Hearsay Theology

The True Source of Global Christian Theology

“I heard someone say…”

When training pastors in Malawi over the past decade, I heard question after question framed with that phrase (or rather its equivalent in Chichewa):

“I heard someone say that Eve had relations with the serpent. Is that true?”

“I heard someone say that you don’t have the Holy Spirit if you don’t speak in tongues. Is that true?”

“I heard someone say that cancer is a demon. Is that true?”

Hearing so many questions framed in the same exact way struck me as incredibly revealing. These pastors were overwhelmed by the unfamiliar world they encountered in their Bibles, and some of them couldn’t even read their Bibles at all. Their Christianity had developed less from Scripture than from the teachings they had heard from others in their community, on the radio, or via Nigerian false-prophets on the television.

This reality, of course, is not unique to Malawi or even Sub-Saharan Africa. The issue is global. Two days ago, I was talking with a missionary to South Asia, and he expressed the same experience. But the reality isn’t even isolated to the Global South.

While we are incredibly privileged by our access to biblical resources and teaching in the United States, the same can often be true here as well. Many believers possess a willful ignorance of Scripture that makes them easy victims to low-quality or even false teaching. Even if we don’t bring prosperity preachers into the equation, some of the attractional methodologies of the seeker-sensitive movement, at least when it comes to preaching, have contributed to a vacuum of theological knowledge that will inevitably be filled by whatever is blowing in the wind. Sadly, with apologies to Bob Dylan, rarely is the answer found in the breeze.

In Malawi, I came to call this problem Hearsay Theology. People tend to form their doctrine by whatever they hear said. One of the goals of my life is to destroy Hearsay Theology by teaching biblical truth.

There are two key elements to developing the type of teaching that is needed to confront the problem of Hearsay Theology:

First, theology must be translated into comprehensible language for the average person. I love reading theologically dense texts, but most people will never do that. My hero in this regard is R.C. Sproul. One of the first theological books I ever read was The Holiness of God, and his ability to both bring theology down and people up remains exemplary.

Second, theology must have meaning for life. I don’t think there is any aspect of theological discourse that is truly abstract or ancillary to life. If A.W. Tozer was correct when he said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us,” then even the most dense theological discourse has direct and urgent implications for my life. That said, sadly, we do not always teach theological truth as if that is the case. People need to feel theology as much or even more than they need to know it.

If we can teach theology in plain language and proclaim its vital connection to godly living, then I think we will be able to powerfully confront the Hearsay Theology around us.

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Registration is now open for the Rocky Mountain Theology Conference this November 7–8 at Overland Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. Learn more at rockymountaintheology.com