Thoughts on the
Second London Baptist Confession
Chapter 1: Of Holy Scripture
Part 2
By Brian Pendleton
“Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses
and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
- Luke 24:44 (LSB)
"And for this reason we also thank God without ceasing that when you received
the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men,
but for what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe."
- 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (LSB)
Read Chapter 1 of the 2LBC Paragraphs 2-5
Paragraph two of chapter one of the confession deals with what books are canon. It gives a list of 66 books that are recognized as Scripture: “Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testaments, which are these. . .” The word “canon” comes from the word “reed”. A reed was used as a measuring tool and eventually came to mean standard. "As applied to Scripture, canon means 'an officially accepted list of books.'” (Earle, HWGOB, 31) How did we get the canon of Scriptures?
When discussing the history of the canon it is important to understand that the church is not the determiner of the canon. The church did not make the canon, but discovered it. Sinclair Ferguson put it this way, "It should be clear, therefore, that the church did not create the canon. Yes, it reached agreement on what books formed the canon of the New Testament. But in doing so it was recognizing that these books were canonical, not making them so." (Ferguson, From the Mouth of God)
The Old Testament (OT) canon was recognized as early as the 5th century BC. When the OT was translated into Greek, around 250 to 150 BC, all 39 books were included. This Greek translation was called the Septuagint (LXX) and was used by many NT writers. One classic text from the NT that speaks to the OT inspiration is 2 Peter 1:20–21, "Know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes by one’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
The recognition of the New Testament (NT) canon was as early as the third century AD. That being said, we see in the early church a recognition of the inspiration of NT writings. For example, in 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul calls the writings of Luke (10:7) Scripture and he places it on par with Deuteronomy. We also see in the writings of Christians in the first half of the second century quotes alluding to a broad cross-section of the writings of the NT. The context of their quoting the NT demonstrates that they saw it as authoritative and being on par with the OT.
What about the apocrypha? The apocrypha is a collection of books that are recognized by some religious groups to be inspired by God and therefore authoritative. Paragraph 3 of the confession denies that these books are to have any part with Bible. Instead, they are to be seen to be useful as any other human writing.
How may we know that the Scriptures are the Word of God? Paragraphs 4 & 5 answer this very question. While the Bible does ‘abundantly evidence’ that it is the Word of God, “. . .notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.” Ultimately it is the third person of the Holy Trinity who persuades one of this truth (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).