If you read lots of Christian books, or watch lots of popular preachers on TV, you will notice that many of the most popular preachers and authors have stopped emphasizing God’s Word.
It used to be that preachers and Christian authors would go verse by verse through a passage. They would make lots of important observations from the text. They would help the audience understand what the text was saying.
Look at the writings of John Nelson Darby, C. H. MacIntosh, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lewis Sperry Chafer, J. Vernon McGee, Charles Ryrie, Earl Radmacher, R. B. Thieme, Lance Latham, and Zane Hodges. Scripture is quoted and explained over and over again in their writings. They also do a lot of proof texting, in the positive sense. That is, after they explain a passage they will give a list of other passages that deal with the same subject and which make the same point.
Now the string of pearls approach is often used instead. The string is a theme from the Bible. The pearls are illustrations. Many sermons and Christian books emphasize man-made illustrations, not Scripture. Often at the start of a sermon or chapter the preacher or author mentions a Bible verse and that is the last you hear about that verse. The rest of sermon or chapter is a series of illustrations and maybe some suggested application.
I’ve read a number of Christian books lately where not a single verse is mentioned in the text. If a verse is quoted or alluded to, the author will put an endnote number and move on. In order to find out what verses were mentioned, one needs to go to the back of the book and find where the endnotes are, search out the right chapter, then find the right endnote number. That is a process that studies show less than one reader in 100 will take the time to do.
This can bleed over into the way the Bible does or does not enter into our conversations. For many churchgoers there is little if any discussion after the service of the text of Scripture which was mentioned in the sermon.
A friend of mine attended seminary over a decade ago. A megachurch pastor came and spoke in chapel. My friend told me that while most of the students walked out marveling at how fantastic the message was, he had the opposite reaction.
“It was entertaining, but it was a lousy message,” he told me. “The preacher took liberties with the text. He found things in the passage which he could use as springboards to talk about marriage and parenting. But marriage and parenting were not at all the author’s intent in the passage. While he mentioned some of the words found in the passage, he did not preach the passage. He preached what he wanted to say about marriage and parenting.”
I attend a Bible-teaching church, Victor Street Bible Chapel in Dallas. In our church the person preaching (we have a rotation of four or five men) always goes through a passage. He explains what the text means. While many of us use illustrations, the illustrations merely illustrate what the text is saying. The meat of the message is always God’s Word.
In the books we publish at GES we emphasize God’s Word. We explain the Scriptures. We give lots of detailed exegetical comments.
I’m not suggesting that Christian speakers and authors must always emphasize a specific text from God’s Word. In my blog writing I often do not interpret a text for the reader. For example, in this blog I am trying to exalt God’s Word, but so far I haven’t mentioned or explained a single text. But blogs are different than sermons and Christian books designed to convey spiritual truth.
What I am suggesting is that sermons and Lord’s Supper messages ought to walk through a passage in more or less a verse by verse fashion. And Christian books should at the very least quote and explain and allude to the Word of God a lot.
Peter reminded his readers that they had been “born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Pet 1:23). He then quotes Isa 40:6, which says in part, “The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of God endures forever” (1 Pet 1:24-25). That is powerful stuff.
We not only are born again by God’s amazing Word, we also are transformed by it. Peter later went on to say, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Pet 2:2). Paul said “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2) and “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror [God’s Word] the glory of the Lord [Jesus], are being transformed into the same image [Jesus’ image] from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18).”
There is no salvation and no sanctification without partaking of God’s Word. That is the point of the Lord’s Parable of the Four Soils (Luke 8:5-18). His Word is our bread, our food, our spiritual nourishment.
I think it is high time that our preachers and our authors get back to emphasizing God’s Word. Maybe that is old fashioned. Who wants to hear J. Vernon McGee in the 21st century? Actually, a lot of people listen to him on the radio every day. He still has a huge following. Besides, the size of our movement is not important. What is important is that we are well pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:9-10).
I want to learn to be a better writer. Maybe I need to have some books in which I don’t include much exegesis and in which I try to reach the reader with a more popular approach. I’ve considered writing my life story, for example. I would use a different style for such a book. (Even in such a book I think I would quote and explain a lot of Scripture.) However, I think it would unwise for me or for GES to get away from our main bread and butter, proclaiming the message of life and the related yet distinct message of discipleship by explaining God’s Word, including all of the tough texts.
I love the Lord Jesus Christ. That means I love His Word, too.
