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# Benson on Scriptural Confidence  - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture
- URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/benson-on-scriptural-confidence/
- Published: 2011-02-28T06:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-18T17:26:15.000Z
- Description: Christopher Benson—a Mere-O reader and verbal ombudsman—has an excellent post up at his blog where he replies to Jonathan Fitzgerald’s insistence that ambiguity ought to be our reply when asked about making a moral pronouncement about homosexuality. Benson states, Where the […]
- Author: Mere Orthodoxy
- Tags: Andrew Walker

[Christopher Benson](http://bensonian.org/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com)—a Mere-O reader and verbal ombudsman—[has an excellent post up at his blog](http://bensonian.org/2011/02/24/holding-onto-what-we-cannot-fully-grasp-a-reply-to-jonathan-fitzgerald/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) where he replies to [Jonathan Fitzgerald’s insistence that ambiguity ought to be our repl](http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Those-Three-Little-Words-I-Dont-Know-Jonathan-Fitzgerald-02-16-2011?offset=0&max=1&ref=mereorthodoxy.com)y when asked about making a moral pronouncement about homosexuality. Benson states,

> Where the Bible leaves him \[Fitzgerald\] uncertain about the moral status of homosexuality, it inspires *enough* confidence in me to make a pronouncement. Notice my word choice: confidence. Moral judgments only require confidence; they don’t need to satisfy Immanuel Kant’s condition for apodictic certainty, i.e., certainty beyond dispute.  
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> My concern is that Fitzgerald and other progressive evangelicals have adopted postures of uncertainty because they’re relying on their own reason to shore up their doubts rather than *permitting* the Spirit to vouchsafe “the unassailable truth” of Scripture. Calvin supplies us with a test for the proper reading of Scripture: Do we subject Scripture to our judgment and wit or do we subject our judgment and wit to Scripture? To use spatial language, it’s the difference between lording ourselves *over* the text versus lowering ourselves *under* the text.  
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> Fitzgerald’s “I don’t know” often becomes an excuse for relinquishing trust in the Word of God when its judgments are*least* like ours. By contrast, Helm’s “I don’t know” is a cause for deepening trust when mistrust tempts us to conform Scripture to our judgments rather than conform our judgments to Scripture.  
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> Our postmodern society is characterized by its ironic judgment against all judgments. In that setting, what strategy is easier: to choose silence when the apostle Paul says homosexual practice is “contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” ([1 Timothy 1:8-11](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%201:8-11&version=ESV&ref=mereorthodoxy.com)) or to persist in believing that what was entrusted to Paul and the early church is also entrusted to us – however puzzling or offensive? Trust builds confidence in our moral judgments. This confidence is not internally produced but *externally* conferred by the Spirit who attests to the perdurable truths of Scripture.

I’d point you to the [full article for further review](http://bensonian.org/2011/02/24/holding-onto-what-we-cannot-fully-grasp-a-reply-to-jonathan-fitzgerald/?ref=mereorthodoxy.com#more-1564).