The Kingdom Come

Dear Pastors, this Sunday I urge, I challenge you to ask the congregation WHY they are sinners. Now, I don't want you to answer for anyone. Allow feed back...dialogue instead of monologue...or at least with the monologue. I don't know what to tell you if you have 2000 members...maybe split into a more manageable group?

Anyhow, I think you will be surprised by the answers. Many people won't know how to answer.

1. We are sinners only when we do bad things.
2. We do bad things and that makes us sinners.
3. We are sinners because the Bible says so.

We have all experienced listening to a sermon where a sports analogy was used to make the point. There is certainly nothing wrong with trying to get a person to understand the point of the Bible by employing something a person can grasp from their everyday life. This is exactly what a parable is; a common truism. The apostle Paul even references "sports" when he compares our faith to a "race" (Acts 20:24, 1 Corinthians 9:24, 2 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 12:1).

The problem isn't the use of analogies to elucidate the intent of Scripture but rather the problem comes from malformed analogies. For example, a fellow (who claims to be a pastor) has been a continued disputant against my position that he and folks such as Dr. Kenneth Talbot are "sell-outs" and "compromisers" when validate the heresy of hyperpreterismⁱ.