FOUNDATION TOPIC

Is the Bible Clear?

The clarity of Scripture (perspicuity) means that anybody can understand it. No matter the reader’s education, culture, or age, the Bible is clear enough for the reader to make sense of its teachings and to live accordingly.

You can understand it

God wants you to know him,
so the most important claims of Scripture are plain.

Can I understand the Bible?

Theme Verse

DEUTERONOMY 30:11-14 NIV

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Short Content

What Do You Mean When You Say the Bible Is Clear?

The Clarity of Scripture—sometimes known by the older word “perspicuity” (Which, for a word that means clarity, is not all that clear)—is carefully defined in the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF):

All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. (WCF 1.7)

It’s worth noticing several important nuances in this definition.
Some portions of Scripture are clearer than others. Not every passage has a simple or obvious meaning.
The main things we need to know, believe, and do can be clearly seen in the Bible.
Though the most essential doctrines are not equally clear in every passage, they are all made clear somewhere in Scripture.
That which is necessary for our salvation can be understood even by the uneducated, provided that they make use of the ordinary means of study and learning.
The most important points in the Scriptures may not be understood perfectly, but they can be understood sufficiently.

The doctrine of the clarity of Scripture is not a wild assertion that the meaning of every verse in the Bible will be patently obvious to everyone.

Rather, the perspicuity of Scripture upholds the notion that ordinary people using ordinary means can accurately understand enough of what must be known, believed, and observed for them to be faithful Christians.

OPEN
YOUR BIBLE

The Bible Gives Clear
Guidance for Daily Life

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
(Joshua 1:8 ESV)

Read Joshua 1

The Bible Makes
Us Wiser

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple…
(Psalm 19:7 ESV)

Read Psalm 19

The Bible Clarifies
Our Perspective on Life

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.”
(Psalm 119:130 ESV)

Read Psalm 119

Unbelief Keeps Us from
Understanding the Bible

But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
(Matthew 22:29 ESV)

Read Matthew 22:15-46

Unbelief Keeps Us from
Interpreting the Bible

“And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!”
(Luke 24:25 ESV)

Read Luke 24

A Relationship with
Jesus Makes the
Bible Clear to Us

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
(John 10:27 ESV)

Read John 10

We Can Only Understand
the Bible with the
Holy Spirit’s Help

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
(1 Corinthians 2:12 ESV)

Read 1 Corinthians 2

We Can Only Understand
the Bible If We Trust
the Lord Jesus

“But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”
(2 Corinthians 3:14-16 ESV)

Read 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:6

The Main Teaching of
the Bible Is Clear
Even to Children

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
(2 Timothy 3:14-15 ESV)

2 Timothy 3:10-17

Can I Understand the Bible?

Definition

The Clarity of Scripture

The clarity of Scripture means that the Bible is written in such a way that its teachings are able to be understood by all who will read it seeking God’s help and being willing to follow it.

by Wayne Grudem

Article: 10 Min

What Is The Clarity of Scripture?

by Don Stewart at Blue Letter Bible

Image

The unfolding
of your words
gives light;
it gives understanding
to the simple.

Psalm 119:130 NIV

Systematic theology

Four Characteristics of Scripture: Clarity

by Wayne Grudem, 46 Min

Video: 5 Min

Why So Many Different
Interpretations
of the Bible?

by Kevin Deyoung at The Gospel Coalition

Quote

The Scriptures
are shallow enough
for a babe to come and drink
without fear of drowning
and deep enough for theologians to swim in
without ever touching the bottom.

St. Jerome

Quote

Believe, That You May Understand

by J.I. Packer in his book, "'Fundamentalism' and the Word of God"

Is it reasonable to take God’s word and believe that he has spoken the truth, even though I cannot fully comprehend what he has said? The question carries its own answer. We should not abandon faith in anything God has taught us merely because we cannot solve all the problems which it raises. Our own intellectual competence is not the test and measure of divine truth. It is not for us to stop believing because we lack understanding, but to believe in order that we may understand.

See quote source

Quote

It’s not hard to understand;
it’s just hard to swallow.

Steven Lawson

Verse

2 Peter 3:15-16 ESV

And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

Quote

Scripture is clear enough
to make us responsible
for carrying out
our present responsibilities
to God.

John Frame

Article: 10 Min

Why Is It So Hard for Me to Understand the Bible?

by Kevin Halloran at Anchored in Christ

Verse

1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

Article: 10 Min

Four Things At Stake If We Deny the Clarity of Scripture

by Kevin DeYoung, contributed by our Friends at Crossway

Image

For God is not
the author of confusion
but of peace.

1 Corinthians 14:33 NKJV

Verse

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 NLT

And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.