Storms of Life Metaphor

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central, Ladies and gentlemen, I declare war on the use of a specific metaphor. I declare war today on the metaphor of the storms of life. I'm tired of the metaphor. I'm sick of the metaphor, and churches need to stop using it. I'm tired of preachers using it, Sunday school teachers using it, devotionals. I'm just tired of it. And so I'm going to declare war on the use of this storm of life metaphor once and for all. I don't know but if declaring war is going to accomplish anything, but I'm declaring war, and we're going to talk about that right after I say good afternoon everyone. It is Wednesday, March the nineteenth, twenty twenty five. It is currently four to twenty three pm Central time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, if you've been going to church, I think for any length of time, you have probably had a pastor stand behind the pulpit, open the Bible, turn to some text that talks about a storm. All right, Jesus walking on the water in the midst of a storm, Jesus asleep

1:33 in a boat in the midst of a storm, Paul the Apostle, Paul caught in a storm, Jonah asleep in the boat when a storm was going on. Whatever the storm may be, they will open the Bible, talk about a storm, and almost instantaneously take that literal storm that the Bible's talking about, that historical account of a literal storm, and then turn it into a metaphor for the storm in your life. Are you going through a difficult time? Do you find yourself in the midst of a storm today? Have you found yourself in the midst of a storm in the past. Let me tell you something. You're either in a storm, you're coming out of a storm, or you're getting ready to go into a storm, because that's the way life works. Ladies and gentlemen. Even if you're not in a storm today, a storm is coming and you.

2:24 We are going to take this text of scripture that talks about a literal storm, and I'm going to give you principles. I'm going to prescribe to you what you need to do. So that you can weather the storms of your life. That thing has been that type of sermon has been preached a million times, and I'm sick of it. I am just beyond sick of it, and I'm going to do a lot of criticizing of it today. What we're going to do is we're going to talk about this metaphor. I'm going to try to demonstrate to you that it's not biblical in any way, shape or form, and then we're going to try to trace We're going to go through church history and try to figure out where this metaphor came from. When did it start? I think I know who to blame. I think I know who to blame, and we'll see if we can track that down. But let me tell you why we're gonna talk.

3:09 Why I have declared war on this metaphor. A right. It all started innocently enough, three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning. I'm listening. If you have the Sermon Audio app if you go there to the radio tab, or if you just scroll down, you'll see radio. You have the Sermon Audio Radio station twenty four to seven, and then right next to that you have VC Why America VC Why America, and I like listen to VC Why America overnight starting around eleven pm Central Time all the wait about five or six in the morning, they have their overnight programming. It's perfect, it's devotional. It's great to go to sleep too. And I wake up listening to it around three four in the morning and they're talking about the storms of life. And I'm like, oh boy, here we go, the storms of life. And they say, hey, right now you can get a seven week Bible study guide talking about how to weather the storms of life.

4:08 And I'm like, okay, let me get up, grab the iPad. Okay, how do I get to this website? They say, go to www dot LWF LWF dot o RG forward slash VCY. That's www dot LWF dot org forward slash vc why. So of course I downloaded the Bible study guide. I'm like, okay, cool, a seven week Bible study guide and how to weather the storms of life. I know what I'll do when I wake up, I'll turn on the microphone and I will tell everyone, Hey, guys, there's this study guide. It's free.

4:50 I'm not telling you I like it. I'm not telling you I don't like it. I just want you to know of this free resource. You know, use discernment, use it wisely, go and just kind of do a little ten teen minute broadcasts just informing people of a resource out there that's free, because it's always good to have resources. Well, I that was the plan, but when I turned on the microphone, the next thing, you know, I kind of start reviewing some of it, and I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. And so I then said, you know what, it's a seven week study guide. Let's just go through all seven weeks. It's going to take the storms and the Bible and apply them to the storms in our life. Let's take this apart, and the first one is Acts twenty seven. So then we started reviewing sermons on Acts twenty seven. Those were a total complete train wreck and once again demonstrate people take their Bibles, open it to Acts twenty seven and turns it into a metaphor about the storms in our life. And it's just I mean, by the time I'm done with those two sermons, I just want to quit this whole thing.

5:51 But I'm like, ah, we've got to work on this. So then I went to work on Acts twenty seven. I've turned AX twenty seven into like a narrative. I've done an observational outline on ACTS twenty seven. I've done an exegetical study on ACX twenty seven. So I'm going to put all of that together at some point and teach it. But I'm like, you know what, let's the sermon reviews kind of took us away from the study guide. Let's circle back to the study guide and just work on the study guide for a couple of episodes. And we're going to do this. We've turned this into a series called the Storms of Life, and I said, and that's what I'll do. So I started looking at the first like lesson in the study guide and it got to it got to a very important question, basically why we have storms of life? Now, of course it's going all in with the metaphor, and I'm like, you know what, that could get into some very important philosophical discussions and we need to have that. But before we do that, we're going to talk about the metaphor in the first place.

6:51 So we're going to start working through the study guide. So if you want to go download it, go download it now again. Go to www dot l WF dot oh four slash VC. Why download the study guide and we're gonna just kind of go a little bit into the study guide, and then we're gonna talk about this metaphor, the storms of life metaphor. And I'm telling you I've grown sick and tired of it. I really really have. And I'll explain why in just a minute. So I'm gonna pull up the study guide. I'm gonna pull up the study guide. Here it is. I'm gonna go all the way to the top. Here we go, how to Weather the Storms of Life, a seven week Bible study to help anchor you in God's Truth. Now, any study guide that's gonna help anchor me into God's truth, that sounds great. But my question immediately is, wait a minute, are you going to anchor me in God's truth When you're building this all on a metaphor that I don't believe exists in scripture, Then you're not anchoring me in God's truth. You're anchoring me and while you're made up metaphor.

7:55 But okay, okay, well we'll talk about that in a minute. Then they got the guide to studying our Bible, and we already took that all apart. We're not going to go through that. Then we have the kind of the title page, how to Weather the Storms of Life. Right. Then we have the contents. Week one, Ride out the storm. Week two, Live above sea level, and that's see level, not sea live above sea level. Week three, be unsinkable, Week four, let go of burdens. Week five, Trust God in the storm, Week six, fine, peace in the storm. Week seven, fight your way out. Then it says listen now, and then the discussion guide all right, and then immediately we have the introduction, and the title of the introduction is how to Weather the Storms of Life. They don't even wait, Look, they don't even they don't even try to build the metaphor. They just immediately go in with how to Weather the Storms of life. They just immediately start going with this metaphor. And remember it begins this way in Acts twenty seven. That's why we been doing all of the discussion about Acts twenty seven. We find the story of Paul who boards a ship that rides straight into the teeth of a ferocious storm. And John six we find the Disciples in a boat in the middle of a storm, and Genesis Noah floats and an art during a worldwide flood. These are some of the most gripping stories in the Bible. If you listen, you can hear the booming thunder and see the lightning as it has its fingers flash across the sky. You can

9:29 hear the old ships creak and groan, and the moaning and the whistling of the wind. The story of a ship in the midst of a storm captivates our imagination. But reading about storms and living through them are two different things. So why would God tell us these stories about storms and ships. He tells us because they are more than history lessons. The Holy Spirit takes these stories and illustrates valuable spirit truths to help us navigate. Now, immediately, they're just making the claim that these stories are in the Bible not just to give us history so immediately, not to be descriptive, but to be prescriptive, to prescribe you and I the things we need to do and we need to know in order to navigate. Not to navigate literal storms, but to navigate navigate metaphorical storms. So I mean, they're they're they're doubling down on this metaphor.

10:31 It says, Then immediately it says life is like a sea voyage. Sometimes the sea is calm and the wind blows softly. Sometimes the sun is shining, and we thank God for those happy times. Maybe that's where you are right now, just selling along. If that's you, enjoy it because it's a gift from God. But sometimes the wind rises and the sky darkens. Sometimes we find ourselves in the midst of a terrible storm we never saw coming. And that's the way life is. Every human being is sailing between two eternities. Sometimes things are good, sometimes things are bad. And this study we're going to look at the storms and the Bible so we can learn how to weather the storms of life. There you go, We're gonna look at the storms of the in the Bible to see how you and I can weather the storms of life. Now already, just from a hermaoneutical standpoint, you're telling me that the historical narratives about physical storms are actually there to prescribe to us the very important things we need so that we can navigate the storms of life.

11:35 And nobody nobody in the church, nobody, no pastors, no Sunday school teachers, nobody sitting in the pew, no one bothers to raise their hand and go, how is this what hermoneutical system does this? No nobody ever bothers to go, wait a minute, I think there's a problem here. No, I guess not, because the minute you raise your hand and start saying I think there's a problem, you're going to be viewed as the problem. It says, end this study. We're going to look at the storms in the Bible so we can learn how to weather the storms of life. We hope that you will be encouraged as you remember a storm you've already faced, prepare for the storm on the horizon, or sell through the middle of one. God is with you. Do not be afraid. Then it has a quote from Adrian Rodgers. Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead tell the storm how big your God is. I guess if I if you have problems in your life, just telling the problems in your life, My God is bigger than this problem, and that should make it go away. It should just take care of the cancer, should take care of the fact that you were molested for ten years, should just fix everything. I guess I don't really know what that is supposed to do, but okay, So then here is week one ride out the storm. Imagine sailing along in the middle of the ocean on a big ship. All of a sudden, the worst storm you have ever seen rolls in. Waves are crashing, the sky becomes dark, and you're thrown about the boat with no way to keep your balance. You do not

13:07 know what will happen in the coming hours. As the angry ocean wrestles with the ship, you wonder if you will ever make it out of this storm. Paul experienced this kind of storm and Acts Chapter twenty seven and the first in Acts Chapter twenty seven. In the first century, Paul was imprisoned by Roman officials for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was transported by sea to Rome, Italy. On this voyage, the ship sailed into a ferocious storm. By the end of the journey, Paul went from being a prisoner to being the captain of the ship because he chose to trust the Lord through the storm. And we've already talked about this, does he actually become the captain of the ship. We've heard multiple sermons make this exact same claim. I don't think that's accurate. We gave it to artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence says it's completely fraudulent.

14:02 But we won't get into that right now, because we have a specific purpose in this episode, and that is to declare war on this metaphor. Now now they're going to actually use They're going to actually describe this as a metaphor. Here we go. Acts twenty seven teaches us how to navigate the metaphorical storms of our own lives as believers in Christ. Acts twenty seven does not teach you how to navigate the metaphorical storms of your life. That is not what Acts twenty seven is about. That's not its purpose. It has nothing to do with the so called storms of your life. We have to declare war on this metaphor. This week we will read Acts twenty seven and find out how God can use the challenges we face to grow our faith and bless others.

14:54 Then there's a prayer. I'm not going to take that apart. Then it goes to day one. Reason for now, I want to get into that week on Day one. I want to get into it because this reason for storms opens up the door to some very unpleasant philosophical discussions that you're not going to like, and I'm not going to like. I want to get there. But before we get there, we've got to declare war on the metaphor. All right, so are you here? We go? This is this is I'm hoping to start the war and end the war in one episode that pastors need to stop this storms of life metaphor. It needs to stop. It just needs to come to a complete crashing end. And if you sit in the pew and you hear it, you need to stop it somehow. I'm not saying you make a scene publicly, but in private you've got to say, pastor, that's this is not a biblical metaphor in any way, shape or form. Are you ready? I want you to write this down. I believe it is accurate to say that nowhere I believe this is accurate. I believe it is accurate to say that. Nowhere in the Bible does it explicitly or even implicitly connect storms to life's problems or refer to personal trials as storms. Now. I know when I say this, I'm gonna get some of you going, oh,

16:25 you're just being nitpicky and you're just trying to make a big deal out of nothing. Who cares? Well, it's amazing, Like sometimes we're supposed to care about accuracy. We're supposed to care about handling the word of God, you know, with in truth, and that we get everything correct. And then there's other times whe we're like, well it doesn't really matter. It either matters or it doesn't. So I'm gonna you can say, this is my hypothesis that nowhere in the Bible does it explicitly or even implicitly connects storms to life's problems are referred to personal trials as storms. The storm as life trials metaphor is a modern day interpretive device that preachers and teachers impose on the text, rather than something the Bible itself teaches. I'm going to state this again. This is my hypothesis. This is what I'm putting forth. No, and first part of my hypothesis I think is just completely factual. Nowhere in the Bible does it explicitly or implicitly connect storms to life's problems or refer to personal trials as storms. I think that's a fact, but we'll just say it's my hypothesis. The storm as life trials metaphor is a modern day interpretive device that preachers and teachers and pose on the text.

18:00 This storms as life trials metaphor, right the storms as life trials metaphor. This is preachers and teachers and Sunday school teachers, and pose this onto the Bible. They're imposing it on the Bible, and everyone in the pew sits there and says, amen, Amen. Everyone's sitting in Sunday school class amends it. Now. If you can impose that onto the Bible, then don't get mad when someone else imposes something else on the Bible. See what it really comes down to. People only argue about how the Bible is handled when they disagree what someone says. But if they agree with what someone says, they don't really care if it's imposed on the text or not. Our whole argument that you're imposing that on the text, don't even pretend we care. We don't care if it's imposed on the text.

18:49 We only care if what's being imposed on the text is something we agree with and something we like. If we like it, we're for it. We don't like it, then all of a sudden we care about harmoneutics. We only care about hermoneuticts when it goes against what we don't like, which is just disingenuous and just ridiculous all the way around. So let me state it again. The storm as life trial metaphor is a modern day interpretive device that preachers and pose on the text. It is not something the Bible itself teaches. All right, So let's try to look at the biblical evidence to see if my hypothesis is even a little bit accurate. All right, let's start here. Number one. I'm going to claim that every biblical storm in the Bible is a literal physical event, and that in every case it's a literal physical event. Now, you may be able to find one, going, well, are we sure this is a literal physical event? I think I'm going to be pretty dogmat I can think I'm pretty sure that every single one in the Bible is a literal physical event. The Bible mentioned storms multiple times, but every single one refers to actual physical weather events, not figurative life struggles. Let me just give you some examples, all right. Let's start in the Old Testament Noah's flood Genesis six through nine. The flood was a judgment on humanity,

20:21 not a metaphor for life's trials. It's not a metaphor. It's a literal storm, literal God judgment on literal earth. Okay, the plague of Hell Exodus nine twenty two through twenty six a literal healthstorm sent as a part of God's judgment on Egypt. And you could argue that that literal healthstorm was actually in an attack upon Egyptian deities. But we won't get into all of that right now. Job's storm, Job one, eighteen through nineteen, Chapter thirty eight, Verse one, Job actually experienced a windstorm that killed us children. Later, God speaks from a literal world win in Job thirty eight one. Nowhere does Job or God metaphorically called Job suffering a storm. It's just not done. It's a literal windstorm. Next, God uses storms in judgments Psalm eighteen Naem one Jonah one.

21:13 The Bible repeatedly says that God controls storms, but only in the sense of actual weather or judgment. Jonah's storm was not a metaphor. It was a real storm caused by his disobedience. Literal storms, New Testament storms, Jesus calming the storm Matthew eight twenty three through twenty seven, Mark four thirty five through forty one, Luke eight twenty two through twenty five. This is a literal storm that Jesus miraculously stops. The passage does not say this represents life struggles. Jesus simply demonstrates his divine authority over creation, demonstrating his deity. All right, Jesus walking on water Matthew fourteen twenty two through three, or thirty three, Mark six forty five through fifty two, John six sixteen through twenty one. Again, this is a real storm. It's not a metaphor. Jesus walking on water demonstrates his power, not a general lesson on life struggles. It demonstrates him as divine, his deity, not a metaphor about your problems in your life. Acts twenty seven, Paul Shipwreck. The storm is an actual event, demonstrating God's providence of repulse journey to Rome. Nowhere does Paul or Luke suggest that this storm represents life's trials. What is the conclusion? Every single biblical storm is a literal, physical event, never a metaphor for personal struggles. It's not there. Stop using it that way. Declare war on this metaphor, the storms of life metaphor for the trials in your life.

22:44 It's a it's a nowhere to be found in the Bible. Does the Bible ever call trial storms to be one hundred percent accurate? We must ask, does any Biblical writer ever use the word storm to refer to personal hardship or suffering. The Bible uses other metaphors for trials, doesn't seem to use storms, uses fire one Peter one, six to seven, Isaiah forty three. Maybe possibly, and even that when I would, we would have to really take apart Daniel three, refining silver gold, so the refining of silver and gold Malachi three, Zachariah thirteen, a race, Hebrews twelve, First Corinthians nine, a fight or battle Ephesian six, Second Timothy four, childbirth, John sixteen, in Romans eight, a furnace, Psalms sixty six, and Proverbs seventeen. Nowhere in scripture are trials metaphorically called storms. If Biblical author is meant to compare trials to storms, they had plenty of chances, but they don't appear to ever do that. They use these other metaphors, a fire, refining silver and gold, a race, a fight, childbirth, furnace. They don't appear to use the storm metaphor. It's not in the Bible. I know we supposedly care so much about who it's the inspired and errant word of God, and we care about the Bible and we care about well, no, you don't. You really, that's just such a joke. It's just a joke. Now.

24:20 Some and I mentioned Isaiah forty three. Some may mention Isaiah forty three to two. And because this verse Isaiah forty three has misapplied multiple times, and we've talked about I think it was John Bunyan who really messed right in messing up Isaiah forty three. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flames scort you. Now, Number one, that is not about you. This is about those in Babylonian captivity coming out all right. But is this a storm life struggle metaphor. No, this is a direct promise to Israel, not a metaphor for personal struggles. And then we could talk about the the rivers and the fire. Is this is this a referring to the literal dangers Israel had faced, like the Red Sea, the Jordan River. Is this the idea that no matter what dangers they face going through, God is going to be with them. I don't think it is not using storms as a metaphor here of our problems in our life.

25:21 This is a reference specifically to their historical situation, their past, and what they're getting ready to endure and what they're getting ready to encounter in the future. When pastors go to Isaiah forty three, it starts applying that to us. I already immediately know that you know hermonoudics doesn't matter, and we've seen that over and over, and we're going to be dealing with Isaiah forty three before we know it, and we're going to talk about all of this again. All right. So where does this storm as trials idea comes from? If the Bible never uses storms as a metaphor for trials, then why do preachers and teachers use this analogy. Many pastors have popular made this a popular idea, made this phrase wathering the storms of life. They've made this popular. They take inspiration from Biblical stories involving storms, but they add symbolic meaning that the Bible itself never gives and for example, Jesus claimed the storm calm the storm in Mark four, So He's going to calm the storm in your life. Paul indored a shipwreck and acts twenty seven. So God will help you through your personal storms.

26:27 That's kind of examples of what pastors do. Now, what are the problems? Well, the past passages are not teaching general lessons about trials. They're just not. They show Jesus divine power and God's sovereign plan. They are not a metaphor for life's difficulties. Now, it may be a convenient emotional metaphor, and I think that's why pastors use it. People emotionally connect with storms because they're uncontrollable and overwhelming. But just because something is a powerful image doesn't mean it is biblical. A preacher can apply a passage in a meaningful way without forcing a meaning onto it that the Bible never gives. So what is the final verdict here?

27:12 The Bible never uses storms as a metaphor, never for lifes trials. It never uses it for a metaphor for lifestrial. Every storm in the Bible is literal. The Bible never refers to personal struggles as storms. The Biblical authors use other metaphors. The storms of life phrase is a modern extra biblical metaphor and posed on to scripture, but that still didn't really answer the question where does this come from. Let's try to figure out where this metaphor originates from, all right, I think that's I think it's worth our time right now. The exact origin of the storms of life metaphor in Christian teaching may be difficult to pinpoint, but it is likely. I think this is fair to say.

28:07 It's likely it became popular through a combination of mid evil sermon traditions, revivalist preaching, and modern evangelical storytelling techniques. I think it's a combination of all of that, midevil sermon traditions, revivalist preaching, and modern evangelical storytelling techniques. I think that's what we get now. We have no, we don't appear to have any early Church fathers or reformers to have used the metaphor extensively. We can trace its rise through different periods of church history. So let's go through all these different periods and see where this metaphor a likely arose. If we go to the early Church and mid evil Christianity will go from the first to fifteenth century. Did early Church theologians use storms as a metaphor for trials. We don't seem to have any major evidence suggesting that the early Church fathers Augustine origin crysostom athanaceous interpreted Biblical storms as metaphor for life's difficulties. We don't appear to find that. Instead, they tend to focus on allegorical readings of storms, particularly in relationship to baptism, Christ's power over nature, or God's judgment. Now, they did use the allegorical hermeneutical system. They did. There's no way to get around that. The early Church fathers loved the allegorical hermeneutical method. No way to get around that. But

29:38 they didn't use this allegorical method to say the storms were the trials of life. They connected storms to baptism, Christ's power over nature, are God's judgment, not you're going through the storms of life thing. Key interpretations of Biblical storms and early Christianity. Jesus calming the storm in Mark four Matthew eight Luke eight was seen as Christ's divine power. They made it about Christ's divine power, not a metaphor for store for problems in your life. Early theologians like Augustine saw the passages proof of jesus divinity and authority over creation, not a metaphor for personal struggles. Noah's flood in Genesis six through nine. The early Church Fathers connected this as a baptism symbolism. The flood was often linked to baptism and salvation, not life's challenges. Jonah's storm and Jonah One, God's judgment and mercy. The focus was on God's sovereignty in Jonah's disobedience, not a general metaphor for life struggles. There seems to be very little evidence that the early Church used storms as a metaphor for personal traits.

30:45 There may be something there in the early Church fathers. By no means am my saying that this has been an exhaustive I've looked at every page of every word, of every note of every sermon, of every no I can't say that, but it doesn't appear there's anything. If it was there, it was in the minority of the minority of the minority, minority were today. If you look up any sermon on any of the storm passages, almost immediately someone's going to connect it to the storms of life. It's just it's so built into the Christian way of thinking today that anyone calls it into question, you just immediately just get ignored and viewed as you're the problem. No, the problem is you guys keep using this ridiculous metaphor.

31:29 What happens in the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. Did the Reformers use storms to refer to life's problems? No, at least not the way modern preachers do. I think we can say not the way they do today. Luther and Calvin, they focused on God's sovereignty, providence, and human sin, not a poetic metaphor about life struggles. So if you take Luther and Calvin, doesn't appear to be there the key themes and the Reformation, suffering was seen as a test of faith, but using storms as a direct metaphor for trials was not a common teaching. I'm not saying it's not there. Didn't it seem to be super common.

32:10 Storms in the Bible were interpreted literally, not metaphorically. The Reformers did not popularize the storms of life metaphor. They focused more on God's sovereignty over trials rather than poetic metaphors. But now we come to the seventeenth to nineteenth century here comes the Puritans, here comes the Revivalist, and here comes the storm of life metaphor. All right, did the Puritans and Revivalists use the storm metaphor? Yes, this is where the metaphor likely began to emerge. The Puritans and later Revivalist preachers eighteenth nineteenth century emphasized personal trials and divine providence, often using nature based metaphors. The possible influence.

33:01 Are you ready? Pilgrim's Progress? That book is a mess, okay, John Bunyan's pilgrims Progress. It's the book that you can trace what people do, why people do what they do to Isaiah forty three. It comes from Pilgrim's Progress. Pilgrim's Progress. Really, this book uses storms, floods, and dangerous waters symbolically to represent trials in the Christian life. It's John Bunyan. You take a book that's an allegory, and then you take the allegory and then you read it into the Bible. You don't read allegory into the text. That's just not the way we do hermeneutics. That's why the whole Storms of Life metaphor is taking as preachers reading it and posing it on to the text, and you're destroying the purpose of these historical narratives because you no longer make them a historical narrative that's descriptive. You now turn the historical narrative into a metaphor for something that it's not even talking about. And then you somehow find magically prescribed steps that people need to take to navigate their metaphorical storm.

34:13 When those texts are not teaching those principles, you're making them up in your own mind. Now, some may say Bunyan does not equate storms directly with struggles, but he does popularize the nature based metaphor for Christians suffering. I'm gonna I put the blame more on Bunyan than maybe others will. I put the blame Pilgrim's Progress. Whether you love the book or hate the book, you've got to see the things it caused and preaching. I mean, come on, you've got to see that it leads to this allegorical symbolic nonsense. How about Jonathan Edwards and the First Great Awakening seventeen thirties to seventeen forties. Edward's famous the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God compares God's wrath to natural disasters now though he doesn't call trial storms.

35:07 His vivid imagery of divine judgment influenced later metaphorical preaching. And then we get to Charles hadden Spurgeon eighteen thirty four to eighteen ninety two, eighteen thirty four to eighteen ninety two, and everyone's like the Prince of preachers, the greatest preacher, Charles hadden Spurgeon, and they speak of him in reverent tones. Okay, well, I challenge you get a copy of Morning and Evening by Charles hadden Spurgeon, his famous devotional that everyone talks about how great it is. You look at how he handles scriptures. If I would say that, if you follow the Herman nudy, if you look at the way he handles scriptures and Evening and Morning by Charles hadden Spurgeon, and you brought that to a herminutics class, you should get an f I'm just gonna be blunt what he does with some text. I'm just always dumbfounded. I'm like, what where, what do you That's not what the text is about. Oh, I know I'm not supposed to say that. I know. I know.

36:18 Spurgeon occasionally referred to storms of affliction, but did so poetically rather than exogetically. Well, I think his poetic his poetic approach was his exogetical approach. But okay, he focused on God's providence and suffering, but never implied that Biblical storms were metaphors. The Puritans and Revivalists began to use poetic storm imagery, but never did claim that Biblical storms were metaphors for life struggles. They never may have dramatic directly stated it, but they they laid the foundation. I'm still going to say the Puritans, Charles hadn't spurgeon. That's and John Bunyan's that whole that's where all these problems began. Now if you jump to the twentieth century, oh, now we get to the evangelicals and we get the charismatics.

37:04 This is where it really takes off. The twentieth century saw a shift towards applicational preaching, where preachers sought to make Biblical stories relevant to everyday struggles. This error saw the rise of motivational Christian messages, which led to the to making very popular this idea of the storm trial metaphor. All right, who were some of the people who helped made this popular. Billy Sunday eighteen sixty two to nineteen thirty five. The Fiery Revivalists used emotional and dramatic preaching, incorporating nature based metaphors. He frequently preached about facing difficulties as a test of faith, even though he may not have directly equated storms with personal trials, but he's doing many of the same concepts. Then you have Billy Graham nineteen eighteen to two thousand and five. Graham's sermons were highly application driven, often focusing on how God helps those who struggle. His message of personal faith through hardship helped reinforce the storm of life metaphor. Then we get to the charismatic and Word of Faith movements from the nineteen fifties.

38:09 Sadly it still exists. I don't know why those I don't know how the charismatic movement survived more than five minutes. But okay, you had preachers like Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagen, Joel Olstein began using storms as symbols of life problems to emphasize victory through faith. The Prosperity Gospel helped further popularize the storm image, often used in self help context. Then we have the modern worship music. Many contemporary Christian songs use storms metaphorically praise you in the storm, casting crowns Oceans by Hillsong. This has reinforced the storm as trial concept even further in modern Christian thought. By the twentieth century, preachers and Christian media had fully embedded the storms of life metaphor into evangelical culture. This was not a biblical development. It was a rhetorical and a cultural one.

39:03 It was a rhetorical and cultural thing that then was imposed upon scripture because it does not arise from scripture. It's imposed on scripture, and person after person have said in the pew saying Amen, Amen, Amen, oh pastor thank you. I'm going through a storm and this message was so helpful, and I'm gonna trust that Jesus will walk on the storm of my life and tell it to be steel and all the storms. Just stop the nonsense people. The metaphor is a modern day invention. No biblical writer ever calls life struggles storms. The early Church Reformers and Puritans did not use it explicitly, but they Puritans started laying the foundation. The metaphor emerged gradually through Puritan poetry, revivalist preaching, and modern evangelical application driven sermons. It became fully mainstream in the twentieth cent due to teleevangelists, worship music, and motivational preaching. The storms of life metaphor listen. It's a modern day Christian teaching. It is not a biblical one.

40:16 It should not be imposed on biblical text where storms were meant literally, not figuratively. You can't do that. You can't go to these storm narratives and say, oh, we're going to learn how to deal with the storms of life. It's not about the storms of life. It's not teaching you a lesson. It's not prescribing you a lesson. That lesson that it is teaching I shouldn't say it's teaching you a lesson. It's not teaching you a lesson about you. Is teaching you a lesson about God? Or it's teaching you a lesson about that particular storm and like this storm was there because of sin, or this storm was there for this reason. That not about you. It's not about you. It's not about your circumstance. It's not about how to help you through your circumstance. It's not to urge you in the middle of your circumstance. It's a historical narrative about a specific situation, and they're literal storms.

41:06 Has nothing to do about your metaphorical storm that you're going through. It's not about your cancer, it's not about your relationship, it's not about trouble with your kids. It's not about your financial problems, problems and your marriage, it's not about any of that. We've got to declare war on this absolutely ridiculous metaphor. I'm sick of hearing it. And if you just go now you can look up, of course, in specific passages that are about storms. But if you just go to the sermon audio app just type in storms, just types in storms, storms of life.

41:51 There's under storms five hundred and seventy nine sermons. Just the word storms five hundred and seven sermons, five hundred and seventy nine. All right, then see here, Well, there's one Trust God. Some of these I don't know how they really fit. Some of these I don't know how they really fit. Trust Jesus to calm the storms in your life. There's one Trust Jesus. This was preached on February the second, twenty twenty five. All right, the trust Jesus to calm the storms in your life. There's one right here. I'm gonna save it because this, this is just, this is just. It never ends with this stuff. Man, I don't get why pastors do this, the calm and the storm, the calm and the storm. Here's another one from Mark four. I know where it's gonna go. I'm gonna share. I'm gonna want to say share it. I'm sharing it to my notes application. All right, see here, where is your faith? Where is your faith? It is important to be a child of God and to follow him.

43:07 There will be storms in life. There is another there it is again this stuff, it's so, it never ends. And past I don't understand why nobody ever calls us into question. He's still in the storm. Here's another one. Oh, it's from Acts twenty seven. Oh boy, here we go. I'm gonna save this one. Oh man, you just look them up. Just oh, I just I just want to smash my iPad in a million places. I'm so sick of it. And all those ones I get. They go to Matthew eight, Mark four and Acts twenty seven. They go they you just know when a pastor is going to be on this section. You know the sermon you're going to hear. It's a historical narrative about a literal storm, and I don't care. They will mention it's a literal storm, but then immediately it becomes about the storms in your life, even though the text is not about that has nothing to do with it, and nobody ever calls it out.

44:14 Oh but you take someone else. They take a passage of scripture and they impose something on it. But you don't like what they're imposing on scripture, then lo and behold, all of a sudden you get mad and you get ticked off. Oh you're not handling the word of God correctly. Well, look, no, you either care about when every single time it happens, or you don't care at all. You don't get to pick and choose, because based on whether you like what's being imposed on the text. You may love the storms of life metaphor sermons, you may eat them up. You may love them. They may encourage you, But I don't know why they're encouraging you, because everything they're telling you has nothing to do with you, and the principles they're giving you doesn't come from the actual text that they're supposedly pulling the principles from. It would be better to say, hey, today we're gonna I'm gonna do a little self help.

45:03 We're gonna do a little self help lesson life is full of difficulty, pain and trials. I'm gonna give you five things that you can do to navigate trials and difficulties in your life. And don't sit there and try to force them from scripture. Just give your five little you know, pseudo psychological, you know, counseling tips like no, I took it from the Word of God. I took it from Now you put them into scripture, they're not there because those storms have nothing to do with us. Lose my ever living mind. So we figure the Bible doesn't use it this way, so it's being imposed on the text. We went through church history and it really explodes with the evangelical charismatic world. But the Puritans lay the foundation. The Puritans get the blame. I think John Bunyan.

45:56 I think John Bunyan and Charles Haddon Spurgeon get the blame, especially with Isaiah forty three. John Bunyan gets the blame. I don't know what in the world he was doing with Isaiah forty three. He totally destroyed that. Okay, that was insane. I mean, and don't take my word for it. I don't have a cop where is my I think it's downstairs. I have a hardback copy of Morning and Evening by Charles Headenspurgeon, because I've been told my whole Christian life it's the greatest devotional ever. It's the greatest devotional ever. You've got to have Charles Headonsburg. Yeah, and you start going through that like this would this would get an F in any reasonable school teaching hermeneutics. But you're not supposed to criticize it because he's he's on our team. I don't care about the team. Again, who cares about philological teams? Don't? We just care about the text.

46:53 Historical narrative is a historical narrative. Most cases, they're descriptive, they're not prescriptive. And you can't take a literal a historical narrative about a literal storm that's descriptive and all of a sudden turn it into our prescriptive passage giving you principles and how to deal with a metaphorical storm. It's just the whole thing is ridiculous, But there we have it. I wanted to at least get that out of the way. Next time we'll look at the reasons for the storms. I don't know how you're going to get reasons from the storms in your life, from the reasons for the storm and the actual physics. Okay, oh man, it just becomes another problem. But we will get into some very deep philosophical issues that's going to make everyone very uncomfortable. But we will cover that next time. For now, the storms, how to weather the storms of life. The study guide is built literally on this metaphor. This metaphor is not biblical. This metaphor was not a part of early church. It's a modern day invention imposed on the text by pastors, teachers. And guess who I blame. I don't blame the pastors and teachers. I blame all the people sitting in the pew saying amen to it and supporting it. Thanks for listening, God bless