If impressions are the better part of conclusions, the pulpit is responsible to impress its hearers with four vital conclusions about the Bible: it is believable; it is understandable; it is applicable; and it is inexhaustible.
The Bible needs no endorsement, but it will be more readily perceived as believable when preachers approach the Bible as their authority rather than themselves as an authority on the Bible.
When preaching communicates the Bible in the spirit and enthusiasm of its purpose—God wanting to make Himself known—it prompts its own hearing. It is when the Bible is handled as difficult material, fully known only to the spiritually elite, that it is deemed elusive to those for whom it is meant.
Charles Fuller, “Preaching and Education,” in Handbook of Contemporary Preaching, ed. Michael Duduit (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1992), 466.
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