If those who say that we must preach the same message as Paul and the other apostles
mean that we should also exhibit the same adaptability and sensitivity to the background
culture, then they are right…

If, however, they mean that we should expect results merely by repeating the actual
phrases found in the New Testament, then they are mistaken. They are making, in fact, one
of the basic mistakes in verbal communication, which is to confuse words with what they
describe. The gospel is something God has done, not a series of phrases describing it.

Saying this does not undermine the Christian’s belief in the inspiration of the Bible,
for the important thing about the Bible is what it talks about, rather than the way it
does the talking. If we considered that there was the same degree of essential inspiration
in the way it does the talking, then we would have to insist that every Christian learn
Hebrew and Greek. The mere fact that we in the Western world read translations of the
scriptures is a clear admission that times and cultures have changed.

… Gavin Reid, The Gagging of God [1969]

… READ INTELLIGENTLY

The testimony of the New Testament cannot be lightly disregarded, nor can the claims of
Christ be airily dismissed. Many otherwise intelligent people have never read with adult
attention either the four Gospels or the Letters of the New Testament. When they so do, to
my certain knowledge they not infrequently become converted.

Indeed, I know of no adult who has seriously studied the New Testament and rejected the
stories of Christ as mythical or the evidence of changed lives in the Letters as mere
fabrication.

… J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), God with Us

_______________________________________________________________

CQOD Compilation Copyright 1999, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator

CQOD Home Page – http://www.gospelcom.net/cqod