Here’s a great section from Michael Horton’s The Christian Faith. It is found under the topic of Scripture – specifically the sufficiency, clarity, and scope of Scripture (p. 197).
“Like its sufficiency, the clarity of Scripture is inseparable from its scope. If we come to the Bible looking for answers to our own questions that it does not address explicitly, treating it as an encyclopedia of general knowledge, we will draw from it conclusions that it does not intend. For instance, if we seek from Scripture infallible information concerning the age of the earth, we will miss the point of the passages we are citing. Passages of this kind require more interpretive skill than do the abundant and obvious declarations of the gospel.”
“The tragic fact that Rome has condemned as heretical the clear teaching of the gospel is the most decisive challenge to its claim to be the church’s infallible teacher of God’s Word. The same must be said, also with great sorrow, for any Protestant body that strays from the clearest declarations of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. If the gospel is not known and proclaimed in its purity and simplicity, it is the teacher rather than the text that is unclear.”
“The churches of the Reformation embrace ecumenical creeds and agree on specific confessions and catechisms. However, they do this not because they think that Scripture is insufficient, difficult, or inconsistent and required an infallible interpreter. Rather, they require communal subscription to these confessions precisely because they believe the Scriptures are so clear and consistent that their principle teachings can and should be summarized for the good of the whole community, children as well as adults.”
Michael Horton, The Christian Faith, p.197.
shane lems
