Study of Biblical Eschatology, A

Is there a significant difference between our view of the Bible, today, and that of the great Reformers of the 16th century? The author of this small booklet believes there is. He does not think this is intentional. But he thinks it is a fact. Our fathers said, "All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them." The author also believes that two of those doctrines "which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed" are the doctrines of creation and consummation. It is necessary to know how we had our beginning. And it is also necessary to know what is planned by God for us in the future. And it is his contention that both of these (because they "are necessary to be known") have been clearly revealed in Scripture. And by this he means revealed in such a clear way that even the non-scholars can understand what God says about them.

Bible and Reformed Confessions