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How Should
Christians Study Systematic Theology?
How then should we study systematic theology?
The Bible provides some guidelines for answering this question.
1. We Should Study
Systematic Theology With Prayer. If
studying systematic theology is simply a certain way of studying the Bible,
then the passages in Scripture that talk about the way in which we should
study God's Word give guidance to us in this task. Just as the psalmist
prays in Psalm 119:18, "Open my eyes, that I
may behold wondrous things out of your law," so we should pray and seek
God's help in understanding his Word. Paul tells us in
1 Corinthians 2:14 that "the unspiritual man does not receive the
gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to
understand them because they are spiritually discerned." Studying theology
is therefore a spiritual activity in which we need the help of the Holy
Spirit.
No matter how intelligent, if the student
does not continue to pray for God to give him or her an understanding mind
and a believing and humble heart, and the student does not maintain a
personal walk with the Lord, then the teachings of Scripture will be
misunderstood and disbelieved, doctrinal error will result, and the mind and
heart of the student will not be changed for the better but for the worse.
Students of systematic theology should resolve at the beginning to keep
their lives free from any disobedience to God or any known sin that would
disrupt their relationship with him. They should resolve to maintain with
great regularity their own personal devotional lives. They should
continually pray for wisdom and understanding of Scripture.
Since it is the Holy Spirit who gives us the
ability rightly to understand Scripture, we need to realize that the proper
thing to do, particularly when we are unable to understand some passage or
some doctrine of Scripture, is to pray for God's help. Often what we need is
not more data but more insight into the data we already have available. This
insight is given only by the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor.
2:14; Eph. 1:17-19).
2. We Should Study
Systematic Theology With Humility.
Peter tells us, "Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one
another, for "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble"' (1
Peter 5:5). Those who study systematic
theology will learn many things about the teachings of Scripture that are
perhaps not known or not known well by other Christians in their churches or
by relatives who are older in the Lord than they are. They may also find
that they understand things about Scripture that some of their church
officers do not understand, and that even their pastor has perhaps forgotten
or never learned well.
In all of these situations it would be very
easy to adopt an attitude of pride or superiority toward others who have not
made such a study. But how ugly it would be if anyone were to use this
knowledge of God's Word simply to win arguments or to put down a fellow
Christian in conversation, or to make another believer feel insignificant in
the Lord's work. James' counsel is good for us at this point: "Let every man
be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does
not work the righteousness of God" (James
1:19-20). He tells us that one's
understanding of Scripture is to be imparted in humility and love:
Who is wise and understanding among you? By
his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.... But the
wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason,
full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity. And the
harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James
3:13, 17-18)
Systematic theology rightly studied will not
lead to the knowledge that "puffs up" (1
Cor. 8:1) but to humility and love for
others.
3. We Should Study
Systematic Theology With Reason. We
find in the New Testament that Jesus and the New Testament authors will
often quote a verse of Scripture and then draw logical conclusions from it.
They reason from Scripture. It is therefore not wrong to use human
understanding, human logic, and human reason to draw conclusions from the
statements of Scripture. Nevertheless, when we reason and draw what we think
to be correct logical deductions from Scripture, we sometimes make mistakes.
The deductions we draw from the statements of Scripture are not equal to the
statements of Scripture themselves in certainty or authority, for our
ability to reason and draw conclusions is not the ultimate standard of
truth--only Scripture is.
What then are the limits on our use of our
reasoning abilities to draw deductions from the statements of Scripture? The
fact that reasoning to conclusions that go beyond the mere statements of
Scripture is appropriate and even necessary for studying Scripture, and the
fact that Scripture itself is the ultimate standard of truth, combine to
indicate to us that we are free to use our reasoning abilities to draw
deductions from any passage of Scripture so long as these deductions do not
contradict the clear teaching of some other passage of Scripture.
This principle puts a safeguard on our use
of what we think to be logical deductions from Scripture. Our supposedly
logical deductions may be erroneous, but Scripture itself cannot be
erroneous. Thus, for example, we may read Scripture and find that God the
Father is called God (1 Cor. 1:3), that God the
Son is called God (John 20:28; Titus 2:13), and that God the Holy Spirit is
called God (Acts 5:3-4). We might deduce from
this that there are three Gods. But then we find the Bible explicitly
teaching us that God is one (Deut. 6:4; James 2:19). Thus we conclude that what we
thought to be a valid logical deduction about three Gods was wrong and
that Scripture teaches both (a) that there are three separate persons (the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), each of whom is fully God, and (b)
that there is one God.
We cannot understand exactly how these two
statements can both be true, so together they constitute a paradox
("a seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true"). We can tolerate a paradox (such as "God is three persons and
one God") because we have confidence that ultimately God knows fully the
truth about himself and about the nature of reality, and that in his
understanding the different elements of a paradox are fully reconciled, even
though at this point God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isa.
55:8-9). But a true contradiction (such as, "God is three persons and
God is not three persons") would imply ultimate contradiction in God's own
understanding of himself or of reality, and this cannot be.
When the psalmist says, "The sum of your
word is truth; and every one of your righteous ordinances endures for ever"
(Ps. 119:160),
he implies that God's words are not only true individually but also viewed
together as a whole. Viewed collectively, their "sum" is also "truth."
Ultimately, there is no internal contradiction either in Scripture or in
God's own thoughts.
4. We Should Study
Systematic Theology With Help From Others.
We need to be thankful that God has put teachers in the church ("And God has
appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers..."
[1 Cor. 12:28].
We should allow those with gifts of teaching to help us understand
Scripture. This means that we should make use of systematic theologies and
other books that have been written by some of the teachers that God has
given to the church over the course of its history. It also means that our
study of theology should include talking with other Christians about
the things we study. Among those with whom we talk will often be some with
gifts of teaching who can explain biblical teachings clearly and help us to
understand more easily. In fact, some of the most effective learning in
systematic theology courses in colleges and seminaries often occurs outside
the classroom in informal conversations among students who are attempting to
understand Bible doctrines for themselves.
5. We Should Study
Systematic Theology by Collecting and Understanding All the Relevant
Passages of Scripture on Any Topic.
This point was mentioned in our definition of systematic theology at the
beginning of the chapter, but the actual process needs to be described here.
How does one go about making a doctrinal summary of what all the passages of
Scripture teach on a certain topic? For topics covered in this book, many
people will think that studying the chapters in this book and reading the
Bible verses noted in the chapters is enough. But some people will want to
do further study of Scripture on a particular topic or study some new topic
not covered here. How could a student go about using the Bible to research
its teachings on some new subject, perhaps one not discussed explicitly in
any of his or her systematic theology textbooks?
The process would look like this: (1) Find
all the relevant verses. The best help in this step is a good concordance,
which enables one to look up key words and find the verses in which the
subject is treated. For example, in studying what it means that man is
created in the image and likeness of God, one needs to find all the verses
in which "image" and "likeness" and "create" occur. (The words "man" and
"God" occur too often to be useful for a concordance search.) In studying
the doctrine of prayer, many words could be looked up (pray, prayer,
intercede, petition, supplication, confess, confession, praise, thanks,
thanksgiving et al.)--and perhaps the list of verses would grow too long
to be manageable, so that the student would have to skim the concordance
entries without looking up the verses, or the search would probably have to
be divided into sections or limited in some other way. Verses can also be
found by thinking through the overall history of the Bible and then turning
to sections where there would be information on the topic at hand--for
example, a student studying prayer would want to read passages like the one
about Hannah's prayer for a son (in 1 Sam. 1),
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple (in 1
Kings 8), Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (in Matt. 26 and parallels), and so forth. Then in
addition to concordance work and reading other passages that one can find on
the subject, checking the relevant sections in some systematic theology
books will often bring to light other verses that had been missed, sometimes
because none of the key words used for the concordance were in those verses.
(2) The second step is to read, make notes
on, and try to summarize the points made in the relevant verses. Sometimes a
theme will be repeated often and the summary of the various verses will be
relatively easy. At other times, there will be verses difficult to
understand, and the student will need to take some time to study a verse in
depth (just by reading the verse in context over and over, or by using
specialized tools such as commentaries and dictionaries) until a
satisfactory understanding is reached.
(3) Finally, the teachings of the various
verses should be summarized into one or more points that the Bible affirms
about that subject. The summary does not have to take the exact form of
anyone else's conclusions on the subject, because we each may see things in
Scripture that others have missed, or we may organize the subject
differently or emphasize different things.
On the other hand, at this point it is also
helpful to read related sections, if any can be found, in several systematic
theology books. This provides a useful check against error and oversight,
and often makes one aware of alternative perspectives and arguments that may
cause us to modify or strengthen our position. If a student finds that
others have argued for strongly differing conclusions, then these other
views need to be stated fairly and then answered. Sometimes other theology
books will alert us to historical or philosophical considerations that have
been raised before in the history of the church, and these will provide
additional insight or warnings against error.
The process outlined above is possible for
any Christian who can read his or her Bible and can look up words in a
concordance. Of course people will become faster and more accurate in this
process with time and experience and Christian maturity, but it would be a
tremendous help to the church if Christians generally would give much more
time to searching out topics in Scripture for themselves and drawing
conclusions in the way outlined above. The joy of discovery of biblical
themes would be richly rewarding. Especially pastors and those who lead
Bible studies would find added freshness in their understanding of Scripture
and in their teaching.
6. We Should Study
Systematic Theology With Rejoicing and Praise.
The study of theology is not merely a theoretical exercise of the intellect.
It is a study of the living God, and of the wonders of all his works in
creation and redemption. We cannot study this subject dispassionately! We
must love all that God is, all that he says and all that he does. "You shall
love the LORD your God with all your heart" (Deut. 6:5).
Our response to the study of the theology of Scripture should be that of the
psalmist who said, "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!" (Ps.
139:17). In the study of the teachings of God's Word, it should not
surprise us if we often find our hearts spontaneously breaking forth in
expressions of praise and delight like those of the psalmist:
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart. (Ps.
19:8)
In the way of your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches. (Ps.
119:14)
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Ps.
119:103)
Your testimonies are my heritage for ever;
yea, they are the joy of my heart. (Ps.
119:111)
I rejoice at your word
like one who finds great spoil. (Ps.
119:162)
Often in the study of theology the response
of the Christian should be similar to that of Paul in reflecting on the long
theological argument that he has just completed at the end of Romans 11:32.
He breaks forth into joyful praise at the richness of the doctrine which God
has enabled him to express:
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his
ways!
"For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?"
"Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?"
For from him and through him and to him are
all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen. (Rom.
11:33-36).
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