Theology Proper

Intro

“It has been said that ‘the proper study of mankind is man.’ I believe that it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mighteist pholosopy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings and the existance of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity.

No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind than thoughts of God. But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who thinks often of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods aroun this narrow globe. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, ernest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.”

Charles Spurgion.

The knowledge of God is the purpose of Life.

“What were we made for? To know God. What aims should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the eternl life that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God.

John 17:3 AV

3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight and contentment than anything else? The knowledge of God.

We have been brought to the point where we both can must get our life’s prioroties straight. From current Christian publications, you might think that the most vital issue for any real or would-be Christian in the world today is church union, or social witness, or dialogue with other Christians and other faiths, or refuting this or that “ism”. or developing a Christian philosophy and culture, or what have you. But our line of study makes the presentday concentration on these things look like a gigantic conspiracy of misdirection. Of course, it is not that, the issues thmselves are real and must be dealt with in their place. But it is tragic that, in paying attention to them, so many in our day seem to have been distracted from what was, is, and always will be the true priority for every human being - that is, learning to know God in Christ.

JI Packer.

We must not confuse knowing ABOUT God and KNOWING God.

The Pastor and Teacher can help you know about God, but it is up to the individual to get to know God.

So why study theology? Because it is benificual to know ABOUT someone, while you get to KNOW them personally.

Example: A knowledge of what someone loves or hates will help you get to know them personaly.

Knowing about God’s love will help us enjoy that love more.

Knowing about God’s Holiness will help us life a life that is pleasing to Him.

Knowing about God’s power will help us be more bold in our faith.

Knowing about God’s faithfulness will help us trust him.

The God of the Bible is an Infinate, Personal Being.

As Infinite there is a great chasm that seperates God from all creation including man, animals and other life.

As Personal, God has made man in His image and man is also on God’s side of the chasm, which also seperates man from the rest of creation.

Attributes of an Infinite Being:

“Spirit, infinate, eternal and unchangible in his being, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth”

Westminster Catacism

“A being without qualities is one which cannot become an object to the mind; and such a being is virtually non-existant. Where man deprives God of all qualities, God is no longer anything more to him than a negative being. To the truly religious man, God is not a being without qualities, because to him he is a positive, real being. The theory that God cannot be defined, and consequewntly cannot be known by man, is therefore the offspring of recent times, a product of modern unbelief.

On the ground that God is unknowible, man excuses himself to what is yet remaining of his religious conscience for his forgetfulness of God, his absorption in the world; he denies God practically by his conduct.

The world has possesion of all his thoughts and inclinations, but he does deny him theoretically, he does not attack his existance, he lets that rest. But this existance does not affect or incommode him; it is mearly negative existance; an existance without an existance, a self-contradictory existance; a state of being, which, as to its effects, is not distinguishable from non-being.

The alleged religious horror of limiting God by positive predicates is only the irreligious wish to know nothing more of God, to banish God from the mind.”

Ludwig Feuerbach

How do we find out what attributes God has? God has revealed His attributes to us in His Word.

To correctly apply the truths of Sripture we use Perfect Being Theology.

Perfect Being Theology simply says that God is the greatest. highest and most perfect being and our understanding of scripture should support that fact.

If a passage of scripture seems to diminish God in any way, then our understanding of that scripture i flawed.