Some think the Bible cannot be understood. This thinking reflects on both the wisdom and power of God. He is powerful enough to give us a book that can be understood. John wrote, “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” (Rev. 19:6). Jeremiah said, “Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee” (Jer. 32:17). He is not only powerful enough, but he is wise enough. Paul exclaimed, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:17). The problem is not that the Bible cannot be understood, but the problem is that many people do not read it.
Others argue that we cannot understand the Bible alike. This view also reflects on God. He is wise enough to give us a book that we can understand and powerful enough to deliver it initially and preserve it providentially. If a deed or title to a property can be correctly understood, then the Bible, if correctly read, can also be understood. The Bible can be correctly read and understood if we remove all preconceived notions and false views of man and take the Bible and the Bible alone.
Keep in mind that God made man in his image. God created man with intellect. The facts of the Bible appeal to our intellect. We are to believe the facts. Man has volition or will. God gave commands in his word which appeal to the volition or will of man. The commands of the Bible (in particular the New Testament) appeal to our wills. Then, God gave man emotions. The promises and warnings in the Bible appeal to our emotions. Brother N. B. Hardeman answered in the affirmative to his sermon, “Is the Gospel, as God Gave it, Adapted to Man, as God Made Him?”¹
There are a thousand and one ways to misread the Bible, but only one correct way to read it. One must recognize the different types of literature in the Bible. One may be reading history, law, statutes, commands, poetry, prophecy, or symbolic language. Are the words to be taken literally or figuratively? All that and more needs to be considered.
Some are thankful to God for the divisions in the religious world and the church. However, Jesus prayed that we all might be one. In his prayer before the cross, Jesus asked his Father, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:20–21).
God commands and exhorts us to study his word. Would he command us to do that which we cannot do? Paul wrote, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (Eph. 5:17) Earlier in the same letter, Paul wrote, “How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)” (Eph. 3:3-4). Peter said that some of Paul’s writings were hard to understand. Peter wrote, “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:15–16).
No doubt some things in the Bible are hard to understand, but that does not mean they are impossible to understand. To those who say they cannot understand the Bible, I say read it, read it again and again. The Psalmist said, “The entrance of thy words giveth light; It giveth understanding unto the simple” (Psa. 119:130). Read it until it becomes clear. Meditate upon it.
Still others teach that the Holy Spirit illuminates the word of God for us so we can understand it. Wuest on 1 Corinthians 2: 9-16 wrote that one of the steps in the transmission of truth was illumination. This step, he told his readers, is “the act of God the Holy Spirit enabling believers to understand the truth given by revelation and written down by inspiration (2:14-16).” Further, he explained, “Thus the investigation of, inquiry into, scrutinizing, and sifting of scripture truth is done in the energy of the Holy Spirit who illuminates the sacred page of Scripture to the believer.”² “Illuminates the sacred page”? That sounds like the Bible is a dead letter. That is not so (Heb. 4:12).
This view brings up many questions. Suppose the Holy Spirit enables one to understand the Bible. Why did Jesus say, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” (Matt. 24:15). Jesus referred to a prophecy in Daniel, then he said parenthetically, “whoso readeth, let him understand.” Why did he not say, let the Holy Spirit enable you to understand that prophecy? What about Paul’s words to the Ephesian saints? He wrote, “How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)” (Eph. 3:3–4). Did Paul forget that the Holy Spirit would enable them to understand the revelation? No, because God gave a book that can be understood.
Since the Holy Spirit revealed the word to the apostles and prophets, there is no need for him to illuminate the sacred page for man. Read 1 Corinthians 2:9-14. In verse 13 of that passage, the expression “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” tells us that the Bible is the best commentary of itself. The “natural man” in verse 14 is not the unconverted man, but the uninspired man. Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar could not interpret their dreams, but Joseph and Daniel, through the revelation given to them by God, could. God’s word is complete now (Jude 3). The Holy Spirit works through his word in the hearts of people. He does not do so directly or immediately.
If the Holy Spirit works directly on man’s heart to illuminate the Bible for him, then there is no need for the Bible. Just let the Holy Spirit reveal the truth immediately in both the sinners’ and saints’ hearts. This view is a denial of the all-sufficiency of God’s word (2 Tim 3:16-17). It is false.
¹Hardeman, N.B., Hardeman’s Tabernacle Sermons Vol IV, Nashville, Tennessee, Gospel Advocate Company, pp. 60-70, 1975.
²Kenneth S. Wuest, Untranslatable Riches from the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids, Michigan, WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, pp.15, 20, 1942.
— Ben F. Vick, Jr.