Training Preachers

July 3, 2010 Marcus Honeysett

2 Peter 1 says that if we are growing in godly character this prevents us from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. All preachers note well: we can have knowledge of God that is true but is ineffective and unproductive if we are not growing in Spirit-filled character.

What's the meaning: The Word of God with Authority

August 17, 2008 Marcus Honeysett

This isn't strictly just about the Old Testament, but I think the OT comes off worse in the Sunday School kind of Bible Teaching... John Walton on Hermeneutics and Childrens Curriculum, ht: Milton Stanley.

Walton observes five disturbing traits:

Promotion of the Trivial
Illegitimate extrapolation
Reading Between the Lines
Missing important nuance
Focus on people rather than God

And concludes: If we are negligent of sound hermeneutics when we teach Bible to children, should it be any wonder that when they get into youth groups, Bible studies and become adults in the church, that they do not know how to derive the authoritative teaching from the text?Teaching the Old Testament seems to be tricky but surely the key is to let the text contrain us. We're only at liberty to teach what it says, in it's context, within the boundaries and rules that it sets out for us. Then, and only then, will we hear God speak with authority. An authority that will be unavoidable, piercing to the heart and leading to genuine transformation to Christlikeness, or to hardening of our hearts as we're confronted by God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who has all authority.

Prophecy and Teaching

July 11, 2008 Marcus Honeysett

Why does the claim persist that prophecy and teaching are one and the same? What is to be gained through that argument? By far the most important argument is that were prophecy to be anything other than teaching, it would constitute additional special revelation on a par with scripture as regards authority. I can understand people being worried about that. Another argument might be that in places where there is definite lack of experience of prophecy, Bible teaching is the closest category available for understanding those passages that speak of prophecy. Another argument might be that when people have seen excess, counterfeit or claims for prophetic revelation that dismiss or claim to go beyond scripture, they are justified in writing the whole thing off because the negative is so damaging. Another argument might be that scripture is by far the normative means of God ruling his Church (correct) and that therefore anything that seems to fall outside that norm is a challenge to God's rule over his Church(logically not necessarily correct).