"Has God Indeed Said?" - Biblical Blueprints

26 • Has God Indeed Said?
The Old Testament in Hebrew ... and the New Testament in
Greek ... being immediately inspired by God, and by His
singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, are
therefore authentic; so as in all controversies of religion, the
Church is finally to appeal unto them. 36
What does the church appeal to according to our Confession?
Not to some theoretical autograph that we can never find and do
not know about. An unpreserved text does the church no good.
Rather the Reformers insisted that we are to appeal to the
manuscripts that have been kept pure in every age. The London
Confession of Faith (1689), the Philadelphia Confession (1742),
and the Savoy Declaration all affirm the same statement. The
following quote from the Helvetic Consensus Formula (1675)
shows that the Continental church taught the same:
God, the Supreme Judge, not only took care to have His
word, which is the "power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth" (Rom. 1:16), committed to writing by
Moses, the Prophets, and the Apostles, but has also watched
and cherished it with paternal care ever since it was written
up to the present time, so that it could not be corrupted by
craft of Satan or fraud of man. Therefore the Church justly
ascribes it to His singular grace and goodness that she has,
and will have to the end of the world, a "sure word of
prophecy" and "Holy Scriptures" (2Tim. 3:15), from which,
though heaven and earth perish, "one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass" (Matt. 5:18). 37
These and similar quotes make it clear that the Reformers selfconsciously
committed themselves to the self-referential
statements of Scripture. "What saith the Scriptures?" was their
cry. Thus on the subject of textual criticism they unashamedly
began with a certain set of presuppositions from the Bible. All
men approach everything they do with a set of presuppositions,
but not all are self-consciously aware of what those
36 Westminster Confession of Faith, I:VII
37 John H. Leith, ed., Creeds of the Churches (Richmond: John Knox Pres,
revised edition, 1973), pp. 309, 310.