The Gospel Preached: Story, Proposition, or Both

In this article, I will be interacting with Mark Miller’s Experiential Storytelling. In this work, Miller states, “What if we removed all of the argumentative language, replaced it with beautiful narratives, and let people feel the power of story” (26).

Miller certainly understands postmodern culture, and his desire to contextualize the gospel should be appreciated. However, his contextualization appears to move in the direction of syncretization. Let’s examine this quote. The Bible is filled with many beautiful and true stories, and these stories a great didactic material to teach postmodernists. But should we avoid the argumentative language found dispersed throughout the Bible both within the narrative and without? Paul says that he proclaimed the whole will of God (Acts 20:27). If we believe him, why would we want to forego his argumentative language.
If we avoid conflict and controversy which will certainly occur by delivering propositional (argumentative) truth claims found within narratives or without, then we are not following the example of Christ or Paul. Stories are great for teaching and the example of Jesus Himself proves their usefulness. But even Jesus explained the meaning of His stories to His disciples. Like Jesus, we must explain biblical stories to modern-day disciples using the full counsel of God found throughout all Scripture.

At another point, Miller claims, “The reality of propositional preaching was developed a few centuries ago to accommodate cultural and technological transitions at that time” (Experiential Storytelling, 81). This propositional truth claim is baseless. In the Old Testament, Ezekiel recounts,

“The word of the LORD came to me: ‘Son of man, set your face toward the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest of the southland. Say to the southern forest: ‘Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to set fire to you, and it will consume all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and every face from south to north will be scorched by it. Everyone will see that I the LORD have kindled it; it will not be quenched.’ Then I said, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! They are saying of me, ‘Isn’t he just telling parables?'” (Ezekiel 20: 45-49 NIV)

Here, God commands Ezekiel to preach (v.46) propositional truths (v.47-48) which the people will falsely believes are mere stories (v.49). Ezekiel’s message was not a story; it was a prophetic utterance straight from the mouth of God. Furthermore, this event happens way before the Enlightenment.

In the New Testament, Paul writes, “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. (1 Cor 15:2-5 NIV)

Paul may have used some stories in his preaching along with miracles, but he sums up his preaching here in a series of propositional truth claims that make up the core gospel message. If Paul reduces the biblical narrative to propositional truths, it may be a bit naive and possibly even arrogant for Miller to suggest we do otherwise. Paul saw Christ and was appointed by Christ to be an Apostle of the Church. Maybe he knew what he was doing.