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If someone had asked me a decade ago about the sufficiency of Scripture, I would have given a zealous defense of the historic Reformed position. I will do the same today; I still affirm the historic Reformed view without any variation from its expression in the Westminster Confession's first chapter:
The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge ... that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed. (WCF 1:6)I clarify, however, that "faith and life" must be taken in its religious sense. I also clarify that the entire matter would have been better expressed had the divines articulated a more manifestly covenantal statement, indicating that the Scriptures are a sufficient guide to the various covenants God has made with his various covenant people through the centuries, and that the entire canon, taken in its entirety, is sufficient, therefore, to govern the members of the new covenant made in Christ. By "faith and life" the divines intended what one is to believe and do as a member of the new covenant community.
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T. David Gordon is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and associate professor of religion at Grove City College (Grove City, Pennsylvania).
Issue: "Modern Reformation Turns Ten" Jan./Feb. 2002 Vol. 11 No. 1 Page number(s): 18-23
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