Why Doctrinal Preaching Declines

Arthur W. Pink

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2Timothy.4:3-4.

During the last two or three generations the pulpit has given less and less prominence to doctrinal preaching, until today, with very rare exceptions, it has no place at all. In some quarters the cry from the pew was, 'we want living experience and not dry doctrine'; in others, 'we need practical sermons and not metaphysical dogmas'; and yet others, Give us Christ and not theology. Sad to say, such senseless cries were generally heeded: 'senseless' we say, for there is no other safe way of testing experience, as there is no foundation for practicals to be built upon if they be divorced from Scriptural doctrine; while Christ cannot be known unless he be preached (1Cor.1:23), and he certainly cannot be 'preached' if doctrine is shelved. Various reasons may be given for the lamentable failure of the pulpit, chief among them being laziness, desire for popularity, superficial and lop-sided evangelism, and love of the sensational'.

Laziness. It is a far more exacting task, one which calls for much closer confinement in the study, to prepare a series of sermons on, say the doctrine of justification, than it does to make addresses on prayer, missions, or personal-work. It demands a far wider acquaintance with the Scriptures, a more rigid disciplining of the mind, and a more extensive perusal of the older writers. But this was too exacting for most of the ministers, and so they chose the line of least resistance and followed an easier course. It is because of his proneness to this weakness that the minister is particularly exhorted, 'Give attendance to reading ... take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine: continue in them' (1Tim.4:13,16); and again, 'Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, (2Tim.2: 15).

Desire for popularity. It is natural that the preacher should wish to please his hearers, but it is spiritual for him to desire and aim at the approbation of God. Nor can any man serve two masters. As the apostle expressly declared, 'For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ' (Gal.1:10): solemn words are those! How they condemn them whose chief aim is to preach to crowded churches! Yet what grace it requires to swim against the tide of public opinion, and preach that which is unacceptable to the natural man. But on the other hand, how fearful will be the doom of those who, from a determination to curry favour with men, deliberately withheld those portions of the truth most needed by their hearers. 'Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it' (Deut.4:2). Oh to be able to say with Paul, 'I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you ... I am pure from the blood of all' (Acts.20:20, 26).

A superficial and lop-sided 'evangelism'. Many of the pulpiteers of the past fifty years acted as though the first and last object of their calling was the salvation of souls, everything being made to bend to that aim. In consequence, the feeding of the sheep, the maintaining of a Scriptural discipline in the church, and the inculcation of practical piety, was crowded out; and only too often all sorts of worldly devices and fleshly methods were employed under the plea that the end justified the means; and thus the churches were filled with unregenerate members. In reality, such men defeated their own aim. The hard heart must be ploughed and harrowed before it can be receptive to the gospel seed. Doctrinal instruction must be given on the character of God, the requirements of his Law, the nature and heinousness of sin, if a foundation is to be laid for true evangelism. It is useless to preach Christ unto souls until they see and feel their desperate need of him.

December 1939

Excert from The Life of Arthur W. Pink, by Ian H. Murray, Banner of Truth, Edinburgh, 1981, pp217-8

A Ministry of Questions (for local newspaper)

Scott Price

Most people today seem very uninterested in thinking. They crack jokes about hurting their brain from thinking. If you ask them in a generic greeting, "What do ya know", they reply, "Nothing, it gets me in trouble" as if thinking, knowing, and learning were something bad. Year after year attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Scholars, to some people, are looked upon as nerds or losers. Some people keep the TV on at home even when they are not watching it for what they call "back ground noise". What has happened to the mind of the average American, has it expanded or has it become used to being unchallenged, unopened, and willfully ignorant of the knowledge of the most important things?

A few years ago I bought an old work car and did not have a stereo in it for well over a year. A friend of mine asked how I could stand the silence in the car day in and day out. I used the time in the car for thinking, even prayer. Now before we go on we need to clarify that, yes, you can pray with your eyes open. It can be done and it is acceptable. Did some of you religious people think God only hears prayers of people with their eyes tightly shut, their hands neatly folded, and that you must be on your knees? If this is the case then what does the Bible mean when it tells God's people to, "Pray without ceasing"? Oh, a question to cause thought. See, now we are getting somewhere.

The gospel ministry is one of causing people to think or to consider things by questions that confront them. Not questions about things that are not related to the gospel but Christ-centered, Gospel-centered, Truth-centered questions that quickly get to the heart of the matter. The main problem today with most religions is they think they have the answers and they simply do not even know the right questions. The gospel ministry should be one of posing vital questions and answering them for the people you are preaching to. We must raise the important questions that nobody else in the religious world is asking. Then as we seek to graciously help people we give a clear explained gospel answer to the question, based on God's word.

Think just in one aspect of this for a minute: Definitions. When we ask ourselves to define a word we are simply asking the question, 'what does this word mean?' When we deal with any subject we must get on board with what words in that subject mean. If we are talking about the Bible then what Bible version or translation is used will be a determining factor on whether you even understand the English words being used. If faith comes by hearing the word of God (the truth of the Bible or Scriptures) as it tells us in Romans 10:17, then we need to know the definitions of the words we are hearing.

Have you ever spoken to someone about a topic and you both talked right passed each other because you were both using a different set of definitions for the topic at hand? The concepts in your mind were totally different but they thought they agreed with you because they assumed you had the same set of definitions. An example would be: If I called every preacher in the area and asked them if they believe in Predestination and they answered by saying "yes", then what should I do? Should I simply say, "I do too"? Or should I say, "Well, I do, but what do YOU mean when you say YOU do?" The definitions of things and even whole concepts must be brought to the table before we can even know what we are talking about. The idea here is that questions lead to clarity.

If people are not being open for questions or even to challenge themselves with questions then there is no progression in the truth. If a preacher will not answer questions or allow himself to be questioned at all is he not, in a sense, hiding the truth or hiding from something? The Bible says to "Beware of false prophets" (Matt 7:15), which means you cannot trust every preacher out there. Actually according to the 2 verses ahead (13-14) MOST are not to be trusted. In religion, the majority are wrong, in other words. Wow, the job seems to be getting harder. Maybe that information actually just made it easier for some who are starting to think.

When it comes to eternal matters of truth about who God is, what is the condition of humankind, and what is the remedy for that condition, there is no time for ignorance, half hearted attempts at searching for answers and certainly not time to dodge the questions that matter. There is no excuse for laziness in these areas. There is no excuse for ignorance in these areas. Think, read, hear, think some more, question, read some more, hear, challenge, think again and so on. As truth comes in adjustments are made to cast out error. This is progression. The thing is you must get started. Do you care enough to take that journey? There are many questions the Bible asks that could be started with. One is: What do you think of Christ? Think about it. Can you think about that one enough to start reading, digging, and finding answers that would satisfy you? It is dangerous to stop thinking. May God give you grace to ask the right questions and He give you the right answers.

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