What are people talking about when they talk about the perspicuity of scripture?

I just came back from a trip to China, and it's fair to say that there was a bit of a language problem.

I'll spare the details, but the first day I was there, my credit card was swallowed by an ATM.

So I spent a good few hours sitting in a bank in Shanghai and trying to work out

the Mandarin for my credit card has been swallowed by an ATM. I think the Mandarin for ATM is

ATM, but that's about as far as I got. It's fair to say that Mandarin is not, for me,

perspicuous. Ironically enough, given that it's not, for me, perspicuous.

Ironically enough, given that it's not very clear,

perspicuity is a word that means clarity or clearness or understandability.

So when we talk about the perspicuity of Scripture,

we're talking about the idea that God's word is clear about things

that are necessary to be understood and obeyed in order for a person to be saved.

The Bible's teaching on salvation can be understood by anyone and everyone.

Psalm 119 puts it like this.

The unfolding of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.

Even though at times the Bible requires us to patiently and humbly wrestle with it,

we can indeed come to know what it means regarding salvation and the basic principles for pleasing God,

even if we don't have a college degree or subscribe to an enjoyable podcast that explains big theological words

in a simple way. In fact, God's word is simple enough that it can be taught to children,

as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 6. These words that I command you today shall be on your

heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house

and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. And when Moses said these things,

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