Theology Thursdays

Perhaps you saw this post and think, “Oh no! Theology and doctrine divide, we just need Jesus!” Just give me Jesus!

Before you reject everything here, Let me break down what the word “theology” means. It literally means, “A word about God.” Certainly if we love God, we would want to know him more right? I think so. Theology is a word about God, and the different aspects of theology is how God works in the world. So if you want to know more of who God is biblically, then I pray Theology Thursdays will be a blessing to you.

Second, if you would generally say, “Just give me Jesus? I would ask, what Jesus are you talking about? Protestants have a different view of Jesus than Catholics. Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Muslims all believe something different about Jesus that is different than what the Bible teaches. So if you say, “Just give me Jesus,” I would have to ask which one? And when we begin to clarify which Jesus, do you know what we are doing….We are engaging in theology!! So theology isn’t a bad word. It helps us clarify and cling to the truth, and reject what is false.

Can theology and doctrine divide. Sure it can. Sometimes it needs to when we are talking about the essentials such as “Which Jesus?” But sometimes it does unnecessarily divides when we make secondary and tertiary doctrines have more importance than God’s Word gives them. But the fact that sometimes that happens, lamentably, doesn’t mean we should be afraid of doing theology correctly. After all, it is a word about God , right? And you are a Christian and want to know God better, right? I thought so. So let’s get started!

The ignorance of God

Theology is important because unfortunately many Christians across America do not know God biblically. They have a view of God that comes from a blend of some of what the Bible teaches, some of what their culture teaches, and some of their granny believed. This is why JI Packer wrote his book Knowing God. He writes,

The conviction behind this book is that ignorace of God-ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with him-lies at the heart of much of the church’s weakness today.

I believe he is right. He also writes,

Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives….Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you.

If we want to navigate the Christian life in the world that God made, we need to know about Him and we need to Know him. Where is it that we learn about God?

There are two sources of truth about God. One is creation, and one is Scripture. Theologians call these general revelation and special revelation.

God reveals himself through Creation

Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature having been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

There is nobody out there who can legitimaly say, “ I had no idea there was a God! ” Through creation there is ample evidence to God’s existence, his power, and his divinity. That is what Paul is saying here.

David says it this way in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the works of his hands.” God’s creations speaks without words as he says, and reveals the majesty of God.

What creation can’t do however, is tell us how God worked to save us. It can’t tell us how we ought to conduct ourselves in worship. Creation doesn’t tell us anything about the trinity, or God’s faithfulness, holiness, or Sovereignty, or what the church is. We don’t learn from creation anything about angels, demons, or the afterlife. We have to learn that through the Word of God

God reveals Himself through Scripture

In 2 Timothy 3:14, Paul tells Timothy, “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.

Scripture is God’s Word’s. It is inspired by him, meaning God breathed. As the men of God wrote the Word of God, God so worked in them through the Holy Spirit, so that they wrote the words God wanted to be written. The Scriptures tell us how to be saved, and all Scripture is profitable for teaching, another way to say doctrine, or theology. The Scriptures correct us. So as we study theology, we are studying the Scriptures and may need some of our thinking corrected, if we have believed or been taught something incorrect about God and his ways. Scripture also trains us in right living, or righteousness. But in order to live rightly, we must know rightly. We must know who God is in order to be godly.

Because theology is a word about God, and we learn about God through Scriptures, our study of theology on Theology Thursdays will begin with a theology of the Bible. Next week we will look at some key truths about the Bible and the goal is that you would be able to confidently trust what the Bible says, and grow a deeper love for God’s Word, and a greater commitment to read it, study it, and grow in it, all for your growth in Christ’s image, and for God’s glory.