Baptist Backus on Bible

“If we cannot know certainly that the Bible is true without understanding of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin then alas we are in a woeful case indeed.” Isaac Backus (1724-1806)

Excerpt from “A Discourse Showing the Nature and Necessity of an Internal Call to Preach the Everlasting Gospel,” 1854, as quoted in Isaac Backus on Church, State, and Calvinism, page 102-104 (William G. McLoughlin, editor. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1968).

“For though I have heard many (both ministers and others) assert that without the knowledge of the original tongues a man could not know whether he preached truth or falsehood, yet I shall not only assert, but prove, that every saint now has the same way to know the truth and certainty of God’s Word that his people had of old, without which all the learning in this world will never bring any man to know certainly the truth of the Scriptures.

“Christ told his disciples that the Spirit of Truth would guide them into all truth, John xvi, 73. And when the Jews said of Him, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Christ (after asserting that his doctrine was not his own but his that sent Him) says, If any man will do his will, he shall KNOW of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself, John vii, 17. The way that the Thessalonians knew and received the Gospel not as the word of man but (as it is in truth) the Word of God was by its coming to them in power, and in the HOLY GHOST, and in much assurance, 1 Thess. ii, 13 and i, 5. Once more, Paul tells the Corinthians (who reckoned as much upon learning and wisdom as many do in this day) That he determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and (says he) my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and power. And again, What man know the things of a man save the spirit of man that is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth but which the HOLY GHOST teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritual discerned. 1 Cor. ii, 2, 4, 11-14.

“This is the only way by which God’s people in every age have known the truth and certainty of his Word which hath been given in to by Protestants in general both at home and abroad since the Reformation. The Westminster Confession of Faith, after mentioning sundry arguments that may induce us to believe the Scriptures, say, “Yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts,” chap. 1, sect. 5.

“If we cannot know certainly that the Bible is true without understanding of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin (which Pilate set over Christ’s head when he was crucified, Luke xxiii, 38; Matt. xxvii, 37), then alas! we are in a woeful case indeed, for (according to this) if we hear a man preach that says he knows not only them tongues but twenty more beside, and he tell us that this or that is the truth, we have only a man’s testimony for it. And God says we worship Him in vain when our fear is taught in the precepts of men, Isai. xxix, 13 compared with Matt. xv, 9.”