Th3O106E3

Sometimes I feel like I could have skipped going to seminary and just jumped into ministry. But then I have days when I realize that teaching sound doctrine is not something you can just do. You have to really wrestle with everything that you have ever thought about God and man and then decide whether what you have thought is good or heretical. Because as one of my professors has said: "All heresy begins with pastors in the pulpit teaching the Bible."

The "H" word is not one that we particularly like in light of our current social context. It rubs us the wrong way. However, the more that I study the more I realize how important the distinction between truth and heresy is.

Secondly I am reminded that in the early church there was no distinction between the office of pastor and theologian. The separation between the two is very much a product of modernity where everything is divided and specialized. The separation of theologian and pastor enables the spiritual/intellectual bankruptcy that marks most of our churches.

When was the last time that any doctrine was taught from the pulpit by your pastor?

I hope that when my time here is done I will be able to carry on the tradition of pastor theologian. Spurgeon has a great quote on this: "A sermon delivered in the finest oratory skill but that lacks any mention of Christian doctrine or the Gospel is like a table set with the finest linens and china without any food. I would rather have the Gospel preached in rough Saxon, cut and and harshly delivered, for at least I would be fed. "

We avoid wrestling with and teaching doctrine because we are afraid it will drive our listeners away. Instead we comfort them with sweet nothings tickling their ears with what they would like to hear, all the while starving them.

Knowing then that teachers will be held accountable for what they have taught should not those of us who teach be concerned with whether what we teach is truth or heresy?

That is why I am going to finish here. Not for a piece of paper, but that I might clearly articulate the Gospel of Jesus Christ and feed His sheep.