I came across an excerpt from A.W. Tozer’s, ‘Preaching: A Genuine Gift’ which led me on to a growing conviction and concern for the majority of leaders today and those who are currently in training for the pastoral ministry:

So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. –1 Thessalonians 2:8

“Let me shock you at this point. A naturally bright person can carry on religious activity without a special gift from God. Filling church pulpits every week are some who are using only natural abilities and special training. Some are known as Bible expositors, for it is possible to read and study commentaries and then repeat what has been learned about the Scriptures. Yes, it may shock you, but it is true that anyone able to talk fluently can learn to use religious phrases and can become recognized as a preacher.

But if any person is determined to preach so that his work and ministry will abide in the day of the judgment fire, then he must preach, teach and exhort with the kind of love and concern that comes only through a genuine gift of the Holy Spirit–something beyond his own capabilities.” – A.W. Tozer

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Balance is something we greatly lack in our churches; either there is not enough emphasis on sound biblical doctrine or the practical outworking of those truths in everyday life, the fellowship and spiritual growth of the church.

Nowadays the focus is too much on the subjective, upon experiences and other forms of outrageous charismata at the neglect of sound biblical truth. Most will not endure this teaching and instead, believe that such modes are out of date and are no longer relevant for our generation; ‘we must move on with the times’ is the governing mentality within the church. We must move on but NEVER at the expense of God’s ways that are explicitly revealed in Scripture. Such a thing is as preposterous as attempting to defy the laws of gravity and oxygen; God has set things in place for a reason, for His glory and our good.

We desperately need more men who will faithfully declare God’s word in its entire, unadulterated and purest form that truly brings glory to God, bringing men and women to acknowledge God as their creator and inevitably their need for reconciliation through our Savior Jesus Christ.

I am so encouraged that we have the few leaders who do just that but they are rare; every church building ought to be teaching only what is truth and not some man-made twisted theory that appeals to the majority! I am so pleased that there are many renowned Bible education facilities around the world but I am also saddened at what many people become when graduating from such institutions. This is not confined to those who attend and have gained their desired certification but also those who pursue theology, outside of theological seminary, in a purely academic manner and their own gains. Tozer foresaw this in his own day and how these words need to go out as a warning to many leaders today, “…for it is possible to read and study commentaries and then repeat what has been learned about the Scriptures. Yes, it may shock you, but it is true that anyone able to talk fluently can learn to use religious phrases and can become recognized as a preacher.”

We don’t need more oratorical philosophers and politicians who can rattle off every theological Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum in the pulpit which is nothing but a regurgitation of what they read and stole the night before! But men that are on fire with the conviction and persuasion of the Holy Spirit! Martyn Lloyd-Jones was right when he said, “Preaching is theology coming through a man that is on fire.”

There is an over emphasis of academia in bible seminaries, and here is just where the subtle danger lies. Of course there has to be a good level of intelligence, there has to be some competence to show that one is able to enroll and pursue such an education; I am not disputing that. What I am highlighting is the mistake of making these training facilities no different from secular education to the point of just producing carbon copies of the curriculum. When Bible colleges first appeared on the scene many candidates were interviewed not so much by their intellectual levels but rather by their spiritual walk that clearly showed in their intense love for God, His truth and the love for lost souls. Read some accounts in ‘Lectures To My Students’ by Spurgeon; some applicants were denied despite their intellectual genius because they lacked the love, grace and humility that marks one called to the ministry. Just because someone can recite, word for word, the whole book of Romans or define the five points of Calvinism in two minutes flat does not mean one is called to the pulpit! Where are the discerning leaders and presidents of bible colleges today?! I have met some and heard of many students who after having completed their 5 years or so of theological training for the ministry lost their personality, their own walk with the Lord; their fluidity had been replaced by rigidity. Such ‘cardboard cutouts’ are allowed and endorsed to enter the pulpits all over the world to the unfortunate decline of church attendance! You can almost tell what bible college they attended by just hearing them talk which almost reminds me of the Borg assimilation in Star Trek-The Next Generation!

Isn’t it surprising to realize that such great leaders of the church, like C.H. Spurgeon, Dr D.M. Lloyd-Jones and A.W. Tozer never trained in theological colleges… and isn’t it ironic that Spurgeon founded one?! One would never think of such possibilities today in this era of the emphasis on status (i.e. certifications, degrees, titles, etc.). Theological seminary degrees do help but do not qualify if God has not called; it is not so much natural ability that confirms the calling, although that may be a part of it, but the conviction of the Holy Spirit that one CANNOT avoid which is so foreign today; in some circles one person is not saved for five minutes before the church puts them through bible training – another proudly wins an argument, to the detriment of some poor soul, which makes him think he is fit for the task of preaching; such a novice isn’t fit to call himself a Christian, let alone a minister! We churn out very poor disciples from the corridors of our institutions and more Pharisees into a lost world!

I hear so much on Christian radio encouraging people to enroll in theological education to obtain a degree, a masters, a doctorate (you know, those ‘important looking letters’ after your name)… as if that is the important aspect. The emphasis makes me sick and is nothing but pomp and a prostitution of God’s holy word! And let me add here, I am not knocking people obtaining certifications and credentials; many deserve it, what I am against is the unbiblical, prideful approach to such endeavoring that does nothing but harm to the proclamation of the Gospel. Why all this boasting and this feeling of superiority when salvation from beginning to end is all of God? What gives any man the right to feel proud about his achievements when it was mercy and grace that put him there in the first place?

We are so spiritually obese with all the biblical tools and study aids here in the western world we just don’t know what to do with it and yet there are many persecuted Christians around the world who not only know their real systematic theology (maybe not as much as western ‘intellectual Christianity’) but live it and breathe it; they are living epistles. We talk about it and stop there and rub our hands together with arrogant pride; they know it, live it and walk in the reality of it and that’s why the church grows because there’s real life imparted; they have that ‘Something’ that the world needs and indirectly craves for, and sadly what the church over here desperately needs as well!

Biblical sound doctrine is imperative. Reading and acquainting oneself with the history of the Church and her theological and dogmatic proclamation is essential. As well as aiming for the genius of John Owen, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Spurgeon, Warfield, Lloyd-Jones, Berkhoff, let us not forget the consistent and humble reliance these men had upon the Holy Spirit, who without Him would have been nothing but an irritating sound. A.W. Tozer reminds us of how small we are, how insignificant we are left to our own prideful selves, “None of us can approach a serious study and consideration of the eternal nature and person of Jesus Christ without sensing and confessing our complete inadequacy in the face of the divine revelation.”

We must stop the scholarly, over-emphasis of theology where one can read about the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement with dry eyes and discuss the doctrines of grace without being overwhelmed with gratitude and amazement at the heart of God. If a bible college cannot add to a person’s walk with the Lord and nurture that spiritual aspect into a giant of the faith – for God’s glory alone – it has failed its mission and is as good as closed! We must get back again to the essentials of why a bible college or seminary is ever in place and what kind of people are to graduate from its doors into a sick, sad, lost and depraved world.