If Scripture was self evident, there would be no need of the Church that Jesus so labouriously created. Everything would be obvious.
“In fact the perspicuity makes one wonder why there are people getting degrees and studying Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and all that.”
“All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all (2 Pet. 3:16); yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them (Ps. 119:105, 130).”
I may debate the meaning of grace & election, but I was saved 35 years ago with reference to neither. I didn’t need to define grace, just experience it!
“Evangelicals believe that Scripture is comprehensible enough so that, with the aid of the Holy Spirit and by using a sound hermeneutic that allows Scripture to interpret itself, anyone who desires to do so can understand God’s message. This being true, all Christians should have unrestricted access to God’sWord in his or her own language.”
Much more here: http://www.monergism.com/The%20Perspicuity%20of%20Scripture%20by%20Gerry%20Breshears.pdf