Choosing to Preach Discussion

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Kallie Hutton on Aug. 24, 2010 at 16:34

Preaching has to be from the Bible. The Bible is God’s word, His story written for us. Romans 15:4 says : "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope". This is not to say that preachers cannot speak about what God is doing today or the struggles this world is facing at our time, but the core of the message must be found in Scripture. The Bible does not have to be outdated an irrelevant; it is living and active; it can and will speak into the lives of people today

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Joseph HyunHo on Sep. 30, 2009 at 22:05

Yes, he must preach the Bible, and preaching has to be biblical.

I strongly agree with Dr. Anderson’s definition of preaching. "Preaching is helping people hear from God." When preaching is biblical, a congregation can listen to God’s will and heart through a preacher. The following verses show why preaching has to be biblical.

The Bible says, "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful" (Joshua 1:8).

The Scripture says, "how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Thimoty 3:15-17).

Also, it says, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).

I think that a preacher is a person who make people desire God and leads them to God with His message based upon the Word of God. Thus, preaching should be biblical.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Jeff Edwards on Feb. 16, 2009 at 13:34

Must one preach the bible? No. I used to be a salesman. I preached the benefits of electronic over mechanical measurement. My customers sometimes said that they responded to my "preaching". In the sense that preaching is influencing, selling, or persuading, we all preach sometimes, some more than others. And we preach a number of different things.

But for "biblical preaching", one must preach the bible, the special revelation of God’s will. In the church, the area of influence and persuasion is God’s will, not mine. People come to hear from God, not necessarily from me. It is God who speaks from his Word, not me. If I preach anything but the bible in church, I’m doing a bait-and-switch and selling something infinitely less valuable.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by John Jeong on Oct. 28, 2008 at 15:41

One must preach the bible, if the one is a pastor in the church.
Math teacher teaches math and science teacher teaches science and this is very obvious.
When English teacher teaches French to the class students will drop this class because they want to learn English.
Church is the place where believers can learn about the Word of God. People who have various educational backgrounds and M.A.s and PhDs come to church to listen to the Word of God from a pastor. However, today pastor talk about so many other things at the pulpit. When pastor considers bible only as he prepares sermon, it is a problem however, when pastor considers second resources or some other resources more importantly than the bible, it is a problem too, and in fact it’s more serious problem.
Preaching is about handing the message of God to the congregation, but when a pastor talks about something else than the bible, then that means he/she is conveying his/her own message to people, the message that is very limited and fragile.
Under the name of preaching, many churches giving messages about prosperity, leadership ability, business-mind, and family life. These are good topics, but church must convey the Word of God first. Sure there are some parts in the bible that talk about these issues, but very often these are sub-points of those portions.
Bible talks about all kinds of different things, and these lessons are so unique and powerful when we listen carefully and apply them in our lives.
So let business man talks about business-mind, and let some CEO talks about prosperity, and let great leader of this time talks about leadership skill.
Pastors must talk about Bible because that’s what pastors are called to do.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Ryan McDonald on Oct. 07, 2008 at 01:19

When I think about this question I think about Richard Dawkins. I know thats a strange name to be mentioning in the same breath as preaching. But if you have ever watched Dawkins speak then you realize what he is doing is preaching atheism. He speaks in the same way a preacher does he builds his talks using sermon techniques but he preaches against God. Don’t believe me watch a political candiate speak on their platform the best of them (say Barrak Obama) speak in a style that is nothing if not preaching. Now in the greek this word may well mean to preach the gospel (I trust Kevin enough to know he researched the greek thoroughly) but to our society today yes you can preach astrophysics or atheism or buddhism or any number of other things. The question is not one of calling I have a strong belief biblically based that one must be called to the preaching of the word of God in the church. But that does not exclude those outside it from having their own preachers who are just as good at their own jobs so in the largest broadest sense of the english word preach absolutely you can preach astrophysics or anything else you desire.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Kevin O'Coin on Sep. 22, 2008 at 00:08

One word in the New Testament often translated as "preach" means "to announce in an official capacity; to tell something publicly; or to proclaim with the goal to persuade, urge, warn to comply." If this is the working definition, then one can "preach" anything, including astrophysics and supply-side economics.

However, there is a more common Greek word used for "preach," and this can really only mean "to proclaim the Gospel, or bring the good news." Though in colloquial English one can be said to preach (or ordered not to be so preachy!) in the above mentioned way, I think in the narrowest and best (and biblical) sense, one can truly only preach the Scriptures, because it alone is the Good News and worthy of our proclamation. Though professors can passionately proclaim the merits of a certain economic system with persuasion as the object of such a discourse, the Gospel really is the only thing that can be preached.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Marian Tong on Oct. 22, 2007 at 21:01

I’m more conservative on this issue. I believe that one must be called to preach not because preaching is a professional job, but it’s a divine job where the preachers’ personalities, characters and spiritual life have to match the "job descriptions". I do not have much opinions on the gender issue in which male or female should/shouldn’t be preaching on the stage. But I believe that the preachers have to be doctrinal appropriate in order to deliver God’s messages. I also believe in spirit-led preaching but not improvisation. The knowledge of God’s Words and the power of spirit-led preaching have to be balanced (or be integrated, according to our professor’s term :>) in order to accomplish the objectives.

But I’m not surprised that one must be called to Preach. Moses, Joshua, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc are called by God to do the preaching in their days. Even Peter and Paul – they encountered God themselves and devoted their lives to the Lord. It seemed that the divine call appeared less in NT, but the heart and their spiritual life seem to be a more important aspect to look into this issue. I guess both passion in preaching and the call to preaching are required.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Marian Tong on Oct. 22, 2007 at 21:00

What Keith said is also my concern because I really think that "how to preach Bible" is a more practical question.

Even though I have a desire to teach Bible, I’ll really think that I sometimes have my own interpretations and experiences of Bible knowledge. Of course, I’m not going to change the major interpretations of the Bible, but sometimes because I’m not sure I’m really proclaiming God’s words, or my opinions of God’s words. Every year when I turned back to the same memory verses, I feel something different about my experiences related to the Scripture even though the teachings of Christ are the same.

The question, Can You Preach Astrophysics?" seems obvious, yet from my interpretations I’ll re-word is as "How can we sure that we are preaching Bible without mixing astrophysics into the message?" Are Yoga, Henry Potter, horoscopes and astrology "astrophysics"? Some churches say no, some says not a big deal. How about psychological theories from Freud, Piaget, and Erickson? They are all popular but Christians tend to accept Piaget and Erickson but not Freud, because the latter two focus on human development and learning. However, Piaget & Erickson are more atheistic than Freud, while Freud was one of the few ones who is willing to talk about the spiritual side of human beings!

Seeing from a practical point of view I believe that we should not preach astrophysics either. Knowledge of the world will change all the time. There are more cancer cases and other diseases, more different sociological trends, more technology evolved inventions, etc. We can’t guarantee what we learn now is right, or it will not be defeated forever. So it has a practical implication when we really teach something outside Bible.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Sally Peng on Sep. 25, 2007 at 00:28

I definitely think that preaching has to be about the Bible. The Word of God is what distinguishes preaching from any other kinds of public speaking. People come to church to hear God’s word, not our opinions on different topics of the day. So it is the responsibility of preachers to speak God’s word, and to help the listeners understand the meaning and significance of it through expository means. In a word, we can talk about astrophysics in the sermon if it helps to deliver the message of God, but we definitely need to make the Word of God the center of a sermon.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Keith Whitaker on Sep. 14, 2007 at 11:50

It’s pretty difficult to read through chapter two of the book and not come to the conclusion that we must preach the bible. In that sense, Dr Anderson makes a great preacher because he presents a "persuasive" case :) In fact, I have been challenged to be more dependent upon the Biblical text rather than my own opinions about the text. This being said, I wonder about the polarization of these two things. On page 34 it reads "We could offer our own opinion, or we could preach the wisdom of God." I wonder whether these two things ever overlap, and if so, how might we know where God’s wisdom ends and our opinion takes over. Indeed, even our interpretation of God’s wisdom, at times, relies somewhat on our "opinion" albeit an informed and Spirit guided opinion. In essence, I am weary of preaching "my opinions" because I want to be biblical, but I sense that in some instances these "opinions" make up my understanding of God’s wisdom as it is laid out in scripture.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Chris Synesael on Feb. 04, 2007 at 08:35

yes. i think you can preach anything. should you? probably not. context dictates the validity of your message. if i were to preach ‘astrophysics’ at my church there could be some issues, likewise, if i preached the scriptures to my ‘astrophysics’ class the issues may be similar.

with all that being said i feel a greater sense of responsibility to preach the scriptures.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Johnny Lo on Jan. 25, 2007 at 00:12

It seems as if a lot of this is based upon semantics and the definition and usage of the word ‘preaching.’ Some would call ‘preaching astrophysics’ as someone who is just teaching with a passion and strong conviction. In a Christian context, however, I believe that one must preach from the Bible.

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Steve Driediger on Jan. 17, 2007 at 21:14

Just curious, though, what if we preached how astrophysics reveals who God is? Or if by preaching ‘science’ we could proclaim how God has ordered how world? Or if by preaching ‘creation’ we could proclaim how incomprehensible our God is?

re: #4 - Can You Preach Astrophysics?

Posted by Melissa Lane on Jan. 16, 2007 at 14:56

If preaching is just about speaking about something with passion, then one could preach astrophysics. If preaching was merely about the transmission of ideas someone could choose anything to preach about. However, preaching is not about talking, its about the Proclamation of the Truth. It is about bringing people into the presence of God so that He can interact with them. It is about jumping into Scripture and hearing what God has to say about it through the text to people in a particular time and place today. Preaching is not just a mode or setting of communication — it is about hearing from God. Astrophysics "preached" in the pulpit brings on sleep for most, not an experience of the divine.