mind. For the conscious life, therefore, the church must have a source from which it draws the truth. Now Rome and its infallible
Pope can claim that Scripture is not necessary. The infallibility of the church does indeed make Scripture superfluous. But Protestantism has no infallible body, either in the institution or in the organism or in the individual members of the congregation. When it denies the necessity of Scripture, it weakens itself, strengthens Rome, and loses the truth, which is an indispensable element of religion. That is why the Reformation insisted so strongly on the necessity of the Scriptures. Scripture was the Ίος μοι που στω of the Reformation.
She succeeded, because vaj could set against the authority of church, councils, and pope the authority of God's holy word. Whoever leaves this standpoint of Reformation, unconsciously works on the construction of Rome. For if it is not Scripture but the Church that is necessary for the knowledge of religious truth, then the Church becomes the indispensable medium gratiae. The word loses its
central place and retains only a praeparate, pedagogical significance.
Scripture may be useful and good, but it is not necessary, either for the Church as a whole or for the believers in particular.
10. Although the Reformation thus sought its power in Scripture against Rome and maintained its necessity, it did not deny that the church before Moses had existed for centuries without Scripture. It is also true that the church of the N. T. was founded by the preaching of the apostles and existed for a long time without a New Testament canon. Furthermore, the' church is still nourished and planted in the heathen world by the preaching of the gospel. The books of the Old
Testament and the New Testament have also come into being gradually; they were distributed in small numbers before the advent of printing; many believers have died in earlier and later times without ever having read and examined the Scriptures, and religious life still seeks satisfaction for its needs not only in the Scriptures but at least as much in all kinds of edifying reading. All this may be fully acknowledged, without in any way undermining the necessity of the Scriptures. Indeed, God, had He pleased, could certainly have preserved the church from the truth in some other way than by means of a written word. The necessity of Scripture is not absolute but ex hypothesi beneplacentiae Dei.
But understood in this way, this necessity is nevertheless beyond all doubt. Man has always lived only by the word that goes out through the mouth of God, Mt. 4:4. The word of God has been the seed of the church from the beginning. Certainly, before Moses, the church existed without Scripture. But there was a verbum άγραφον, before it became έγγραφον. The church never lived by itself and rested in itself, but always through the word of God. Rome does not teach this either, but adopts a tradition that infallibly preserves the word of God. But this must be said against those who allow revelation to exist only in life, in the infusion of divine powers, in the awakening of religious emotions. The Church may thus be older than the written word, but she is nevertheless younger than the spoken word,
Zanchius, Op. VIII 25
343 sq. Polanus, Synt. theol. I c. 15. Synopsis pur. theol., disp. 2.
Gerhard, Loci theol. I cap. 1 § 5 sq. The common assertion, that the church of the N. T. existed for a long time without Scripture, must also be properly understood. It is true that the canon of the N. T.
Scriptures was not generally recognized until the second half of the second century. But the Christian congregations had the Old
Testament from the beginning. They were founded by the spoken word of the apostles. Very soon many congregations came into possession of Apostolic writings, which were also given to others to read, soon served for reading in the churches, and very soon became widespread. It goes without saying that, as long as the Apostles lived and visited the churches, no distinction was made between their spoken and written word; tradition and Scripture were still as it were one. But when the first period was over and the distance from the apostles increased, the writings of the apostles rose in importance, and their necessity gradually increased. Indeed, the necessitas S.
Scripturae is not a stable but an ever-growing property. Scripture was not always necessary in its entirety for the whole church.
Scripture was gradually created and completed. As revelation progressed, it also increased in size. Each period of the church had enough of that part of Scripture which existed at the time, just as it had enough of the revelation which had come so far. Scripture, like
Revelation, is an organism that has grown; in the seed was the plant, in the germ was the fruit. Both, Revelation and Scripture, kept pace with the state of the Church and vice versa. Therefore, no conclusion for the present can be drawn from the past state of the church. Let the Church before Moses have been without Scripture; let the Church before the consummation of Revelation never have been in possession of the whole Scripture; from this follows nothing for that dispensation of the Church in which we live in which Revelation has ended and Scripture has been completed. For this dispensation
Scripture is not useful and good only, but also absolutely necessary ad esse ecclesiae.
11. Scripture is the only sufficient means to preserve the spoken word unadulterated and to make it the property of all people. Vox audita
perit, littera scripta manet. The shortness of life, the unfaithfulness of the memory, the deceitfulness of the heart and all kinds of other dangers that threaten the purity of the tradition, make it absolutely necessary to record the spoken word for preservation and dissemination. This applies even more to the word of revelation. For the Gospel is not after man; it is diametrically opposed to his thoughts and desires; it stands as divine truth against his lie.
Moreover, the revelation is not intended for one generation and one time, but for all peoples and centuries. It must complete its course through all mankind and to the end of time. The truth is one,
Christianity is Universalreligion. How else can this destiny of the word of revelation be achieved, than by its being recorded and described? The church cannot perform this service of the word.
Nowhere is her infallibility promised. She is always referred in Scripture to the objective word, to the law and to the testimony.
Actually, even Rome does not claim this. The Church, i.e. the assembly of the faithful, is not infallible with Rome, nor is the assembly of bishops, but only the Pope. The Pope's declaration of infallibility is proof for the Reformation of the unreliability of tradition, the fallibility of the Church, and even the necessity of Scripture. For this declaration of infallibility implies that the truth of the word of revelation is not or cannot be preserved by the Church as an assembly of the faithful, since it too is still subject to error, but can only be explained by a special assistance of the Holy Spirit, in which the Pope, according to Roman claims, shares. Rome and the Reformation thus agree that the word of revelation in and for the church can only be preserved purely by the institution of the apostleship, i.e. by inspiration. And the dispute is only about whether that apostolate has ceased or is continued in the pope. On the other hand, the claim of Vermittelungstheologie is completely untenable, that Scripture originated from the Church and that she is therefore the author of the Bible. This can only be claimed if one disregards the proper office of the prophets and apostles, identifies inspiration with regeneration, and completely separates Scripture from Revelation.
According to the teaching of Scripture, however, inspiration is a special act of the Holy Spirit, a special gift to prophets and apostles,
by which they were able to transmit the word of God to the Church of all ages in a pure and uncorrupted manner. Thus, Scripture did not originate in the Church, but was given to the Church by a special activity of the Holy Spirit in the prophets and apostles. Scripture belongs also to the revelation, which was given by God to His people.
In this Home and the Reformation are unanimous. But the Reformation holds against Home, that this special activity of the Holy Spirit has now ceased, i. e. that the apostolate no longer exists and is not continued in the Pope. The apostles have laid down their testimony regarding Christ completely and purely in the Holy
Scriptures. Through them they have made God's revelation the property of mankind. The Scriptures are the Word of God given to the world in its entirety. It makes that word universal and eternal, it removes it from error and falsehood, from oblivion and transience.
As mankind grows larger, life shorter, memory weaker, knowledge ׳greater, error more serious and falsehood more triumphant, the necessitas S. Scripturae increases. In every field, writing and the press gained in significance. The art of printing was a giant step to heaven and hell. Scripture also shares in this development. Its necessity is becoming more and more apparent. It is spread and made common property as never before. It is translated into hundreds of languages. It comes under everyone's eye and into everyone's hand. More and more it appears to be the suitable means to bring the truth to the knowledge of all people. The fact that for many people religious literature remains the main food for their spiritual life, proves nothing against the necessity of the Scriptures.
For all Christian truth is drawn directly or indirectly from it. Even the derived stream receives its water from the source. It is an untenable claim that any Christian truth can be reached today without the Scriptures. In the first century such a thing was possible, but now the currents of tradition and Scripture have long since flowed together and the former has long been absorbed into the latter.
Rome can only maintain this by its doctrine of the continuance of the apostolate and the infallibility of the Pope. But for a Protestant this is
impossible. The Christian character of truth can only be argued by the fact that it is rooted with all its fibers in the Scriptures. There is no knowledge of Christ except through Scripture, no communion with Him except through the word of the apostles. Cf. ürsinus, Tract, theol. p. 1 sq. Zanchius, Op. VIII 343 sq. Polanus, Synt. Theol. i c. 15.
Synopsis pur. theol., disp. 2. Turretinus, Theol. el. loc. 2, qu. 1-3.
Heppe, Dogm. der ev. ref. K. 25, 26 etc.
12. Even if the necessity of Scripture is recognized, there may be differences as to how long it is needed. Even those who think that the Scriptures have had their day will readily agree that in their day they have been of great value to the education of men and nations. But in many ways the duration of that necessity has been limited.
Gnosticism recognized her necessity for the ψυχικοί, but opposed it for the πνευματικοί. Mysticism considered Scripture necessary on the standpoint of cogitation and meditation, but no longer on that of comtemplation and visio Dei. The rationalism of Lessing and Kant gave revelation, Scripture and the statutory religion a pedagogical place, in order to prepare for the reign of the Vernunftreligion.
Similarly, Hegel considered that the form of vision in religion was necessary for the people, but that the philosopher with his concepts no longer needed it. And again and again we hear it said that religion is good for the masses to keep them in check, but that the educated and civilized are far above that.
There is an unmistakable and glorious truth in this representation.
Revelation, Scripture, the Church, the whole Christian religion, have indeed a temporary, praeparatal and paedagogic character. Just as the Old Testament economy of the foedus gratiae has passed away, so too this dispensation of the covenant of grace in which we live will one day belong to the past. When Christ has gathered His congregation and presented it to the Father as a pure bride, He will hand over the kingdom to God. Moreover, the duality of grace and nature, of revelation and reason, of authority and freedom, of theology and philosophy cannot last forever. The highest thing in religiQ consists in serving God without compulsion and without fear,
out of love alone, according to the verdict of our own nature. God himself in his revelation is concerned with forming human beings in whom his image is fully restored. He gave us not only his Son but also the Holy Spirit, that he might regenerate us, write his law in our hearts and make us capable of every good work. Rebirth, childhood, sanctification and glorification are the proofs that God raises His children to freedom, to a service of love that never fails. To that extent, the above-mentioned ideas can be called an anticipation of the future ideal. But they are nevertheless of a very dangerous nature. They are all based on a confusion between the present and the hereafter. Because the New Jerusalem will no longer need a sun or a moon, both will remain necessary here on earth. Because one day we will walk in beholding, faith remains indispensable in this dispensation. Although the warring church and the triumvirate are one, there are still differences in their situations and lives. The boundary cannot and must not be erased. We will never attain the heavenly life here on earth. We walk by faith and not by sight. We now see through a mirror in a dark place; only hereafter will we see face to face and know as we are known. The visio Dei is reserved for heaven. We will never be independent on this earth. We remain bound to the cosmos that surrounds us. The position of authority can never be overcome here on earth.
But furthermore, this doctrine of the temporal necessity of Scripture creates a deep chasm between the psychic and the pneumatic people, between the civilized and the masses, between the philosophers and the people. And such a gap has no right to exist in any respect. If religion consisted in knowledge, then the learned would enjoy a privilege over the uneducated. But religiously all men are alike; they have the same needs. In Christ there is no distinction between Greek and barbarian. Religion is the same for all men, however different their position, rank, education, etc., for in religion, that is, in the sight of God, all those distinctions of rank and privilege which make one among men stand out above others are worthless.
The separation of these two types of people therefore testifies to a spiritual pride, which itself is in direct conflict with the nature of the