This is going to be the first of a few little lessons of a more academic nature. It seems to me that our culture plays down knowledge and academic study. It is seen as cold and impersonal. We enjoy experiencing things, but we have little interest in why or how that experience occurred. No one wants to have deep discussions about God, or anything for that matter, but these things are important. In at least two of the epistles Paul wrote, Colossians and Ephesians, he tells the Church that he is praying that God would continually grow them into a deeper knowledge of himself. Because of this, I would like to write up a couple of things that will help us to study God’s word in systematic way. But before we get into all that, I want to give my case for why Theology is important.
Theology is the study of God and by it we attempt to known him as he desires to make himself known. Not that God is some inanimate impersonal object that can be studied, like a volcano or a tree, but that he is alive and he loves. He interacts with his creation and we should seek to know him not as we know a tree but as we know our best friend or our spouse. Seeking knowledge of God while not seeking to know God is a dangerous thing and an insult to the great love that God has for us.
So does God want us to know him? YES! Seems like a silly question, but if we look around, or dare I say in the mirror, do we live like we believe God wants us to know him? God has revealed himself to us through his word and do we read it? But anyway back to the question, silly as it may be. Throughout the story told in the book of Exodus, in which God delivers his people from the oppression of Pharaoh, God claims that both Pharaoh and the Israelites will know that he is God after he has worked all that he intends. Again, in the book of Ezekiel where God introduces the new covenant he is making with his people, God again speaks of making himself known. We serve a God who wants his people to know him. Not only does he desire it, he works to make it happen. Because of this we should be a people who desire and work to know our God with the same ferocity that he wishes to make himself known to us. Theology is how we aim to do this.
Now, some will say we can not fully understand God because he is infinite and we are finite. While this is true, it does not mean that we should not struggle to understand the more difficult attributes of God. They are just as glorious as the ones that are seen as simpler. Just because it is hard and sometimes confusing, does not mean that it should be abandoned. You can never fully understand or know your spouse or best friend, but that does not stop you from trying. We should wrestle and pray through what we do not understand. Like aforementioned, God has worked and is working to make himself known. We would be discrediting him by saying that he is not worth struggling to understand. You can not really comprehend the magnitude of God’s incomprehensible greatness until you have tried to comprehend it. It will at least show you how insignificant and small you are in comparison to him.
So how can we know him? We know him through the Bible, through creation, and through Jesus who is the word become flesh. After Jesus’ ascension into Heaven the Holy Spirit was poured out on all believers and it is through the Holy Spirit that we know God. In this way theology is subjective. We all experience God in our own way. Most people in our culture like to stop here. I know my God you know yours we’re all good. But this is wrong. God also gave us the Bible which is his objective word to which all of our subjective experiences must be submitted to. If any experience or emotion of ours contradicts scripture, we must discredit that experience and accept the truth of scripture. While experience and emotions and reason all play apart in how we do theology, all of it must be submitted to the authority of scripture.
While theology is important there are several potential pitfalls that must be avoided, one of which is being more concerned with knowing certain doctrines and being able to defend them, than knowing the God whom the doctrines describe. Ideology about God can never be used to replace God (See the Pharisees). It is a terrible thing when someone becomes more concerned with spreading a specific doctrine, which could be false, than with spreading the gospel. Another danger is arrogance. Paul says that knowledge puffs up but love builds up. This can be avoided by remembering that everything known about God was revealed by the Holy Spirit. It was not based on any merit of personal ability or aptitude. God has grace on stupid, wicked people, and any knowledge of him is given by grace. So a person should not boast in knowledge but in the grace of God.
-Mitchell
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