Sabbath School for Adults: How To Interpret Scripture: Lesson 5:By Scripture Alone— Sola Scriptura

Tuesday April 28

The Clarity of Scripture

Any appeal to Scripture alone makes little sense if the text of the Bible is unclear in its meaning.

Read Matthew 21:42; Matthew 12:3, 5; Matthew 19:4; Matthew 22:31; Mark 12:10, 26; Luke 6:3; Matthew 24:15; and Mark 13:14. What does Jesus’ repeated referral to Scripture imply in regard to the clarity of its message?

The biblical testimony is unambiguous: the Bible is sufficiently clear in what it teaches. The Bible is so clear that it can be understood by children and by adults alike, especially in its most basic teachings. And yet there are endless opportunities for our knowledge and understanding to grow deeper. We do not need any ecclesiastical magisterium to provide the Bible’s meaning for us. Instead, its basic teachings can be understood by all believers. It assumes the priesthood of all believers rather than restricting its interpretation to a select few, such as the clerical priesthood. Therefore, we are encouraged in the Bible to study Scripture for ourselves because we are able to understand God’s message to us.

It has been aptly pointed out that “the consistent example of the Bible writers shows that the Scriptures are to be taken in their plain, literal sense, unless a clear and obvious figure is intended. .  .  . There is no stripping away of the ‘husk’ of the literal sense in order to arrive at the ‘kernel’ of a mystical, hidden, allegorical meaning, that only the initiated can uncover.”—Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2000), p. 65. Rather, the clarity of the Bible pertains to the language, sense, and words of Scripture because there is a definite truth intended by the biblical writers rather than subjective, uncontrolled, multiple meanings of the biblical text.

None of this means that we won’t, at times, come across texts and ideas that we don’t fully understand or grasp. After all, this is the Word of God, and we are but fallen human beings. Nevertheless, God’s Word is sufficiently clear on the things that we really need to know and understand, especially in relation to the question of salvation.

Think about a time when you didn’t understand some texts, only to have them clarified later. What did you learn from that experience that perhaps could help others struggling with something similar?