mgpcpastor's blog

Sidney Greidanus identifies three difficulties in ‘Preaching Christ From Ecclesiastes’:

1. Selecting a proper preaching text;
2. Formulating a single theme; and
3. Preaching Christ.

In his treatment of the third of those points Greidanus writes:

‘Ecclesiastes contains not even one “messianic text”; there is not promise of the coming Messiah. How does on preach Christ from a book that has no messianic texts?’

Pointing out the unfortunate historical dependence upon allegorical interpretation, Greidanus then goes on to briefly review seven “legitimate ways of preaching Christ from the Old Testament” which are taken from his book, Preaching Christ From The Old Testament.

Redemptive-Historical Progression
Promise Fulfillment
Typology
Analogy
Longitudinal Themes
New Testament References
Contrast

Greidanus contends that of these seven ways promise fulfillment and typology (with a couple of possible exceptions) are not applicable.