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Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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142<br />

and bring salvation to mankind. The person who<br />

appropriates this salvation will spend eternity in<br />

heaven; the person who does not, will spend eternity in<br />

hell. For Lloyd-Jones, these are not matters for debate,<br />

but infallible truths. God has called the church to<br />

proclaim this message to a rebellious world.<br />

With authority, Lloyd-Jones proclaimed a message of<br />

whose truth he was firmly convinced. To his hearers,<br />

Lloyd-Jones gave only two options. They could accept or<br />

reject the 'truth' as preached. He offered no other<br />

choices.<br />

One who preaches with hesitancy brings little more<br />

than a hesitant response from his congregation. The<br />

preacher, as Lloyd-Jones wrote, speaks as an<br />

'ambassador,' one proclaiming a message with the<br />

authority of his master. 12 Likewise, he speaks as a<br />

'witness,' one who, through personal experience, knows<br />

the truth of his message. 1-3 He proclaims truth with<br />

certainty.<br />

The strength of authority, however, lies immediately<br />

adjacent to the weakness of rigidity. Lloyd-Jones saw a<br />

world where the Master spoke one eternal message and<br />

continually calls heralds to proclaim the same words to<br />

people of all times and places. Lloyd-Jones may have<br />

missed the complementary fact that, as circumstances<br />

change, masters give heralds proclamations appropriate to<br />

each new situation.<br />

The preacher speaks with the authority innate in the

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