If I aim to preach or teach, what do I need to learn?
Question:
It would seem that not many are even aiming to try and follow the truth, and as such, I would like to someday be a preacher and or teacher in hopes that some might be won over to Christ and the truth. I appreciate that you seem to do that as well. It seems obvious that I would need to immerse myself in the word and learn, but are there any specifics you could point out? I am also currently dealing with a fear of failing to preach the Gospel well enough. I fear that if I don't preach it right that I may just end up making matters worse and that often keeps me from saying anything at all.
Also, how would you explain that plate tectonics and stuff like island chains forming from lava over time don't prove that the age of the earth is what scientists say it is?
Is there a limit on how many or how often a person can send you questions? It seems as though I ask a lot of questions.
Now that I am thinking about it isn't there a certain church position that Paul warned against young men having because of pride? I don't want to do something that would be sinning.
Answer:
There's no limit on how many questions can be sent in. There is a limit on how many I can manage to answer. There is just one of me and thousands of readers. It does make it easier on me if notes focus on one topic at a time. Notes with a ton of questions on a variety of topics tend to go lower on my priority list simply because I have to devote a bigger block of time to get them all answered. I try to work on quick questions and personal issues first.
The rule for teaching is to stick to what God said. "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen" (I Peter 4:11). If you don't know where to find an answer, then the answer is "I don't know that one, but let me study it and get back to you." It is never appropriate to make up an answer.
When you let God's Word speak for itself and stick to helping people understand what it says "So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading" (Nehemiah 8:8), then it is not about you but whether the person wants to listen to God. You simply do what you can to encourage them and leave the rest up to God. "So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase" (I Corinthians 3:7).
Read through the articles on preaching. They will give you an idea of what the duty requires. But you are correct that you need to really study your Bible. If you can, find a good preacher or two to study with. You'll learn more from them than in any classroom.
A while back, a British engineer, Sidney P. Clementson, became interested in the accuracy of claims labs made of being able to date volcanic rock samples using radioactive dating methods. He sent off samples from twelve volcanoes in Russia and ten volcanoes from other places around the world and published the results sent to him from the labs. The ages of the samples were wildly diverse between labs for the same volcano. For all the samples the ages ranged from 100 million to 10 billion years. The fascinating part is that some of the volcanic rock was known to have been formed in eruptions within the last 200 years! In other words, dating volcanic rock cannot tell you when it was deposited. See Is Science the Source of Truth for more information. The dating methods being touted are not nearly as certain as school teachers try to lead you to believe.
