Biblical Scholarship in the Pulpit

[Hans Deventer]

BTW... Don't hear me say that acedemic scholarship is bad. Not at all. Rather, I sometimes wonder if we have lost our first love - that being the pursuit of becoming a true example of a person hungering after Christ - in order to look smart in front pf our congregations.

Love you brothers and sisters! Have a wonderful Sabbath!

Jon, through the years the main topic of my sermons has been deeply intertwined with my personal struggles with God. I don't know if it made me look smart, but I hope it made me look real and thus, connect with my audience. And I have learned a lot from fellow travellers on the road who pointed me towards places in the Scriptures I didn't think of or never read in that way. Personal study is good. But I also believe we should study together as fellow believers.
After all, it's only "together with all the Lord’s holy people" that we can "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

[Jonathan Hooker]

Hans, I totally agree with you. My comments were not focused on personal study or study with other believers. I was more focusing on something that I have seen become more of a focus with many pastors and that is the idea that I as a pastor need to know more than those in my congregation with regards to theology, history, context, other writings of scholars, etc. Before long pastors start spending more time with those external sources than they do with the Scriptures and their relationship with Christ.

Let me put it this way... This is kind of like the work place at a certain level. I work in technology and as such I am expected to study and know at an expert level certain technologies. So I study and read and understand what other people have done. But if I spend all my time doing that, I am just a person who knows a lot of facts. That is how many college students enter the job place - at a beginner level. But if on the other hand, I love computers to the point where I am working actively on them, asking questions, trying out new things and through that then consulting the books and the others who have gone before me, I become more appealing in the job place because I don't just know facts, I GET computers. I understand how they tick, I understand why something works the way it does, and I am able to do unique things with them that I couldn't do if I just know the facts. In fact, I would dare say I don't know as many facts as most college students but I have experience which makes me more valuable to the company and a better mentor to others.

In the same way, pastors need to truly experience Christ rather than just go by what some textbook or respected author says. Experiencing Christ will bring about study of other authors but that isn't the main focus, Christ is. Some of the comments in this thread concerned me that some of the people reading and writing on this thread were more focused about looking good in front of their congregations by showing them that they know more than them rather than just being authentic like you mention. Like I said, Dan Bohi is my preaching hero because of his authenticity. He experiences Christ daily by experiencing the Bible (God's words), authentic relationship with Him through prayer and listening, and through a strong support community. And it shows every time he gets up in front of people. He doesn't know much by way of systematic theology or preaching styles. He admits that freely. This wasn't what he went to school for. But he knows by experience what God wants to share and he does it in a way that you can clearly tell it is the HS speaking through him.

The simple truth to this is that if we have the HS speaking through us, we don't need academic scholarship, systematic theology, or any other external source because He provides it for us. Look at Peter and John in Acts, they were experiencing Christ and through the HS's guidance, they taught and preached what they knew from Scripture as it was given to them by the HS and they drew many to Christ every time they did it. Look at Paul, same thing happened. They saw more discipleship through their ministry than most of our churches today. Look at the early churches and how they exploded. Look even at China and third world countries. We don't need more school or books on how to do ministry or how to teach, we just simply need to experience Christ and share it with others.

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Just my thoughts...

[Doug Ward]

The simple truth to this is that if we have the HS speaking through us, we don't need academic scholarship, systematic theology, or any other external source because He provides it for us. Look at Peter and John in Acts, they were experiencing Christ and through the HS's guidance, they taught and preached what they knew from Scripture as it was given to them by the HS and they drew many to Christ every time they did it. Look at Paul, same thing happened. They saw more discipleship through their ministry than most of our churches today. Look at the early churches and how they exploded. Look even at China and third world countries. We don't need more school or books on how to do ministry or how to teach, we just simply need to experience Christ and share it with others.

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Just my thoughts...

I agree with Jonathan, we don't need any of that fancy book learnin. We got too many of these Drs. in the pulpit. We got so many you'd think God was sick. We just need the Holy Spirit. Those that read all of those books, they are just trying to look smarter than others. I reject that prideful behavior. I go to sleep each night with the Bible under my pillow and pray that God gives me His message through osmosis.

[Gene Tatsch]

...The simple truth to this is that if we have the HS speaking through us, we don't need academic scholarship, systematic theology, or any other external source because He provides it for us. Look at Peter and John in Acts, they were experiencing Christ and through the HS's guidance, ...

We may not "need" these things, but when we present education, training, insights, etc. to the Holy Spirit, He often is enabled to act far more richly than otherwise.

[Bob Hunter]

The simple truth to this is that if we have the HS speaking through us, we don't need academic scholarship, systematic theology, or any other external source because He provides it for us.

Just my thoughts...

Um, but that doesn't get us off the hook and it could be very irresponsible leading to laziness & ignorance. I think a preacher has to balance information with spiritual formation. Basically you describe a method of spiritually reading the text and developing a sermon in cooperation with the spirit's leading. I think all of us are for doing just that. But it is extremely important to enhance what God is saying to us through the text with scholarly insights. Supplement your times of sermon prep with scholarly resources that open up new windows of understanding that the Holy Spirit can use in addition to spiritually reading the text.

Just some food for thought....

[Daniel Hamlin]

In this case, no. Just another example of how much we disrespect each other. Though its only a small percentage of posters, I find myself drawn into the cesspool of arrogant interactions and find myself doing the very things I despise.

I don't know how many people post on Naznet, but I noticed that among the prolific posters, very few are friendly and everybody has an agenda. I even came here with an agenda. And again, those who need to hear this most will not see how this applies to them. We mistreat each other in the name of our faith and I think it is disgusting.

You are right Hans, we don't listen to each other. I don't want to play any more but these discussions are probably more habit forming than crack (and immensly more damaging). I intend to break myself of the habit of "needing" to respond, and with God's help, may it happen sooner rather than later.

I have found that the "Cancel" button is my friend, and I've abused it a lot lately....except for this post, obviously.

[Steven Burton]

I have found that the "Cancel" button is my friend, and I've abused it a lot lately....except for this post, obviously.

Yup, I use cancel more than I use post.

[Roy Richardson]

We may not "need" these things, but when we present education, training, insights, etc. to the Holy Spirit, He often is enabled to act far more richly than otherwise.

Agreed. If the Lord has blessed you with a mind you should use it for God's glory. To not develop a gift God has given you would not be a good thing, IMHO.

[Roy Richardson]

Some have hit on the tone here on NN, and it troubles me as well. When I see a thread where people are taking gratuitous potshots at each other, I generally avoid the thread because little of productive value is there and getting the good stuff out of the weeds isn't worth the effort to me.

The ad hominem attacks trouble me, and I really think we should be better behaved than that. But that is an individual issue for each person and the HS to work out. I do pray for this group, because we are out dealing with controversial issues on the forefront of the denomination. And that provokes a lot of passion.

Blessings to you all

Roy

[Randy Wise]

Its getting too heavy in this thread.

Sit back and have a laugh.

http://www.reverendfun.com/artchives/?search=preacher


Randy

[Jon Bemis]

The simple truth to this is that if we have the HS speaking through us, we don't need academic scholarship, systematic theology, or any other external source because He provides it for us. Look at Peter and John in Acts, they were experiencing Christ and through the HS's guidance, they taught and preached what they knew from Scripture as it was given to them by the HS and they drew many to Christ every time they did it. Look at Paul, same thing happened. They saw more discipleship through their ministry than most of our churches today. Look at the early churches and how they exploded. Look even at China and third world countries. We don't need more school or books on how to do ministry or how to teach, we just simply need to experience Christ and share it with others.

I don't see this as an either/or thing. I too think it is possible to to be intellectually rich and Spirit poor. Not what we need in our spiritual leaders. However, I've also known those who dismiss the need for intellectual development with the defense that they rely solely on the Spirit. In each case I've personally encountered this it appeared to me to be as much a case of intellectual laziness as anything. I would prefer a Spirit filled, Spirit led leader who is committed to intellectual growth.

[Paul DeBaufer]

The simple truth to this is that if we have the HS speaking through us, we don't need academic scholarship, systematic theology, or any other external source because He provides it for us. Look at Peter and John in Acts, they were experiencing Christ and through the HS's guidance, they taught and preached what they knew from Scripture as it was given to them by the HS and they drew many to Christ every time they did it. Look at Paul, same thing happened. They saw more discipleship through their ministry than most of our churches today. Look at the early churches and how they exploded. Look even at China and third world countries. We don't need more school or books on how to do ministry or how to teach, we just simply need to experience Christ and share it with others.

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Just my thoughts...

I don't know if this has been said or not, if so please forgive me the redundancy. John and Peter would have had basic religious education as children. Then they followed in the footsteps of their rabbi for several years. They had what was, at that time, formal education. The verse even says that the Counselor will remind them. Yes, we too have the Holy Spirit to guide us, but we do need some background training too. Peter and John would've understood Jesus' teachings within a certain cultural context in which they were immersed and would not have to learn it. Maybe we need to learn that?

[Billy Cox]

I don't know if this has been said or not, if so please forgive me the redundancy. John and Peter would have had basic religious education as children. Then they followed in the footsteps of their rabbi for several years. They had what was, at that time, formal education. The verse even says that the Counselor will remind them. Yes, we too have the Holy Spirit to guide us, but we do need some background training too. Peter and John would've understood Jesus' teachings within a certain cultural context in which they were immersed and would not have to learn it. Maybe we need to learn that?

Yes, and Paul wasn't exactly an uneducated yokel, but was rather the 'valedictorian' of his Pharisee class. Comparatively speaking, Peter and John had a sixth grade education and Paul was a PhD. I think it was Acts where Peter and John are described as unschooled, ordinary men...and then some noted that they had been with Jesus.

[Craig Laughlin]

Yes, and Paul wasn't exactly an uneducated yokel, but was rather the 'valedictorian' of his Pharisee class. Comparatively speaking, Peter and John had a sixth grade education and Paul was a PhD. I think it was Acts where Peter and John are described as unschooled, ordinary men...and then some noted that they had been with Jesus.

Yep, and look who God had do the bulk of the writing of the NT... Education is simply putting more and better tools in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Very hard to figure out how knowing less makes one better qualified to hear or be used by God.

[Benjamin Burch]

The simple truth to this is that if we have the HS speaking through us, we don't need academic scholarship, systematic theology, or any other external source because He provides it for us. Look at Peter and John in Acts, they were experiencing Christ and through the HS's guidance, they taught and preached what they knew from Scripture as it was given to them by the HS and they drew many to Christ every time they did it. Look at Paul, same thing happened. They saw more discipleship through their ministry than most of our churches today. Look at the early churches and how they exploded. Look even at China and third world countries. We don't need more school or books on how to do ministry or how to teach, we just simply need to experience Christ and share it with others.

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Just my thoughts...

I always find it interesting when people quote the Johanine Literature on this. One of peoples' favorite is this one:

As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Except.... the Elder clearly feels they need him to teach them, and to remind them, and to convict them. Likewise, in John 14-17, all the things the Paraclete does -- teaching, reminding, convicting -- are the things that the author has been doing the whole book, and that the author has claimed the Church has and will do throughout the book. Exactly the same thing in 1 John.

The "Paraclete" cannot be separated from the Church. The Holy Spirit abides in the Church, and the Church is the mediator of the Holy Spiirit, particularly in the forms of the Sacraments, and the Proclaimed Word.

Likewise, the Church has always required the Episcopate to be educated -- always.

So I just don't see any way that I buy your thoughts.

Sidenote: Even one of the most low-church, traditional Naz professors I have ever had acknowledged I was correct in this observation, as much as it made him a little uncomfortable.

[George Wallace]

Yep, and look who God had do the bulk of the writing of the NT... Education is simply putting more and better tools in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Very hard to figure out how knowing less makes one better qualified to hear or be used by God.

A quick read of the Preface of Augustine's On Christian Doctrine, (Here, I am just saying that the short- 9 paragraph- Preface, and it alone, speaks to this topic of discussion quite well.)

4. But now as to those who talk vauntingly of Divine Grace, and boast that they understand and can explain Scripture without the aid of such directions as those I now propose to lay down, and who think, therefore, that what I have undertaken to write is entirely superfluous. I would such persons could calm themselves so far as to remember that, however justly they may rejoice in God's great gift, yet it was from human teachers they themselves learnt to read. Now, they would hardly think it right that they should for that reason be held in contempt by the Egyptian monk Antony, a just and holy man, who, not being able to read himself, is said to have committed the Scriptures to memory through hearing them read by others, and by dint of wise meditation to have arrived at a thorough understanding of them; or by that barbarian slave Christianus, of whom I have lately heard from very respectable and trustworthy witnesses, who, without any teaching from man, attained a full knowledge of the art of reading simply through prayer that it might be revealed to him; after three days' supplication obtaining his request that he might read through a book presented to him on the spot by the astonished bystanders.

5. But if any one thinks that these stories are false, I do not strongly insist on them. For, as I am dealing with Christians who profess to understand the Scriptures without any directions from man (and if the fact be so, they boast of a real advantage, and one of no ordinary kind), they must surely grant that every one of us learnt his own language by hearing it constantly from childhood, and that any other language we have learnt,--Greek, or Hebrew, or any of the rest,--we have learnt either in the same way, by hearing it spoken, or from a human teacher. Now, then, suppose we advise all our brethren not to teach their children any of these things, because on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the apostles immediately began to speak the language of every race; and warn every one who has not had a like experience that he need not consider himself a Christian, or may at least doubt whether he has yet received the Holy Spirit? No, no; rather let us put away false pride and learn whatever can be learnt from man; and let him who teaches another communicate what he has himself received without arrogance and without jealousy. And do not let us tempt Him in whom we have believed, lest, being ensnared by such wiles of the enemy and by our own perversity, we may even refuse to go to the churches to hear the gospel itself, or to read a book, or to listen to another reading or preaching, in the hope that we shall be carried up to the third heaven, "whether in the body or out of the body," as the apostle says,(1) and there hear unspeakable words, such as it is not lawful for man to utter, or see the Lord Jesus Christ and hear the gospel from His own lips rather than from those of men

[Mike Schutz]

The idea that education is somehow at odds with the work and moving of the Holy Spirit is one that I believe all of us would reject, although it is a constant temptation. If we believe it to be the case, we must then admit that our denominational founders were in great error in the establishment of institutions of higher education for not only clergy but laity, and quickly stop the wasteful drain on our resources.

That each of us can point to individuals used by God without higher education is no more a rejection of its value than the much longer list of those whom the Holy Spirit has used with and in large part due to their higher education is proof of its necessity.