The Church is protected from error not by freedom from Scripture, but by remaining bound to it. In today’s reading from Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin sharpens his argument about ecclesiastical authority by insisting that the Church is trustworthy only insofar as she submits herself to the Word of God. He rejects the claim that the Holy Spirit leads the Church independently of Scripture, arguing instead that the Spirit illuminates and confirms what Christ has already given. Calvin then denies that the apostles left essential doctrines unwritten, challenges appeals to church authority based on Matthew 18, and argues that neither infant baptism nor the Nicene Creed proves the Church can invent new doctrine. For Calvin, Nicaea did not create a new truth when it confessed that the Son is of one substance with the Father; it faithfully expressed the meaning already contained in Scripture. The true authority of the Church, therefore, is ministerial rather than creative: she teaches, guards, and confesses the Word, but does not stand above it.

Today’s Reading:

John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 8, Sections 13–16

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