It did not begin on earth, it began in heaven. Sin was not something that was born and created in the heart of Adam and Eve. It was imported into the Garden of Eden. That is a mystery the average person would take exception to, things like that.

Preaching: You talked about making preaching interesting using imagination. How do you go about doing that in your own preaching and writing?

Phillips: I use imagination for illustration. I’m not trying to create a document, just trying to paint a picture so you can see. And here I see Abraham going into the First National Bank of Ur. I’m going to tell them a story — a story based on fact. He goes into the First National Bank of Ur and the manager comes out. I worked with a very large British bank when I was a lad coming out of high school, then years later I worked for a large Canadian bank. So, I know what happens when the richest man in town comes in. The bank manager comes out, people are getting interested.

“Well, hello Mr. Abraham, how are you? Delighted to see you. Have you got any nice, fat deposits for us today?” You build a picture and you build a pace. Then you build the interest. You could say it in dull, prosaic terms, but I choose, rather, to paint a picture. Create a bit of dialogue. I’m painting a picture. So the rich man Abraham comes in, the bank manager is delighted to see him. “A big, fat deposit for us today Mr. Abraham? We’re always so happy when you come into the bank.What can I do for you today?” He says, “You can close my account.”

“What have we done? Why are you closing your account? You’re leaving town?”

“Yes, I’m leaving town.”

“Why are you leaving town? Where are you going?”

“I haven’t any idea. You see Mr. Bank Manager, today God spoke to me. The living God, the true God, the God who created the universe, the God of heaven, high heaven above, that all the world beneath heeds. He spoke to me and he gave me a vision of a place and he gave me a vision of a person. And I’m stepping out on faith. He told me to abandon my old way of life, and step out by faith, take everything I have.”

So you just practice being interesting.

Preaching: You’ve been preaching for a lot of years and have spoken to a lot of churches and pastors. What have been the great influences on your preaching?

Phillips: Stephen Olford would be one, of course. Stephen and I grew up in, we were young people together in the same village, same town, same church. He had a great impact on my life.

I was brought up amongst a group known as the Plymouth Brethren. They’re not well known in the United States, but they were quite well known in Britain when I was a boy. They were men who loved the Book. They had a lot of faults, but they loved the Book. And they preached Christ. They saw Christ everywhere in the scriptures. They were great on typology. They could see Christ in the offerings. They could see Christ everywhere they opened the Bible. They saw Christ when they saw Boaz to Ruth when he asked her to marry her according to the law. I just picture some more dialogue:

“Well, Ruth, I love you very much. I’ve loved you since the day I saw you standing over there amongst the sheaves.” He said, “I can’t do what you say yet because there is another man, a kinsman-redeemer, another one closer of kin than I am.” And he said, “Before I can pay the price of your redemption, I have got to go and deal with the law which has its rightful claims.”

Everywhere I look, I remember as a boy, was that old fellow who used to preach Christ. He always got up when there was a break in the service to read Isaiah 53. He didn’t have anything to say about it, he just read it. That’s just my background — I was raised among people who loved the Book and taught the Book. Some of them had crazy ideas, but most of them were pretty solid. And I had a strong foundation in the inerrancy of scripture and the magnificence of scripture.

One book that helped me enormously to cultivate the imagination was a book by a Scottish preacher named Alexander Whyte. All through his preaching he introduced this story telling thing, what’s called typology work. The Old Testament illustrates the New Testament. So I had a rich heritage. I built on it. I built on it one book at a time, one chapter at a time, one verse at a time.

When I first went preaching full-time for Moody Bible Institute, the very first time they sent me out on a week’s meeting, I realized I had one thing that God had given to me and would hold me accountable for it and that was time. Imagine the amount of time the average preacher spends in front of a TV set. I made up my mind, God help me I’m not going to waste this time. And I started to write. And I’m going to keep on writing. I don’t care if anybody reads it or not, I’m going to write.