Monday, April 14, 2014

 

Maybe, Maybe Not

Reformation Theology quotes Martin Lloyd Jones from 'Preaching and Preachers:
"Why is it that you call people to repent? Why do you call them to believe the Gospel? You cannot deal properly with repentance without dealing with the doctrine of man, the doctrine of the Fall, the doctrine of sin and the wrath of God against sin. Then when you call men to come to Christ and to give themselves to Him, how can you do so without knowing who He is, and on what grounds you invite them to come to Him, and so on. In other words it is all highly theological. Evangelism which is not theological is not evangelism at all in any true sense. It may be a calling for decisions, it may be a calling on people to come to religion, or to live a better life, or the offering of some psychological benefits; but it cannot by any definition be regarded as Christian evangelism, because there is no true reason for what you are doing apart from these great theological principles. I assert therefore that every type of preaching must be theological, including evangelistic preaching."
There is a thing and then there is an understanding of a thing. For example - using a screw to attach two piece of wood. Most people can do that, but how many people can explain why, and most importantly, how the screw works. There is physics, material science, and horticulture involved in the process. Few people have knowledge in all of these areas.

While I agree with Lloyd-Jones that there is a cheap form of evangelism wherein psychological benefits is offered in lieu of a genuine confrontation with Christ, I think that such a genuine confrontation is quite possible without theology. I honestly cannot tell if this is an admonition to the preacher or the congregation. If to the preacher, then I will adopt it wholly. Too much preaching attempts to be empathetic without deep content.

If this admonition is tot he congregation, then I find it quite off-putting.

What I find most amazing is that a blog dedicated to Calvinist thinking would think the salvation process is dependent on what or how we think about anything. After all, God saves us, not our thinking.


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