On Interpreting Scripture...

"You need faith and the Holy Spirit to interpret Scripture. The Bible doesn’t make sense to non-believers. It is God’s love letter to believers. When an unbeliever reads the Word, he is reading someone else’s mail. The Bible is a spiritual book that must be understood by spiritual people."                                                                         -Rick Warren

 Biblical Interpretation: God Doesn't Leave You in the Dark by Rick Warren, www.rickwarren.org, October 4, 2014

Pardon me, but comparing the reading of the Bible by an unbeliever to the idea of reading other people's mail, is like saying, 'this book and what it contains is not for you, keep out."

While there are things hard to understand in the scriptures and indeed the natural man cannot understand the spiritual things therein without the help of the Holy Spirit, it is inaccurate to say that "the "bible doesn't make sense" to non believers.  Let's not forget that people have given their lives so that the contents of the Bible could be brought to an unbelieving world. And let's not trivialize the fact that the bible is a great work of literature too.

The bible contains the very laws that many civilizations past and present are based upon.  IT contains historical facts and figures too.  It's easy to read and learn from, and the words contained in this book of books are full of wisdom too.  While it would be wrong to read someone else mail... the bible, full of the testimony of God and the promises he has for mankind through faith in Jesus Christ...(See Acts 2:39) is for anyone with an ear to hear what the spirit of God is saying... but (spiritually wise, "pastor") Rick says that it is only for you... if you, (like him) are "spiritual."

"You need faith and the Holy Spirit to interpret scripture."

He does tell his readers they need "faith," in order to understand this spiritual book, but just "faith."  (And while we might assume he means faith in Jesus, he does not say, making it quite possible that religious "faith" in anything that can be dubbed "spiritual" just might do the trick.  

Rick, once again, is not clear on the issues.  He speaks quite vaguely... elusively even, but if you would like more clarity on the matter of biblical interpretation,  see this article offered on the web by Ron Rhodes and Richard Anthony that actually does clearly point to faith in Jesus Christ and sheds light from the true light of Jesus on the role of the Holy Spirit regarding the interpretation of scripture.