Do you think it's ok for a pastor to preach a sermon from a book of prewritten sermons and pass it off as a divinely inspired word from God? Why or why not?
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Pastors and sermon books
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wanderingone
I'm not lost I'm just wandering
- Jul 6, 2005
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I don't think it's okay for anyone to pass off something written by someone else as their own thoughts, (be they thoughts they claim to have been inspired by God or not)
I do think that it's fine for a pastor to indicate that the message of the day was inspired by some other pastor's message - to preach word for word a sermon that was by someone else, even if acknowledging it doesn't seem much like what we expect from our pastors.
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oneofthem
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Do you mean, is it okay for a pastor to quote, say, a sermon by Spurgeon or Wigglesworth, and treat it with the same authority as the bible?
Or do you mean, is it okay for them to pretend that angels appeared to them and passed on some ingenious sermon to claim as their own?
IMO...
The latter would be considered plagiarism, and lying, which i believe is a sin.
The former...if he is using part of someone elses sermon to illustrate a truth given in the authoritative word of God, and he makes that clear by quoting scripture, then i think that would be good thing. That is, if he or she is supporting it with the word of God, just as anything they would say from the pulpit.
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Yes. Taking a sermon from a book of sermons, adding a bit here and there, preaching it, and then leading others to believe it was a God inspired sermon - a Word from the Lord.
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oneofthem
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Hmm...yes, as i said, i think this falls under "plagiarism" and "lying", which are both wrong, if he or she does not give credit where it is due. And reciting a Spurgeon without mentioning his name, claiming it as one's own, yes, that is definitely not right.
However, one could preach a sermon from a book, giving credit to it's author, and telling the congregation that the Lord inspired them to give that sermon that morning.
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