CHAPTER VI : SCRIPTURE IS NEEDED AS GUIDE AND TEACHER FOR ANYONE WHO WOULD COME TO GOD THE CREATOR 1. God bestows the actual knowledge of Himself upon us only in the Scriptures

Calvin describes the scriptures as “another and better help” to us in obtaining knowledge of God. The people who have access to the scriptures are those “He regarded as worthy of this privilege those whom he pleased to gather more closely and intimately to Himself”.  Scripture is the spectacles for those who have weaker vision for through scripture human beings can see God “distinctly”. This assertion has been one of Calvin’s most discussed similes.

Why? Is scripture like spectacles for you? Does it aid your vision of God? Calvin goes on to describe the two types of knowledge of God that can be obtained from the scriptures – the first being that of knowing the God who founded and governs the universe and the second that god is found in “the person of the mediator as the redeemer”.  Calvin explains that there are many testimonies about this in the Old and New Testaments but concludes that God “the Artificer of the universe is made manifest in scripture”.  The Oxford Dictionary defines Artificer as “craftsman, skilled mechanic  in the army or navy.”  God’s skill revealing Himself in creation and in Christ is clear to Calvin.  Is this clear to you/ what could be awry in your view?