Part III-B: The Interpretive Framework. Stated, Defended, and Offered for Testing

From Sovereign Grace and the Scope of Election: A Comparative Examination of Attainment Theology and Grace Theology, with Particular Attention to the Question of Whether God's Elect Are Found Among All Nations and Religions

Everything that follows in this document depends on a handful of interpretive commitments. Rather than smuggle them in, this section states them openly, gives the reason each should be preferred over its alternative, and invites the reader to test the framework itself, not merely its conclusions. A reader who rejects these principles will rightly reject many of the readings below; but he should then be prepared to say which principle he replaces each with, and to live with what that replacement does to the rest of his Bible.

In this section

• Principle 1: The clearer governs the less clear, the analogy of faith
• Principle 2: One word, several referents, why "saved" must be distinguished
• Principle 3: Narrative describes; doctrine prescribes
• Principle 4: Symbol and type, the rules that keep Revelation from becoming a mirror
• Principle 5: The limit cases are part of the data, the infant test
• Principle 6: The touchstone, no boasting
• The framework offered whole
• A note on the weight of claims