Throughout the history of the church the greatest preachers have been those who have recognized that they have no authority in themselves, and have seen their task as being to explain the words of Scripture and apply them clearly to the lives of their hearers. Their preaching has drawn its power not from the proclamation of their own Christian experiences of the experiences of others, nor from their own opinions, creative ideas, or rhetorical skills, but from God's powerful words. Essentially, they stood in the pulpit, pointed to the biblical text, and said in effect to the congregation, "This is what this verse means. Do you see that meaning here as well? Then you must believe it and obey it with all your heart, for God himself, you Creator and your Lord, is saying this to you today!" Only the written words of Scripture can give this kind of authority to preaching.--Wayne Grudem, Bible Doctrine
(HT: Josh Harris)
4 comments:
This is vitally true. The problem lies in that neither we who preach or we who listen really believe it...
I'm curious what you mean by "church-long" in your blog description.
by "church-long" i mean the history of the church...
but don't make me tip my hat just yet, that's a series to come!
Very well. Keep thy hat on.
Interested at all in the conference I mentioned?
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