Digging Deeper:
The Basics of Theology
When we are digging deeper into God, what we are
doing, or the reasoning behind this is to learn more, to learn the reason why
we believe the way we do. This is called
theology. When we hear the word theology
or theologian often, we conjure in our heads a scene of old men getting
together and talking about those things that no one else can. Sometimes we view them as coming up with
ideas that no one can understand, the term “thinking to much” comes to mind. Proper theology is not like this, as a matter
of fact everyone does theology and has their own theology. The question should not be do you have a
theology, it is what is theology and how is it done properly?
. In his
book Theology the Basics, Allister McGrath defines theology as “talk about God”
from another person’s perspective. What
McGrath is saying is, theology is a way of thinking about God, not necessarily
what God is thinking as such everyone is a theologian to a certain extent. One
might say at this point, aren’t we supposed to just have faith and leave
theology to those who like to argue and think?
Yes, Alister McGrath does talk
about how theology is based on faith, but he further explains faith cannot
fully prove its claims on its own therefore faith requires trust in something. For Christians they choose to trust in God,
God is our theology, but He is not everyone’s, therefore we must explain who He
is to a world that does not know Him.
This idea is not relative to only Christianity; it is true for all
belief systems, including atheism because if faith can’t be proven it also
cannot be disproven. I believe Alister McGrath is right in saying
that to be a Christian it takes faith, not only does being a Christian take
faith, God requires us to have faith in him as seen in 2 Corinthians 5:7. In his book True Discipleship: The Art of
Following Jesus, Koessler says the obedience that is required to follow God is
rooted in Grace; which is where faith comes from. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that
a true Christian can obey God, but how do we understand that faith? In 1 Kings 17:13-16 Elijah says if we trust
in God he will provide our needs, when a Christian is not concerned with money
he has faith that God will provide the “necessities” of life; but it goes
further than that, we also need to trust that God will give us the power, strength
and knowledge to carry out His will. This idea of trusting in God to carry out his
will is not easy to do, this is why in Matthew 10 we see Jesus warning us about
the cost of discipleship, but Jesus doesn’t expect us to pay this cost alone,
God gives us a body of believers to help in this.
Proverbs 20:11 says a child will be known by his
actions, Titus 2 1:15 says it is the job of the elders of the church to teach
the church how to be Godly. This is a
big responsibility for elders to take.
Think about it, as an elder (if you have someone in your sphere of control,
you are in that sense an elder) God says he holds me responsible for the
actions of the ones He places under my care, a great undertaking for man, but
not impossible with God. We as
Christians are given the great commandment to be “fishers of men”, again it’s a
commandment not a suggestion and it is our job as elders to teach those under
our care how to be “fishers of men”. In their
book Passing on the Faith: A Radical New Model for Youth and Family Ministry,
Strommen and Hardel write what many people lack in life, especially our youth is direction and it is up to us as parents and
elders of the church to give those under our care the right direction; God based direction and
this is where having the proper theology comes in. McGrath points out; one of the ways religions
teach theology is through the use of creeds.
The word creed comes from the Latin word “credo”, which literally means
“I believe”. In Christianity a creed is
used as a profession of faith, it is a way a person can not only show how they
model their life, but show other people how to model their lives. It is a good tool, in practice, to use to
give everyone a line to follow, a steady way of thinking, but we must remember
theology is not necessarily a profession of faith; it is a way of thinking
about God. Keep this in mind, I am not talking about
telling someone how to believe in God using a creed, I am talking about how we
can use things like creeds to show them how to form their own opinions about
God. A right theology is not a group
think process, a right theology is an individual decision based off discussion,
reading and walking with others in life.
In its pure essence everyone should have their own theology about God
while at the same time sharing in the same core beliefs of a greater Church
theology, which should be derived from the Word of God. In other words, we inform our own theology
through our interaction with the body of Christ.
Any theology at its core is faith
based; with any theology you must have faith that what you are saying or
believing is right, but you do not necessarily have to have faith in God. On the other hand, your faith does not
necessarily equate to your theology one hundred percent. Sometimes a person’s faith may require them
to contradict their theology, let’s take Roman Catholics for example. The theology of Roman Catholicism requires
you to accept the authority of the Pope, but not all people who classify themselves
as Catholics do this. In my mind this
contradiction does not put your faith in doubt, because as a Christian your
faith is in God not theology. Let us remember how McGrath defines theology, it is “talk
about God” from another person’s perspective. When dealing with theology we have to
remember it is based off the opinion of man, derived from a study of God,
therefore it can be and almost always is fallible, how fallible depends on that
person’s faith, walk with God, walk with His people and the intensity of
studying Gods word and prayer. When
dealing with those under our sphere of control we need to remember we are their
road, their light of the path; at the same time, they are the drivers of the
vehicle on that path. If we as leaders
and elders have done our job according to the scriptures and allow God to give
us the wisdom to teach the right things, at that point we need to then step
back and let God guide them, allowing them to form their own opinion; this is
theology at its basics.
No comments:
Post a Comment