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