I have heard various opinions from various folks on whether it was right or not for a preacher to borrow material from another preacher. Some people said, "No, I can't believe a preacher would need to listen to anybody but God in writing a sermon!" Other folks said, "Awww...its truth man, and it don't change. Therefore nobody is really stealing anything right?" And so the opinions went...
It is interesting that a preacher must interpret the text of the Bible in a way that bears the fruit of listener understanding, but at the same his words are supposed to be exactly those he has been told or read from the Bible (under the divine reminder of the Holy Spirit).
Interestingly, I have been listening to some material about the Puritans, and the speaker (JI Packer) put forward the statement that back in the days before the rise of modern methods of scholarship, nobody gave a hoot about plagiarism. To prove his point, he recited the following poem that used to be popular in later Victorian England.
There was once a preacher named Spurgie
Who hated the English liturgy
But his sermons are fine, I use them as mine,
And so do the rest of the clergy.
God bless!
1 comment:
I love the poem on Spurgeon! And the picture was priceless. I agree with whoever said, "Awww...its truth man, and it don't change. Therefore nobody is really stealing anything right?"
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