VERSES AND QUOTES TO REFLECT ON.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine..." (2 Tim. 3:16, NKJV).
"But as for you speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1, NKJV).
"There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. They will collect teachers who say what they want to hear because they are self-centered" (2 Tim. 4:3, CEB).
"The lips of the wise broadcast knowledge" (Prov. 15:7, HCSB).
"The Spirit clearly says that in latter times some people will turn away from the faith [bail out theologically]. They will pay attention to spirits that deceive and to the teaching [doctrines] of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1, CEB).
"There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching [doctrine]" (2 Tim. 4:3, CEB).
"A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash" (Prov. 15:14, NLT).
"I can vouch for them: they are enthusiastic about God. However, it isn't informed by knowledge" (Romans 10:2, CEB). "A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might" (Prov. 24:5, ESV).
"Knowledge is power."--Sir Francis Bacon
"[T]hat we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine..." (Eph. 4:14, NKJV).
To the average run-of-the-mill churchgoer, doctrine and theology should be the business of clergy (theologians, pastors, teachers, serious Bible students, missionaries, and evangelists) but not them. My contention is that it's relevant to everyone and not intended to be too arcane for the typical believer, no matter his spiritual growth or maturity level. The communicator ought to know how to make it interesting and make applications. Doctrine merely means "teaching" and theology means the study of God, but both have become organized and systematized into volumes that have become cumbersome to many and even blase. How can the normal churchgoer gain an interest in the deeper truths then? It is the newborn or the immature believer who balks at the deep things of God and tends to thrive on the milk of the Word, being remiss of the solid food or meat of the Word.
To label some Christians as theologians simply because they are good at theology is to miss the boat because all believers are theologians--we are all studying God, as it were. We cannot avoid theology, without committing spiritual suicide, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the great theologians of the past who have combated church heresy, including the Church Fathers, or those who made it their profession. By analogy: We don't neglect the appreciation of music because we're not musicians, do we? We all have a latent ability yet to be discovered in the Word, as we develop our spiritual gift. As far as I know, being a theologian is not a spiritual gift, but some people are just more studious, academic, and attentive to the Word--in short, they're better students of the Word.
In Scripture, if anyone was a theologian, it was Paul, whose compendium is laid out in Romans comprising all his basic teachings. We would not understand the doctrines of grace apart from his inspired, studious, scholarly, and authoritative work here. But give Paul himself some credit--he was most likely a highly gifted intellectual, well trained in Scripture, and even highly educated, and stood head and shoulders above his peers, like Peter, in this department--who admits some of Paul's writings were hard to understand (cf. 2 Pet. 3:16).
There is a command in Scripture to study the Bible, so as to be "approved unto God" and "to rightly divide the Word of Truth" in 2 Tim. 2:15. Note that in the seventeenth century it was every gentleman's hobby to be conversant in theology and to discuss it at will and on-demand with anyone who would listen or inquire (there's sin of omission too). This is not a passe skill but every believer ought to take an interest in biblical themes, and not so much their favorite sports teams as topics of conversation with their friends and family--knowing how to disagree without being disagreeable and to agree to disagree on occasion.
Bear in mind that if there is a God, theology is significant and paramount, but if there is no God, we are merely wasting our time on this endeavor and no one should indulge in it. It's not just meant to be mental gymnastics or an intellectual or spiritual workout or exercise, but to aid in our maturity and understanding of God and where He's coming from in relation to us and our duty and response to Him. We must pursue this discipline because we adhere to the belief that absolute, universal truth is knowable--we are not to privatize it any more than flaunt it, but by no means are we to be ashamed of our position and relationship with God.
Reckon this: Every other academic discipline is useless and incomplete without taking theology into account and starting from it as the pivot point. We start with God and then proceed to explain everything else; we don't start with man or the cosmos, and then go on to explain God! Modern worldviews such as Postmodernism want to reckon God as dead and irrelevant to man and our situation, but we must not let them remove God from the overall equation and make Him pertinent to all of life and to every discipline.
If theology seems dry and distant to some, blame the theologians who have made it the privilege of the literate, schooled, and informed, while forgetting where the average believers are, spiritually speaking. Yes, theologians are at fault for making it dull, without application, and even blase--for this reason, many distrust theologians and have relegated their studies as inappropriate and irrelevant to their personal lives. We all need to make it interesting and stimulate enthusiasm and gusto for the discipline, remembering that everyone is at a different level and good teachers know where their students are and don't wow them with their expertise or scholarship--and certainly don't want to appear pedantic. It is childish faith that has an aversion to theology, not the man of God.
The proper study of mankind is not man but the Godhead or theology, and how it relates to everything as the "queen of sciences." To enjoy or appreciate the Christian or biblical worldview, doctrine must first permeate our minds, actions, decisions, and thoughts. In sum, we owe theology more than a passing interest but a studious attempt at mastery. Soli Deo Gloria!
"But as for you speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1, NKJV).
"There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. They will collect teachers who say what they want to hear because they are self-centered" (2 Tim. 4:3, CEB).
"The lips of the wise broadcast knowledge" (Prov. 15:7, HCSB).
"The Spirit clearly says that in latter times some people will turn away from the faith [bail out theologically]. They will pay attention to spirits that deceive and to the teaching [doctrines] of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1, CEB).
"There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching [doctrine]" (2 Tim. 4:3, CEB).
"A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash" (Prov. 15:14, NLT).
"I can vouch for them: they are enthusiastic about God. However, it isn't informed by knowledge" (Romans 10:2, CEB). "A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might" (Prov. 24:5, ESV).
"Knowledge is power."--Sir Francis Bacon
"[T]hat we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine..." (Eph. 4:14, NKJV).
To the average run-of-the-mill churchgoer, doctrine and theology should be the business of clergy (theologians, pastors, teachers, serious Bible students, missionaries, and evangelists) but not them. My contention is that it's relevant to everyone and not intended to be too arcane for the typical believer, no matter his spiritual growth or maturity level. The communicator ought to know how to make it interesting and make applications. Doctrine merely means "teaching" and theology means the study of God, but both have become organized and systematized into volumes that have become cumbersome to many and even blase. How can the normal churchgoer gain an interest in the deeper truths then? It is the newborn or the immature believer who balks at the deep things of God and tends to thrive on the milk of the Word, being remiss of the solid food or meat of the Word.
To label some Christians as theologians simply because they are good at theology is to miss the boat because all believers are theologians--we are all studying God, as it were. We cannot avoid theology, without committing spiritual suicide, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the great theologians of the past who have combated church heresy, including the Church Fathers, or those who made it their profession. By analogy: We don't neglect the appreciation of music because we're not musicians, do we? We all have a latent ability yet to be discovered in the Word, as we develop our spiritual gift. As far as I know, being a theologian is not a spiritual gift, but some people are just more studious, academic, and attentive to the Word--in short, they're better students of the Word.
In Scripture, if anyone was a theologian, it was Paul, whose compendium is laid out in Romans comprising all his basic teachings. We would not understand the doctrines of grace apart from his inspired, studious, scholarly, and authoritative work here. But give Paul himself some credit--he was most likely a highly gifted intellectual, well trained in Scripture, and even highly educated, and stood head and shoulders above his peers, like Peter, in this department--who admits some of Paul's writings were hard to understand (cf. 2 Pet. 3:16).
There is a command in Scripture to study the Bible, so as to be "approved unto God" and "to rightly divide the Word of Truth" in 2 Tim. 2:15. Note that in the seventeenth century it was every gentleman's hobby to be conversant in theology and to discuss it at will and on-demand with anyone who would listen or inquire (there's sin of omission too). This is not a passe skill but every believer ought to take an interest in biblical themes, and not so much their favorite sports teams as topics of conversation with their friends and family--knowing how to disagree without being disagreeable and to agree to disagree on occasion.
Bear in mind that if there is a God, theology is significant and paramount, but if there is no God, we are merely wasting our time on this endeavor and no one should indulge in it. It's not just meant to be mental gymnastics or an intellectual or spiritual workout or exercise, but to aid in our maturity and understanding of God and where He's coming from in relation to us and our duty and response to Him. We must pursue this discipline because we adhere to the belief that absolute, universal truth is knowable--we are not to privatize it any more than flaunt it, but by no means are we to be ashamed of our position and relationship with God.
Reckon this: Every other academic discipline is useless and incomplete without taking theology into account and starting from it as the pivot point. We start with God and then proceed to explain everything else; we don't start with man or the cosmos, and then go on to explain God! Modern worldviews such as Postmodernism want to reckon God as dead and irrelevant to man and our situation, but we must not let them remove God from the overall equation and make Him pertinent to all of life and to every discipline.
If theology seems dry and distant to some, blame the theologians who have made it the privilege of the literate, schooled, and informed, while forgetting where the average believers are, spiritually speaking. Yes, theologians are at fault for making it dull, without application, and even blase--for this reason, many distrust theologians and have relegated their studies as inappropriate and irrelevant to their personal lives. We all need to make it interesting and stimulate enthusiasm and gusto for the discipline, remembering that everyone is at a different level and good teachers know where their students are and don't wow them with their expertise or scholarship--and certainly don't want to appear pedantic. It is childish faith that has an aversion to theology, not the man of God.
The proper study of mankind is not man but the Godhead or theology, and how it relates to everything as the "queen of sciences." To enjoy or appreciate the Christian or biblical worldview, doctrine must first permeate our minds, actions, decisions, and thoughts. In sum, we owe theology more than a passing interest but a studious attempt at mastery. Soli Deo Gloria!
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