Knowing ScriptureSample

Explicit vs. Implicit

For the past two days, we have studied some of the literary forms we must consider when interpreting the Bible. Recognizing these different literary forms lets us understand what a text may be teaching us and helps us defend the Bible from its critics. Today we will examine a hermeneutical rule that is very important to avoid overly esoteric interpretations of the Bible.

Many different literary genres are represented in Holy Writ. Some genres tend to be more doctrinally explicit than others, such as the New Testament epistles and other more didactic (explicit teaching) portions of Scripture. Narratives and poems tend to be less explicit and didactic, and thus we rely more on implicit inferences to determine how they contribute to our understanding.

When reading the Bible, we must let the explicit passages of Scripture clarify the implicit ones. A doctrine we infer from a text cannot be true if it contradicts the explicit teaching of another text.

The controversy over open theism (the heresy that contends God does not know the future) illustrates this point well. Many Scripture passages (e.g., Ex. 32:14; Jonah 3:10) indicate that sometimes God “relents” (some versions: “changes His mind”) and does not bring promised disaster upon a people. When human beings change their minds, it is usually due to some unknown future event or unforeseen circumstance. Open theists take this fact about human beings, combine it with texts that speak of God changing His mind, and then infer God must not know the future because if He did, the Bible would not say He changed His mind.

This inference, however, denies many explicit portions of Scripture. Numbers 23:19 tells us, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind.” This explicit, didactic statement tells us clearly that God does not change His mind as men do. Men change their minds because they do not know the future. God, however, knows the future exhaustively (Isa. 42:9; 44:7; Jer. 1:5; Matt. 26:34), and, thus, any change of mind the Bible speaks must be a change that God knew He would make in advance. Open theism demonstrates when we do not allow the explicit to govern our interpretation of the implicit, we end up with heresy.

CORAM DEO Living before the face of God

Sometimes, we downplay the importance of narratives for determining doctrine because they are generally less explicit than other portions of Scripture. Numbers 23:19, however, shows us that even narratives contain didactic statements. As you read biblical narratives, look out for those explicitly didactic portions.