Calvin viewed Scripture as being equivalent to an utterance of God given from heaven:

Since no daily responses are given from heaven, and the Scriptures are the only records in which God has been pleased to consign his truth to perpetual remembrance, the full authority which they ought to possess with the faithful is not recognised, unless they are believed to have come from heaven, as directly as if God had been heard giving utterance to them.[4]

Calvin believed Scripture to be the Word of God.[5] He considered that Christians do not need the testimony of the church to appreciate its authority, since it is self-authenticating,[6] and that it is only through the Holy Spirit that we know it to be the Word of God:

The same Spirit, therefore, who spoke by the mouth of the prophets, must penetrate our hearts, in order to convince us that they faithfully delivered the message with which they were divinely entrusted... Scripture, carrying its own evidence along with it, deigns not to submit to proofs and arguments, but owes the full conviction with which we ought to receive it to the testimony of the Spirit..[7]

According to Calvin, Word and Spirit must always go together. Scripture gives us a saving knowledge of God, but only when its certainty is "founded on the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit.".[8] It is "foolish to attempt to prove to infidels that the Scripture is the Word of God," since this can only be known by faith.[9] Nevertheless, he did see a place for evidences of Scripture's authority, as long it is recognised that they are secondary:

The human testimonies which go to confirm it will not be without effect, if they are used in subordination to that chief and highest proof, as secondary helps to our weakness.[10]


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