The Perspicuity of Scripture

Perspicuity is a fancy word for "clarity."  The Reformers insisted that, in most cases, the clearest interpretation of a text is the correct one.  The Bible isn't a puzzle.  It is not designed to lead the "initiate" into a maze of obscure or ambiguous passages.  One does not need a Ph.D. in theology to understand that the Bible teaches we are sinners in need of the atoning work of Christ.

Though we believe in the basic clarity of Scripture, we do not mean by this that all parts of the Bible are equally clear.  The Bible teaches some very complex and difficult things.  Though its essential message is clear, there is enough complexity in the Bible to keep the sharpest minds busily engaged for a lifetime.  The message of the Bible may be simple in its essence, but the Bible as a whole is anything but simplistic.  To be able to handle the whole of Scripture, with all of this complexity, is a difficult task.  It requires diligent study and, for the vast majority of serious students, years and years of disciplined training.  Hence, James' warning, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 3:1).

God requires us to love Him with all of our minds.  To apply our minds diligently to His Word is hard work.  There is no magical (or superstitious) substitute for that work.  "Words of knowledge" do not suffice when we have the final "Word of Knowledge" (the Bible) to teach us.  Thinking is not "carnal" or "unspiritual."  But it is hard work.  That is one reason people find it so easy to turn their minds over to a high powered preacher who convinces them that he is "plugged in" to the Divine intelligence.  Pious appeals to direct supernatural insights are often, if not always, spiritual masks for our own indolence.  It requires far less effort to listen to private subjective hunches than to pay the price of mastering Greek, Hebrew, historical backgrounds and the science of hermeneutics.

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