Bo Giertz was a Swedish Lutheran theologian, bishop, and author of my favorite Christian novel, The Hammer of God. He was known as a someone who fought for orthodox Christian faith against a tide of liberalism in his country.

In this quote, Giertz reflects upon the need for the pastor to preach the eternal Word of God, and not the passing opinions of men:

“It is a similar sweet comfort for the congregation to know that they have a pastor who will preach the Word. We, of course, do not go to church to hear the ever-so-clever opinions of men. If we want to have a church worth going to, then it has to be God’s Church. The only message that is worth hearing in the long run is the message that comes from God, the message that I know that the pastor is not lord over and cannot come up with on his own or from other opinions. In thoughtless hours, people may desire for the Church to ‘get with the times,’ and modernize her message so that it sounds more probable and reasonable to people. But when people discover that this really is what happened, they would lose all trust for their pastor and their Church. In the moment that it would become clear to them that the pastors actually attempted to detect what the people would rather hear, and formed their message according to opinions they gathered from the press, public meetings, or in conversation with others, then all serious-minded people would, with justifiable disappointment, turn their backs on the Church. Then the Church’s message would be nothing more than the dated words and thoughts of men, like the grass that withers and the flower that fades, but not the Word of God that stands forever (From A Hammer for God, ed. Eric R. Andrae, p. 276).