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Those who listen to preachers have the responsibility to listen carefully: “Beloved, believe not every spirit but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world (1 John 4:1). Clearly a preacher who preaches that which is false or who abuses the Word of God is to be rejected (Rom. 16:17–18). The reasons for this rejection are that he will be lost (Gal. 1:7–9) and those who follow him will also be lost (Mat. 15:14). The most basic error that can be made by those in modern pulpits is the proclamation of doubt that the Bible is really the Word of God. Obviously, if Satan can rob men of their faith in the Bible, he has won. A preacher doesn’t have to preach very long before he reveals his attitude toward the Bible’s inspiration. As you listen to your preacher, be attentive to the following:
Does he preach as though it is his place to sit in judgment of the Bible instead of his being judged by it? The “demythologizing” school of Biblical criticism takes this very approach to the Bible. Its advocates begin with the assumption that authors of the Bible used myths, fables, and human traditions in producing the text of the Bible. Accordingly, with blatant presumption, they have gone through the inspired volume, casting aside what they deemed to be from mythical sources. Not too strangely, this has led them to deny the authenticity of anything that disagreed with their liberal bias. Since theological liberalism allows no place for the Bible’s claim of inspiration, much less for the Biblical accounts of miraculous activity, all such must be removed from the Sacred Text, or naturalistically “explained” as non-authentic. This does away with such things as the account of creation, the universal flood, the exodus from Egypt through the Red Sea (and all the wilderness miracles), the swallowing of Jonah by a great fish and much, much more of the Old Testament. In the New Testament, such things as the virgin birth of the Lord, the miracles of Jesus, the atoning power of Jesus’ blood (liberals can’t stand the mention of blood), and His resurrection must all be explained away by natural, ordinary means. What we have left when the critics finish with the Bible is a ragged, disjointed, powerless collection of the writings of men. Unfortunately,most of the theological schools for a number of years have been dominated by such attitudes toward the Bible. The products of these schools have spread their unbelieving judgments about the Bible through both pulpit and Bible school literature and the faith of millions has been damaged or destroyed. Let us be reminded that we will be judged by God’s Word; it is not the place of any man to sit in judgment of it: Jesus said, “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).
[Note: I wrote this article for, and it was published in the “Bible Thoughts” Column for the Hood County News, Granbury, Texas, February 3, 1980.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.
