Do you know Jonathan Edwards? He was a revivalist preacher in New England, USA in the 18th century. He is considered to be the finest American philosophical theologian.
I have a copy of his sermon "Sinners in the hands of an angry God". It has been sitting for years in the book shelve so I decided to do an exercise of Law and Gospel.
They were right, as I read Edward's sermon, I could really feel the tongues of fire licking the soles of my feet. It is terrifying to read. A fine sermon on the Law. As I read the sermon I was kept hanging. It was the experience of watching 24 or Lost. I was on the edge of my seat because I was looking for the suspense, the climax. I was saying, hang on maybe good news is coming up, may be in the next page. Nope not there, but may be towards the end?
I finished the sermon. Unfortunately it never came. There were spots here and there of the need to be converted, born again but nope, no Gospel forth coming. Sorry. This has really puzzled me a lot and I wish someone can explain to me my sense of hopelessness. Why is it considered a good sermon? Why do people hail it?
The sermon sounded to me more like "Sinners in the hands of an Angry Preacher".
I am really sorry, that is honestly what I think. I only got the problem, no solution.
6 comments:
I can't believe no one commented on this very good post! Let's see if we can't change that!
Just ran across this post. L.P.Cruz pretty much sums up the issue. Can't think of anything to add or comment on.
I visited small towns in Brazil and I came to know some small churches filled with simple people, but the massages they preached was full of vigor and what they called "anointed". It was simple massages with grammar errors and without a good beginning and sometimes an awful end to it. But one thing I noticed was that the listeners to those words loved it and took those words like it came straight from heaven. Faith to these called "anointed" preaching is the key to become great massages and consequently great preachers.
Hello,
The power of the message comes from the truth that is being preached, not through the emotional flux happening at that time.
People are built up on truth - Jesus said this - the truth sets people free.
We have a saying - first get the message right, then get the message out.
No point getting the message that comes from false doctrine, it might be enjoyable at that time until reality hits. It is like opium, you feel good at the time but after that your got closer to your death.
Yes, but there are great preachers that think they are preaching the "truth". They may not be preaching the "truth" but they are still great preachers.
so it is ok to preach false doctrine so long as the preacher is doing it well? How can a preacher be a great preacher if he spews out error?
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