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A Clear and Present Word CLEAR AND PRESENT M/UP 27/3/06 1:12 PM Page 3 Phil's G4 Phil's G4:Users:phil:Public NEW STUDIES IN BIBLICAL THEOLOGY 21 Series editor: D. A. Carson A clear and present word THE CLARITY OF SCRIPTURE Mark D. Thompson A IV P DOWNERS GROVE, ILLINOIS 60515 InterVarsity Press, USA P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426, USA World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com Email: [email protected] APOLLOS (an imprint of Inter-Varsity Press, England) Norton Street, Nottingham NG7 3HR, England Website: www.ivpbooks.com Email: [email protected] © Mark D. Thompson 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of InterVarsity Press. InterVarsity Press®, USA, is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/ USA®, a student movement active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at <www.intervarsity.org>. Inter-Varsity Press, England, is closely linked with the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, a student movement connecting Christian Unions throughout Great Britain, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Website: www.uccf.org.uk Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USA ISBN 978-0-8308-2622-3 UK ISBN 978-1-84474-140-3 Set in Monotype Times New Roman Typeset in Great Britain by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester Printed in the United States of America ∞ InterVarsity Press is committed to protecting the environment and to the responsible use of natural resources. As a member of Green Press Initiative we use recycled paper whenever possible. To learn more about the Green Press Initiative, visit <www.greenpressinitiative.org>. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. P 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Y 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 NSBT ClearPresent p4.indd 4 5/30/08 9:12:39 AM CLEAR AND PRESENT M/UP 27/3/06 1:12 PM Page 5 Phil's G4 Phil's G4:Users:phil:Public With thanks to God for three wise theological guides: Alan D. Catchpoole, Principal, Capernwray Bible College, Australia (1970–1982); D. Broughton Knox, Principal, Moore Theological College (1959–1985); Peter F. Jensen, Principal, Moore Theological College (1985–2001), Archbishop of Sydney (2001–). CLEAR AND PRESENT M/UP 27/3/06 1:12 PM Page 6 Phil's G4 Phil's G4:Users:phil:Public CLEAR AND PRESENT M/UP 27/3/06 1:12 PM Page 7 Phil's G4 Phil's G4:Users:phil:Public Contents Series preface 9 Author’s preface 11 Abbreviations 13 1 Oh sweet obscurity: The absurdity of claiming clarity today 17 Traditional objections to the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture 19 The contemporary context of this discussion 30 A reason to think again 46 2 The effective communicator: God as the guarantor of scriptural clarity 49 The God of the gospel 55 The purposeful communicator 60 God and human words 65 God and this text 70 The clarity of Scripture and the character of God 78 3 It is not beyond you: The accessible word of the living God 81 The phenomenon of Scripture according to Jesus and the apostles 82 The Old Testament and the clarity of Scripture: The classic texts 93 Clarity hard won: Scripture acknowledges its own difficulty 102 Confidence and concentrated attention: The textures of biblical clarity 109 4 Engaging the hermeneutical challenge 111 Theology and the shape of contemporary hermeneutics 115 7 CLEAR AND PRESENT M/UP 27/3/06 1:12 PM Page 8 Phil's G4 Phil's G4:Users:phil:Public A CLEAR AND PRESENT WORD Taking Scripture and its readers seriously 120 The theological protest at the contemporary hermeneutical agenda 132 The hermeneutics of a clear text in the hands of a good God 140 5 The sharp double-edged sword: Restating the clarity of Scripture today 143 The classic exposition 143 A doctrine for the times 159 A clear and present word 164 Bibliography 171 Index of authors 189 Index of Scripture references 193 8 CLEAR AND PRESENT M/UP 27/3/06 1:12 PM Page 9 Phil's G4 Phil's G4:Users:phil:Public Series preface New Studies in Biblical Theology is a series of monographs that address key issues in the discipline of biblical theology.Contributions to the series focus on one or more of three areas: 1. the nature and status of biblical theology, including its relations with other discip- lines (e.g. historical theology, exegesis, systematic theology, historical criticism, narrative theology); 2. the articulation and exposition of the structure of thought of a particular biblical writer or corpus; and 3. the delineation of a biblical theme across all or part of the biblical corpora. Above all, these monographs are creative attempts to help think- ing Christians understand their Bibles better. The series aims simul- taneously to instruct and to edify, to interact with the current literature, and to point the way ahead. In God’s universe, mind and heart should not be divorced: in this series we will try not to separate what God has joined together. While the notes interact with the best of scholarly literature, the text is uncluttered with untransliterated Greek and Hebrew, and tries to avoid too much technical jargon. The volumes are written within the framework of confessional evangelic- alism, but there is always an attempt at thoughtful engagement with the sweep of the relevant literature. It is a pleasure to include in the Series this volume by Dr Mark Thompson. I suppose one might initially question why his work has been included in a series devoted to biblical theology. His earlier work on Luther was essentially an historical study; the present work, it might be argued, belongs at least as obviously to the domain of sys- tematic theology as to biblical theology. But that is just the point. NSBT is interested in how biblical theology contributes to related dis- ciplines, and while this present work addresses historical and dog- matic questions, on several fronts its fulcrum is responsible biblical theology. Certainly there are few topics more pertinent in the first decade of the twenty-first century. A strange combination of collective 9 CLEAR AND PRESENT M/UP 27/3/06 1:12 PM Page 10 Phil's G4 Phil's G4:Users:phil:Public A CLEAR AND PRESENT WORD theological amnesia and an uncritical acquiescence in the least discip- lined forms of postmodernism have made many Christians highly suspicious of hearing any sure or clear Word from Scripture. The ‘perspicuity of Scripture’ (often designated claritas Scripturae) has fallen on hard times. Dr Thompson’s clearly written and robust ar- ticulation of the clarity of Scripture will help many people think about these matters knowledgably, crisply, faithfully, pointedly. The purpose of such an exercise, of course, can never be an end in itself: the purpose is to handle Scripture itself with greater wisdom and con- fidence. That is why this book deserves the widest circulation. D. A. Carson Trinity Evangelical Divinity School 10 CLEAR AND PRESENT M/UP 27/3/06 1:12 PM Page 11 Phil's G4 Phil's G4:Users:phil:Public Author’s preface The five chapters of this book were originally the Annual Moore College Lectures, delivered in August 2005. It was an enormous priv- ilege to be invited by the Principal, Dr John Woodhouse, to deliver those lectures. His encouragement during the study leave granted for the purposes of preparation kept the project on track when a myriad of other demands threatened to derail it. I join with many others in thanking God for his gifted and godly leadership of the Moore College community and I am grateful for this opportunity to record my own extensive debt to his faithful ministry of the word of God. Like many before me, I have found that one of the great benefits of working in a theological college is the opportunity to wrestle in fellow- ship with faithful and insightful colleagues and highly motivated and gifted students about questions such as the clarity of Scripture. I have greatly benefited from conversations on this topic with Drs Peter Jensen, RobertDoyle,PeterBolt,AndrewShead,MikeOveyandPeterO’Brien. Anumber of former students at Moore College have also investigated these questions and shared the results of their work. While there are undoubtedly others, I owe a particular debt to Stephen Anderson, Hefin Jones and Orlando Saer. Outside this environment I am glad to acknowledge the philosophical insights of Mr Shane Waugh. In researching this subject, as previously, I have been much more than adequately equipped by the resources of the Moore College Library. I found that almost everything I needed to explore these questions was already held by the library and in those rare cases where something was not, Mr Kim Robinson ensured that it was ordered or borrowed with unusual speed.
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