Theological Term of the Week: Perspicuity of Scripture

perspicuity of scripture

The teaching that the ordinary reader can understand from scripture what God requires of them for salvation as long as they are willing to seek God’s help to understand and obey it; the truth that “the knowledge necessary unto salvation, though not equally clear on every page of Scripture, is yet conveyed to man throughout the Bible in such a simple and comprehensible form that on who is earnestly seeking salvation can, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, by reading and studying the Bible, easily obtain for himself the necessary knowledge.”1 Perspicuity does not mean that the scripture contains no passages that may be difficult to understand or that all passages are equally clear. This doctrine is also—and prehaps more commonly—referred to as the clarity of scripture.

• From scripture:

… from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. [16] All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness … . (2 Timothy 3:15-16 ESV)

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4 ESV).

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, Section 7:

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 the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.

• From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham, page 206-207:

A number of crucial distinctions must be made. There are varying degrees of clarity in the Bible. First, this is intrinsic to Scripture itself, since “all things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves” (WCF 1.7)… .

Second, the relative clarity of Scripture also depends on the capacity of the reader: “all things in Scripture are … not alike clear unto all” (WCF 1.7). Some readers are less able to understand than others, whether by lack of knowledge or education, lack of Christian experience, or a decifit of intelligence… .

However, the Protestant doctrine of the perspicuity, or clarity, of Scripture acknowledges these difficulties but nevertheless asserts that the saving message is clear.

Learn more:

1. Simply Put: The Perspicuity of Scripture
2. Got Questions: What is the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture?
3. Emma Saying: How to pronounce perspicuity
4. Burk Parsons: The Perspicuity of Scripture
5. Mark D. Thompson: The Clarity of Scripture
6. Kevin DeYoung: The Clarity of Scripture

Related terms:

• analogy of faith
• authority of scripture
• exegesis
• illumination
• sola scriptura

Filed under Scripture

1 From Introductory Volume to Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, page 167.

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