Barth’s Doctrine of Scripture (7): The Reformers on Scripture (2)

The Reformers did, as Barth contends, maintain that Scripture cannot be believed or understood without the activity of the Holy Spirit. In his The Bondage of the Will, Luther hammers on this point with vehemence: "nobody who has not the Spirit of God sees a jot of what is in the Scriptures" (p. 73. These quotations are taken from the translation of Packer and Johnston -- D.E.). "The Spirit is needed for the understanding of all Scripture and every part of Scripture" (p. 74). Calvin is in full...