Theology 101

What is doctrine?

Doctrine is the way the central themes of God’s revelation in scripture are summarized and taught.

It builds on…

development through the OT

Christ’ incarnation, His words, and His work

His teachings, expanded by the apostles

All of this being inspired and directed by the Holy Spirit.

All of what we have are preserved within the Biblical canon.

The revealed Word defines for us how we should think about God, ourselves, our world, the church, and the future.

This is where the earliest Christians began their walk with God!

Acts 2:42 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

How do we know how to live our lives out as believers?

Doctrine underlies and explains the practice of the Christian faith.

We live out our faith by living out the doctrine of God’s Word.

Why is theology important?

THEOLOGY- The study of God’s word.

It is impossible to know how to please God without an adequate understanding of God’s word!

Spiritual growth requires theology.

There can be no growth without it.

At the end of the day, we are all theologians.

The question that begs an answer is are were just going to be merely theologians or SOUND theologians.

How do we know that the Bible is God’s Word?

Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World Chapter 2: How We Got the Bible

The word canon comes from the root word reed (English word cane, Hebrew form ganeh, and Greek form kanon). The reed was used as a measuring rod and came to mean “standard.” (Ehrman, The Bible, 375)

Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World Chapter 2: How We Got the Bible

The church did not create the canon; it did not determine which books would be called Scripture, the inspired Word of God. Instead, the church recognized, or discovered, which books had been inspired from their inception.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World Chapter 2: How We Got the Bible

“a book is not the Word of God because it is accepted by the people of God. Rather, it was accepted by the people of God because it is the Word of God. That is, God gives the book its divine authority, not the people of God. They merely recognize the divine authority which God gives to it.” (Geisler and Nix, GIB, 210)

How did they know what to include in the canon of scripture?

From writings of Biblical and church history, we know that 5 principles guided the recognition and collection of the truly divine inspired books.

Was the book written by a prophet of God? If written by a spokesman for God, then it was the Word of God.

Was the writer confirmed by acts of God?

Frequently, miracles separated the true prophets from the false ones.

Exodus 4:1–9 ESV

1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

Remember Elijah’s act against baal?

Acts 2:22 ESV

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—

A miracle is an act of God to confirm the Word of God given through a prophet of God to the people of God.

Did the message tell the truth about God?

God cannot contradict Himself (2 Cor 1, Hebrews 6)

No book with false claims can be the Word of God

Does it come with the power of God?

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

2 Timothy 3:17 ESV

17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

1 Peter 1:23 ESV

23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

If the book couldn’t change life, then God is not behind it!

Was it accepted by the people of God?

1 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV

13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

The people who knew best whether to accept the word were the people who knew the prophet/apostle personally!

Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World Chapter 2: How We Got the Bible

When a book was received, collected, read, and used by the people of God as the Word of God, it was regarded as canonical. This practice is seen in the Bible itself. One instance is when the apostle Peter acknowledges Paul’s writings as Scripture on par with Old Testament Scripture (2 Pet. 3:16).

Apocrophyl Canonization?

Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World III. Conclusion

a. Why Not Canonical?

Unger’s Bible Dictionary, while granting that the Old Testament apocryphal books do have some value, cites four reasons for excluding them from the Hebrew canon:

1. They abound in historical and geographical inaccuracies and anachronisms.

2. They teach doctrines that are false and foster practices that are at variance with inspired Scripture.

3. They resort to literary types and display an artificiality of subject matter and styling out of keeping with inspired Scripture.

4. They lack the distinctive elements that give genuine Scripture its divine character, such as prophetic power and poetic and religious feeling. (Unger, NUBD, 85)

Conclusion

Just because we say “every Christian should be a theologian” doesn’t mean you have to be academic.

If we are “followers of Jesus” or “disciples of Jesus” we are learning from Him as we get to know Him.

3 Primary Reasons Why Every Christians Should Be a Theologian

The theological study of God is commanded.

Matthew 22:37 ESV

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

It is vital to salvtion.

Intellectual pursuits don’t merit salvation…

We are saved by faith through grace…

However, that faith is predicated (expressed) on information- namely the gospel.

Our continued growth in the grace of God, our perseverance as saints, is vitally connected to our pursuit of the knowledge of God’s character, and God’s work as revealed in God’s word.

The study of God authenticates and fuels worship.

“transformed by the renewal of your mind”