Spiritualizing the Text

I recently read Charles Haddon Spurgeon's arguably finest work Lectures to My Students. All pastors or those considering ministry should read this book; however, one negative aspect is found in chapter 7, when Spurgeon encourages his hearers to spiritualize the Bible within certain limits and boundaries. He vehemently comes against those that are against spiritualizing, those that are against going beyond the plain meaning of the text. To prove his point, he simply details his own opinions. He calls the standard homileticians have set up a "golden calf," but then he proceeds to set up his own "golden calf" for spiritualizing. He quotes Paul's finding of metaphors in Hagar and Sarah as a basis for our ability to find allegories in other places besides the two mentioned. The problem with this purported proof is that the Apostle Paul was an apostle, one who came with divine authority. One must ask if the Apostle Paul saw Hagar and Sarah as a metaphor because he was a pastor or because he was an apostle? This writer believes he saw the metaphor because he was an apostle, for there is no way apart from God the Holy Spirit that someone could come up with this metaphor. Furthermore, the Apostle Paul was "carried along by God the Holy Spirit," Spurgeon was not, and neither are his readers.

Also, Spurgeon encourages ingenuity, imagination, etc. with the text, but without violating "common sense," "good judgment," etc. He even criticizes John Gill and others for violating his purported terms. Though this writer agrees with Spurgeon's criticism, this writer cannot understand how he can condemn the spiritualizing of others and then argue for his own relative spiritualizing. The problem this writer has is that Spurgeon gets to determine the definition of "common sense," "good judgment," and the boundaries for spiritualizing. He also neglects proper hermeneutics and does not even mention understanding the Holy Spirit's meaning when He divinely inspired the text. Spurgeon's emphasis in this chapter is on the pastor, the interpreter, instead of the Author of the text Himself. He neglects the fact that words mean something; and God the Holy Spirit meant something specific when He wrote the Word of God.

Finally, Spurgeon believes that spiritualizing the text will help keep the audience's attention, interesting them and keeping them awake (109). The pastor's concern however must be with preaching the truth instead of using his imagination to stretch the text beyond the words and context present simply because he has a lazy congregation. Also, by encouraging pastors to use spiritualizing to keep attention, Spurgeon suggests that the text alone is incapable of keeping attention. This writer understands Spurgeon's belief in the depravity of his hearers and their desire to be "kept awake," but none of the pastors in the Old and New Testaments "spiritualized" for this reason. The sermonizers in Scripture demanded to be heard, not because of their ability, ingenuity, or imagination, but because they came with a message from God. In this writer's opinion, this chapter seems inconsistent with the rest of the book. It calls into question the sufficiency of Scriptures and arguably the inerrancy of the Scriptures.