Biblical Preaching Research Articles

Implication of Religious Syncretism on Baptist Mission Work in Ojo Island, Lagos State Nigeria

Baptist is one of the denominations and mission agencies that have been doing mission work in Ojo Island for several decades now. However, the mission work in Ojo Island is not without challenges such as poverty, cultural affiliation and idolatry, but this study focuses on religious syncretism. Therefore, the study investigated factors responsible for religious syncretism in Ojo Island, Lagos State, Nigeria with a view to identify ways of strengthening the Baptist mission work. The framework for the study was premised on theology of mission, which underscores that mission found its basis in God’s love and redemptive plan through Jesus. Descriptive survey design was adopted while questionnaires were administered to two hundred and twenty-three (223) members of the selected Baptist churches using the purposive random sampling method. The data generated was analysed through frequency count, bar chart and pie chart. Factors responsible for religious syncretism on the Baptist mission in Ojo Island include: assumption that all religious traditions are relative and complimentary, community background and economic life, seeking for rescue in a time of crisis and insecurity, family ties and brotherhood relationship. All these constitute a serious challenge and setback for the Baptist mission efforts in Ojo Island. The study recommends contextual biblical preaching, discipleship, power evangelism, and social actions such as regular medical mission and vocational training as means of strengthen the Baptist mission work in Ojo Island.

Review of "Jeremiah and Lamentations: A commentary for biblical preaching and teaching"

Review of "Jeremiah and Lamentations: A commentary for biblical preaching and teaching"

Review of "1 Peter: a commentary for biblical preaching and teaching"

Review of "1 Peter: a commentary for biblical preaching and teaching"

Theological Understanding of Conversion from Luke 13:7-14 and Acts 2:14-38 and its Missiological Imperatives for African Christian Missions

The thrust of this paper is a theological understanding of conversion which comes from text-driven biblical preaching and its missiological imperative for Christian missions in Africa. The study adopted a descriptive approach to discuss conversion as it relates to missions from Lukan perspective in two passages; Luke 13:7-14 and Acts 2:14-38 noting that conversion and fulfillment of the Great Commission is central and critical to these texts. Inferences drawn from brief expositions of the two texts revealed that conversion is the need of everyone and authentic proclamation of the Gospel is important for true conversion to take place. It is also inferred that true conversion coming from repentance and having faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour should reflect in a new way of life or transformation evident in simplicity and care for others. The study submitted that it is imperative for contemporary church in Africa to understand conversion as necessary to rid the nations of different menace including corruption, ungodly leadership and poverty. It is also imperative for the church in Africa to proclaim the gospel capable of resulting into conversion and transformation by engaging in expository text-driven biblical preaching, lifestyle evangelism, and demonstrating the power of God through signs and wonders. The delivery of the word of God must be accompanied with effective exposition of the biblical text through preaching to stir the heart of the hearer to true conversion.

Comparing Preaching in Acts and Contemporary Preaching in Kumasi-Ghana

Kumasi is saturated with preachers preaching all manner of messages. The media space, along major streets, the church space, as well as the market centres have all witnessed an insurgence of many different preachers. The preaching of the Gospel occupies a major place in the Christian church. Both Jesus and the Apostles as revealed in scripture made preaching and teaching an important part of their ministries. This paper examines the nature of Christian preaching in contemporary times in the city of Kumasi, Ghana. The nature of contemporary preaching is compared to that of preaching in the Book of Acts. Qualitative data was gathered through the preacher’s visits to six churches; sixty listeners and 22 preachers were interviewed in Kumasi. One of the major findings was that some preachers in the city of Kumasi today have turned the preaching of the gospel into a business venture. This study advocates the urgent need to guide preaching in the world today with a biblical motif. Sound biblical preaching is significant for the advancement of the Christian faith. It recommends that preaching must result in societal transformation so contemporary preachers must prioritize relating sermons that shoot down the growing ills in the Ghanaian society. The study adds to knowledge in biblical preaching and brings to bear how useful the guiding mirror of scripture could protect contemporary Christian ministry from destructive messages. Keywords: Contemporary Preaching, Book of Acts, Christian Ministry.

Judgment and Mercy: Spurgeon’s Preaching of Hell

Charles Spurgeon contended and demonstrated that clear warnings concerning the coming wrath of God are an essential element of biblical preaching. A survey of published sermons provides a taste of such preaching, from his earliest days in Waterbeach to his later sermons in London. This lays the groundwork for assessing some of the particular features of Spurgeon’s preaching of judgment and mercy, including its clarity, vividness, frequency, and consistency, arising out of a sense of duty, with real compassion and grace. While the examples themselves are illuminating, Spurgeon’s instruction and exhortation also prompt today’s preachers and hearers to consider whether we have achieved anything of a Christlike emphasis and tone on this too-often-overlooked element of faithful gospel ministry. KEYWORDS: Charles Spurgeon, hell, judgment, wrath, mercy, Christ, preaching, damnation, grace, ministry

The Same Yesterday and Today and Forever? A Hermeneutical Study of the Use of the Old Testament in the Epistle to the Hebrews and its Implications for Scriptural Authority and Biblical Preaching in a Secularized Western Setting

AbstractSecularization and pluralism have created a crisis of biblical authority within contemporary Western Christianity. Responding to this, Christine McSpadden has produced a manifesto for preachers which approaches the Bible not as just one ‘sacred text’ amongst others but as a unique means of life-changing encounter with the living and active Word of God. Though she makes no reference to it, McSpadden’s understanding of Scripture closely echoes that of one of the earliest Christian texts, the Epistle to the Hebrews. The purpose of this paper is to examine Hebrews’ use of the Old Testament and what its interpretive method reveals about the author’s understanding of the nature of Scripture; to identify the extent to which McSpadden’s approach follows this understanding and method; and to determine what further implications this shared tradition may have for the doctrine of scriptural authority and the practice of biblical preaching in a contemporary Western setting. It concludes that McSpadden’s approach stands firmly in the tradition first articulated in Hebrews and that together they reflect the most ancient Christian understanding of scriptural authority, which protects the Bible texts from historical irrelevance on one hand and from unduly speculative and subjective interpretations on the other.

The Reformation and the Irrepressible Word of God: Interpretation, Theology, and Practice ed. by Scott M. Manetsch

Reviewed by: The Reformation and the Irrepressible Word of God: Interpretation, Theology, and Practice ed. by Scott M. Manetsch John T. Pless The Reformation and the Irrepressible Word of God: Interpretation, Theology, and Practice. Edited by Scott M. Manetsch. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019. 244 pp. The title is a bit misleading as the reader is led to think that the volume focuses on questions of biblical authority and hermeneutics in the Reformation. While these topics are addressed in the two chapters in Part One, the remaining three parts of the book touch on a range of topics. The nine chapters were originally given as lectures(?) at a 2017 conference, "The Reformation and the Ministry of the Word" held at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. The two chapters that deal most explicitly with biblical interpretation are by the editor, Scott Manetsch, and David S. Dockery. Examining Jean Crespin's history of Reformation martyrs, Manetsch demonstrates how the scriptures were employed to interpret martyrdom in the context of the larger narrative of salvation history thus [End Page 370] providing consolation for those who faced imprisonment and death on account of their confession. Dockery treats Luther's understanding of biblical authority in light of Luther's Christology. A chapter by Michael A.G. Haykin takes up Hugh Latimer's approach to biblical preaching in the English Reformation. Perhaps the most interesting chapter is Ronald K. Rittgers' "Scripture as 'Sacrament' in Protestant Pastoral and Devotional Literature." Rittgers, the author of several major Reformation studies including The Reformation of Suffering (Oxford, 2012), masterfully develops his thesis that the scriptures functioned sacramentally in the pastoral and devotional literature of this era to give ordinary lay Christians a tangible connection with the divine without "superstitious" practices associated with late medieval Christianity: "Wherever it was found, Scripture was a Spirit-inspired and Spirit-enabled means of grace for those who had faith, especially for those who suffered in body or soul. God did not simply inform the afflicted of His will in Scripture; God also poured out divine grace to them through Scripture. God was present to them via the Word" (101). In advancing his thesis, Rittigers challenges the so-called "disenchantment" thesis that asserts that the Reformation de-mystified the world thus opening the way for the Enlightenment and modern secularism. Michael Horton's chapter looks at Luther's reading of the biblical texts on justification by faith in light of patristic exegesis, pointing out what he sees as similarities between Luther's opponents and positions taken by advocates of the New Perspective on Paul. Kevin DeYoung reflects on implications of the doctrine of justification for preaching and pastoral care in an age of "victimization." The final section, "The Christian Life in the Reformation," contains chapters by Thomas H. McCall on "The Sainthood of All Believers" and David Luy on "Luther on the General Priesthood: An Embedded Account." McCall, critical of Gerhard Forde's often repeated assertion that sanctification is "the art of getting used to justification" (148), does not so much seek to engage Forde as he does to point out positive references in Luther and the Formula of Concord to the renovating work of the Spirit and the presence of good works in the lives of those who have the status of sainthood. Luy takes a fresh look at "the doctrine of the general priesthood" [End Page 371] which he calls a "signature theme of Luther's reformation theology" (168). After critiquing "unembedded" readings of Luther's teaching on the priesthood of all believers, Luy draws connections with the Reformer's understanding of vocation as priests speak the Word to one another so that Christ is mediated to the neighbor. An Afterword, "What Evangelicals Can Learn from the Reformation," by Timothy George concludes the volume. George notes the increased interest in Luther and the Reformation among American Evangelicals over the last forty years, echoes Bonhoeffer's concern that America has experienced a Protestantism without a Reformation, and emphasizes the dangers implicit in such Protestantism also for Evangelicals. Overall, this helpful book signals a thoughtful engagement with the Reformation in light of contemporary challenges. [End Page 372] John T. Pless Concordia Theological Seminary...

Exploring Psalm 139 through the Jungian lenses of sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking

Psalm 139 provides both great opportunities and huge challenges for the preacher. It is a Psalm crafted in four parts: part two is an imaginative and poetic affirmation of God’s omnipresence that engages the Jungian perceiving process; part four is a fierce and uncompromising diatribe against God’s enemies that engages the Jungian judging process. Interpretations of these two sections of the Psalm are explored among a sample of 30 Anglican deacons and priests serving as curates who were invited to work in small hermeneutical communities, structured according to psychological type theory and designed to test the sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking (SIFT) approach to biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching. The findings from the hermeneutical communities demonstrated that the poetic power of part two was perceived quite differently by sensing types and by intuitive types. The judgement against God’s enemies in part four was evaluated quite differently by feeling types and by thinking types. The implications of these different readings of sacred text are discussed in relation both to hermeneutical theory and to homiletic practice.

The Fundamental and Ornamental Use of Scripture in Two Dominican Procedurals on Confession from the Early Thirteenth Century: Cum ad sacerdotes and Confessio debet

Abstract Although the expansion of jurisprudence in the twelfth century was a direct outgrowth of theological scholasticism, several historians of law such as Richard Helmholz have noted that the use of sacred scripture as a basis for jurisprudence steadily declined in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. He identified the increasing relegation of biblical references to an ornamental, rather than a fundamental, mode of citation beginning with the earliest post-Gratian glosses and treatises. Because the Dominican Order of Preachers, renowned for their biblical preaching, also produced many great canonists and legal texts, the question of whether their legal writings experienced a similar decline is of particular interest. In the present study, a close reading of two Dominican procedurals for confessors and penitents will conclude that the Dominicans themselves recognized the difference between fundamental and ornamental citation and that they began to streamline their biblical references, removing ornamental and leaving only fundamental citations.

The missionary journey of Mark 6 and the experience of ministry in today’s world: An empirical study in biblical hermeneutics among Anglican clergy

This study explores the connection between dominant psychological type preferences and reader interpretations of biblical texts. Working in type-alike groups (dominant sensing, dominant intuition, dominant feeling and dominant thinking), a group of 40 Anglican clergy (20 curates and 20 training incumbents) were invited to employ their strongest function to engage conversation between Mark’s account of Jesus sending out the disciples (Mk 6: 6b–16) and the experience of ministry in today’s world. The data supported the hermeneutical theory proposed by the SIFT approach to biblical interpretation and liturgical preaching by demonstrating the four clear and distinctive voices of sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking.

Biblical Theology and Preaching: A Survey of Resources

Preachers will benefit from lifelong study that seeks to read the texts of Scripture in light of the larger theological witness of the Bible. This essay introduces a number of significant resources for preachers written by biblical theologians who are concerned to undergird the ministry and proclamation of the church.

Jesus, psychological type and conflict: A study in biblical hermeneutics applying the reader perspective and SIFT approach to Mark 11:11–21

The Marcan account of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, cursing the fig tree and overturning the tables of the money changers in the temple provides a classic scriptural reference point for a Christian discussion of conflict. Drawing on psychological type theory and on the reader perspective proposed by the SIFT (sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking) approach to biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching, this study tests the theory that different psychological types will interpret this classic passage differently. Data collected in two residential programmes concerned with Christianity and conflict from type-aware participants confirmed characteristic differences between the approaches of sensing types and intuitive types and between the approaches of thinking types and feeling types.

“Image-making” in Biblical Interpretation and Preaching

“Image-making” in Biblical Interpretation and Preaching

A Reading “Christ-Sense” for Biblical Preaching: A Dialogue between Calvin’s Typology and Modern Biblical Readers (Gerhard von Rad and Stephen Farris)

A Reading “Christ-Sense” for Biblical Preaching: A Dialogue between Calvin’s Typology and Modern Biblical Readers (Gerhard von Rad and Stephen Farris)

Robinson and Batten's "Models for Biblical Preaching: Expository Sermons from the Old Testament" (Book Review)

Robinson and Batten's "Models for Biblical Preaching: Expository Sermons from the Old Testament" (Book Review)

Between the Ambo and the Altar: Biblical Preaching and The Roman Missal, Year A by Guerric DeBona, O.S.B.

Between the Ambo and the Altar: Biblical Preaching and The Roman Missal, Year A by Guerric DeBona, O.S.B.

Prophetic Preaching as a Prototype for Biblical Preaching

Prophetic Preaching as a Prototype for Biblical Preaching

Five loaves and two fishes: An empirical study in psychological type and biblical hermeneutics among Anglican preachers

The sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking (SIFT) method of biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching has its roots in three fields: a theology of individual differences situated within the doctrine of creation, an application of Jungian psychological-type theory and empirical observation. The present study tested the empirical foundations for this method by examining the psychological-type profile of two groups of Anglican preachers (24 licensed readers in England and 22 licensed clergy in Northern Ireland) and by examining the content of their preaching according to their dominant psychological-type preferences. These data provided further support for the psychological principles underpinning the SIFT method of biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching.

Psychological type and the pulpit: An empirical enquiry concerning preachers and the SIFT method of biblical hermeneutics

A sample of 389 experienced preachers completed a measure of psychological type. They then read Mark 1:29–39 and recorded their evaluations of the four refl ections on this passage proposed by Francis (1997) and which were derived from the SIFT method of biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching. Three main conclusions are drawn from these data. First, compared with the United Kingdom population norms, preachers within this sample were signifi cantly more likely to prefer introversion, intuition, feeling and judging. Second, preachers were four times more likely to prefer a sensing interpretation of the text rather than a thinking interpretation, emphasising the richness of the narrative rather than facing the theological questions posed by it. Third, there was little evidence to suggest that preachers were less likely to appreciate interpretations consonant with their less preferred or inferior function than those consonant with their most preferred or dominant function. In this sense, the richness of the SIFT method should be accessible to preachers of all psychological types.