CONTENTS
10
has been done by people who don’t have a good grasp of the discipline of biblical theology. I don’t say 1 to 8 because the discipline is critical to rightly understanding the gospel, rightly interpreting the Scripture for preaching, and rightly understanding what God intends for the Christian life in this era of redemptive history.
Carl Trueman, Paul Woolley Professor of Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary: Biblical theology is vitally important for being able to preach the whole of the Bible as Christian Scripture and as telling one coherent story focused on Christ. Nevertheless, this answer must not be understood as claiming that redemptive history is all that is needed: to say that the importance of a hammer for building a house is 10/10 is not to say that it is the only thing necessary, and that nails, wood, bricks, mortar, etc. do not play their part. Redemptive history is a vital tool for the preacher, perhaps one of the most important, but it must not be allowed to control preaching to the point where it drives out practical application, blunt imperatives, finds Jesus just a little too quickly in certain texts, or simply reduces the act of preaching to that of lecturing.
9
8 Tony Payne, Publishing Director, Matthias Media; editor of The Briefing: If the Bible should be the constant content of our church life—in our pulpits, in our smaller groups, in our one-to-one encouragement of each other, around our family dinner tables—then biblical theology is really just a commitment to understand the Bible as God has given it to us—that is, as the unfolding revelation of himself, his purposes and his will, centered on and fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We should model biblical theology in our preaching (whether or not we use the term), and train our people in it as the normal framework for all our Bible reading and study.
Jonathan Leeman, Director of Communications, 9Marks Ministries: I don’t say 10 because much healthy church ministry
www.credomag.com |
15