What is the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture? Is the Bible perspicuous?

But what if God in His grace give a revelation? Does not He know what is good for His poor fallen creature, man? And, knowing, is He not able to impart such knowledge? No doubt mere curiosity is never gratified. But all that concerns man's spiritual welfare is abundantly revealed, and this with divine plainness and simplicity. Besides, how much there is momentous about man and the world before the deluge and since, where the classical oracles are dumb! But as to things eternal even now "we know," as St. John says again and again. Nor is the disciple, whom Jesus loved, alone if conspicuous in directness of statement with its concomitant profundity of truth. It characterises, as was said at the outset, all the N. T. writers, as well as the O.T. ones not less truly.

It has been before contended that Scripture is clearer, plainer really, than any word of man; and so indeed it is; beside being, in divine wisdom, written so as to meet, as nothing else can meet, with perfect foresight of the future, all the thoughts of men. It is thus the only sufficient guard and protection against heresy to the end of time. And yet it is no contradiction to this to own that there is some truth from the point of view taken by those who contend for this, between the creed and Scripture. From their point of view. For the apostle's words limit us somewhat when we speak of the intelligibility of Scripture. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," - but for what? - "that the MAN OF GOD may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." So that Scripture, profitable for doctrine as it is, does need a certain state of soul for its proper apprehension. It needs not indeed great attainments, human learning, deep research, - although all these have their use, and are not despised by it; but it absolutely requires (what may be found in the lowest and poorest just as well,) devotedness - that we be God's men: what by possession and profession all Christians are, but alas! not what all, even of true Christians, always practically are. This is the single eye, which we must have for the body Ito be full of light. But this being so, we can easily see that the Bible is not just the book for a court of law, and it is not the suited thing for a national creed. The truth is not meant to be accessible to the merely natural mind. Nay, "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." The Bible is not crystalized for us into doctrines, but its truths are exhibited and only known as living realities to those who are in the true sense alive. It is so essentially unlike a creed, that we may be assured that nothing like a creed was in God's design. He did not mean to give what might serve as a motto for political partizanship, or a banner for any other than spiritual warfare. Nationalism, then, - the union of the living and the dead - was never in His mind. He meant spirituality to be a first necessity, and an absolute one, for the discernment of His thoughts: and men, when they substitute in this respect the blessed word of God for their plainer creed, show really that herein they are at cross purposes with Him.

The Scriptures are the only light we have with regard to the knowledge of God, and we must either take them as they are, or reject them altogether. They speak of all the relationships in which man is placed, whether in Adam or in Christ, and dilate upon the responsibilities connected with these relationships in such a way that nothing is overlooked, disregarded, or epitomized; and whether we understand the things of which they speak, or whether we do not, the language in which they are set before us cannot be held to be bewildering nor capable of double meaning. In them the trumpet gives no uncertain sound, and there, without a jar, from pipe and harp breaks forth the glorious music of eternal truth (1 Cor. 14:7-8).

Another reason, though a presumptive one, is to be derived from the fact that in all ages it has been held by the saints of God as the revealed truth. That it has been obscured by philosophical statements of How? and When? in which necessarily much error has been presented, is true; but the fact itself, apart from all explanations has been held by all orthodox Christians. To refuse, it brings us into contact again with David's first check: "If I should say I will speak thus, I should offend against the generation of thy children." Thank God that to the end, there is always a generation of faith; though there be also one of unbelief! The great doctrines of the faith of God's elect have always been embraced not by the learned few alone, though they, to a large extent, render their tribute to the truth at all times, subjecting their minds to God and His word, but by the masses of the spirit-taught saints, though they be not schoolmen. This has been based upon the claim made by all Protestant believers, that the Scriptures themselves are clear and easy to be understood where faith is in exercise, specially on all the great doctrines of Christianity. Even Rome has preserved them as dogma. This is certainly an argument that the obvious meaning of Scripture is its true meaning. It is not meant by this, that meaning which an individual may give to an isolated passage, but that sense which the general tenor of Scripture, its connection and the constant comparison of analagous passages, would lead and in fact have led the mass of Christians to adopt.

It is not what the learned tell them, though they may have come to the same conclusion; but the general sense of the passages themselves, that convince those who seek the truth. In fact, the learned, in very many instances, go astray on some one or other favourite principle of interpretation, which they carry to an excess. Christians have the intelligence — nous — of Christ, a faculty which enables them to receive the things of God although they cannot fully understand or explain them. This faculty is fed by faith in the Scriptures, and is useful as directing the affections, which in that way come to love all the revelation that God has made of Himself. The clear common-sense view of Scripture, which commends itself to the judgment and spiritual instinct of the mass of Christian readers, — that unction from the Holy One by which they know all things, is worthy of far more respect than are the views of the learned few.

But there is even then a warning, solemn, immediate, and before all. And observe, as to this writing seen upon the wall, what was the great difficulty of it? The language was Chaldean, and those who saw the hand and the characters were Chaldeans. We might have judged then, that the mere letters must be more familiar to the Chaldeans than to Daniel. It is not the way of God, when He communicates anything, to put it in an obscure form. It would be a monstrous theory, that God, in giving a revelation, makes it impossible to be understood by those for whom it is intended. What is it that renders all Scripture so difficult? It is not its language. A striking proof of it is found in this: — if any one were to ask, what part of the New Testament I conceive to be the most profound of all, I should refer to the Epistles of John; and yet if there be any part, more than others, couched in language of the greatest simplicity, it is these very Epistles. The words are not those of the scribes of this world. Neither are the thoughts enigmatical or full of foreign, recondite allusions. The difficulty of Scripture lies herein, that it is the revelation of Christ, for the souls that have their hearts opened by grace to receive and to value Him. Now John was one who was admitted to this pre-eminently. Of all the disciples he was the most favoured in intimacy of communion with Christ. So it was, certainly, when Christ was upon earth; and he is used of the Holy Ghost to give us the deepest thoughts of Christ's love and personal glory. The real difficulty of Scripture, then, consists in its thoughts being so infinitely above our natural mind. We must give up self in order to understand the Bible. We must have a heart and an eye for Christ, or Scripture becomes an unintelligible thing for our souls; whereas, when the eye is single, the whole body is full of light. Hence you may find a learned man completely at fault, though he may be a Christian — stopping short at the Epistles of John and the Revelation as being too deep for him to enter into; while, on the other hand, you may find a simple man who, if he cannot altogether understand these Scriptures or explain every portion of them correctly, at any rate he can enjoy them; they convey intelligible thoughts to his soul, and comfort, and guidance, and profit too. Even if it be about coming events, or Babylon and the beast, he finds there great principles of God that, even though they may be found in what is reputed the obscurest of all the books of Scripture, yet have a practical bearing to his soul. The reason is, Christ is before him, and Christ is the wisdom of God in every sense. It is not, of course, because he is ignorant that he can understand it, but in spite of his ignorance. Nor is it because a man is learned, that he is capable of entering into the thoughts of God. Whether ignorant or learned, there is but one way — the eye to see what concerns Christ. And where that is firmly fixed before the soul, I believe that Christ becomes the light of spiritual intelligence as He is the light of salvation. It is the Spirit of God that is the power of apprehending it; but He never gives that light except through Christ. Otherwise man has an object before him, that is not Christ, and therefore cannot understand Scripture which reveals Christ. He is endeavouring to force the Scriptures to bear upon his own objects, whatever they may be, and thus Scripture is perverted. That is the real key to all mistakes about Scripture. Man takes his own thoughts to the word of God, and builds up a system which has no divine foundation.

From their point of view, — for the apostle's words limit us somewhat when we speak of the intelligibility of Scripture. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that" — what? "the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Scripture, profitable for doctrine as it is, does need a state of soul for its proper apprehension. It needs not, indeed, great attainments, human learning, deep research, but (what may be found in the lowest and poorest just as well) devotedness — that we be God's men: what all Christians are, indeed, by position and profession, but, alas, not what all practically are. This is the single eye which we must have for the body to be full of light.

This is as we should expect. If man could fully understand the Bible that would prove it to be written by men. If man could fully understand the Bible, then man must be God, or God must be man. Scripture tells us, "What man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:11).

Is this, then, what Scripture leaves us to? Yes, to the need of having an ear to hear if we will be "overcomers;" to be men of God, if we are to have the profit of Scripture. Truth cannot live without warfare in the midst of a world away from God; and God has not taken pains to make things so plain as that every careless soul shall, spite of his carelessness, know what is truth, but the earnest and exercised shall know: as the Lord has said, "Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice" (John 18:37). And this has its proportionate application in the case of every Christian.

Yet he had to say that in Paul's epistles there were things "hard to be understood." In so saying he wrote doubtless as the apostle to the circumcision identifying himself with the believers of his own nation. All the truth concerning the church, its place in the purposes of God, its privileges, its composition of an election gathered from Gentiles as well as Jews, all that which Paul speaks of, in short, as "the mystery of Christ" (Eph. 3:4) was bound to be "hard" to a Jew. It cut across every fibre of their national feeling which had been fostered for centuries. The truth was simple enough from an intellectual point of view but the eyes of their hearts needed opening to see it. This was recognized by Paul in Ephesians 1:18, where the word "understanding" should be "hearts". Except we too have the eyes of our hearts opened we have to sadly confess when we read God's Word it is hard to be understood.

Scripture too may be wrested or distorted to the destruction of those who so treat it. Those who do so are "unlearned and unstable." "Unlearned," or "untaught," means of course untaught, not in the wisdom of the world, but in the things of God. Here Peter may have been especially referring to a Gentile danger, the sort of thing that Paul himself warns Gentiles against in Romans 11:13 to 29. If Gentiles misunderstand and misuse God's truth so as to become "wise in their own conceits" they are very near destruction. Still even if Peter did especially refer to this his words are capable of a much wider application. Let us all beware of twisting the Word of God!

Bible Difficulties By inspiration, we do not mean that every statement of Scripture is so plain that it will at once be understood. Indeed, it may be said that the Bible is written in such a simple, natural way, with such a multiplicity of subjects, that unless one is in the current of the Spirit's thought, and unless the mind is subject to God, there will seem to be many contradictions, "many things hard to be understood." It is not wrong that we should find these difficulties. We should not seek to turn away from them and act as though they were not there. God loves to be questioned by a reverent and obedient mind. He will explain that which we do not understand, and we may be sure that apparent contradictions, discrepancies and other difficulties which occur to the thoughtful reader can all be explained in due time.