Section two of chapter one sets our for us the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments. These combined books now comprise Holy Scripture. "Now" because as we saw in 1.1, God has chosen to cease the former ways of communicating his will to his people. Absent from this list are the "books commonly called Apocrypha." Note that the divines did not condemn the Apocrypha as being of no use. Rather they rightly understood that these books are not part of the canon of inspired and therefore inerrant books written under the superintendence of God. They are not to be given any more authority than any other human writing.
The Holy Scripture, however, are to be given special authority. They are "given by inspiration of God." This is not in a 19th century Romantic notion of inspiration, but rather refers to the fact that Paul speaks of Scripture as though it were "breathed out by God" (2 Tim 3:16, a loose translation of the specific word Paul uses). Because it is "God-breathed", the Scriptures have supreme authority in the church and are the rule of faith and life. This means that when we have questions about what we are to believe and how we are to live, Scripture is our guide and measure. Chapter 20, on Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience, will have a great deal to say about other so-called sources of authority. As well, section six of chapter one will give us some guidelines as to how we can use Scripture as our rule. But for now, it is important to note that we have a rule, that it is God-breathed and that it is sufficient to instruct us in what we are to believe and how we are to live.
Sections two and three are doing something a bit more subtle as well. By inference, the divines are squashing the perennial complaint against the confession that it is a standard on par with Scripture. That men place the Westminster documents on par with Scripture is a sure sign they have not studied it closely! These sections demonstrate that no mere human document can claim authority over Scripture. And yet we can make the opposite error in assuming that the confession has no authority. To be sure, it has no inherent authority: such is reserved for Scripture alone. Yet it does have a derived authority. Because the confession is a faithful and careful communicator of the truth of Scripture, what it communicates has the authority of Scripture. By communicating truth, the confession is normative: that is we must conform our thinking and our practice to what it teaches. But, this is only true because it communicates the truth of Scripture!
This opens up a number of side issues that I will try to tackle separately, such as why even have a confession, how easy should it be to change the confession and what should I do if I disagree with the teaching of the confession. Check back later for discussion of these other concerns.
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