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Notes
for lecture on Grudem, Notes prepared by Richard Spencer, Ph.D. DEFINITIONS
| PREREQUISITES | WHAT IS THE
BIBLE CLEAR ABOUT? Remember the acrostic that Mr. Roby gave us: SNAP = Sufficiency, Necessity, Authority, Perspicuity. Mr. Swickard covered authority and the subordinate topic of inerrancy. We will cover perspicuity, or clarity, necessity and sufficiency in that order. We will come across many of the same passages and issues that were used in discussing the authority of scripture since all of the characteristics of scripture are derived from its ultimate author; God. In other words, we could simply state that since God himself is the author of scripture, it must necessarily be sufficient, necessary and clear for the purposes he intended. After all, although God may not follow modern educational fashions, he is certainly the best teacher possible. In Isaiah 55 it states (all Scripture quotations are from the NIV Bible [1]):
Even though we could reasonably stop here, there is a great deal to gain from studying the doctrines of clarity, necessity and sufficiency further, so we begin now with clarity. When we say the Bible is clear, or perspicuous, what do we mean? Clear about what? To Whom? Under what circumstances? For what purposes? We will get to all of these questions as we cover perspicuity, necessity and sufficiency, but let’s start with some definitions. Perspicuous: Clearly expressed or presented; easy to understand (American Heritage)I don’t like the "easy to understand" part, that is not really the idea as we shall see. Webster’s says: "Plain to the understanding, especially because of clarity and precision of presentation." I think this definition is more accurate. But what is meant by clarity of presentation? Or if we use Grudem’s word, the clarity of scripture? Clear:
The main idea here is not that it is easy to understand, but that it is free of unnecessary complications. There is nothing to obscure what is being taught, nothing to cloud the issue or hinder the understanding. With these definitions in mind, we can properly talk about someone giving a clear presentation of quantum electrodynamics, even though most people would not be able to understand a word of what was being said. Why wouldn’t most people understand a wonderfully clear and precise presentation on quantum electrodynamics? Because they don’t have the necessary prerequisites. II. Prerequisites to understanding The same is true of understanding scripture; we must have the proper prerequisites. What are they? One 1 Cor 2:14 says: "The
man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand
them, because they are spiritually discerned."
So, the first prerequisite to understanding God’s Word is that we must belong to God; in other words, we must be born again. This prerequisite then raises the issue of fairness. Is God being unfair to those who are not born again if they are incapable of fully understanding his Word? Absolutely not. Scripture is not necessary to leave someone without excuse. Paul says in Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities —his eternal power and divine nature —have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Therefore, requiring that we be born again to understand God’s word properly is fair. His Word is not a necessary part of his plan for those who are not going to be saved. Two The second prerequisite to properly understanding God’s Word is that we be walking in faith. If we are being disobedient and sinning we will not be able to fully comprehend what we read; although God can certainly still use it to convict us of our sin. In Martin Luther’s book Tabletalk [8], in Section XIII of the chapter Of God’s Word, he says, "When we have God’s Word pure and clear, then we think ourselves all right; we become negligent, and repose in a vain security; we no longer pay due heed, thinking it will always so remain; we do not watch and pray against the devil, who is ready to tear the Divine Word out of our hearts." We also have to
properly understand the past working of the Spirit in history and in our
own lives to be able to properly see, understand and respond to the Spirit’s
present work in our lives; After Jesus had miraculously fed the 5,000 and
had sent his disciples across the sea of Galilee, he walked out to them on
the water during the storm and we read, starting with Mark 6:51, "Then
he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were
completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their
hearts were hardened." So their lack of understanding his
prior miracle left them unprepared for the latest one.
Three The time must be right! In chapter 18 of Luke we read, starting with verse 31: "Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them,
Later in Luke, after Jesus was resurrected, he appeared to the disciples again and, in 24:45 we read: "Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures." Also, in John 13, when Jesus is preparing to wash the disciples feet and Peter objects, Jesus says "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." And later, in John 16:25 Jesus says "Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father." Grudem further points out ([3] pg 99) that there may be cases where we cannot resolve a particular problem passage in scripture because not all of the evidence is available to us at the time. So when we say that scripture is clear, we do not mean that everything it says to us can be understood in its entirety immediately. Nevertheless, we are called to obey our current understanding of scripture. As Pastor Buddingh’ went over a couple of months ago, we should not go against our conscience, even though we know that it can be misinformed. We sometimes must wait for certain experiences in our own life before a given passage of Scripture will be clear to us. In addition, there is always a deeper understanding that can be gained by experience. Quoting from Martin Luther’s Tabletalk again (Section IV); "We ought not to criticize, explain, or judge the Scriptures by our mere reason, but diligently, with prayer, meditate thereon, and seek their meaning. The devil and temptations also afford us occasion to learn and understand the Scriptures, by experience and practice. Without these we should never understand them, however diligently we read and listened to them." III. What is the Bible clear about? Now we address the question of what, exactly, is clear in the scripture. The answer to this question is at least in part dependent on looking at what scripture is necessary and sufficient for, but we can, at a minimum, state that it must be clear for learning what is required for salvation. Grudem, Hodge [5] and Berkhof [4] all agree on that and it seems the only reasonable and logical conclusion. But what about less weighty matters? Is the teaching of scripture clear on everything? We must certainly affirm that whatever scripture says is truthful and factual, as it says in Numbers 23:19 we read, "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" But we must also recognize that scripture does not speak of everything, nor does it always give us a complete and specific answer to every question we might ask. As just one example, scripture is not a science textbook and does not use specific technical descriptions for physical phenomena. As we discussed last year, if the description had been written to seem reasonable and correct to scientists in 1998, then it would have been incomprehensible to most lay people today, or even scientists in 1948, let alone the Israelites at the time of Moses! Therefore, as Mr. Swickard pointed out last time, the Bible uses phenomenological language; the language of everyday speech. There are many other issues that we deal with on a day-to-day basis about which the Bible is silent in terms of any specific reference. With these facts in mind, we see that it is our job to understand the principles in scripture and see how to apply them to our everyday lives. We are to do this even though we don’t have a complete understanding of everything in scripture. In fact, as I pondered this issue, I realized why I was asked to teach this class. We are all called to be engineers! An engineer is not a scientist. Scientists spend their time concerned with the trying to discern the underlying laws that govern the physical universe. They are like the theologians who examine God’s word to see exactly what the meaning is in each verse. Engineers, on the other hand, take what is known about the physical world and, while recognizing that their knowledge is incomplete and inaccurate, seek to make useful products anyway. The engineer realizes that if we were to wait for a complete understanding before beginning to put what we know into practice, we would never do anything. Similarly, we as Christians are called to be spiritual engineers. We can’t be theoreticians who discuss biblical doctrines in a detached way and await a complete understanding before applying them. We are called to apply what we know now. We are also called to constantly learn more. We can be sure that the scriptures contain more than enough material to keep us busy for the rest of our lives. We know that some of the material in the scriptures is difficult to understand. 2 Peter 3:16 says, speaking of the writings of Paul:
But we also know that we are called to continue growing in our faith. In Ephesians 4, starting in verse 11, Paul writes:
Then, in Philipians 3, starting with verse 12, he writes:
Finally, the writer of Hebrews offers a rebuke in Chapter 5, starting with verse 11:
All of these references make it "clear" to us, that the Bible is not equally understandable at first reading on all matters. We need to continually study and mature in our understanding. But, while we do this, we must strive to obey our current understanding of the law of God. Quoting Martin Luther again (Section VIII); "...There is in the Holy Scripture a wisdom so profound, that no man may thoroughly study it or comprehend it." IV. What benefits do we derive from the clarity of scripture? There is both encouragement and responsibility associated with the doctrine of the perspicuity of scripture. Hodge [5] points out that we have a responsibility, which he calls the "right of private judgment"; in other words, we must decide for ourselves what is required of us for salvation! No one can do it for us. This was one of the main points of the reformation; that the power of salvation was not vested in the church and its officials. We do not depend on a priesthood to tell us what we need to believe or what we need to do. We must read and decide for ourselves. This does not, of course, mean that God cannot save someone if they have only heard the gospel preached and have never read it for themselves, but it does say that we who have the scriptures will never be excused by saying that someone told us to believe something and it was wrong. In fact, we are to test what is preached and decide whether or not it is consistent with God’s word as revealed to us in the scriptures. Deuteronomy 13:1-3 says:
And in Galatians 1:8-9 Paul writes:
We can, of course, benefit greatly from the writing and teaching of others who know more than we do and have studied God’s word and the related languages, histories and so forth. But we are ultimately responsible to God ourselves. So we must know for ourselves enough to be able to spot false teaching. The encouragement that we obtain from the doctrine of clarity is that doctrinal disagreements are either caused by, as Grudem says, our "seeking to make affirmations where scripture itself is silent", or by "mistakes in our interpretation of scripture." Therefore, we should live in unity with our brothers and sisters as far as possible and not be bothered by disagreements over non-essential items. Remember Augustine’s statement; in the essentials, unity, in the non-essentials, charity. Remember also Paul’s letter to the Galatians and the quote from Philipians 3 that we read a minute ago: "...if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you." V. How can we study scripture? All of the preceding discussion leads us to conclude that the Bible is understandable by all and that we have a responsibility to continually work at improving and deepening our understanding of it. Therefore, we are led to ask how we should properly study the scripture. This brings us to the topics of hermeneutics and exegesis. Grudem states that hermeneutics is the study of correct methods of interpretation, while exegesis is the process of interpreting a text of scripture. Hodge points out that there are three historical reformed principles for proper exegesis; We must take the plain historical sense of a verse. In other words, how would the verse have been understood by readers of the text at the time and place it was written? Would they have understood it to be poetry? Allegory? Historical narrative? Or what? We must use scripture to interpret scripture. In other words, if one passage is not perfectly clear, it should be interpreted so as to avoid contradicting the rest of scripture. This principle is also called the analogy of faith or the analogy of scripture. For example, when Jesus states that "the Father is greater than I," we must properly understand this verse in a way that does not contradict the clear teaching of scripture that Christ is one in substance with the Father. Finally, we must interpret scripture with the aid of the Holy Spirit. So we must approach it seriously and with prayer. In the handbook on Hermeneutics from the international council on Biblical inerrancy [9], they further expand on these principles. They point out, among other things, that:
The doctrine of the clarity of Scripture leads us to:
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