"…We
are all one in sin, one in failure, one in hopelessness,
one in need of the Lord Jesus Christ and His great
salvation." Page
133
"My
final comment is that the real trouble with this modern
outlook (ed. -see quotes below) is that it forgets
the Holy Spirit and His power. We have become such
experts, as we think, in psychological understanding,
and at dividing people
up into groups – psychological, cultural, national, etc.
– that we conclude as a result that what is all right
for one is not right for another, and so eventually
become guilty of denying the Gospel. ‘There is neither
Jew nor Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free.’
This is the ONE Gospel – the ONLY Gospel. It is for the
whole world, and the whole of humanity....
We have fallen into the grievous error of adopting
modern psychological theories to such an extent that we
evade the truth, sometimes to protect ourselves from the
message, and certainly to justify methods that are not
consistent and consonant with the message which we are
privileged to deliver." Pages
141-142
"It is
quite clear that the new factor in this respect is the
great emphasis being placed today upon the pew." Page
121
"…it is
what the modern man can ‘accept’ that becomes the
determining factor. It is the same as all the talk
about ‘man come of age’, and other characteristic modern
clichés." Page
122 – 123
"We
must look at some of the ways in which this attitude
tends to express itself. It does so in its approach to
what we may call ‘the ordinary people’. We are told
that today they cannot think and follow reasoned
statements, that they are so accustomed to the kind of
outlook and mentality produced by newspapers, television
and the films, that they are incapable of following a
reasoned, argued statement." Page
123
"…There
is no greater fallacy than to think that you need a
gospel for special types of people. It is entirely
contrary to plain biblical teaching; it is also
contradicted completely by what we read in the
biographies of all the great preachers such as
Whitefield, Spurgeon and also in the stories of
evangelists such as D.L. Moody. They never recognized
these false distinctions, and their ministries were
blessed to all types – intellectual, social, etc. – of
people." Page
130
"In the
third place, this modern idea is really based on false
thinking. This, to me, is most important. It assumed
that the difficulty and the trouble with modern man, the
thing that prevents his believing the Gospel, is almost
entirely a problem of language and of terminology, what
is described grandiloquently today as ‘the problem of
communication!’ That is the reason behind so much of
this thinking."
"I agree entirely that
we should always seek the best translations
possible.... 130
The simple answer to the
argument that people in this post-Christian age do
not understand terms like Justification,
Sanctification and Glorification is simply to ask
another question. When did people understand them?
When did the unbeliever understand this language?
The answer is: Never! These terms are peculiar and
special to the Gospel." 130-131
"Then take that other false argument, that we have
got to know the exact condition of people before we
can truly preach to them, and that therefore the
preacher should go and work in a factory for six
months in order that he may preach effectively to
factory workers. This is to me the most monstrous
and fatuous argument of all, because, if this is
true, and is pressed to its logical conclusion, your
training will never be finished, because, if you are
to preach to drunkards you will have to spend six
months in the drinking saloons and bar-parlors and
so on.... Then , and only then, will you be ready to
preach to them. .... You would have to have one
service for, and one congregation of, the
non-intellectuals; then you would have a special
service for the intellectuals.... {venues}132