In the previous two posts, we looked at moralistic preaching and allegorical preaching.  In this post, we will look just briefly at gnostic preaching.

Another unintended consequence of not preaching what is actually found in a passage is that listeners are given a gnostic view of Scripture.  The Gnostics were were a cult group in the early church who claimed secret knowledge that gave them their unique understanding of Scripture - a knowledge to which others were not privy.  I have not studied how the gnostics in the early church preached but would like to appropriate the term “gnostic” to describe a particular preaching abomination that I have often witnessed.

Gnostic preaching happens when a preacher uses the text of Scripture as a springboard to preach about something that is not actually found in the passage. His listeners are left with the impression that if they didn’t have the preacher to tell them the meaning of the passage, then they could never have understood it for themselves.  The preacher must have some special knowledge that enabled him to pull THAT meaning from THIS text.  Here is Thailand, it is often assumed that the preacher must have gotten that special knowledge from his classes at Bible college - knowledge to which the common man does not have access.  Therefore an unhealthy dependence on the preacher is fostered.  People are lulled into thinking that they NEED the preacher to understand the Scripture because the Scripture itself is not clear enough taken on its own.  At the end of a gnostic sermon, the listeners say, “Wow!  I would never have figured that out from reading this passage of Scripture if the preacher hadn’t told us what it meant.”  At the end of a Biblical sermon, the listeners say, “Wow!  I don’t know how I didn’t see that before.  What the preacher said is all there so clearly in this passage of Scripture!”

In my last post, we began to look at the problem of preaching that uses the Bible but misses the point of what the Bible is saying.  In the next three posts, we will look at three common forms of unbiblical preaching - moralistic preaching, allegorical preaching, and gnostic preaching.  There is a lot of overlap between these three but they are distinct enough to put them in separate categories - even though they may all show up in a single sermon.  In this post, we’ll take a look at moralistic preaching.

Moralistic Preaching and Buddhism
Moralistic preaching is all about getting people to be good.  Thai Buddhists believe that the point of every religion in the world (including Christianity) is to teach people to be good.  And if they listened to the sermons in many churches on Sunday morning, their belief would be confirmed.  Instead of telling listeners about Christ, the cross, and the drama of redemption which winds through the whole of Scripture, moralistic preachers tell people, “Be good and God will bless you.”  The need for forgiveness is not emphasized nearly as much as the need to try harder to be a better person.  This type of preaching is familiar to people from a Buddhist background because it is the same type of sermon that Buddhist monks give.  

In response to my recent post on "Do You Need a Bible Degree to be a Long Term Missionary?", I received the following testimony of a theological student who found his training to be surprisingly relevant on a trip to the Muslim world.  For those who are considering doing missions in the Muslim World (or elsewhere), and wondering whether their Western course of theological studies will really help them, Chris' experience should be a helpful encouragement:

"In June 2009, after one year of academic study on the "Theology and World Mission Course" at Oak Hill Theological College, London, I jetted off to a Muslim-majority country for a summer of overseas gospel ministry.  As I sat on the 13-hour flight, it was easy to imagine the potential payback of classes I'd taken on Mark's Gospel and the Pentateuch.  But, what of the other subjects: abstract, academic and arduous?  Would trinitarian theology, critical modern scholarship, Hebrew and Greek pull their weight as well?  Or would they turn out to be no more than expensive excess baggage?

I’ve lived in Thailand for about five years and have heard a fair share of preaching in Thai churches.  I’ve heard local pastors in small congregations, specially invited preachers at large evangelistic events, and top church leaders at national gatherings.  And while there are some fine godly men preaching good Biblical sermons, the majority of preaching that I’ve heard in Thai churches has been very disappointing.  It’s not that they don’t use the Bible.  They do.  It is not that they are preaching blatant heresy.  They are not.  More often than not, I find sermons to be disappointing not because of what is there, but what is not there.

Because the need for people to hear the Gospel on the mission field is so urgent, it is sometimes claimed that doing a lot of Biblical studies or earning a degree in Bible is not necessary to be a long-term missionary.  “People just need the basic Gospel, and you don’t need a degree for that”, it has been said.  There is a lot of truth to that statement.  However, once someone becomes a Christian, you need to disciple them.  And you’ll need to help new believers form themselves into a church community.  And to do that, a missionary is going to need to know a LOT more than just a basic Gospel outline.