The Clarity of Scripture
In the previous article of this series about chapter 1, paragraph 6, of the Westminster Confession, the subject addressed was the completeness of Scripture which has historically been called the sufficiency of Scripture. It was also shown that B. B. Warfield’s preference for completeness or perfection of Scripture is better than sufficiency. Moving on to paragraph 7 it reads,
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.
This paragraph defines the doctrine of Scripture’s perspicuity, which is a word derived from the Latin word perspicuitas meaning clarity or lucidity of thought. As the Confession 1:7 points out the central message of the Bible answers the question, “What must I do to be saved?” This question from the frightened Philippian jailor to Paul and Silas received the answer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:30, 31). The Philippian jailor was in a crucial moment. He was afraid for his life because the prisoners, including Paul and Silas, were freed from their stocks and the prison door had been opened by an earthquake. The jailor even contemplated suicide. Paul and Silas spoke the “word of the Lord” to the jailor and his household and they all believed and were baptized. This vivid example from Acts illustrates the Confession’s affirmation of the message of salvation being “clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other.” In the Bible the message of salvation is not obscured, mysterious, or cryptic discernable only by seers, mystics, or illuminati, but it is instead obvious “so that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.”
Over the years there have been interpreters of the Bible that taught there was a code or hidden message in the words, grammar, and numbers of Scripture. Such interpreters, in some cases, were simply misguided, but others fell to the temptation to be one’s own god and wield their supposed cryptic or secret knowledge over others. However, some numbers in Scripture do have symbolic significance such as the number seven represents completeness, fullness, and perfection, and the number twelve has similar symbolism, but some interpreters go beyond these simple correlations determined through exegetical and historical study by turning to a speculative hermeneutic called Numerics.
In 1944, retired seminary professor Oswald T. Allis published a brief pamphlet with the title, Bible Numerics (see Notes for edition). He was responding to Karl G. Sabiers’s book, Astonishing New Discoveries: Thousands of Amazing Facts Discovered Beneath the Very Surface of the Bible Text. Sabier was continuing the teaching of his mentor, Ivan Panin. Sabier claimed his book provided “an actual scientific demonstration of the divine inspiration of the Bible”; readers are assured that this is “the indisputable proof you’ve been wanting!” (p. 117). The numerical codes derived from the Hebrew and Greek words of the biblical text are said to prove God’s inspiration of the Bible. Allis presents his own summary of one of Sabier’s numeric analyses,
“Anyone who is able to read the Hebrew Bible can count the verses, words, and letters of any passage in the Old Testament. If he begins with the first verse of Genesis, for example, he finds that it has 7 words (or phrases) and 28 letters. Since 7 is sometimes a significant number in the Bible (e.g., the 7th day of the week) this discovery is interesting. Here the factor 7 appears twice: 7 words, 28 (7 x 4) letters. Verse 2 has 14 words and 52 letters, so 14 is 7 x 2. That also is interesting. But 52 is 7 x 7 + 3. There are 3 letters too many, if this verse should have 7 x 7=49 letters, as verse 1 has 7 x 4=28 letters. Verse 27 has 13 words and 50 letters. So, 13 is one less than 14; 50 is one more than 49. No word in these three verses has as many as 7 letters.” (p. 117-118)
Allis’s confusing summary exposes the complexity of Sabier’s system. Allis then goes on to critique Sabier’s analysis.
“The facts just stated are obvious facts. What do they mean? If the fact that verse 1 is a perfect example of 7’s appearing in both the words and letters means that its text has been perfectly preserved, are we to infer that verse 2 has been imperfectly transmitted to us because it has 52 letters? Or does this verse have a different numeric structure? [So] 52 is 13 x 4. Should 13 be regarded as its basic number? The number of words is not 13 but 14. Verse 27 has 13 words. Its 50 letters are not a multiple of 13 but of 5. Do the 50 letters mean that there should be 15 words? Do the 13 words mean that there should be 52 letters (13 x 4)? If the same numeric factor should appear in both the words and the letters of a perfectly preserved verse, then verses 2 and 27 are both imperfect, their text is corrupt. On the other hand, if this symmetry between words and letters means that verse 1 is an especially important verse, are we to infer that verses 2 and 27 are relatively unimportant? Is the verse which tells us that God created the heaven and the earth of more intrinsic significance or more precious than the one which declares with emphatic iteration that God created man, created him in His own image?” (p. 118)
Allis pointed out that the mathematical facts of one verse compared with another create a situation where one verse is more important than another because its facts fit a better numeric pattern. This is a terrible situation. The verses of Scripture have the same importance because each one is a part of God’s written revealed will; however, not all verses have the same significance for communicating his will. Is the presentation of the gospel message in John 3:16 of the same significance as, “And the three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was as swift of foot as a Gazelle” (2 Samuel 2:18). Both verses are important because both are part of God’s Word, but surely no one reading the verses would contend that both have equal significance.
Allis concludes Bible Numerics with the following observation,
“The attempt to find mysterious numerical patterns and values in sentences, words, and phrases which have a plain and obvious meaning, whether the meaning is sublime, trite or trivial, whether it is found in the Bible, or in a masterpiece of secular literature, or in the commonplaces of ordinary life, is, to say the least, a tremendous waste of time and effort; and, what is far more important, resting as it does on principles that are demonstrably false, it may lead to serious and disastrous consequences. A man who rests his faith in the inerrancy of the Bible on Bible Numerics is trusting in a broken reed, which if he leans on it will go into his hand and pierce it” [cf 2 Kings 18:21].
God’s Word is revelation of his will and as Confession 1:7 points out, the message of salvation from sin is clearly taught in Scripture and is accessible through a due use of the ordinary means. What is meant by the ordinary means? The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 88, provides the answer,
The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption, are his ordinances, especially the word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation.
It is simple, is it not? Using the ordinary means involves turning to the Word through hearing it taught by reliable ministers and personally reading it; the sacraments are means of grace which in conjunction with the Word illumine the understanding of the believer and bring encouragement to strengthen faith. Prayer can bring understanding of a text with its application through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit as an ordinary means. Further, James 1:5 comments, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” The Bible is the revelation of God’s will and as it is accessed through personal and public reading, explanatory articles, sermons and lessons by faithful teachers, and fellowship with the saints, it instructs clearly.
Has the clarity of Scripture changed over the centuries? For example, when a pastor read Luke’s gospel to a congregation in Galilee during worship in the apostolic age, were the worshippers better equipped to understand the passage on first reading than worshippers today? Was it clearer then because the worshippers were living within the era Luke wrote the gospel? For example, Luke 13:4 mentions a tower falling in Siloam killing eighteen individuals. It is likely that many or all the congregants had heard of the event and could summarize with some level of detail when it was read in worship, but students studying the passage today would need to turn to their interpretive tools such as commentaries and Bible dictionaries. Did Scripture manifest more clarity for its central message for the first century Christian than the twenty first? No. Even though the apostolic age may have enjoyed fuller understanding of stories, events, asides, and illustrations particularly in the New Testament because they lived at the time and had firsthand knowledge, the message of salvation was still clear as has been noted about John 3:16 and Acts 16:30, 31.
Some might contend if the message of salvation is clear in the Bible with certain passages presenting it in summary form better than others, then why bother with the rest of Scripture? Why muddy the waters with Noah’s flood, the Ten Commandments, Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, and Paul’s armor analogy in Ephesians? Because these texts and the rest of Scripture enhance Christians’ knowledge of the necessity of redemption by taking them from creation, through the fall, the proto Evangelium, Passover, the sacrificial system, through the atoning work of Christ and into the future glory of his not yet Kingdom. Added to the narrative of redemptive history are the simple commands from God to know Scripture—the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the love and reverence for God’s Law expressed in Psalm 119, being sanctified in the truth as Jesus said in John 17:17, and of course, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which says “All Scripture” is “profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
The Bible is a gift from our gracious giving God. It is not a mystery, a puzzle, a secret document understood only by illuminati, nor does it deceive its readers since it is the truth. It has clarity, it is perspicuous. However, as paragraph 7 points out, some things are more challenging to interpret, even Peter said of Paul’s writings that some of them are “hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16). But God has offered the way to understand the difficult passages, as Paul put it, “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2)
Notes—Oswald T. Allis, Bible Numerics: An Examination of the Theory That There is in the Bible a Mysterious and Marvelous Numerical Pattern which Establishes the Correctness of the Text and Proves the Divine Authority of Holy Scripture, Chicago: Moody, 1944; P&R has issued a reprint but it appears to be out of print. The pagination in this post is according to the copy of Numerics that is available here: https://translation.bible/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/allis-1952-bible-numerics.pdf. For a good, brief article on interpreting the Bible see, F. F. Bruce’s “Interpretation, Biblical” in New Bible Dictionary, 2nd ed., J. D. Douglas editor, Zondervan, 1982.
