That is strong medicine indeed. According to Ritschl, herald preachers are not supposed even to speculate about how their sermons were received by the hearers. Were they listening? Were they challenged? Were they moved? These are not proper questions for the herald. Heralds do not attempt to defend Christian doctrine or to persuade people that what they are preaching is true. They only speak the message. They do not say things to themselves like, “Now my hearers will resist this idea, so I must give reasons for it to soften their resistance.” To do that would be to mistrust the message, to try
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