Do you always wonder at the many interpretations of a particular verse?
This arises when different speakers want to pass across a certain message. Think of the most familiar verses that we preachers often use (Jeremiah 29:11; Philippians 4:13; John 3:16; Matthew 18:20). There are different interpretations rendered to the verses mentioned, which raises the question, is the passage clear enough to give rise to such an interpretation? However, while theologians agree that different passages can be interpreted differently, of significance is that the central message and meaning is absolutely clear such that no one distorts it when interpreting. The clarity of any given message is central to how that message is communicated and understood. I believe that no one wants to receive a message whose clarity is obscure, especially if that message is of crucial importance. The message of Scripture is one of those crucial messages. The Bible is not only a piece of literature that different authors wrote over a lengthy period, but one which communicates one special message from God to His people. However, we need to answer the question whether the special message from God is clear enough to any Bible reader. Is it possible to know what the Bible teaches? Is the message of the Bible only to be understood by scholars or the clergy? Is the message of the Bible hidden such that only the elite can understand what it teaches? These questions may take different forms, but they all aim at answering whether there can be a clear understanding of Scripture. To answer the question, we need to understand how God speaks, and when He speaks, whether we can clearly understand Him.
The God Who Speaks
One of the most important questions to any person who admits God exists is that if He would speak to us, how would He do it? How God speaks or how religious people consider how deities speak is varied. Without a doubt, African people are religious people, and they also have varied beliefs about deity. To them, this deity or deities certainly do not take after man’s appearance but are considered as spirit. The people then assert that we can know little or nothing in totality about the spirit world. Further, people can experience the deity or deities as they are thought to permeate all of reality and are involved in the affairs of humanity. Because of this, deity or deities who are either considered supreme creator, a force or higher being, can only be known through experience and oral tradition, and people cannot know much about them. People can also perceive the Supreme Being or Beings through the visible works of creation. Therefore, through images and language, people can conceptualize the Supreme Being or Beings through their imagination. However, besides being a monotheistic religion, Christianity has a God who not only can be perceived and experienced, but one that people can also know in terms of His nature and character. Knowledge of the Christian God does not occur through the imagination of man but occurs through revelation. This revelation is not to a particular person or a unique group of people but is to the entirety of humanity through His Word. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to humankind. Just like the African traditionalists believe that God is manifested through nature, Psalm 19:1 and Romans 1:19-20 also establishes that people can know God through the created world, which is referred to as general revelation. Nonetheless, God desires that man might come to a personal knowledge of Him, and because of this, He revealed Himself to us through His Word in what is referred to as special revelation.
How does God Speak?
Special revelation is the means through which God reveals Himself to human beings personally in a way that is intelligible to man. He revealed Himself through the use of words. It can be established by a reading of the Scripture in 2 Peter 1:21 and 2 Timothy 3:16 that the Bible is not man’s thought or creativity expressed through literature but is the very Word of God. Through what theologians call verbal plenary inspiration, God spoke through men who the Holy Spirit carried along to record the Divine Word of God. Verbal plenary inspiration means that while God never dictated word by word the text of Scripture that He superintended over the entire process through the instrumentation of the Holy Spirit such that we have a sure Word (2 Peter 1:19) that bears in large prints God as its author. God indeed used ordinary men who spoke the common language of their day to write a book that was written in human language. There isn’t a sense of alien language in the texts of Scripture as the literary forms of the text of Scripture all conform to the literary rules of human language. Therefore, God speaks in ordinary intelligible human language by using words that are written down for us by different men who existed in different historical dispensations.
Is God’s message clear?
Besides writing in intelligible human language, the other question that would come up is whether what the authors wrote is clear for us to understand. It would be dishonest of any person who has taken time to read the Bible to state that all portions are easy to understand. Indeed, a keen look at Scripture would reveal that some portions are pretty difficult to discern. One of the most commonly used Scriptures to convey difficulty in some Scripture texts is 2 Peter 3:16. However, Scripture itself teaches that it is clear as is found in Psalm 19:7. The clarity of Scripture occurs in two different ways. First, when it comes to the everyday use of language, it is easy to understand the Bible because it is written in intelligible human language. In 2 Kings 22:8-13, for example, we understand this from King Josiah’s response after hearing from the words of the Book of the Law because he understood the written message. Moses also gives the command to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 6:6-7 with the confidence that they would understand what God was saying to them. In this regard, it is right to state that God’s message is clear because it uses ordinary human language.
Secondly, when we read difficult portions of scripture in light of the entirety of Scripture, we can come to a confident level of clarity. This goes to support the fact that even if Peter says some of Paul’s writings are difficult, the essential message of the Bible is clear. One of the most crucial protestant reformation principles was the Bible’s clarity, which in technical terms theologians call the “perspicuity of Scripture.” The greatest proponent of the principle was the reformer, Martin Luther. He was passing along with other reformers that the clarity of the Scripture meant that the essential message of the Bible was clear. The essential message that they were referring to was the basic message of redemption. From the onset, anyone who reads the Bible can know that man, created by a Holy God, violated the sacred relationship through being corrupted by sin. Having been concerned by the sin of man, God wanted to redeem His people, and He set out to accomplish the plan of redemption through the death and resurrection of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Redemption is the clear message that even a child can clearly understand as they read the Scripture.
God Speaks and Is Clear
Therefore, not only does God speak to His people, but His message is also clear. To many in the African traditional religions, God is seen as a higher power that people cannot know other than through experience or human imagination. To them, nature is the only way to have a sense of deity coupled with experiential feelings. God, however, is not an experience and neither is He impersonal. Scripture reveals that we can know Him, and more clearly this occurred through His begotten Son Jesus Christ (John 1:14; John 17:25-26); Philippians 2:6-7; Hebrews 1:2-3). Furthermore, God never wants to be far away from us, as the Scripture reveals He is always close if we seek Him (2 Chronicles 15:2; Psalm 145:18). Because God can be known, the only way He can be found is through Scripture, where He speaks audibly through intelligible human language. There is no other way through which Humans can hear God speak other than through His Word. Additionally, He has also given us a clear message through His Word, and this is the clear message of redemption, which is through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. God has thus spoken in a clear manner such that all that come to the Scripture with a contrite heart can hear Him speak to them in an audible voice.
Take Up Your Bible and Read
The important takeaway from the above is that it is possible to understand God’s Word clearly. I have to admit that sometimes different interpretations of the Bible are confusing because every Christian wants to come to the Bible and clearly understand what they have read. Numerous distortions arise from taking insufficient time to carefully look into the meaning of a passage. The result is that our reading and communication is never clear. As the chief author of the Bible, God does not intend to cause any confusion in revealing Himself or the message of the Bible (1 Corinthians 14:33). That is why He communicated in an intelligible human language and communicated His message of redemption clearly for everyone to understand and respond to it. It is a dangerous mentality that the Bible is difficult to understand such that we lay it aside or allow others most of the time to interpret it on our behalf. The Bible is clear, and that is why it was written for you and me so that we may know God and respond to His call of salvation. Let us take our Bibles and read.
