In light of the absolute (magisterial) authority of God, the dispute over the relative (ministerial) authority in church tradition, and the prominence of Scripture as the foundation for the Reformers’ prescriptions to reform church tradition, it is not surprising to learn that Reformed confessions of faith sometimes began with the doctrine of God and at other times with the doctrine of Scripture. For example, the French Confession (1559), the Scots Confession (1560), the Belgic Confession (1561), and the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1571) all begin with an article on the doctrine of God.

A doctrine develops when the need arises. It was precisely because of the conflict over the locus of authority in the church that the doctrine of Scripture came into its own in Reformation confessions and post-Reformation Reformed dogmatics. Instead of being the implicit authoritative basis, as it was in patristic theology, the Protestant Reformers made the doctrine of Scripture an explicit doctrinal locus of its own: “The logical priority of Scripture over all other means of religious knowing in the church— tradition, present day corporate or official doctrine, and individual insight or illumination— lies at the heart of the teaching of the Reformation and of its great confessional documents.” In elevating Scripture into the place of the first article, the Ten Conclusions of Bern (1528), the Geneva Confession (1536), the First (1536) and Second (1566) Helvetic Confessions, the Irish Articles of Religion (1615), and the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) all demonstrate the belief that Scripture is the cognitive foundation (principium cognoscendi) of revealed theology.

In spite of Scripture’s prominence in the Confessions, Reformed theology is not simply a “religion of the book.” It is rather a “religion of the Word of God,” and it is crucial not to miss this point. The First Helvetic Confession begins by identifying the canonical Scriptures with the Word of God, delivered by the Holy Spirit by the prophets and apostles. Article 1 of the Ten Theses of Bern says that the church “is born of the Word of God, and listens not to the voice of a stranger.” Even when the doctrine of Scripture is not treated until later, as in the Scots Confession, it is clear that Scripture is “of God,” that it is “sufficient to instruct and make the man of God perfect,” and that the church is to hearken to and obey only “the voice of her own Spouse and Pastor.” The Westminster Confession states that the authority of Holy Scripture, which commands our trust and obedience, “dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or Church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof.” 26 As God’s Word, Scripture ultimately serves his authorial purposes, chief among which is to serve as means for gathering, governing, and putting the finishing touches on those who will be his treasured possession (Exod. 19:5; Deut. 7:6; cf. 1 Pet. 2:9). In this respect, the church figures in “first theology” too, namely, as the addressee of God’s Word.

“Holy Scripture” by Kevin J. Vanhoozer in Christian Dogmatics: Reformed Theology for the Church Catholic, edited by Michael Allen, and Scott R. Swain (Grand Rapids:, Baker Academic, 2016), 36.