Though often wrongly set as opposites, John Calvin and James Arminius have much in common when it comes to their Christian beliefs. One of these areas is in how we can know that the Bible is God’s Word. Below are two quotes, the first being from John Calvin
As to the question, How shall we be persuaded that it came from God without recurring to a decree of the Church? it is just the same as if it were asked, How shall we learn to distinguish light from darkness, white from black, sweet from bitter? Scripture bears upon the face of it as clear evidence of its truth, as white and black do of their colour, sweet and bitter of their taste.1
And Arminius
…To the scriptures themselves let him have recourse who may be desirous to prove with the greatest certainty its majesty, from the kind of diction which it adopts: Let him read the charming swan-like Song of Moses described in the concluding chapters of the Book of Deuteronomy: Let him with his mental eyes diligently survey the beginning of Isaiah’s prophecy: Let him in a devout spirit consider the Hundred-and-fourth Psalm. Then, with these, let him compare whatever choice specimens of poetry and eloquence the Greeks and the Romans can produce in the most eminent manner from their archives; and he will be convinced by the most demonstrative evidence, that the latter are productions of the human spirit, and that the former could proceed from none other than the Divine Spirit. Let man of the greatest genius, and, in erudition, experience, and eloquence, the most accomplished of his race,–let such a well-instructed mortal enter the lists and attempt to finish a composition at all similar to these writings, and he will find himself at a loss and utterly disconcerted, and his attempt will terminate in discomfiture.2
How can we know the Bible is God’s Word? Though there are other secondary proofs, we need to read the Word and let it, by the work of the Spirit of God, convince us.
1 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge, v. 1, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964), 69.
2 James Arminius, Works, trans. James Nichols and William Nichols, v.1, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1986), 387.