Ch. 1 Para. 1. The Necessity of Scripture

Sermons – Covenant Grace Baptist Church

OUTLINE The insufficiency of general revelation The necessity of special revelation The consequent necessity of inscripturated revelation INTRODUCTION Why do we need a Bible? At the time of the Reformation not everyone believed that we needed a Bible. On the one hand you had the Anabaptists who believed in the ongoing gift of prophecy and saw themselves not needing a Bible. On the other hand was the Roman Catholic Church which was happy to keep the Bible in Latin even killing those who would dare translate it and put it into the hands of the common people. This sentiment is captured well from the familiar story of William Tyndale who had a run in with a Roman Clergyman. ‘Around 1520, Tyndale became a tutor in the family of Sir John Walsh, at Little Sodbury in Gloucestershire. He devoted himself more to the study of the Scriptures and embraced the doctrines of the Reformation. His opinions involved him in controversy with his fellow clergymen, and around 1522 he was summoned before the Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester on a charge of heresy. This led to his removal to London (about October, 1523), where he began to preach. He made many friends among the ordinary people but none among church leaders. A “learned” Roman Catholic clergyman is said to have taunted Tyndale by saying, “We are better to be without God’s laws than the Pope’s”. Tyndale’s famous reply was, “I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the Scriptures than you!”1 The opening paragraph of the opening chapter of the 1689 addresses this very issue. It begins with a statement that is not found in the WCF or SDFO. ‘The...
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