This week the evangelical Christian world experienced a conflict of emotions, sadness and sorrow at the passing of John Stott, but also joy in knowing that he has now seen the God and Saviour he spent his life serving. Indeed the Church, owes much to John Stott, his contribution has been invaluable, and many of us have benefited from his work. Sure John Stott, like all of us, was not perfect, his theology had its faults; but he had a sharp mind, an ability to express himself with clarity and was able to communicate great and deep truths with simplicity.
We live in a time when the world is rich with great theological minds, Packer, Mohler, Carson, Grudem, Horton, Wells, to name a few. The problem is, if you look at this list, these men are not young, in fact most of them are approaching retirement age, that is if they retire! Which has made me think, were is the next wave of sharp, acute, clear minded, Biblically grounded theologians coming from, is there another wave, or are we about to enter into a time of drought?
Has the cry of our generation, “The Church must be relevant to the post-modern age”, led us into the trap of spending more time debating and studying culture, and people, to the point that we have neglected Theology? Have the subjects of relevance, pop-culture, psychology and management, become more important and of greater benefit to the church than studies in theology? Surely, we know that even if you understand the times, culture, post-modernism and people, but are lacking in theological knowledge that you will not be able to minister and teach the Gospel effectively? Would not the continued practise of this produce churches that are a mile wide, but an inch deep? Is this not already the case in so many churches, happy with superficial truths, that keep the numbers up, and steering clear of the deep, profound and the difficult truths of Bible, so as not to bore people, or risk being irrelevant? Is not the writing on the wall already, by virtue of the fact that “Church Growth”, “Effective Leadership, and “Purpose Driven….” books out sell, the latest theological works by some of the sharpest minds of our time? Does that not then reveal that our desire for numerical growth, and personal success, is more important than the maturity, spiritual growth and nourishment of our congregations?
Are Packer, Mohler, Carson, Grudem, Horton and Wells part of a dying breed? Has the office of theologian ceased, come to a disturbing and premature end?
Troubling questions, mean troubling times!
Let Spurgeon’s word instruct us here, this quotation comes out of chapter 15, The Necessity of Ministerial Progress, of Lectures to My Students. Spurgeon states that the base, the starting point to growing and going forward in our progress as ministers is theology.
“Study the Bible, dear brethren, through and through, with all the helps that you can possibly obtain: remember that the appliances now within the reach of ordinary Christians are much more extensive than they were in our fathers’ days, and therefore you must be greater biblical scholars if you would keep in front of your hearers. Intermeddle with all knowledge, but above all things meditate day and night in the law of the Lord.
Be well instructed in theology, and do not regard the sneers of those who rail at it because they are ignorant of it. Many preachers are not theologians, and hence the mistakes which they make. It cannot do any hurt to the most lively evangelist to be also a sound theologian, and it may often be the means of saving him from gross blunders. Nowadays we hear men tear a single sentence of Scripture from its connection, and cry ‘Eureka! Eureka!’ as if they had found a new truth; and yet they have not discovered a diamond, but a piece of broken glass. Had they been able to compare spiritual things with spiritual, had they understood the analogy of the faith, and had they been acquainted with the holy learning of the great Bible students of ages past, they would not have been quite so fast in vaunting their marvellous knowledge. Let us be thoroughly well acquainted with the great doctrines of the Word of God, and let us be mighty in expounding Scripture.
I am sure that no preaching will last so long, or build up a church so well, as the expository. To renounce altogether the hortatory discourse for the expository would be running to a preposterous extreme; but I cannot too earnestly assure you that if your ministries are to be lastingly useful you must be expositors. For this you must understand the Word yourselves, and be able so to comment upon it that the people may be built up by the Word. Be masters of your Bibles, brethren: whatever other works you have not searched, be at home with the writings of the prophets and apostles. ‘Let the Word of God dwell in you richly’”
“For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” Ezra 7:10
