Preface: If you read this post within the past hour....only half of it is here now. I looked it over and did not like how I jumped from one topic to to another. So I may include the paragraphs that I deleted in a new post for tomorrow:
This man's name is not important....nor even is the specific topic wrote upon and published on his website. He is a prominent pastor in his area....and author....and was and maybe still is a host on Christian radio. I had met him before at a conference....and even shared a dinner table. I like him and when he is preaching or speaking on the glories of Christ and the Gospel....it is obviously wonderful. I will say that the topic was in prophecy....and a major issue as opposed to a minor prophetic detail.
The article that he has posted is very long and in-depth....and very scholarly. The average Reformed theologian might read it....with his advanced seminary degree....and maybe agree....and maybe not. Folks I'm not new to this topic....in fact it was decades ago when I met this man at that conference. It was a cruise conference actually....and it was wonderful. I would try to go on one again in a second if there was one! But in this instance....I look at the words on the page in God's Word....that are very clear to probably most of the believers who read it....and then I read an article such as this one.....that goes into great detail to tell me that what I just read with my own eyes....is not true....but rather what the priest....excuse me....the seminary trained theologian tells me is what God actually meant.
Jesus told us.....as we all know....that His sheep hear His voice....and recognize that voice....and follow Him....and we know this is true because this is exactly what has happened to us and continues to happen....but in a dense article like the one mentioned above....it's like Jesus would have said....you will hear My voice....and you will follow Me....but you won't understand the words I tell you.....until someone more educated explains them to you.
Where would we be without great minds like Augustine and Aquinas and Luther and Calvin and Owens and Edwards. God indeed planned it that way....but in these great systematic and doctrinal issues....we read the scholarly explanations....and then we can say...."oh yes....I see it now!" On issues such I mentioned in this post....we read the words and see it very clearly....then the theologian tells us what it 'really' means....but we never say..."Oh yes....I see it now"....for we never really see it. We may choose to accept it....but it never really sinks in...and therein is the difference!
Along with the names above of the brilliant men who God has used so mightily in the church....there is also John Bunyan....a tinker.....if you needed a handle put back on a pot....he was your man. The great mind of John Owen once said that he might trade all his 'knowledge' to be able to preach like the tinker. When the pastor decides to use his time in the pulpit to teach us that which is right before us....that we should need no help in understanding...instead of calling down the glory of God....then the sermon ultimately emanates from man.
