Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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primary reason for this decline? According to Lloyd-Jones,
"the loss of belief in the authority of the Scriptures."6
In any case, there can be no doubt that Lloyd-Jones saw
the Bible as the source of preaching. For Lloyd-Jones, the
Bible stands alone, beyond comparison with any potential
rivals. "There is nothing that really explains the whole
world situation, as it is today, except the Bible.7
2. Selection of Material from Sources
A second significant question raised by the lecturers
was this: How does one select preaching material from his
source? Does he answer the pressing questions his people
present, or is the choice, to a greater degree,
pre-determined by the truth itself?
'Lloyd-Jones lecturers' would affirm the latter. When
asked to finish the sentence, "Preaching must be true to
• .", the two most frequent answers were "the Bible" (see
above) and "God" (table 31).' Similarly, they, as a
group, placed the greatest statistical difference between
the first two priorities of teaching preaching: "helping
students to . . ." (1) "see God as the ultimate source of
preaching, and (2) "understand the purpose of preaching"
(table 26). Two of the other three groups placed "purpose"
first; none of the other groups' figures yielded as large a
numerical difference between the first two priorities.
Thus, the Lloyd-Jones lecturers concur with the statement,
"In determining the content of preaching, the source of that
content takes priority over its recipients."
Once again, the 'Lloyd-Jones lecturers' are, in