Skip to main content

What Preachers are Against These Days

It used to be 'sin'. Preachers regularly preached against it. You've probably heard the story of the American President known as silent Cal. After church he was once asked to explain the topic of a minister's sermon. 'Sin' he replied, lapsing back into silence. 'What did he say?' asked the enquirer. 'He said he was agin it,' said the President.

These days preachers don't preach much against sin. This may partly be to a change in theology. Some churches have gone down the self fulfilment avenue. The Holy Spirit is there to help you realise your wildest dreams. Whatever you have on your top list of things you've always wanted to achieve, He is there to help you.

Alternatively (and more encouragingly), some speakers avoid the word because it has dropped out of the ordinary vocabulary of most folk. If you eat a large piece of chocolate cake your best friends might call you a 'sinner'. Otherwise people have little idea what it means. It actually means falling short of the life God has called us to, which is to give God glory (Romans 3:23). The phrase most speakers use these days is 'our propensity to mess things up'. Now that seems something worth preaching about - especially if we're called to give that up and follow Jesus the Messiah!

Next time: a story about a man who did just that.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Flow Chart for Bible Translation (a Relevance Theory Approach)

One of the current theories behind modern translation work is Relevance Theory. [1] Here is a flow chart that explains the process often used to produce a draft when using such an approach: *Make sure your translation committee makes the decision as to what kind of translation they want. A domesticated translation is one that submits to dominant values in the target language [2] whereas a foreignized translation is one that is happy to import foreign terms and ideas from Hebrew, Greek, or the language of wider communication such as the Greek term baptizo . The chart looks something like this: Text                                   Communicated Ideas                  Context A sower went out to sow  A farmer went out to sow grain   People scattered/threw seed etc. The text has very little information, but behind i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Asking the Right Questions in Bible Translation and Scripture Engagement Planning

If you want to get useful answers you have to ask the right questions. Do you agree? Yes, of course you do. In the Bible translation world we often ask a very narrow question when planning for the next stage of work: 'What would you like to see translated next?' Now, if you simply want to translate, and that's it, that question is fine, but what if you want to see some kind of result from your translation work? What if, for instance, you want to see transformation occur? Then a more powerful question to ask the community and positive stakeholders in the project would be: 'What kingdom goals would you like to see reached?' These kingdom goals should meet felt needs of the community - they should solve problems that are apparent to most or all in the community. See below on how those can be met. If that's too abstract, then try, 'What kinds of things, in your extended family, do you tend to worry about?' This will help establish some felt needs, from which...
7 comments
Read more

A Plea Regarding Footnotes in Bible Translation

Recently I was giving input to a team who had worked on Psalms. I noticed that in several places they had included footnotes referring to the New Testament use of those Psalms. One example was a footnote in Ps 34:20 'not one of [his bones] will be broken' that referred to John 19:32, 33, 36 where this prophecy is fulfilled. Now, obviously this is a useful link for readers, but it is better to put it in John's gospel referring back to Psalms. Why? Because the New Testament is (to some extent) a commentary on the Hebrew Bible, whereas the reverse is not true (the Hebrew Bible never refers to the New Testament). There are often two possible ways of reading a Psalm: In its original context, and  As interpreted by the New Testament writers. This is quite important, as the Hebrew Bible belongs to two faith communities, the Jews and the Christians. (Muslims too, to some extent, though they refer to the Torah and the Psalms only). If we translate the Bible in such a way that it onl...
Post a Comment
Read more