Biblical Interpretation Gone Wild

Charles Spurgeon was a very famous and widely popular British preacher of the last half of the nineteenth century. One writer calls him “the most extraordinary preacher of his day.” He was a Calvinistic Baptist. That is enough on Spurgeon, who is probably known to most of us. My wife recently brought to my attention the November 18, 1855, entry in 365 Days with Spurgeon (Vol. 1). 

Spurgeon begins his thoughts with a situation in which someone is reading the Bible and is having difficulty understanding what he is reading. Spurgeon then imagines this person wishing he could consult his minister, who, remember the times, might be too far away to visit readily. He then has an amusing review of Bible commentators who were popular at that time. He pictures this puzzled Bible reader consulting Matthew Henry to no avail because, “If it is an easy Scripture, he is sure to explain it; but if it is a text hard to be understood, it is likely enough, of course, left in his own gloom.” So much for Matthew Henry. 

Spurgeon then pictures our Bible reader consulting “even Dr. Gill himself, the most consistent of commentators,” but finding “when he comes to a hard passage, manifestly avoids it in some degree.” Our imagined Bible student is still left in the dark. 

Now Spurgeon offers something that is nearly shocking. His advice is, “When we have no commentator or minister, we have still the Holy Spirit, and let me tell you a little secret: whenever you cannot understand a text, open your Bible, bend your knee, and pray over that text; and if it does not split into atoms and open itself, try again.” The wording of this emphasizes that Spurgeon is talking about God revealing the meaning of a text in an act of new revelation. The text, he says, will “split into atoms and open itself.” It is difficult to see this as anything other than a new revelation. Even though it is a matter of the meaning of a text of the Bible, if you don’t know what it means and God makes that meaning known to you in some special act, that act must be one of revelation. It seems that Spurgeon’s “little secret” is so secret that we can’t find even a hint in the Bible suggesting that God reveals the meaning of Scripture to Christians. 

There is, of course, nothing wrong with asking God to help us understand His Word, but we must be very careful because it has always been far too easy for Christians, in something like a fit of pious exuberance, to forget what might be necessarily implied in what they conclude about such things. 

Spurgeon is contending that God will reveal the meaning of the Bible to us if we ask for it. If you don’t receive the correct meaning on the first ask, Spurgeon says to try, try, try again. Consider this: if God reveals the correct meaning of the Bible to those who ask, why would anyone ever consult a mere human commentator or minister? Even if we did consult human sources, wouldn’t we need to ask God if what those commentators said was correct? Where could this possibly end except in the idea that, as we read the Bible, God will continually perform “a second act of revelation” so we can be sure of what is meant? 

We might be tempted to think this is just a manifestation of Spurgeon’s Calvinism. Pre-regeneration sinners would not, on that view, understand the Bible much at all, but Spurgeon is talking about a believer, so that is not what is going on here. 

Spurgeon’s passage for that day on which he bases what he says is John 16:13, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.” This is one of the more abused texts in the Bible. It is not directed at believers throughout the ages. It is directed to the Apostles. It is very clearly talking about God delivering His Word in human language to the Apostles. The text is not about biblical interpretation. 

Yet often this passage has been forced to say almost anything anyone wanted it to say, as Spurgeon does here. What is even worse is that these kinds of wildly unbiblical and illogical conclusions have been foisted upon people throughout the history of the church. Spurgeon, as we said before, was an extremely popular preacher. Thousands upon thousands heard him, not just at his church, but in tours of Britain. This kind of thing was no doubt heard and believed just because Charles Spurgeon said so. 

This is a problem that doesn’t just find expression in Charles Spurgeon. At any time and era, there tend to be very popular preachers. There is nothing wrong with that, but in most times and places, there can be some of those who, like Spurgeon here, simply come to untenable conclusions. Perhaps we could apply James 3:1 here: “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” 

We need to pursue Mr. Spurgeon even a bit more here. Not content in his meditation with what he has said so far, he is willing to double down. Spurgeon goes back to our imagined Bible student who has no help from ministers or commentators. This fellow has been praying to God for what amounts to a direct revelation of the meaning of a passage he finds difficult to understand. Spurgeon pictures him asking God repeatedly for the meaning with no positive result. 

Hang on to your exegetical hat for this one. Spurgeon now concludes, “If prayer does not explain it, it is one of the things God did not intend you to know, and you may be content to be ignorant of it.” 

Again, all conclusions have implications that are unavoidable sometimes, so there are some parts of God’s revealed Word that God does not want you to understand. That seems like a staggering bit of nonsense. It leads to all sorts of further questions. Did God speak His Word with the intention that some people would never understand some parts of it? Were those parts that cannot be understood the same for all people? What conceivable purpose could there be in God speaking words He knew no one could or would understand? Does Spurgeon think God was somehow unable to communicate successfully in human language? What would that say about God? 

The question here goes far beyond difficult-to-understand parts of the Bible. Yes, there are those. The question here is the nature of God’s revelation. Paul calls Scripture “the very words of God” (Romans 3:2). We should be exceedingly careful about what we conclude about the very nature of God’s words. We should be very careful as individuals, but far beyond that, famous preachers should be even more careful.