Paul Washer

I was listening to a message by Paul Washer today. He is considered by most conservative, God loving, bible thumping, evangelicals to be a solid preacher of the word. I was shocked to hear him suggest we need to preach the gospel and not to get caught up teaching eschatology. I am forever amazed at the number of preachers who seem to think the gospel is only found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Let's see, the gospel is, by definition, the good news about Jesus Christ. Uh, I think that good news begins in Genesis 1:1 and culminates in Revelation 22:21. The sixty-six books we have in our contemporary codexes are the gospel. One of the most significant prooftext of this point is written by Paul when he tells us in Galations 3:8, The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations will be blessed in you." And the final words of Revelation tell us, He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen, Come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. The Revelation is from chapter 1 and verse 1 to chapter 22 and verse 21 the record of the fulfillment of all the other sixty-five books prophesied was to come.

I was truly disappointed with Paul Washer, until I considered how young and inexperienced he is. What I found more disturbing this week were the comments by another pastor, R.W. Glenn. His suggestions had to do with whether or not a pastor should have a time set aside daily just for reading the Bible with the idea in mind of reading it in its entirety several times yearly. I find the fact that the question would arise rather disturbing. How can one accurately exegete scripture if he doesn't read it in its entirety several times a year. More importantly, how can a pastor convince those he is discipling they need to commit a significant amount of time daily in their own study of God's word, if he are not doing the same. My wife often asks me, when I am scheduled to preach or teach, if I am ready. My response is that God has been getting me ready for nearly thirty-eight years.

Maybe I'm exceptionally dense, but I find I have to read God's words over and over and over to get any sense of their true meaning. He is so incredibly omnipotent, omniscient, and immutable, that my finite brain just can't grasp it all without reading the words of His magnificent revelation to us in these 66 books until my eyes get sore and my brain can't absorb anymore information. And, I pray that won't happen until they lay me in the grave.

I find the disturbing trend that many of the "up and coming" young pastors today rely way too much on Spurgeon and way to little on Scripture. I would like to humbly suggest there is nothing wrong with reading Calvin, Spurgeon, Torrey, Lewis, Piper, or any of the other, so called, giants of the faith. But, there is everything wrong with reading them more than one reads God's word. When we get our theology from them, it tends to be top heavy with their own biases. I have read works by all of these men and many others whose reputation as pillars of the faith is indisputable. I have discovered at least one of them has received the exact same insights I have received directly from God about His word as I was reading it for myself. I pray that doesn't sound arrogant. I wouldn't suggest for a moment I am a theologian an par with any of these men. All I am suggesting is that preachers of God's word must first go to God and His word daily, reading, studying, examining, re-examining, cross referencing, and then reading some more before they lay it down and read what another preacher has or had to say about any given passage.

In closing, I want to make it clear I think Paul Washer is a man of God who speaks the words of God in his messages. I'm confident as he matures, he will realize some of the things he suggests in his messages, though certainly not heretical, are exegetically weak.