Thanks to Michael Horton's book, People and Place, I discovered this quote from Elizabeth Achtemeier:
"No one believes that God speaks through his Word until they hear it. And no argument can convince the unbeliever apart from the work of the Spirit. "Faith comes by what is heard," writes Paul, "and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ" (Rom. 10:17, RSV). And it is the preaching of Christ - the testimony of faith that is there beyond our human words a transcendent word - it is that alone which can awaken and renew the church".
E. Achtemeier, 'The Canon as the Voice of the Living God,' in Reclaiming the Bible for the Church, eds. Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1995), 122-23.
3 comments:
"No one believes that God speaks through his Word until they hear it. And no argument can convince the unbeliever apart from the work of the Spirit."
I absolutely agree with that. Unless the Spirit has prepared the heart to hear, you can preach until you are blue in the face and the unbeliever will still not believe.
Didn't Paul know of people who had come to faith through seeing Jesus?
Steve T that raises a lot of questions for me as to 'those who are called and those who are not'
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