R. Albert Mohler Jr.'s Blog, page 242

The Briefing 09-05-17

Lessons small become lessons large: North Korean threat reveals necessity of stability and orderNew York Times ( Motoko Rich and David Sanger) — Motives of North Korea’s Leader Baffle Americans and AlliesFinancial Times (Gideon Rachman) — Miscalculation could lead to a Korean war

The strength of relationships vs. the fragility of stuff in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey

Two rival visions of Christianity on display in the response to the Nashville StatementWashington Post (R. Albert Mohler Jr.) — I signed the Nashville Statement. It’s an expression of love for same-sex attracted people.

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The Briefing 09-01-17

Princess Diana: Not only a pop culture icon, but also a driver of the moral revolutionNew York Times (Sarah Lyall) — Diana’s Legacy: A Reshaped Monarchy, a More Emotional U.K.

Hurricane Harvey tests the vocabulary of meteorologyNew York Times (Christine Hauser) — As Harvey Raged, Meteorologists Grasped for Words to Describe It

Courage under fire: How a kindly grandmother who turned out to be an important WWII spyNew York Times (William Grimes) — Jeannie Rousseau de Clarens, Valiant World War II Spy, Dies at 98

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Ask Anything Live (Episode 5)

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The Briefing 08-31-17

The new functionalist understanding of religion and how it contrasts with biblical ChristianityChicago Tribune (Rex Huppke) — Anti-LGBT 'Nashville Statement' meets a more loving 'Chicago Statement'

Finding refuge in the muddled middle: What can we learn from responses to the Nashville Statement?

Knowledge vs. Faith: Is there a new chasm in American intellectual and religious life?Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Tracie Mauriello) — Monument to myth or history? Museum of the Bible to open in Washington, D.C.

Should children be told that they can be anything they want to be?The Guardian (Kevin Rawlison) — Disneyland apologises for banning boy from Princess experience

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The Briefing 08-30-17

Evangelical coalition releases Nashville statement, a manifesto on biblical sexualityCBMW (Matt Damico) — CBMW Releases Coalition Statement on Biblical Sexuality

Nowhere to hide: Church faces unavoidable questions on issues of sexualityRNS (Emily McFarlan Miller) — Why is sexuality such a big deal for the church?

Why the human scale is the most important scale when it comes to Hurricane HarveyWashington Post (Jason Samenow) — Harvey marks the most extreme rain event in U.S. history

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And in Him All Things Hold Together: Jesus Christ as Beginning and End of Knowledge

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And in Him All Things Hold Together: Jesus Christ as Beginning and End of Knowledge

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The Briefing 08-29-17

Harvey dumps over 9 trillion (and counting) gallons of water on Texas. What does this mean?Washington Post (Matthew Cappucci) — Texas flood disaster: Harvey has unloaded 9 trillion gallons of water

Is marriage just an ‘evolving institution’? One Australian political figure thinks soThe Guardian (Gareth Hutchens) — Nick Greiner denounces 'religious freedom' argument against marriage equality

‘X’ marks the spot: Canada adds third gender category to passportsNew York Times (Niraj Chokshi) — Canada Introduces ‘X’ as a Third Sex Category for Passport Holders

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The Urgency of Preaching

And how will they hear without a preacher?

Romans 10:14

Has preaching fallen on hard times? An open debate is now being waged over the character and centrality of preaching in the church. At stake is nothing less than the integrity of Christian worship and proclamation.

How did this happen? Given the central place of preaching in the New Testament church, it would seem that the priority of biblical preaching should be uncontested. After all, as John A. Broadus–one of Southern Seminary’s founding faculty–famously remarked, “Preaching is characteristic of Christianity. No other religion has made the regular and frequent assembling of groups of people, to hear religious instruction and exhortation, an integral part of Christian worship.”

Yet, numerous influential voices within evangelicalism suggest that the age of the expository sermon is now past. In its place, some contemporary preachers now substitute messages intentionally designed to reach secular or superficial congregations–messages which avoid preaching a biblical text, and thus avoid a potentially embarrassing confrontation with biblical truth.

A subtle shift visible at the onset of the twentieth century has become a great divide as the century ends. The shift from expository preaching to more topical and human-centered approaches has grown into a debate over the place of Scripture in preaching, and the nature of preaching itself.

Two famous statements about preaching illustrate this growing divide. Reflecting poetically on the urgency and centrality of preaching, the Puritan pastor Richard Baxter once remarked, “I preach as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.” With vivid expression and a sense of gospel gravity, Baxter understood that preaching is literally a life or death affair. Eternity hangs in the balance as the preacher proclaims the Word.

Contrast that statement to the words of Harry Emerson Fosdick, perhaps the most famous (or infamous) preacher of this century’s early decades. Fosdick, pastor of the Riverside Church in New York City, provides an instructive contrast to the venerable Baxter. “Preaching,” he explained, “is personal counseling on a group basis.”

These two statements about preaching reveal the contours of the contemporary debate. For Baxter, the promise of heaven and the horrors of hell frame the preacher’s consuming burden. For Fosdick, the preacher is a kindly counselor offering helpful advice and encouragement.

The current debate over preaching is most commonly explained as a argument about the focus and shape of the sermon. Should the preacher seek to preach a biblical text through an expository sermon? Or, should the preacher direct the sermon to the “felt needs” and perceived concerns of the hearers?

Clearly, many evangelicals now favor the second approach. Urged on by devotees of “needs-based preaching,” many evangelicals have abandoned the text without recognizing that they have done so. These preachers may eventually get to the text in the course of the sermon, but the text does not set the agenda or establish the shape of the message.

Focusing on so-called “perceived needs” and allowing these needs to set the preaching agenda inevitably leads to a loss of biblical authority and biblical content in the sermon. Yet, this pattern is increasingly the norm in many evangelical pulpits. Fosdick must be smiling from the grave.

Earlier evangelicals recognized Fosdick’s approach as a rejection of biblical preaching. An out-of-the-closet theological liberal, Fosdick paraded his rejection of biblical inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility–and rejected other doctrines central to the Christian faith. Enamored with trends in psychological theory, Fosdick became liberal Protestantism’s happy pulpit therapist. The goal of his preaching was well captured by the title of one of his many books, On Being a Real Person.

Shockingly, this is now the approach evident in many evangelical pulpits. The sacred desk has become an advice center and the pew has become the therapist’s couch. Psychological and practical concerns have displaced theological exegesis and the preacher directs his sermon to the congregation’s perceived needs.

The problem is, of course, that the sinner does not know what his most urgent need is. She is blind to her need for redemption and reconciliation with God, and focuses on potentially real but temporal needs such as personal fulfillment, financial security, family peace, and career advancement. Too many sermons settle for answering these expressed needs and concerns, and fail to proclaim the Word of Truth.

Without doubt, few preachers following this popular trend intend to depart from the Bible. But under the guise of an intention to reach modern secular men and women “where they are,” the sermon has been transformed into a success seminar. Some verses of Scripture may be added to the mix, but for a sermon to be genuinely biblical, the text must set the agenda as the foundation of the message–not as an authority cited for spiritual footnoting.

Charles Spurgeon confronted the very same pattern of wavering pulpits in his own day. Some of the most fashionable and well-attended London churches featured pulpiteers who were the precursors to modern needs-based preachers. Spurgeon–who managed to draw a few hearers despite his insistence on biblical preaching–confessed that “The true ambassador for Christ feels that he himself stands before God and has to deal with souls in God’s stead as God’s servant, and stands in a solemn place–a place in which unfaithfulness is inhumanity to man as well as treason to God.”

Spurgeon and Baxter understood the dangerous mandate of the preacher, and were therefore driven to the Bible as their only authority and message. They left their pulpits trembling with urgent concern for the souls of their hearers and fully aware of their accountability to God for preaching His Word, and His Word alone. Their sermons were measured by power; Fosdick’s by popularity.

The current debate over preaching may well shake congregations, denominations, and the evangelical movement. But know this: The recovery and renewal of the church in this generation will come only when from pulpit to pulpit the herald preaches as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.

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The Briefing 08-28-17

As Hurricane Harvey makes landfall, the best and worst of human nature is on displayWashington Post (Dylan Baddour, Kevin Sullivan, Wesley Lowery and Robert Samuels) — 3,000 guard troops called up as ‘catastrophic’ Harvey causes deadly floods in Texas

Moralizing on a college campus: A new sexual ethic emerges at Wesleyan UniversityNew York Times (Vanessa Grigoriadis) — Sex at Wesleyan: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t? An Alumna Asks

Why the long-term view of the LGBT revolutionaries is not long enoughNew York Times (Frank Bruni) — The Worst (and Best) Places to Be Gay in America

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