W i n e s k i ns o c t r i n al P r e a c h i ng in a C h a n g i ng "SJvforld O ld W i ne in New Wineskins Stuart Briscoe, Senior Pastor, Elmbrook Church: "Many preachers who were taught to preach the worď are in a bind because they are now being told that people dont like preaching and they cant abide doctrine. So what should preachers do? Find an alternativě to preaching or avoid doctrine like the plague? Neither! They should read this book which will encourage them to be­ lieve that preaching is still Goďs method and that doctrine is still food for the soul. But it will also give them practical help in understanding the problems, avoiding the pitfalls, and developing preaching that is God honoring, truth tell­ ing, and life changing." Duane Litfin, President, Wheaton College: "Tor those wrestling with the task of how to communicate Goďs truth to a self-centered, sound-bite genera­ tion that has lost confidence in the very notion of truth, Old Wine in New Wine­ skins may be just the book to turn to. Erickson and Heflin have done an excel- lent job of understanding the challenge and offering usable instruction on how to meet it. This book is recommended reading for preachers of the Bible as we launch out into a new millennium." David L. Larsen, Professor Emeritus of Preaching, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School: "If, as one evangelical savant has well argued, 'Theological ideas rest inconsequentially upon the evangelical world,' Miliard Erickson and James Heflins Old Wine in New Wineskins is a bold and direct antidote. This is a substantive and an insightful inquiry which faces into the questions we must confront in doing doctrinal preaching today. The treatment of how doctrine is derived from the various literary genres is particularly strong." David S. Dockery, President, Union University: "The church has lost its un­ derstanding of the importance of doctrine. The need for doctrinal preaching is great and the need for guidance in this area for preachers is greater! Erickson and Heflin have produced a well-informed volume that will positively shape and influence the life of the church in the 21 st century. The reader will here find engaging, challenging, and helpful materiál. I heartily recommend this book." Paul Scott Wilson, Professor of Homiletics, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto: "This is a thoughtful, well-researched, up-to-date book on doctri­ nal preaching written from an evangelical perspective. It is the best such book available and will benefit readers from various backgrounds." J. I. Packer, Sangwoo Youtong Chee Professor of Theology, Regent College: "Any seminary student who wants to become a disciplined and accurate preacher, and any pastor who wants to keep clear of bad pulpit habits, will find help in these pages." Bili Hogan, Professor of Preaching, Reformed Theological Seminary: "In this day when preaching, and especially doctrinal preaching, is being rnini- mized in some quarters, this book provides a well-reasoned and nicely balanced remedy. This book deserves to be read, and used, by every preacher." O ld W i ne in New W i n e s k i ns Doctrinal Preaching in a Changing World M i l i a rd J. E r i c k s on a nd J a m es L. H e f l in © 1997 by Miliard J. Erickson and James L. Heflin Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Book House Company P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval systém, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Erickson, Miliard J. Old wine in new wineskins / Miliard J. Erickson and James L. Heflin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8010-2113-8 (páper) 1. Doctrinal preaching. I. Heflin, James L., 1943 - . II. Title. BV4235.D63E75 1997 251—dc21 96-53603 For information about academie books, resources for Christian leaders, and all new re- leases available from Baker Book House, visit our web site: http://www.bakerbooks.com To Dr. Russell H. Dilday Distinguished Professor of Homiletics and Speciál Assistant to the President George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University President, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1978-94 Without whose vision and commitment to theological scholarship this book would not have been written C o n t e n ts Preface 9 Part 1 Understanding the Issues 1 We ve Heard It All Before 13 2 The Value and Benefit of Doctrine 20 3 The Difficulty of Doctrine Today 39 4 The Pláce of Preaching in the Life of the Church 5 Obstacles to Preaching 76 Part 2 Gathering the Doctrinal Content 6 Getting Doctrine from Didactic Passages 97 7 Getting Doctrine from Narrative Passages 115 8 Universalizing Doctrine 132 9 Particularizing Doctrine 147 Part 3 Delivering Doctrine in Sermonic Form 10 Expository Doctrinal Preaching 167 11 Topical Doctrinal Preaching 183 12 Narrative Doctrinal Preaching 200 13 Dramatic Doctrinal Preaching 220 Part 4 Getting It Done 14 Planning a Stratégy and Program for Doctrinal Preaching 243 Scripture Index 261 Subject Index 265 P r e f a ce There have been few times in the history of the church when solid doc­ trinal preaching and teaching have been more needed. Yet seldom has such preaching been more difficult and problematic. That pair of con- victions, held by the authors, lies behind the writing of this book. There are voices being heard today that decry the lack of biblical and theolog­ ical teaching from our pulpits. Yet those who preach on a regular basis know how difficult it is to communicate doctrinal truths in the contem­ porary environment. This book is an attempt to find ways to preach the crucial doctrines in ways that may be more effective than some of the past practices. This book represents the fruit of discussions over many years of friendship between the authors. Those discussions go back to a time when one of us was a seminary professor of preaching and the other was a seminary dean seeking a preaching professor. When we subse- quently became colleagues at a third seminary, they were continued over numerous lunches, leading to planning and team teaching a course on doctrinal preaching. Although now separated by several thousand miles, we have continued to probe the question of how best to accomplish this important task of communicating timeless doctrinal truths in a timely fashion. This book is a genuinely co-authored work. Professor Erickson had primary responsibility for the writing of chapters 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Professor Heflin is the primary author of chapters 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, and 13. Chapters 1 and 14 were joint efforts. Each author read each of sev­ eral drafts of the other s work and offered comments and suggestions. We wish to acknowledge several persons who have made this volume possible. Dr. Russell Dilday, former president of South western Baptist Theological Seminary, made the faculty appointments which brought the two authors together. Dr. Bruče Corley, former dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern, encouraged us to offer an experimental team taught course in doctrinal preaching under somewhat unusual circumstances. The students in that course during the fail semesters of 1993 and 1994 provided helpful feedback on the ideas presented here and helped translate them into practice. Mr. Endel Lee, Ph.D. student 9 10 Preface and teaching assistant in preaching at Southwestern, assisted with checking bibliographical references during the 1995-96 year when Pro fessor Heflin was on sabbatical leave in Berlin, Germany. Mrs. Sarah Boyles, Mrs. Joy Valdez, and Mrs. Connie Cox provided secretarial as- sistance. Dr. Jim B. Gilbert, Director of Computer Services at South western, provided computer equipment and arranged on-line services during that year. This proved invaluable, since, except for one visit in Berlin in March, 1996, and exchange of a couple of computer disks, all correspondence and file transfer between the two authors from July, 1995, to July, 1996, was done by electronic mail on the Internet. Dr. Dennis Phelps, Associate Professor of Preaching at Bethel Theological Seminary, made available to us some needed technological assistance and equipment at a crucial juncture in the assembly of the manuscript. Mr. Jim Weaver, Academie Books Editor at Baker Book House, encour- aged the development and publication ofthe book. Maria denBoer s ed- itorial skill has done much to improve the manuscript. This volume is sent forth with the hope and the prayer that it will prove helpful to all who seek to communicate the eternal truths of the Gospel. Miliard J. Erickson James L. Heflin