The author of the Preacher’s Outline and Sermon Bible is unknown. According to WORDsearch trainer Steven Ward, the author remains anonymous because people would buy the commentary just because he wrote it. Furthermore, Ward knows of people in many denominations who believe it is written from someone with the same background. I will start with examining some of the commentary to determine how well the author handles the word of God and gather some perspective on his theological positions.
Comparing the commentary to reformed tradition
The author clearly does not come from a reformed perspective. In the commentary on John 6:44-46, he says “Both God and man have a part in salvation.” But the author also says “What God wants believers to do is to take heart, for He has assured their salvation.” If God has assured the salvation of man from before the foundation of the Earth, then man has no part in salvation. The author acknowledges the total depravity of man:
A man is a dead spirit; therefore, he can do nothing spiritually just as a dead body can do nothing physically. The natural man prefers self and sin; therefore, if a man with a dead spirit is to come to Christ, he has to be acted upon and drawn by God.
Unfortunately, the author takes a severe detour from reformed theology when he applies the drawing of the Father universally. If all men are totally depraved and all men are equally drawn by the Father, then either all men or no men would be saved. The fact is that all who believe were drawn irresistibly to Christ by the Father.
In examining the commentary on Romans 8:28-30, John 6:44-46 and Ephesians 1:5-6, the author talks a great deal about the purpose of God. I would expect when speaking of the purpose of God to hear about God’s glory. However, the purpose expressed in this commentary is man centered rather than God centered. In the Romans 8:28 commentary, the author explains the purpose of God as “[man] being saved from the struggle and sufferings of this life.” Is this really God’s purpose? Thankfully the author does not present a prosperity Gospel, but such a statement can easily lead to a man-centered prosperity Gospel.
Sermon and Lesson Preparation using POSB
My wonderful wife, Heather, looked at some of the POSB commentary with me and said, “I feel cheated, there is no work left for the Pastor.” As we learned in the proceeding section, when using the POSB discernment is necessary, so there is definitely work left. I know of no pastor that would print off the POSB notes and jump right into the pulpit with them unedited. Although we have theological differences, the POSB can still be a great tool. I have read through some of the commentary on Exodus 20 and find it to be comprehensive and very good.
One Sunday morning, Pastor Chris Zeller, of Golden Shores Community Baptist Church, asked me if I could fill in for him that Sunday evening. I was able to squeeze in less than two hours to prepare and felt woefully unprepared for the task. If I had this resource available, my two hours would have been much more productive. In such a squeeze, you could start with the POSB notes and work from there, exercising discernment and conducting your own study.
The same notes used for a sermon could easily be used by a Sunday School teacher or Bible study leader. The notes provided in the POSB would make for a great framework for a teacher to start their lesson plan. Teaching in such a way is also more cost effective than buying each participant a quarterly or other follow along book. Having this resource on a church computer would allow each teacher to come and prepare their lessons if they were all willing to share.
The POSB is setup for expository preaching and teaching, which I commend. I will not get into why, but if you are not yet sold on expository preaching, let 9marks convince you.. The first mark of a healthy church is expositional preaching. Also, read Why Must We Preach Expositionally? By David King.
The technology
I will do more writing on the WORDsearch 8 software before this series is finished. Here I will focus on the software features that facilitate the use of the POSB. Click on the screenshot thumbnail at the start of this article to see a full image of the POSB turned to Romans 9:13.
I attended the POSB training today, provided free by WORDsearch through a gotoMeeting webinar. The WORDsearch trainer, Steven Ward, connected to each of our computers, took control of our mouse and keyboard and setup a custom desktop for the POSB. This saved desktop feature is one of WORDsearch’s best features. For example, you can have one saved desktop for the POSB and another for word studies, having the right layout for the task at hand. All the resources are well laid out and synchronized. Entering a verse in one section, loads that verse in all the resources on the screen, including the tabs that are not active.
Without attending the training, I would not have gotten the layout right. WORDsearch should consider packaging a saved desktop file with each package they sell. The entire library became significantly more effective once it was well laid out, so thank you Steven. If you have or are getting the POSB, you should register for this free class.
The resources in the POSB are well linked. You can get your three points out of each passage from the POSB outline and each point is linked to the POSB commentary on that point. There is also a topical index for when you need to study a topic. Along side these resources, Ward also placed on my POSB desktop Practical Illustrations Indexed and Keyed to The Preacher’s Outline and Sermon Bible. As you switch between verses, this resource shows you an illustration idea you can use in your sermon or lesson. Heather did not see this part, but I am sure she would really feel cheated if she knew even the illustration was not the pastor’s own! In addition to these primary resources, there are a few good word study tools provided and linked where appropriate. See a complete list of resources included on the WORDsearch site.
Although e-sword cannot compare with WORDsearch for several reasons, e-sword does have one feature that WORDsearch should consider incorporating. In e-sword when you click on a verse, every commentary with a resource for that verse has an indicator icon letting you know. This method is much more effective than the cross reference explorer in WORDsearch 8.
Win a free copy of the POSB New Testament
For each WORDsearch review before September 28th, 2009 you can enter to win a free copy of this resource. You can enter up to three times per WORDsearch related article. To enter, you tweet a link to the article, or comment on the article, or write your own blog post linking to the article — or all three for three entries, then submit the form here to put your name in the hat!
