IN the writings of the Higher Critics the expression is met with time and again that the Bible contains the Word of God, while we hold that it is the Word of God. We have been asked how, then, can the expression in the Shorter Catechism, which is given as the
heading of this brief article, be explained. The answer is quite simple. The Westminster Divines, in drawing up their statement of Scripture, had before their minds the doctrine of the Church of Rome on this article. The canon of Scripture, according to the Romish view, is much more extensive than the Protestant, as it includes the Apocryphal Books which Protestants reject. These Apocryphal Books, unfortunately, were for long printed with the Word of God, and it is to guard against the idea that they form part of the Word of God that the Westminster Divines use the expression—”The Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.” “The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of Scripture” is their statement in Section I., chapter i. of the Confession. After the famous Apocrypha Controversy near the beginning of the 19th century, in which some of our own countrymen took such a prominent part, and which resulted in the separation of the Bible Society in Scotland from the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Apocrypha ceased to be printed with the Scriptures. All that the Westminster Divines mean, therefore, is to guard against the idea that the Word of God is in the Apocrypha. So their view point is entirely different from that of the modernists.