Introduction

A Personal Anecdote

Shortly after becoming a Christian, I was introduced to my first in-house Christian “theological” debate.  It had been 3 or 4 weeks since I had professed faith and I found myself at my first Bible study.  People getting together to study the Word of God on purpose was a totally foreign idea to me.  To be certain, since coming to faith I had been voraciously devouring the Word myself in my bedroom – working my way through the New Testament in the first couple weeks of becoming a Christian.  But the idea of people coming together to just discuss the Bible, and to come away with some answers without a church authority there to give us the right answers, was a bit out of my field of experience.  I was a little bit apprehensive, but I was assured by my new Christian friends that this was entirely normal and that I should come.

I can still remember the way the house looked.  It was a manufactured home on a piece of land in rural Western Pennsylvania.  I was sitting on the couch next to my friend Jeanette, who had come to faith just a year or two earlier.  Everyone else at the Bible Study was new to me.  A few folks gave testimony, and I told a little bit about where I had come from and how I had become a Christian.  A plate of cookies appeared and I indulged.  Then we opened up our Bibles to Romans and things started to get weird.  My friends started talking about God’s sovereignty and how he predestines some people to become Christians and that it is only those people who will believe and go to heaven.

I kinda lost it.

I don’t remember if we were looking at chapter 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9!  All I remember is yelling at the Bible study leader and going outside.  My whole picture of God had once again been rocked.  My friend Jeanette came out to try and help me calm down explaining, “look, not everyone totally agrees on this point” and other such statements.  I didn’t care.  It seemed like this is what the Bible was saying and there was no way that MY GOD was such a jerk.  I cussed her out, up and down – and then I proceeded to do the same to God. She said that God could take my anger.  I flipped her off (with both hands), left and met up with her later that night at a diner a lot of us went and hung out at.  She said, “this is something Christians debate” and she also encouraged me to focus on getting to know Jesus and understanding him more before I go and tell him what he can and can’t do.  It was good advice.  She was a nice Calvinist.  The folks at the bible study were nice people too, even though I exercised my free will and chose not to go again.

You see – at that point, I hadn’t even really gained any kind of an understanding of the depths of my sin and how it totally corrupts everything, I wasn’t yet convinced of the whole “trinity” thing, nor had I even begun to explore who Jesus was in any serious way.  As such, I was dropped into (albeit the shallow end) of the big pool, when I still belonged in the kiddie pool.

The Areas of Theological Reflection

There are several areas of theological reflection that every growing Christian should gain knowledge in. These are the absolute basics, folks.  I am not talking about esoteric B.S., but rather the nuts and bolts of “who is god?”, “what is man?”, “how are we saved?”.  Etc.  Let’s take a few minutes to look at what I, and many others, believe are the starting points of Christian theological growth.

The Bible

We begin with the Bible.  There are a few questions that I think we need to be able to answer: What is the Bible about?, Why do we trust the Bible?, How do we use the Bible?.  These are central questions to our faith. We need to know what the Bible says – not only the cherry picking of verses to suit an argument at a given time, but to understand the overall redemptive flow and story of the Word of God.  We should understand that to properly understand Scripture, we need to let it interpret itself and also be Christo-centric in our interpretation of its message.  We need to understand what we believe the Bible is and what we believe it isn’t.  For example, if you are an evangelical believer – you believe that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, sufficient and complete Word of God.  Why do you believe that?

We start with the Bible because that is where Christians always start when doing theology.  And below we are getting into a lot of the questions of “Systematic” Theology – that is looking at how we develop a “system” of doctrine on a given topic from the Bible.

God

We move on to God.  What is the Trinity?  Who is God the Father?  Who is Jesus?  Who is the Holy Spirit?  What do each of these persons do?  Can you explain why you think that Jesus is God?  Can you explain why you think the Holy Spirit is God?  What are the implications of the Trinity for life and worship?  Was Jesus really raised from the dead?  How was Jesus both God and man?

Man

What is man?  Is man born good or sinful?  What is the ultimate destiny and chief end of mankind?  What are the limitations of human beings in a spiritual sense?

Salvation

How are we saved?  By grace or by works?  Who are the actors in the drama of redemption?  How is Salvation communicated to us?  What are the effects of the new birth in the life of the believer?

Christian Life

How do we apply God’s word to our lives today?  What is the use, say of the 10 Commandments?  Does the Bible have anything about who you can have sex with, how you use your money, your time, how you vote? What are the basic principles for the God-ward life?

The Church

Jesus Christ did not come for you, he came for his church.  Who makes up the church?  How should we worship?  Where should we go to church?

These are the basics folks.  These are the teachings that are contained in the most basic of Christian reflection upon the teaching of the Bible – works like the Apostles Creed, the Canons of Nicea, the Nicean Creed, the Athanasian Creed.  These Creeds used to be memorized by all Christians.  These are merely the basics, I want you all to think about this basic list – where are you deficient?  What do you really need to investigate…and get out your pens and papers, because I’m going to recommend a book for each one of these.  These are in addition to my other “basic” recommendations (if this wasn’t handed out yesterday, remember to make a list).

Book Recommendations

The Bible: “The New Testament Documents, Are They Reliable?” – F.F. Bruce and the “Chicago Statement of Innerancy”.  The Chicago Statement is a document that runs a couple pages which explains what Evangelicals mean, and importantly what we don’t mean when we talk about the Authority and Inspiration of the Bible. You can google it and print it off.  In fact, I have several copies with me, along with a couple of copies of Bruce’s book.  Please ask after the lecture if you would like one.

God: If you want a good introduction to what the Trinity is, get your hands on the little book by Donald Macleod called “Shared Life”.  For more at length thinking, get Robert Letham’s “The Trinity”.  For writing on the Holy Spirit, the book by Sinclair Ferguson entitled “The Holy Spirit” is very useful.  Many of us really don’t understand how Jesus can be both God and man, along with a ton of other questions.  I would again recommend Donald Macleod with his book “The Person of Christ”.

Man: Cornelius Plantiga’s “Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin”.  I am actually at a loss for other really good resources.  Bishop N.T. Wright’s book “Surprised by Hope” which I have already referenced in these lectures is a good meditation on what it is to be truly human.

Salvation: A good, exegetical survey of the whole doctrine of Salvation is covered by Philip Ryken in “The Message of Salvation”.  John Stott’s “The Cross of Christ” is a classic.  Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington have recently released “The Great Exchange”, which I have not read – but has been highly recommended.  Thinking about salvation, how it is communicated to us, should lead us to worship – but also often challenges some of our most deeply held beliefs about what God is like.  As such, I would recommend that each of you get your hands on Michael Horton’s “Amazing Back Into Grace”.

Christian Life: A good work, although dense, on what we call Sanctification – that is, the work of becoming holy, is John Owen’s “The Mortification of Sin”.  Ask Justin to read it with you, he’d be happy to.  He would probably buy you a copy if you asked.  “The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges is a real classic and I would also recommend each of you read it.

The Church: There are many things in the church that we should probably be asking questions about.  What should our churches look like?  Are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper Sacraments or merely Remembrances? Should women be pastors?  Lots of questions.  A couple book recommendations.  Joshua Harris’ book “Stop Dating the Church”, the book “Understanding Four Views of Baptism”, and Edmund Clowney’s “The Church”. Marva Dawn’s book on Worship, “How Shall We Worship” is small, inexpensive, and thought-provoking.

I would have loved to bring free copies of each of these books.  Unfortunately, although these books are all affordable – the only ones that were dirt cheap are the ones I brought with me!

Alright, from that detour – we have a couple more sections in our lecture.  First, I want to address some of the contemporary opposition to the work of theology.  Second, a short reiteration of why we study theology followed by some of the benefits thereof.

So, onto the fight!

Attacks on Theology

In the interest of time, I am only going to briefly address each of these points, a few of which have already been touched upon.  If you want more explanation, we can do that during question time.

Christianity is more about feeling and emotion than facts.

I hope that I addressed this objection several times yesterday, but let me reiterate this.  Christianity is a religion that is based on truth and facts.  All the good feeling in the world will not save you, and will probably go a way to damage real spirituality.  Paul continually refers to the “tradition” which he has handed down and saints like Timothy and Titus are to hold to and pass on.  Furthermore, Jesus asks in John 17 of his father “Sanctify them with your word, your word is truth”.  He doesn’t ask that we be sanctified by warm fuzzy feelings.

Theology, particularly Systematic theology is Modernistic

This objection to theology has particularly risen with some of the more extreme in the “emerging” church movement.  The argument that Systematic Theology is Modernistic is reductionistic and also ahistorical. Many will claim that Systematic Theology is overly influenced by Enlightenment categories and in a post-modern age is no longer useful.  Given that the most influential Protestant systematic theology, John Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Religion” was written nearly 100 years before the Cartesian Revolution was begun, and two hundred years before the Age of Enlightenment proper – this is a dubious claim.  The most influential Christian theologian of all time, St. Thomas Aquinas, whose work is foundational in both Protestant and Catholic theology wrote his Summa Theologica in 1274.  Is this Modernist?  I think not.

Christians have always done Systematic Theology.  Some of my favorite theological works are:  St. Anselm of Canterbury’s “Cur Deus Homo” (Late 11th Century), St. Athanasius’s “On the Incarnation” (4th Century), St. Augustine’s “Against the Pelagians” and “On the Trinity” (4th Century).

Certainly some authors of the 19th Century, and especially some of the liberal modernists of the early/mid 20th Century were overly influenced by Modernity, but let us not get wrapped up in the lie that pre-moderns were never systematic.

Theology is divisive

Whereas the previous objections were largely fallacious, this objection is grounded in reality.  In Luke 12, Jesus’ following words are recorded:

49 “I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! 50 I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. 51 Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! 52 From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against.

 53 ‘Father will be divided against son
      and son against father;
   mother against daughter
      and daughter against mother;
   and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law
      and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’”

The belief in certain things is going to exclude others.  If you believe that theology is unimportant, and I believe that it is – we have a fundamental division.  If you believe that God is a flying spaghetti monster, and I believe in the Trinitarian God of the Bible – we have a fundamental division.

Conflict isn’t always bad.  I think one of the points I want to make here is the one I made yesterday.  Don’t be an asshole, but fight for what the Bible says.

Theology “isn’t my thing”

We all do theology.  It is your thing.  The question is whether your theology is good or bad.  Oh, and ladies, don’t believe the lie that theology is a “guy thing”.  A lot of guys get into theology to just be right – it is another way to win.  Theology is equal opportunity and we are all commanded by our Lord to do it.

Theology leads to pride

This is something of a non-starter.  But I will address two sides of the issue.  There are prideful ignorant Christians and prideful theologically-minded Christians.  The issue is not the theology, but rather the heart of those Christians.  The second issue is the belief that when Jesus says that we should have the “faith of a child” that the kind of simple faith we should have should be simplistic – just me and a Bible type of stuff. That is clearly not what Jesus has in mind because, for instance, Paul commends the saints in Berea for searching the Scriptures to test his teaching.  Simple, theologically speaking, is the opposite of duplistic. Jesus wants us to have a single-minded, united faith.  One like a child, who believes and trusts always in what the Father says.  We as human beings tend to have duplicitous and compartmentalized faiths.  This is what Jesus is speaking against.

Why We Do Theology

Reiteration of why we do Theology

1.       To know what you believe; and why you believe it (from Scripture) is one of the best preparations for ‘rightly dividing the word of truth’ (2 Tim 2:15)

2.       Theology helps us apply the Word of God to all areas of our lives.  It leads us to worship and repentance.

3.       The study of theology of develops a passion for truth in the heart of the believer.

4.       Theology equips us to contend for the truth (Jude 3).

5.       Theology is a constant corrective; it keeps us from man-centered religion and man-centered philosophy.  Theology lets us see God as He is; not as we imagine Him to be.  Theology allows God to piss us off.

Theology trains the mind and soul

A few more points on the benefits of theology to the mind and the soul.  Unfortunately, it seems each year Universities teach their students less and less how to think in a critical and responsible way – rather teaching them trades and the philosophies of rage.  Studying theology increases epistemological awareness, not only in our religious thought but in our other thought as well.  Theological discussions and debates also challenge our own levels of self-awareness.

The study of theology unveils our own presuppositions and prejudices – and hopefully corrects them.  Each of us have lenses through which we view the world, truth and God.  These lenses need to be peeled back by the Word of God and we must take lenses from it to understand life and the world.  We will discuss this more in my final lecture.

The study of theology forces us, if done properly, into practical holiness and repentance.  It also should lead us, every time we do it, into awe at the unanswerable and unfathomable glory of God.  All theology should end in doxology.