Did the Lord really say...?

I had a student ask me a question that sparked some interesting insight about preaching. She asked me where the passage was in the Bible that tells us that we shouldn’t smoke. I replied that there are not any passages that forbid smoking. She replied, “No really. Where does it say that you are not allowed to smoke? Is it somewhere in the New Testament?” Again I answered her that there was no such passage.

She went on to say, “Well then how come my preacher talked about it for an hour this past Sunday?” I assured her that I had no idea how someone could preach from the pulpit on the ills of smoking for an hour. Then I asked her what Scriptures the preacher referenced. She said that he didn’t use Scripture this Sunday. In fact, he doesn’t always preach from a text. He preaches what “God tells him to preach.”

I was taken aback. I remember stories in Elementary Homiletics class but I thought they were urban myths intended to ingrain in us the necessity of using the Bible. But there are actually people who don’t even use the Bible in their sermons. It is one thing to preach topically and sort of proof text your way through a sermon. It is quite another to not use the Bible at all and justify it by saying that you have a special inspired word that is completely divorced from Biblical texts.

I think the worst thing is that the young girl had no problem with this approach to preaching. She probably has known no other way and most of the congregation is the same. It is sort of sad really. I did not lay into her or tell her that her minister could well be a false prophet. I just let her process the idea that her preacher spent an hour on something that is not even considered in the Bible. I also invited her to the church I serve as she also mentioned it is an hour drive to get there from school.

We shall see what happens, but I will tell you that it is no wonder that the Biblical literacy of Christians is so low or that the stereotype of caring more about rules than people continues to exist.