The Pneuma Review » R. T. Kendall

Discovering the Reality of God in Word and Spirit: an interview with R. T. Kendall

R. T. Kendall — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 22:41:47 +0000

Dr. R. T. Kendall has been preaching for over sixty years. He has also personally experienced the power of the Holy Spirit. For twenty-five years he served as the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London. He is the author of many books and now ministers internationally. He is a strong advocate for bringing together in the church the exposition of the Word and the power of the Spirit.
An updated version of his book, Word and Spirit: Truth, Power, and the Next Great Move of God was released in October 2019.

PneumaReview.com: In Word & Spirit you have written about a great divorce in the church. Please tell our readers what you mean by that.

R. T. Kendall: I call it a silent divorce because nobody knows precisely when it occurred nor has it been officially announced – except that I have been saying it for nearly thirty years. That said, it is obvious that the evangelical wing of the church has been divided into two emphases – those who stress the Word – sound doctrine, historical Protestant theology and expository preaching, and those whose emphasis has been the gifts of the Spirit, signs and wonders and the need to be as the church was in the book of Acts. Both are exactly right. But it seems that nearly wherever I go in the world it is either one or the other. In the book of Acts they had both. But to find a church where both are truly carried out is exceedingly rare.

PneumaReview.com: What are some of the key factors that have contributed to this divorce?

R. T. Kendall: I don’t know for sure, but possibly because those who have assumed that signs and wonders ceased way back in the early church have espoused cessationism and have turned it into a dogma. If you believe in the gifts of the Spirit you are not very welcome in some churches. They are suspicious of those who uphold the possibility of signs and wonders today. I will say that this is not everywhere. In England the Charismatic Movement is mainstream; in America it is often regarded as the lunatic fringe. Cessationism has helped polarize these two movements. There should not be a divide, but there is. The word churches think they believe in the Holy Spirit because they are Trinitarian. The truth is, they believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Bible. Many are fearful of the Holy Spirit. At the same time many (thankfully not all) have little or no deep theology. For example, a robust view of the sovereignty of God is largely absent.

PneumaReview.com: You have said that there is a lot of biblical illiteracy in the church, even among Evangelical and Charismatic Christians. What are some of the main reasons for this?

The Holy Spirit is the same yesterday and today and forever!

R. T. Kendall: It largely begins with doubting the infallibility of Holy Scripture. For one thing, it is very rare to find a theology department in a university where the infallibility of the Bible is upheld. The same is true with most seminaries today. I suspect the reason is much the same as the desire of ancient Israel; they wanted a king to be like other nations. Today theological teachers and professors want to be like the more respected universities such as Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge or some German universities. This is deadly. It is pride that leads to this. They want respectability; they cannot bear to be seen as upholding the inerrancy of the Bible lest they be scoffed and laughed at. I know what I am talking about. It happens that I was trained in Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville that was almost totally liberal at the time although they are sound today. It needs to be said also that some pastors have not been trained in university or seminary and don’t know their Bibles very well and the people consequently suffer from biblical illiteracy. There are exceptions. But not many, I fear.

How Much Do You Read Your Bible?

R. T. Kendall — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 23:20:58 +0000

A timely encouragement from R. T. Kendall to invest time in reading the Word of God.

This is the most important Blog I have written in many years. I pray with all my heart that this will be read and spread to ordinary Christians all over the world. I cannot come close in emphasizing how important this particular Blog is.

This ought not to be: Most Christians do not read their Bibles regularly.

A melancholy fact: most Christians do not have a Bible reading plan. Most Christians do not read their Bibles regularly. Some Christians do not read their Bibles very much at all. And some church leaders do not read their Bibles. I happen to know more than I care to reveal – how many famous Christians and leaders have not read the Bible through at all!

I am aiming this Blog at ordinary Christians. My followers are not clergymen or church leaders but laymen – ordinary Christians.

Mrs. Martyn Lloyd-Jones made a gripping observation about C. S. Lewis’ book Screwtape Letters, a brilliant satire that includes among other things how the devil tempts new Christians. She lamented that one huge thing Lewis left out – that should have been put in – was how the devil wants to keep people from reading their Bibles. I do agree; it would have been so helpful had Lewis put that in.

I am convinced that the devil will do anything to keep people from reading their Bibles.

Has the devil succeeded with you? How much do you read your Bible?

This Blog was inspired by a recent trauma I had in Bimini, Bahamas. Perhaps trauma is too strong a word. But what happened was this. I took a brief vacation to do some bonefishing – my only vacation for 2015. When I turned to read my Bible, lo and behold, I had not packed my Bible or diary (which includes my prayer list)! I was sobered. I never leave home without my Bible, but somehow I let that happen. The thought of not getting to read my Bible for three or four days was almost horrifying. I thought: what do people do who don’t have their Bibles?

The Bible is the Final and Ultimate Revelation of Truth. No vision, word of knowledge or insight will ever contradict what the Bible has said.

Then I remembered something I heard only a few days ago when I was in Singapore. That there is a church where people are not encouraged to read their Bibles – at home or at church – but only wait for God to give a “revelation”. Like a vision. Or rhema word of knowledge. That’s it. The thought of reading the Bible or hearing an expository sermon does not come on to their radar screen! I was flabbergasted when I heard that.

Do listen to me dear reader. Once we give up the conviction that the Bible is the only infallible Word of God, we open ourselves to a strange world out there that may include the Holy Spirit but also if not equally the realm of the demonic. Do not be surprised: Satan “masquerades” as an angel of light (2 Cor.11:14). The devil will work overtime to keeping Christians from reading the Bible. He would love you to close it and just wait on God.

Whereas the Bible was not given to replace the miraculous or even revelation, as Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to say, but “to correct abuses”, too many people don’t know their Bibles well enough to know what the Word of God says. And what the abuses might be. The Bible is the Final and Ultimate Revelation of Truth; no vision, word of knowledge or insight will ever – ever – contradict what the Bible has said. The first test of any vision or prophetic word is to run it by Scripture. If it is not upheld by the infallible Word of God, reject it – no matter how much you may respect the person who gives you a word.

I am grateful in particular for two things in my life. First, my parents taught me to read my Bible daily. This is what they did. The thought of not reading at least a chapter a day in the Bible was out of the question. Second, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – my chief mentor – introduced me to Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Bible Reading plan many years ago. As a consequence I think I can say I have read the entire Bible through some forty times and the New Testament eighty times. A Bible Reading Plan “keeps you in the Word”, Dr. Lloyd-Jones used to say to me.

Many preachers only consult their Bibles when they need a sermon. I persuaded a very close friend – a high profile prophetically gifted man – to start reading his Bible. Two years ago he began a plan and read the Bible through for the first time in his life! He could not thank me enough. He was (amazingly) amazed over how much it meant to him!

Why had he not been doing this sooner? You tell me.

Logic on Fire: The Life and Legacy of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, reviewed by R. T. Kendall

R. T. Kendall — Sat, 03 Oct 2015 21:47:31 +0000

Logic on Fire: The Life and Legacy of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Media Gratiae, 2015). Matthew Robinson, director. 3 disc DVD set with 5 postcard prints and cloth-bound book (128 pages).

Logic on Fire is a documentary film about the life and ministry of the greatest preacher of the twentieth century, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981). I hope that all Christians, especially ministers, will view it. He was known by all as “the Doctor” because he was a physician before he entered the ministry. Following G. Campbell Morgan, he became the minister of Westminster Chapel (1938-1968). His close relationship with the renowned Lord Horder, the king’s physician, is given space in the film; it is essential to understanding the Doctor. Having learned to diagnose patients by going “from the general to the particular”– ruling out what would be a false diagnosis or illness, Dr. Lloyd-Jones approached Scripture in much the same way; he ruled out what a text could not mean and came to understand what it does mean. He became possibly the greatest Bible expositor of all time.

What struck me most about watching this film – which gripped me from the start – is how they emphasized the importance and urgency of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the main reason every person under the sun should view it. If viewers are unconverted or unconcerned about their souls and final destiny before they watch this they will be changed afterwards. For the Doctor was chiefly an evangelist. One of the most striking statements in this video was made by Christopher Catherwood, one of Dr. Lloyd-Jones’s grandsons, explaining that the Doctor’s ministry was not only “not seeker friendly”; it was in fact “seeker unfriendly”. Really? Yes, because an unsaved person should be uncomfortable not comfortable in church! If people would leave in anger after hearing the Doctor he would observe that it is “a good sign” that God is dealing with them. People like this usually return sooner or later in tears and repentance.

Therefore the great benefit of watching his video is that one will gain a fresh grasp of the Gospel and, almost certainly, imbibe a lot of good theology without realizing it. This video has the potential of changing lives like the Doctor’s books have done.

One of the best things about this video is that the viewer can get a glimpse of Martyn Lloyd-Jones the man. We are taken through his medical training, we see him in his first pastorate in Wales and then what it was like at Westminster Chapel during World War II. It is not long before you realize that the Doctor had an extraordinary mind, the kind that perhaps comes along once in a century. The video contains several interviews with people, some of whom knew him. One must admit that the doctor was a bit eccentric. You never saw him except in a three-piece suit, even when he went to the beach with his family! Andrew Davies noted that many preachers tried to imitate his ways and some even wore a suit when going to the beach!

Much space is rightly given to Iain Murray, the doctor’s biographer. I played and replayed some of his cogent comments. And yet the most heart-warming part of the documentary is interviews with his two daughters Elizabeth Catherwood and Ann Beatt. I could go on listening to them for hours. You become immediately aware also of the rare quality of their minds. Each one of the six grandchildren is interviewed. I was moved by his grandson Jonathan Catherwood; he recounts how the Doctor was so patient with him during his teenage years when he was off the rails. From Jonathan we also learn that the Doctor loved to watch wrestling, a fact that used to shock some of the more proper saints at Westminster Chapel!

The doctor was no cessationist.

These things said, I have to report that this video is an incomplete picture of the Doctor. Whereas he would love everything in it, he would be most unhappy with what is not in it. He always called himself “a Calvinistic Methodist”, which the film notes. But by this he meant a strong adherence to the sovereignty of God and stressing the immediate and direct witness of the Holy Spirit. Although this film faithfully demonstrates the doctor’s unashamed Calvinism, it glosses over his teaching on the Holy Spirit – the theological issue nearest to his heart. For example, Pentecostals and Charismatics in Britain always knew that the Doctor was their true friend. But you would never know it by watching this film. It would seem that those with a cessationist teaching controlled this documentary. Pentecostal and Charismatic leaders in Britain were not interviewed. Some still living could have given glowing testimonies of their rapport with Dr. Lloyd-Jones and how he encouraged them. “I’m an eighteenth century man” (referring largely to John Wesley and George Whitefield) “not a seventeenth century man” (referring to the Puritans), he would often say. The doctor was no cessationist. And yet none who were interviewed – most of whom did not even know the Doctor – extolled his views about the Holy Spirit. The most disingenuous part of the film is allowing a leading American cessationist to speak about the doctor but who elsewhere ridicules him for “always chasing after the anointing”. The irony is, Dr. Lloyd-Jones wanted that anointing more than he wanted anything in the world.

Reviewed by R. T. Kendall

Visit www.LogicOnFire.org for trailers and exclusive behind-the-scenes content.

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LogicOnFireFilm

Listen to and download 1,600 sermons, without cost, by Dr. Lloyd-Jones at the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust.