If you browse Apostles-Creed.Org, you will notice a distinct visual theme: the timeless beauty of stained glass. We chose this aesthetic not just because it is a hallmark of church history, but because it serves as a profound metaphor for how we receive the Word of God itself.
One of the great questions of the Christian faith regarding the Bible is this: How can a book be written by human men, yet be the perfect Word of God?
Did the human authors (Paul, Moses, David) introduce errors or “stains” into the divine message? The great theologian Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield (1851–1921) answered this question using the very imagery that decorates our site.
The Skeptic’s Objection: “The Light is Stained”
In his seminal work, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, Warfield addresses a common criticism. Skeptics often argue that just as a beam of pure white light becomes discolored when it passes through a red or blue pane of glass, God’s pure truth must have been “discolored” or limited when it passed through the minds of imperfect men like Peter or Paul.
The critic suggests that because the Bible has a human element, it cannot be wholly divine. Warfield summarizes this objection eloquently:
“As the light that passes through the colored glass of a cathedral window, we are told, is light from heaven, but is stained by the tints of the glass through which it passes; so any word of God which is passed through the mind and soul of a man must come out discolored by the personality through which it is given…”
The Response: God is the Architect
Warfield, a champion of the high authority of Scripture, turns this illustration on its head. He invites us to step back and look not just at the light, but at the Architect who built the cathedral.
If God were merely trying to shout through a window He found, the glass might indeed be an obstruction. But what if God created the glass specifically for the light?
Warfield writes:
“But what if this personality has itself been formed by God into precisely the personality it is, for the express purpose of communicating to the word given through it just the coloring which it gives it?
What if the colors of the stained glass window have been designed by the architect for the express purpose of giving to the light that floods the cathedral precisely the tone and quality it receives from them?“
Organic Inspiration: Features, Not Flaws
This teaching is often called Organic Inspiration. It teaches us that God did not treat the biblical authors like mindless typewriters. He did not override their personalities; He prepared them.
- When we read the Psalms, we feel the raw emotion and shepherd’s heart of David because God prepared David’s life to express exactly those truths.
- When we read Romans, we encounter the fierce logic and rabbinical training of Paul because God sovereignly ordained Paul’s education to articulate the legal framework of justification.
The “tint” of their personalities is not a flaw in the glass; it is the design of the Master Artist. The human element of Scripture does not dilute God’s Word; it is the very instrument God fashioned to deliver His truth to us in a way we could understand and feel.
Conclusion
At Apostles-Creed.Org, as we study the Confessions and Creeds of the faith, we look through these “windows” of history. We trust the Scriptures they summarize not because they fell from the sky, but because the God of History orchestrated the lives of the Prophets and Apostles to capture His Light perfectly.
The next time you see a stained glass window, remember: The color isn’t an accident. It’s the design. And so it is with the Word of God.