By Bob Sullivan
Perspicuity? What in the heck is that? If you are a convert from a non-Catholic Christian faith, you may know what perspicuity of Scripture is. If you are a cradle Catholic, you probably don’t.
Perspicuity of Scripture is a Protestant doctrine which says that, due to enlightenment from the Holy Spirit, the Bible (especially those parts necessary for our salvation) can be understood by anyone. People who subscribe to perspicuity of Scripture believe that people simply need to read the Bible and judge for themselves what it means. I find it odd that many Protestant preachers make enormous sums of money each year, teaching people the meaning of passage after passage.
Many non-Catholic Christians rely heavily on the doctrine of perspicuity of Scripture without even thinking about it. If they did think about it, they would cease to be Protestant.
As Catholics, it is important to understand how we rely on Scripture in our faith. Catholics rely on two sources of divine revelation, Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. We look to divine revelation through Scripture, Traditions, and 2,000 years of scholarship, practice, and example. Then we turn to the Church to teach us through its teaching authority, called the magisterium.
Most non-Catholic Christians look only to the Bible, which is actually the result of Catholic Tradition and the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. As strange as that sounds, it is the truth.
The Protestant tradition of Perspicuity of Scripture is necessary for them because Protestants reject the teaching authority of the Church, including the pope. For most non-Catholic Christians, the Bible is the sole and infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice (“Sola Scriptura”).
In order to believe in sola scriptura, you also have to believe that the Bible is clearly written and understandable by anyone who wishes to understand it with guidance by the Holy Spirit. This allows you to claim that the Bible is your authority, even though you are the sole interpreter of what God is saying in the Bible. This is known as circular reasoning.
If you have a friend who holds himself or herself out as a “Bible Christian,” one who believes in sola scriptura, then he or she also probably adheres to the doctrine of perspicuity of Scripture. How might you discuss the authority and reliability of Scripture with this friend? As usual, you should ask questions.
Where does Scripture say that it is clear and understandable to us? If your friend is honest, he or she will concede that the Bible itself does not claim that it is clear and understandable from cover to cover, nor on the matters which are essential to our salvation.
How do you explain 2 Peter 1:20, which says: “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation...”? To this, your friend will probably say the context of that verse is merely Peter stating that Scripture is inspired by God.
While this is reasonable, Peter and inspired Scripture tell us that the Bible is subject to misinterpretation. Just a few verses later, (2 Peter 3:16-17) Peter says there are some things in them [St. Paul’s epistles, which are Scripture] hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.
Is Scripture only for the intelligent and the wise? Are less intelligent or mentally impaired people supposed to end up in Hell? Or is there still hope for the misguided, the ignorant, and those with diminished mental capacities?
As Catholics, we believe everyone is created for the purpose of receiving eternal salvation, not just those of us with a certain level of intellectual gifts.
What about all the disagreements non-Catholic Christians have had over various passages and doctrines for the last five centuries? In fact, nearly every modern preacher disagrees with numerous teachings held by Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, and other Protestant “reformers.” If you walk into a non-Catholic Christian church today, you will recognize more disagreement than agreement with the roots of most denominations. Maybe the “reformers” lacked clarity that today’s preachers enjoy?
To this your friend will tell you the disagreements have been over the nonessentials. He will say true Christians agree on the essentials necessary for salvation. However, this is not fully accurate. From denomination to denomination, essential teachings of Christianity are modified, altered, or flatly rejected. Many Lutheran denominations believe Christ is present in the Eucharist with the bread and wine (consubstantiation), but others do not, and few denominations from other faiths believe anything close to consubstantiation. As Catholics, we believe that the bread and wine cease to exist and they become the body and blood of Jesus Christ (transubstantiation) when the priest prays the Eucharistic words taught by Christ in the Mass.
However, the disagreements are not limited to the Eucharist. Different denominations disagree on basic Christian teachings such as unity, baptism, marriage, sin, prayer, the natures of Christ, the definition of sola scriptura, the proper translation of the Bible, “once saved always saved,” even how a person is “saved.”
Even if your friend can remain comfortable with defenses regarding the inconvenient Scripture verses above, he or she will certainly find it difficult to reason past all the discord and disagreements among all the non-Catholic churches, preachers, and theologians over the past five centuries.
Much of Scripture is very clear. Some of the clearest passages are those which tell us Christ established a Church with a human leader and a hierarchy, and that he desires unity among His followers. Therefore, He also left us Tradition, the Bible, and the “mind of the Church” which is the magisterium. Unfortunately, the hierarchy frequently fails to lead with courage, so Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as the ultimate guide for the Church (John chapters 14-16).
Jesus established the Church for one purpose, and that was for our salvation. The doctrine of perspicuity of Scripture is an unbiblical, manmade tradition, established to justify a very human (and therefore very flawed) plan for salvation.
