Talk:Clarity of Scripture

By the way, that .doc link at the bottom of this article is sweeeeet. -Aaronshaf 10:17, 25 Oct 2005 (EDT)

What is the real difference between clarity and perspicuity?

-Aaronshaf 15:49, 17 November 2005 (EST)

I don't see much at all. I would probably change this one too. JordanBarrett 16:13, 17 November 2005 (EST)

Those are some fairly hefty quotes and would do more good if they were integrated into the article. JordanBarrett (talk) 03:00, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Let me try to take a shot at expanding this section: --Alex Woehr 17:28, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

"If Scripture is clear, why are there so many Protestant denominations? Why can't Protestants agree among themselves about the meaning of Scripture?"
Several things must be noted here. First of all, perspicuity means that the original documents were clear to the original audience. Our understanding of the ancient context of language, culture, and history has many points of deficiency. For some Hebrew words we cannot be sure about the translation because they occur only in the Bible. Second of all, God's truth are spiritually discerned. Carnal reason, unassisted by the Holy Spirit, is unable to discover the meaning of Scripture. Frequently theologians arrive at wrong conclusions because they fail to rely on the Holy Spirit. Third of all, perspicuity does not mean that the Scriptures are obvious or that truth lies on the surface of the Scriptures. Just as Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables, so the Scriptures are frequently mysterious. This is much less true in the New Testament, now that the apostles have clarified so many points which were unclear in the Old Testament. Finally, we must observe the great amount of agreement among the theological community. Those points which occasion great controversy are frequently matters of ecclesiastical government, which only a few passages address directly, and matters frankly involving minutiae which are not even directly addressed in Scripture.