Abstract

"How does a Christian know the Bible is the Word of God?" This question has been asked throughout the history of the church. Starting from the Reformation era, the Reformers, such as John Calvin, said that it was because by witness of the Holy Spirit, or by the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, that Christians came to know that the Bible was indeed the very Word of God. This was the ultimate and fundamental weapon for the Reformers to sustain their religious authority, as well as to oppose Roman Catholicism in the sixteenth century. ;Religious authority was seriously challenged in the nineteenth century both from outside and inside the church. Able orthodox Reformed theologians, such as John DeWitt, Abraham Kuyper, and James Oliver Buswell rose up to defend the Bible as the Word of God which had fully divine authority. Their defense was to reaffirm the doctrine of illumination. Nevertheless their approaches could not really meet the challenges of a century characterized by an belief and naturalism. They either did not tackle the real issue of this doctrine, or they went for a mystical way to avoid the real problem of this doctrine. ;Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield chose to face the challenges by retaining the spirit of Calvin of the doctrine of illumination, and by transforming this spirit into a rational approach to this doctrine, which he presented to his contemporaries. For Warfield, the Holy Spirit directly gave witness to the Bible in the heart of the believers. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit could also illuminate the mind of the believers so that they could see that the self-authenticating Bible was indeed the Word of God. The latter was the ground for the former in order to produce sound faith. Although Warfield's approach to the doctrine of illumination has always been criticized among evangelical theologians, the close scrutinizes his view, the more one can realize that he is faithfully representing the old spirit in the new era. Unfortunately, this essential doctrine has been almost totally ignored by today's conservatives. The case of Warfield's doctrine of illumination will help evangelicals to re-evaluate their stand on the doctrine of the Bible