The testimony of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers is found not to be a new revelation or communication of unknown truths. It is essentially distinct from prophecy and inspiration; it only causes us to understand the truth that exists outside and independently of us as truth and therefore confirms and seals it in the human consciousness.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 588.
Included in objective revelation, i.e., in the person of Christ and in Scripture as his word, is everything human beings need to know God and to serve him. The revelation of God was completed in Christ and recorded with complete adequacy in Scripture. But this revelation in Christ and in his Word is a means, not an end. The end is the creation of a new humanity, which will fully unfold the image of God. Therefore the whole revelation must be transmitted from Christ to the church, from Scripture to the [believer’s] consciousness. God seeks a dwelling place in humanity.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 588.
By it [the testimony of the Holy Spirit to the Word of God] alone the entire church originates and exists. The entire application of salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit; and the witness to Scripture is but one of many of his activities in the community of believers. The testimony of the Holy Spirit is not a source of new revelations but establishes believers in relation to the truth of God, which is completely contained in Scripture. It is he who makes faith a sure knowledge that excludes all doubt. It finds its analogy, finally, in the testimony our conscience offers to the law of God and in the assurance we have concerning God’s existence.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 584.
That Scripture is the word of God, says Calvin, was not established by the church but was certain prior to the church’s decision, for the church is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets. Scripture brings with it its own authority; it is self-based and self-attested as trustworthy (αύτοπιστος). Just as light is distinguished from darkness, white from black, sweet from bitter, so Scripture is recognized by its own truth. But Scripture acquires certainty as God’s own Word with us by the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Though proofs and reasonings are of great value, this testimony surpasses them by far; it is more excellent than all reason. Just as God can only witness concerning himself in his Word, so his Word does not find belief in the hearts of human beings before it is sealed by the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit who spoke through the mouths of the prophets must work in our hearts to persuade us that they faithfully proclaimed what had been commanded by God. The Holy Spirit, accordingly, is the “seal” and “guarantee” for confirming the faith of the godly. If we have that testimony within us, we do not rest in any human judgment but observe without any doubt as if we were gazing upon God himself in it–that Scripture came from the mouth of God through the ministry of human beings. We subject our judgment to it “as to a thing far beyond any guesswork!”
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 583.
Revelation may ever so much be made credible by the proofs, yet it is and remains a truth of faith… Faith, therefore, accepts the truth, not on the basis of one’s own insight, but on that of divine authority. “For faith does not assent to anything except on the ground that it has been revealed by God.” And in order for human beings to acknowledge that authority of God, an antecedent change of will has to occur. Believing is indeed an act of the intellect, but it presupposes a bending of the will by grace; the intellect must be disposed toward faith by the will. The assent of faith, accordingly, occurs only by an act of God “moving inwardly through grace.”
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 579.
Believing itself is no proof for the truth of that which is believed. There is a huge difference between subjective certainty and objective truth. In the case of faith or belief, everything depends on the grounds on which it rests.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 578.
Believing and knowing are not distinct in the matter of certainty. The certainty of faith is as firm as that of knowledge. Indeed, the certainty of faith is the more intense of the two: it is virtually unshakable and ineradicable. For their faith people are prepared to sacrifice everything, including their life. Galileo three times retracted his agreement with the Copernican system. Kepler, against his conviction, occupied himself at Graz with astrology to maintain his livelihood; the needy mother (astronomy) had to live from her foolish daughter (astrology). Who would give his or her life for a scientific thesis, for example, that the earth rotates around the sun? But religion produces martyrs. In terms of sheer power the assurance of faith far exceeds scientific certainty.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 577-578.
According to Scripture, this [Biblical] faith brings its own certainty with it. It is the assurance (ύποστασις) of things hoped for and the conviction (έλεγχος) of things not seen (Heb. 11:1), not because it is inherently so solid and firm but because it is grounded in God’s testimony and promise, as the sequel of Hebrews 11 clearly teaches. It makes the invisible goods of salvation utterly certain for us; indeed, even much more certain than one’s own insight or a given scientific proof could ever make it.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 573.
For faith in the Christian sense presupposes self-denial, the crucifixion of one’s own ideas and will, distrust of self, and confidence in the grace of God in Christ instead. Therefore, just as saving faith has God himself as its object and grounds itself on his testimony, so it has him as its author as well. It is he himself who, by the Holy Spirit, moves human beings to faith and takes every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. As a result, Christian faith is religiously qualified through and through. Its object, ground, and origins are exclusively located in God. In consequence of this religious character, saving faith is essentially distinct from the immediate certainty that is sometimes labeled “faith,” as well as from the πιστις of which the Greeks sometimes spoke in a religious sense. The Christian faith is sheer religion, subjective religion. Those persons are truly religious who believe thus: they are the image, the children, and heirs of God.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 570-571.
In the case of saving faith (fides salvifica), things are different. It most certainly has as its object the grace of God in Christ. But of that grace of God we would not have the slightest knowledge if it had not come to us through the witness of others, if it had not been assured to us in Holy Scripture. Between the person of Christ and our faith, therefore, stands the witness of the apostles. The word of God is a means of grace. Faith, to be sure, considers Scripture only under the aspect of its being the word of God (1 Thess. 2:13). For religious faith can rest only in a divine witness (John 3:33; Rom. 10:14f.; 1 John 5:9-11). Still faith is bound to Scripture. It has as its object the grace of God as it is attested in Scripture; or as Calvin puts it, its object is Christ “clothed with his gospel.” Faith, consequently, reaches out in a single act to the person of Christ as well as to Scripture. It embraces Christ as Savior and Scripture as the word of God.
~Herman Bavinck~
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 569.
The Old Guys 