I have officially finished reading the first book of my seminary career today! It wasn’t a huge book, but the matters it discussed was enough to slow down the pace of reading to a crawl. I enjoyed the book immensely, and look forward to thumbing through it again over the Christmas break. I won’t review it for you, but I figured I’d give you a few quotes to give you a feel for what he was talking about.
The book was entitled, Preaching and Biblical Theology, written by Edmund P. Clowney in the 1950’s while he was a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The substance of the book was actually given as three lectures, and then later published in 1961 in book form. Here’s a few of my favorite excerpts:
“An old Dutch preacher has sagely observed that the pulpit must not drive us to the text, but rather the text must drive us to the pulpit. In biblical theology that scriptural dynamic impels the preacher’s heart with unimagined strength.” pg 19
“This New Testament noun for preaching [the Greek word kerygma] implies that the gospel is a royal proclamation and the preacher an official messenger; the kerygma is the message of the King’s herald.” pg 20
“All the prophets testify to the absolute power of God’s word. The exile is in execution of God’s counsel, and it opens a vast panorama of history in which the heathen nations are first instruments of wrath in God’s hand to judge his people and at last, after suffering judgment in turn, are made to partake in the salvation of the last days. Above the perspective of rising and falling empires the majesty of God’s creative word is exalted.” pg 37
“God who breathed into man the breath of life will receive from man’s lips the Spirit-filled worship of praise.” pg 48
“This is the biblical structure of authority in revelation: having spoken in the prophets, God hath spoken in his Son. The many messages given through God’s servants lead to the final message spoken by God’s Son. But in each case the authority is God’s. There is no need for a red-letter Bible.” pg 52
“The apostolic witness therefore is not a narrow recital of one redemptive event. It is broad and deep, setting forth the whole counsel of God.” pg 56
“For we do not merely hold this Book in our hands. We have been made stewards of the mysteries of God. There is one requirement for the steward – that he be found faithful. God is faithful who has called us; he gives his Holy Spirit to them that ask him, and it is in the Spirit that we have been set apart to our holy calling. One great gift of the Spirit we must seek in prevailing prayer: that he might open our minds to understand the Scriptures.
Then our speech and our preaching will not be in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; for to us also it is given to proclaim the testimony of God.” pg 62
“The church is not the consummation kingdom but it presses toward the consummation. The church must always be a pilgrim church hastening on toward the end of time and the ends of the earth.” pg 71
“The worship of the church is an end in itself, not simply a means to evangelism.” pg 72
“Preaching in the biblical sense cannot be limited to bare proclamation. It is also teaching and it embraces every mode of application from the sternest rebuke to the tenderest entreaty and comfort. Since it is the declaration of God’s name it is addressed not only to men, but also to God. It is an act of worship.” pg 73
“Our preaching often lacks the punctuation of the exclamation point of praise. Unlike the Scriptures, our sermons are so centered on men that they neglect to bless God. The doxologies that burst from Paul in the midst of his expositions never trouble our placid pools of prose.” pg 73
“Each event of redemption, each portion of God’s revelation, makes its distinctive contribution to the whole. When we choose a text from Scripture, we do not arbitrarily impose a unity upon the Word of God. We discover the unity that is already present.” pg 92
“When Israel is saved and judged through the Old Testament men of God, this work can only anticipate the true salvation to be wrought by Christ. It is indeed the Spirit of the Lord who comes upon these men of God, yet the central work of redemption is not theirs to accomplish…
…By faith, by a “realized eschatology,” believers in all ages share this covenant relation, and their experience of fellowship with God is actual; their life is not a parable of salvation but the experience of it. Yet the redemptive manifestation of God to which faith is directed culminates in Christ, and redemption and revelation in the earlier ages foreshadow Christ.” pg 100
“The preacher who would plow under all the symbolism of Scripture in favor of a bare “literalism” should be prepared to assert not only that God has eyes, but that these eyes have legs, since they “run to and fro through all the earth” (Zech. 4:10).” pg 102
“To be sure, a word is a symbol with a firm denotation and a structured connotation; its reference is more evident than is the symbolism of a fresh metaphor. Yet a metaphor also has definite meaning, with a denotation fixed by the subject and the context. Figurative language makes meaningful statements. When Jesus said “I am the door” he stated something quite definite about his unique mediatorial role.” pg 103
“In studying the miracle at Cana one must be sensitive to the symbolism of water, wine, and the wedding feast. Moses’ turning of water to blood must be recalled. The connection of the ministry of John with the water of purification, and Jesus’ presence as the bridegroom (John 3:25-30) help us to understand the force of Jesus’ statement to his mother that his hour was not yet come (John 2:4; cf. 7:30, 8:20; 12:23; 13:1). The first sign declares the last feast, when the Lord shall provide the best wine (Isa. 25:6-8).” pg 116
“We enter with sobriety and reverence the world of scriptural symbolism. Our eyes are lifted from the rainbow in the clouds to the rainbow about the throne. Having seen Aaron the high priest of Israel stand by the altar of incense and enter within the veil to sprinkle the mercy-seat with the blood of the atonement, our understanding is enriched to behold with the eye of faith our great High Priest who has entered no earthly tabernacle like in pattern to the true, but into heaven itself to sprinkle the eternal mercy-seat with his own blood.” pg 120
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August 25, 2007 at 5:51 am
[...] Hank at LawN Gospel provides several excerpts from a wonderful book, Preaching & Biblical Theology by Edmund Clowney. These are worth a quick [...]