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sad does not mean they are worthless indeed sad stories often tell us more about ourselves than happy ones they force us to wrestle with the world as the world is with god as god is and with the bible as the bible is not as we wish those things would be for wrestling with them we hopefully emerge stronger with greater insight on what it means to be a suffering servant in whom we should see the life and work of jesus published 34 years ago in 1984 texts of terror remains a vitally important work one that should be on the bookshelf of every preacher every counselor and every church leader in a day where many women are finding their voices for the first time we would all do well to return to trible s classic in which she helps four ancient women cry me too posted on september 5 2018 categories bible study book reports current events hard questions learning tags 2 samuel books church genesis hagar history judges old testament religion tamar theology violence women leave a comment on a brief review texts of terror by phyllis trible the irony of scriptural perspicuity part 2 of a series on the perspicuity of scripture part 1 dealt with defining perspicuity and discussing what the bible says about itself today s post deals with church history and the results of this belief what does the church say well that depends on the church but really just as the bible was written in a time of few educated elites and many illiterate followers so too did understanding the scriptures require centuries of mediation through educated church leaders of course those circumstances changed practically overnight with the invention of the printing press and the printing of the bible in common vernacular followed by martin luther s revolution that fragmented the western church because luther rightly objected to excesses and abuses perpetrated by a church that had grown secretive and corrupt the notion that church leaders could be trusted to appropriately mediate the scriptures to their congregants took a severe blow why should we assume these greedy mendacious priests are accurately synthesizing biblical precepts when they are using their positions to enrich themselves and maintain their temporal power thus luther in on the bondage of the will laid out for the first time an argument for the comprehensive perspicuity of the bible but if many things still remain abstruse to many this does not arise from obscurity in the scriptures but from their own blindness or want of understanding who do not go the way to see the all perfect clearness of the truth with the same rashness any one may cover his own eyes or go from the light into the dark and hide himself and then blame the day and the sun for being obscure let therefore wretched men cease to impute with blasphemous perverseness the darkness and obscurity of their own heart to the all clear scriptures of god the scripture simply confesses the trinity of god the humanity of christ and the unpardonable sin there is nothing here of obscurity or ambiguity that last sentence seems more than a touch unintentionally ironic the bible of course nowhere confesses the trinity as such and what christian hasn t spent a long time wondering what exactly is blasphemy against the holy spirit the one unpardonable sin according to jesus in a lengthy defense of the bible s clarity luther cites a case in which a key christian doctrine must be inferred from the text and a notorious example of an unclear and troubling statement from jesus himself so it took roughly 1 500 years and the protestant reformation for the church to include any prominent or official doctrine of scriptural perspicuity which doesn t mean it s not true just that we should recognize this was a significant departure from the historical understanding of the church one that we should therefore treat with caution what are the effects one way to test a relatively new doctrine is to assess how it changes the church itself to judge it by its fruit so to speak what is the fruit of this doctrine this idea that the bible is so clear that anyone including children can read it and understand the basics of the gospel namely massive division on a scale never previously seen in the church perhaps the ultimate irony of the doctrine of perspicuity is that it has led to the creation of literally thousands of schisms among people who felt the bible was so clear on a certain point that they could no longer worship in good conscience with those who believed otherwise there are easily more than 1 000 perhaps as many as 2 000 protestant denominations worldwide there are easily thousands more intracongregational and denominational splits that have led to much heartache and bitterness it is no coincidence that these splits have become more common since enlightenment modernism with its democratic and egalitarian assumptions there is obviously nothing wrong with those assumptions per se they were and remain vital to the liberation of oppressed people around the globe but when applied to the bible they have led to a largely unexamined embrace of the notion that anyone can and should open it without any guidance and understand the gospel and on the flip side an unexamined hostility to the notion that ministers or scholars should play any significant role in mediating the text to others with less training yet if we look at two traditions that have most radically adopted the democratic ethos of modernist egalitarianism well for men anyway the plymouth brethren and the stone campbell movement they are perhaps the two most schismatic groups in church history both movements were born through the notion of unifying fractious denominations around the basis of just doing what the bible says following its plain teachings in the establishment and organization of congregations and worship relying heavily on the pattern established in acts yet within 50 years of their establishment both movements experienced massive splits the brethren between exclusive and inclusive camps the stone campbell movement between the instrumental largely northern disciples of christ and the a cappella largely southern churches of christ while the former eventually became a formal mainline denomination the christian church disciples of christ the southern branch became increasingly fractious with congregations dividing over increasingly trivial matters down to how many cups to use in communion likewise a chart of plymouth brethren splits and reunifications is like trying to trace strands of spaghetti cooked in a bowl what does it tell us about the alleged perspicuity of scripture that those who hold most strongly to it are the most likely to disagree so vehemently about what it says that they cannot remain in fellowship with each other perhaps it tells us that the bible is not so perspicuous after all part 3 will conclude with some potentially disconnected thoughts about scripture and how we should view it given the challenges it poses to the doctrine of perspicuity posted on august 27 2018 categories bible study hard questions history tags bible church churches of christ history luther perspicuity plymouth brethren religion 1 comment on the irony of scriptural perspicuity how clear is the bible anyway to some the bible is a brook a refreshing stream that flows gently through a meadow its waters are clear anyone can look into them and understand what they must do to get across safely to the other side but i wonder more and more whether the bible is something else entirely a swift river dark and cloudy its depths hiding potentially treacherous rocks that could unbalance the unwary traveler and send her tumbling downstream venturing into its waters is best done with someone who knows the path and can show the traveler where to step and how to avoid the deepest darkest areas i wonder in other words whether the bible should be treated much differently than we typically do in american protestantism where we assume anyone can crack it open and learn who god is and how to get saved in jesus name maybe the bible requires more care and more community when we read and interpret it what i m talking about is the perspicuity of scripture for something to be perspicuous is to be clear like that gentle brook why don t we just say the clarity of scripture because obviously there s no reason to use a 10 cent word when a five dollar one will do to explore this topic we need to answer some questions how do we define scriptural perspicuity does the bible claim perspicuity for itself has the church historically affirmed its perspicuity and what historically have been the results of belief in scripture s perspicuity today i ll look at the first two questions how do we define the perspicuity of scripture no one knows ok that s not entirely true but a brief search of the internet finds a lot of people recognizing that the term itself is ironically enough unclear and then spending a lot of time and words trying to define it i don t get the sense that anyone argues that all parts of the bible are perspicuous rather perspicuity is a general sense that the bible is clear in its primary teachings particularly the gospel message of sin salvation and jesus role in saving us from the one and facilitating the latter as usual the best popular level definition probably comes from wikipedia yes i could use a theological dictionary but the point is to have a definition as popularly understood today not as scholars understand it i ll underline some key phrases the doctrine of the clarity of scripture often called the perspicuity of scripture is a protestant christian position teaching that quoting the westminster confession 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 lutherans hold that the bible presents all doctrines and commands of the christian faith clearly god s word is freely accessible to every reader or hearer of ordinary intelligence without requiring any special education of course one must understand the language god s word is presented in and not be so preoccupied by contrary thoughts so as to prevent understanding as a result of this no one needs to wait for any clergy and pope scholar or ecumenical council to explain the real meaning of any part of the bible to boil that down we might say the perspicuity of scripture is the doctrine that the bible is clear enough about the basics of the gospel that any person of reasonable intelligence can understand them without mediation from an authority figure but let s be honest that the phrase is so hard to define and that its implications have to be cordoned off with multiple caveats and conditions is a big red flag that this stream is far muddier than we might assume what does the bible claim for itself of course the bible does not claim anything for itself as such because the authors typically did not realize their texts would become canonized but several of them did recognize other texts as bearing that kind of weight typically this involved early christians including jesus himself quoting from the hebrew scriptures with a sense of their authority but it also includes later new testament authors adding special weight to paul s letters so for example 2 tim 3 14 17 but you must continue with the things you have learned and found convincing you know who taught you since childhood you have known the holy scriptures that help you to be wise in a way that leads to salvation through faith that is in christ jesus every scripture is inspired by god and is useful for teaching for showing mistakes for correcting and for training character so that the person who belongs to god can be equipped to do everything that is good in this most famous of passages about the nature and purpose of scripture referring to what christians now call the old testament the author clearly sees the texts as being mediated through teachers perhaps parents or synagogue rabbis since childhood perhaps even paul you know who taught you to whom this letter is traditionally attributed other new testament verses commonly cited as referring to scripture paint a similar picture or don t actually refer to scripture at all despite how they re frequently used for example heb 4 11 13 therefore let s make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience because god s word is living active and sharper than any two edged sword it penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow it s able to judge the heart s thoughts and intentions no creature is hidden from it but rather everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of the one to whom we have to give an answer although many cite heb 4 12 sharper than any two edged sword in a scriptural authority context it s clearly talking about the actual word of god or god s voice it comes after an extended riff on the power of that word in sparking the creation of the universe and establishing the sabbath there are many passages like this google around for a list of verses talking about scripture and you get a host of references especially in the ot to the word of god or god s judgments that actually refer to god s verbal commands of course some of them were eventually recorded and became part of the hebrew scriptures but i don t see these passages as being intended to describe the authority of the text itself deut 6 6 9 does discuss what israel should do with god s commands namely write them down recite them to your children and talk about them constantly assuming these commands eventually became part of the hebrew scriptures this passage envisions a mediated relationship with them where their meaning is initially delivered by parents and other members of the community back in the nt the author of 2 pet 3 15 16 discusses the writings of paul which have rapidly gained authoritative weight among the early assemblies consider the patience of our lord to be salvation just as our dear friend and brother paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him speaking of these things in all his letters some of his remarks are hard to understand and people who are ignorant and whose faith is weak twist them to their own destruction just as they do the other scriptures paul s letters are explicitly given the same weight as the other scriptures yet they are certainly not described as perspicuous rather they are hard to understand opening them to pernicious misinterpretation yet many christians today consider paul s letters especially romans to be quite clear in establishing a large number of doctrines ranging from salvation by grace alone to the alleged sinfulness of gay sex not surprisingly paul himself had something to say on this topic in rom 15 4 whatever was written i...