Wes Hill, guest posting at Abraham Piper’s microblog 22 Words, writes:
I’ve never understood the phrase, “the exception that proves the rule.”
An exception proves there isn’t a “rule” to begin with, right?
Here was my suggestion:
Ok, try this: The general rule is that ministers of the gospel should get formal training or else their sermons are going to be exegetical bunk.
Charles Spurgeon is the exception that proves the rule, because though, yes, he did not get formal training, he read so much on his own that he effectively did.