Throughout the centuries of the Christian church the text of Scripture has always functioned like the final court of appeal in the thick of disagreement. One clear text is like a beam of light that cuts through the fog of war. Arguments, even good-faith arguments, pit us against one another. Both sides marshal their strongest points. Sometimes it feels like there’s never going to be a resolution. One side sounds very reasonable and true until we hear the other and then we’re unsure what to think at all. All we have is one opinion pitted against another. And deciding between them isn’t a matter of determining whose opinion is most popular—a mere matter of counting noses.
The reason why the Bible has been at the very centre of Christian dialogue is because we recognize that it’s one thing to voice your opinion or to hear somebody else’s opinion, but God has spoken and when we’re sure of what he’s said, then what he’s said is all that really matters. Godly Christians will then seek to come under the word of God and align their thinking accordingly. Clarity about what God says brings resolution, peace, and even unity. But what if we’re unsure about what God says? What if the truth is shrouded in obscurity? Darkness persists. Divisions persist and the fog of war continues to roll in. Pessimistic voices often snap back, “That’s just your interpretation!” we soon lose hope of knowing anything with any kind of certainty. And if the church isn’t sure about what God has said, she will lose her prophetic voice, as she’s rendered speechless in the face of evil—silent at the collapse of our society.
What this means is that discussions about the Bible’s authority have often been married to discussions about its clarity. Most often the authority of Scripture is undermined in an indirect way with questions and doubts about its clarity. There are things in Scripture that are difficult to understand. Having said that, a bit of suspicion about claims of a lack of clarity or retorts that “That’s just your interpretation!” might be a good thing. Beneath the fog of feigned uncertainty about what the text says lies our deepest commitment to our own autonomy.
However, the prevalent pessimism today about our ability to read and understand the Scriptures has not always been part of Baptist life. The Second London Baptist Confession (1689) says, “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 ordinary means, may attain to a sufficient understanding of them.” This is an incredibly hopeful vision, that when we give ourselves to the ordinary means of grace—meditation, prayer, the fellowship of the saints—the Spirit of God, who inspired the Scriptures in the first place, will meet us there and open to us the wonderful things of his word.
Here’s session three from the conference, Elroy Senekker on The Clarity of Scripture