Preaching and Preachers

The Form of the Semwnand to maintain and preserve the interrelationship between thesetypes of preaching, is to be always theological. There is no type ofpreaching that should be non-theological.A type of preaching that is sometimes, indeed very frequentlytoday, regarded as non-theological is evangelistic preaching. I wellremember how when an evangelistic campaign was being held inLondon a few years ago, one of the liberal religious weekliessupportingthe campaign said, 'Let us have a theological truce while the campaignis on.' It went on to say that after the campaign we mustthen think things out and become theological. The idea was thatevangelism is non-theological, and to introduce theology at thatstage is wrong. You 'bring people to Christ' as they put it; andthen you teach them the truth. It is only subsequently that theologycomes in.That, to me, is quite wrong, and indeed monstrous. I would beprepared to argue that in many ways evangelistic preaching should bemore, rather than less theological, than any other, and for this goodreason. Why is it that you callpeople to repent? Why do you callthemto believe the gospel? You cannot deal properly with repentancewithout dealing with the doctrine of man, the doctrine of the Fall, thedoctrine of sin and the wrath of God against sin. Then when you callmen to come to Christ and to give themselves to Him, how can youdo so without knowing who He is, and on what grounds you invitethem to come to Him, and so on. In other words it is all highlytheological. Evangelism which is not theological is not evangelism atall in any true sense. It may be a calling for decisions, it may be acalling on people to come to religion, or to live a better kind of life, 01'the offering of some psychological benefits; but it cannot by anydefinition be regarded as Christian evangelism, because there is notrue reason for what you are doing apart from these great theologicalprinciples. I assert therefore that every type of preaching. must betheological, including evangelistic preaching.At the same time it is vital that we should realise that preaching isnot lecturing on theology, or on any aspect of theology. I hope to take65