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Herman Bavinck – What is the Testimony of the Holy Spirit?

5 Oct

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.

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Herman Bavinck – How Do We Know Scripture is From God?

3 Oct

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.

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Herman Bavinck – The Bending of the Will

26 Sep

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.

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Herman Bavinck – No Power Comparable

2 Sep

Faith is concentrated on the historic realities of redemption and results in trust that these historic acts are God’s saving acts for us. It is the same Spirit that inspired the apostolic witness that now seals the truth of that witness in believers’ hearts. Christians submit to Scripture because they believe it is a divine word, a word from God…. The authority of Scripture, accepted in Spirit-inspired faith, is a powerful self-asserted authority. We believe it because God said it, and God’s speaking is the final ground of our faith. There is no power in the world comparable to that of Scripture.

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 563.

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Herman Bavinck – What Can Convince Us?

29 Aug

Only the Spirit of God can make a person inwardly certain of the truth of divine revelation.

~Herman Bavinck~








Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 562.

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John Calvin – The Witness of the Holy Spirit

24 Aug

For even if it [Scripture] wins reverence for itself by its own majesty, it seriously affects us only when it is sealed upon our hearts through the Spirit. Therefore, illumined by his power, we believe neither by our own nor by anyone else’s judgment that Scripture is from God. But above human judgment we affirm with utter certainty (just as if we were gazing upon the majesty of God himself) that it has flowed to us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men.

~John Calvin~


The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press; 1974) 1.7.5.

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Martin Luther – No Holy Spirit, No Salvation

22 Aug

I believe that I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me by his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith. In the same way, he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church he daily and richly forgives all my sins, and the sins of all believers. And he will raise up me and all the dead at the last day, and he will grant eternal life to me and to all who believe in Christ. This is most certainly true.

~Martin Luther~


Historical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI; Zondervan Books; 2011) Chapter 20: The Holy Spirit.

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John Calvin – The Ascension of Christ

6 Aug

We see how much more abundantly he advanced his kingdom, how much greater power he displayed both in helping his people and in scattering his enemies. Carried up to heaven, therefore, he withdrew his bodily presence from our sight ( Acts 1:9 ), not to cease to be present with believers still on their earthly pilgrimage, but to rule heaven and earth with a more immediate power. But by his ascension he fulfilled what he had promised: that he would be with us even to the end of the world. As his body was raised up above all the heavens, so his power and energy were diffused and spread beyond all the bounds of heaven and earth.

~John Calvin~



The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Louisville, Kentucky; Westminster John Knox Press; 1974) 2.16.14.

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Herman Bavinck – The Great and Powerful Witness to Christ

22 Jun

The Holy Spirit is the great and poweful witness to Christ, objectively in Scripture, subjectively in the very hearts of human beings.

~Herman Bavinck~





Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 506.

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Charles Spurgeon – The Withering Work of the Spirit

1 Jun

But mark, wherever the Spirit of God comes, He destroys the goodliness and flower of the flesh. That is to say, our righteousness withers as our sinfulness. Before the Spirit comes we think ourselves as good as the best. We say, “All these commandments have I kept from my youth up,” and we superciliously ask, “What do I lack?” Have we not been moral? No, have we not even been religious? We confess that we may have committed faults, but we think them very venial, and we venture, in our wicked pride, to imagine that, after all, we are not so vile as the Word of God would lead us to think.

Ah, my dear Hearer, when the Spirit of God blows on the comeliness of your flesh, its beauty will fade as a leaf, and you will have quite another idea of yourself. You will then find no language too severe in which to describe your past character. Searching deep into your motives, and investigating that which moved you to your actions, you will see so much of evil that you will cry with the publican, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!”

~Charles Spurgeon~






Spurgeon’s Sermons (Spokane, Washington; Olive Tree Bible Software; 2010) eBook. Vol. 17, Sermon No. 999; Titled: The Withering Work of the Spirit; Delivered on Sabbath Morning, July 09, 1871,.

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