Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book I, Chap. VI

Chapter five has left us with a problem to solve. If man in his corruption cannot see God as he is in nature, how then can he achieve any knowledge? Calvin's answer is that a true knowledge of God can only be achieved through the study of Scripture. It is here that Calvin introduces one his more famous similes. He likens the role Scripture as something similar to that of a pair of spectacles. He says,

“Just as old or bleary-eyed men and those with weak vision, if you thrust before them a most beautiful volume, even if they recognize it to be some sort of writing, yet can scarcely construe two words, but with the aid of spectacles will be begin to read distinctly; so Scripture, gathering up the otherwise confused knowledge of God in our minds, having dispersed our dullness, clearly shows us the true God.”

So then, for Calvin, Scripture holds a necessary role in revealing to us the one true God. It is only through Scripture, through these spectacles, that man can begin to grasp at the reality of God. The God that shines forth in nature and in human history will only be confused and muddled in the minds of men, and be ultimately degenerated into some form of idolatry. In Calvin's interpretation, there are two sorts of knowledge of God that are revealed in Scripture. The first is that God “founded and governs the universe.” The second, which he will not discus at length in this book and is the subject of Book II, is the knowledge of God in the person of Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Mediator.

Without the aid of scripture we will fall into error. Calvin says, “If we turn aside from the Word (…) we may strive with strenuous haste” but “ shall not reach the goal”. Much effort and study may go into our search. We may study the scared writings of other traditions and may study the heavens and workings of nature, but if these things are not understood in conjunction with the God revealed to us in the words of the Scriptures, we will not be able to understand God in the person of the Creator. We will be thrown off track. God is “unapproachable” (1 Tim. 6:16). He can not be know outside of what He has revealed in the Scriptures. Here Calvin sounds a lot like the theologians of the Eastern Church, who describe God as being apophatic, that is; a void, dwelling in darkness, and unknown save by what He has revealed of Himself in nature and in Scripture. According to this particular tradition, that is why God is revealed in Job as being in a whirlwind.