MOHLER: NEGLECT OF SCRIPTURE AFFLICTS TO DAY'S PREACHING

by   Pat Cole                                                                                                                                                                                Vol. IX, No. 3, March 1996

A neglect of Scripture in sermons has created a "crisis in preaching" that cuts across denominational and ideological lines, warned a Southern Baptist seminary president.

"In the left wing of the churches, the Bible's authority and inspiration are often rejected and thus the Scriptures are often absent (from preaching)," said R. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

"Among evangelicals, the Bible's authority and inspiration are confessed, but the Scriptures are often soon abandoned."

Mohler addressed a Jan. 30 convocation opening the spring semester at the Louisville, Ky., seminary. In his address, Mohler said there is "a revolt against Scripture" by some mainline Protestants.

Mohler noted one mainline scholar has written recently that authority, including biblical authority, has no place in a post-Enlightenment age. He quoted another professor at the same school who termed certain biblical passages "irrelevant or sub-Christian." Both scholars, Mohler said, argue that Scripture should be severed from preaching.

"We cringe, we flinch, and we are repelled when we hear the Bible rejected, impugned, and maligned, and we would say to ourselves that 'evangelicals preach the Word,” Mohler said. "Surely, those who confess the infallibility, the authority, the inspiration, and the inerrancy of the Scripture, certainly we preach the Word."

Such an assumption, Mohler emphasized, can be mistaken. "I wonder, in listening to much evangelical preaching, if it is actually gospel, biblical preaching at all," he said. Mohler cited a study by sociologist Marsha Whitten which concluded that evangelicals, including Southern Baptists, often fail to match their high affirmation of Scripture with preaching that is solidly biblical.

"We, as evangelicals, are so easily seduced and co-opted by the culture around us," he said. "The Bible is often displaced by the authority of our experience or programmatic concerns or pragmatic goals."

Biblical preaching "seems misplaced" in a culture saturated with an entertainment mind-set and a consumer mentality, Mohler said. "We see ourselves pressed by a marketing mentality, not only in the larger world but in the church itself," he said. "We see ourselves confronted with congregations that want quick 'how to' messages addressing their personal concerns."

Too much preaching is concerned with "the self' instead of Scripture, Mohler said. He called for a return to the priority on Scripture championed by the apostles and church reformers. The reformers, he said, emphasized Scripture in order to guard against excessive reliance on the church hierarchy and tradition. Those threats pose no imminent threat for contemporary evangelicals, Mohler maintained. "The greater danger for us is not that we listen to a magisterium above but to the inner child or whatever seems to be within."

Mohler challenged students to preach biblical truth even if their proclamation proves unpopular. "We are charged to preach a message we have received, not to invent a message that will be well received," he said. "We are to preach that which has been sent, delivered and addressed to us, not a message that has been developed or altered." [BP]