Page 155 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

drawn to him and saved. Saving faith comes from what is heard, if what is heard comes by the

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preaching of Christ, not anthropocentric, life precept, moralistic, purpose-driven sermons.

Jesus preached Christologically and the preaching of the Church should follow suit.

Korean preaching needs to be much more Christo-centric, that is, evangelistic and kerygma

based since the nature and function of preaching is to reveal Jesus Christ. Human consequences

should be secondary. In order for the preaching to be Christo-centric, however, its hermeneutics

must be the Christo-centric.

Third, the nature of Jesus’ preaching is the exposition of the Scripture. Jesus expounded

the Scripture according to his mission and life as Messiah. By Christo-centric interpretation is

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meant the characteristic way Jesus read the Scriptures. Though the Korean church receives

accolades for her strong emphasis on application, she suffers from a severe weakness in the

interpretation of the Scripture. The recurring problems include bypassing the exegetical process

due to lack of time, moralizing the text in an attempt to locate moral precepts, spiritualizing, and

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allegorizing due to a lack of exegetical training. The fundamental weak point that binds these
all these hermeneutical issues together is that the methodology is anthropocentric. Ki Kim notes

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Rom. 10:17.

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Fredrick C. Holmgren, The Old Testament and the Significance of Jesus: Embracing
Change-Maintaining Christian Identity (Grand Rapids, MI.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 1999), 20. He explains the interpretive way of Jesus’ disciples, who reflect his
method. He says, “When the New Testament authors make use of the Old Testament, they do
not move from the Old Testament text to the reality of Jesus; rather they move from this reality
to the text of the Old Testament.”

22 Chi Kay, “Contemporary Protestant Preaching in Korea,” 46-58. He includes one more
flaw that is “Contextual interpretation,” which he means “advisory and constitutive hermeneutics
mainly to nurture, educate and support their congregation for personal spirituality and
evangelism.”