Ministers must first of all be men of the Word–poring over it and praying over it until God opens the treasury of His inspired divine counsel. Pastors then must be men who diligently search the annals of church history–giving careful consideration to the theological formulations of the early church, as well as to the writings of such giants as the church fathers, the medieval scholastics, the pre-Reformers, the Reformers, the Post-Reformation scholastics, and the theologians of Old Princeton and Westminster. The more we learn from this great cloud of witnesses which has gone before us, the better equipped we will be to succeed were they succeeded and to avoid the errors to which they succumbed. Only by standing of their shoulders will we be enabled to see further than they saw. We must also earnestly seek out the counsel of older and wiser saints. By neglecting it, we are inevitably setting ourselves up to be carried away in the wake of the debris of all that is new, exciting, and progressive.
If the church is to be rooted in the timeless truths of God’s word, it needs leaders who are standing on the shoulders of giants in whom the Spirit of God was at work. If pastors are to navigate the overwhelming challenges of an increasingly secular and antagonistic society–not to mention the internal attacks from strong willed and self-seeking individuals within the church–they need the counsel of older and wiser saints. May God make us eager to stand on the shoulders of giants and put ourselves under the counsel of the wise.
Nicholas Batzig | “The Shoulders of Giants, the Counsel of the Wise” | September 23, 2020
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