A Case Against Allegorical Preaching

Interesting article on SharperIron a couple days ago. (Of course, I liked it. I tend to like things with which I am at least mostly in agreement!)

Here's the opening sentence of the article (just to whet your appetites a bit):

Is it possible for a preacher to rail against apostasy and encourage the brethren to fight for truth all the while compromising truth and teaching his audience to do the same?

I couldn't help but think of things like, "And the last giant isn't named. That's because God wants us to apply it to whatever area of our lives...."

And like the story my pastor related recently, from a book he'd read. A preacher read the O.T. story about the widow whom Elisha told to borrow vessels and to pour oil from her container into the borrowed vessels, and the oil filled all the vessels; the preacher said, "Oil in the Bible always symbolizes the Holy Spirit," and proceeded to preach about being filled with the Spirit (or something like that). Supposedly, on their way out of the service, some young men were discusses whether, based on that interpretation of that passage, it would be OK to sell the Holy Spirit.