For example, someone might complain, "I understand that the Bible is sufficient, but it does not tell me which stocks to buy," or less reverently, "You say that the Bible is sufficient, but it does not tell me which stocks to buy." Of course, people ask questions about all kinds of topics. Another one would be, "The Bible does not tell me whom to marry, so how I am supposed to decide?" Thus I am not only thinking about stocks, but there are common problems with these questions, so with the appropriate adaptations, the following response will apply to all of them.

First, like most people, this person probably never read the entire Bible, so he is just assuming that the Bible does not specify, even by name, which stocks he is supposed to buy. And even if one has read the entire Bible, he cannot say that he has derived all that is possible from it. More often than not the Bible has something very specific to say about the question, and one can always derive some definite principles that will either render the right choice obvious or at least greatly limit the allowable options. The problem is that this person has too little knowledge of what the Bible says.

Second, the person assumes a goal and the means to that goal that he probably did not derive from the Bible, and then expects the Bible to instruct him on how to attain this goal by such means. He wishes to make a financial profit, and he thinks that purchasing the right stocks would be the right away to attain this goal, and since the Bible is infallible, he approaches it to find the answer. But does the Bible approve or command such a goal? If it does, does it say that this is the right away to attain it? How about the lottery? Is the Bible insufficient if it does not tell you which numbers to choose?

Many people first define what they want or need apart from the Bible, and then come to the Bible for answers. In a financial situation, they would think, "The Bible is supposed to be sufficient for every situation that I face in life, and to tell me God's mind on the subject. With this problem that I am facing, what should I do so that I will make a profit or not suffer loss?"

They appear to seek guidance from the Bible, but they have already assumed the proper result that the Bible is supposed to help them attain. However, they never asked the Bible as to whether God wishes for them to make a profit or not suffer loss. Their respect and dependence on the Bible does not start from the beginning of their chain of priorities and their process of reasoning, but only when they have made enough assumptions apart from the Bible that they are now willing to let it take over to satisfy those assumptions.

But the Bible might not offer them the answers that they seek, since it probably never approved what generated the questions in the first place. Or, in our example, even if the Bible would declare profit a proper goal, it might do so for a different reason, or from another perspective, attaching to it different motives and background assumptions.²³