Considering this subject, as a Calvinist, I agree with Calvin and others like him who would say that the word of God is contained in the Bible for our modern English speaking folks I do not mean in the sense of Barth. God's word is the Bible alone and the Bible alone is the word of God. What is written is God's word. But how does that relate to the fundamental thought of conversion? Would it not be better to say that God's word is different than what is written on the pages of Scripture? My response is no. God is God and so has authority. His word because he spoke it is authoritative because God is authoritative. Therefore, whatever is said in the Bible has authority and should be headed because God says it.
When God converts the sinner he is not coming to the sinner with different words than what is revealed in the Word. God commands sinners to do lots of things, including to love Him with their whole minds. As the word of God is spoken and God speaks to us by the preached word - we hear God speak.
The thing is we do not all head the commands to repent and believe. Indeed no one can do that unless God Himself does. God removes the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh so that there is no more enmity against His word and so the mind of man receives the things of God. Until this happens, God's word is not headed and we do not receive them and we remain responsible as disobedience sinners.
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I would say that eveyr word spoken by Jesus was God's word - yet not all of Jesus' words were recorded in Scripture.
There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose even the world itself would not contain the books which were written (John 21:25).
The selection made in the canon is designed to lead to the salvation of the elect: “These have been written that you may believe …” (John 20:31). The selection made is adequate for human needs ( 2Tim 3:16-17). The assertion that only the bible alone is Gods word appears to fly in the face of the canonical revelation itself. In other words, the canon is sufficient for salvation. Not the totality of every proposition that has ever been inspired. It is a mere summary of all possible revelation, and is sufficient for salvation.
Therefore, the bible alone is not the word of God, but every word that God has spoken is his word. Now, where epistemology is concerned, the bible is the only way we can know something is true for sure, but the phrase is not true if it means that the bible is the only place God speaks from. Therefore, we say that the bible is the word of God alone where epistemology is concerned, but not in the sense that the bible is the word of God alone in its totality, since not all of God's revelation to man are recorded in the Bible. Another example would be the many prophecies that are not recorded in the bible such as the seven thunders given to John in the book of Revelation which are specifically sealed up and are not to be revealed to anyone else besides John.
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