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The Demise of Systematic Theology

Mal Couch, Ph.D., Th.D.

 

Evangelicals are in trouble!

The beginning of the twenty-first century saw the Evangelical church move rapidly toward what is called the postmodern era. Postmodernism is an attitude that has been spawned by the intellectual elite who believes absolutes, especially in the moral and spiritual realm, cannot be known with certainty. The study of biblical doctrine then is no longer important or necessary.

Paul R. Shockley, writing in The God of the Bible and Other Gods, defines the essentials of postmodernism: (1) absolute or objective truth does not exist, (2) reality is in the mind of the beholder, (3) humanity is molded or scripted by its own subcultures, (4) there is no objective, universal authority. Postmodernism is marked by (5) cynicism and (6) decision making on the ethical basis of feelings, emotions, and impressions.1

Until recently it was understood by the evangelical world that God was the ultimate Author of the Bible, though He used as His instruments the prophets and the apostles. "God gave the Scriptures to communicate, not to confuse or bewilder."2 Despite the present doubt about the issue of knowing truth, the Bible remains the only vehicle for understanding God, ourselves, and the nature of eternal, spiritual fact and reality. Postmodernism is nothing but modern day literalism! To evangelicals, "Its ideas warrant illogical conclusions that do not correspond to reality."3

The Bible remains, divinely preserved. If we interpret the biblical text in its normal sense we will see once more that it truthfully meets the intrinsic needs of every person, since it was given by the unique Triune God, who is infinite, personal, and divinely authoritative.4

Since the Bible is the Word of God, where it speaks, God speaks!

Despite this assurance about scriptural revelation, a rapidly growing majority in the Western world holds different views.

It is hard to witness to truth to people who believe that truth is relative ("Jesus works for you; crystals work for her"). It is hard to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to people who believe that, since morality is relative, they have no sins to forgive.5

Near the turn of the twenty-first century, a survey was taken that found 66 percent of Americans believe that "there is no such thing as absolutes." But the surprise was that 53 percent of those who label themselves as evangelical Christians believe also that there are no absolutes.6 One expects such moral inversions to take place in the secular world, but not within Christendom.

What is the difference in today’s postmodern thinking about God and spiritual issues, and the way humanity has always thought about Him in the past?

While people have always committed sins, they at least acknowledged these were sins. A century ago a person may have committed adultery flagrantly and in defiance of God and man, but he would have admitted that what he was doing was a sin. What we have today is not only immoral behavior, but a loss of moral criteria. This is true even in the church. We face not only a moral collapse but a collapse of meaning. "There are no absolutes."7

By saying "no absolutes," we are saying that people no longer look to the authority of the Bible for the knowledge of truth. To throw away biblical truth is to throw away any knowledge of the personal God! He cannot be known by personal intuition, or by nature! He has revealed the intimate nature of Himself in the Word of God. And even in these Scriptures, He has revealed to us only what He wishes us to know, no more!

The psalmist well writes:

May Thy compassion come to me that I may live, for Thy law Is my delight. (Psa. 119:77)

Thy word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path. (v. 105)

Definition of Theology

The word theology comes from two Greek words, theos ("God"), and logos ("word," "study of"). Theology is the study of everything we can know about God, all of the revelation that is available in order to comprehend who He is! But theology also looks at how the God of the Scripture relates to His universe, its creation, and the progress of time that will someday end.

The aim of theology is the ascertainment of the facts respecting God and the relations between God and the universe, and the exhibition of these facts in their rational unity, as connected parts of a formulated and organic system of truth. As theology deals with objective facts and their relations, so is arrangement of these facts is not optional, but is determined by the nature of the material with which it deals. A true theology thinks over again God’s thoughts and brings them into God’s order, as the builders of Solomon’s temple took the stones already hewn, and put them into the places for which the architect had designed them.8

The Scriptures then will be the chief source of our understanding of God and of theology. Calvin states:

If true religion is to beam upon us, our principle must be, that it is necessary to begin with heavenly teaching, and that it is impossible for any man to obtain even the minutest portion of right and sound doctrine without being a disciple of Scripture. Hence the first step in true knowledge is taken, when we reverently embrace the testimony which God has been pleased therein to give of himself.9

Theology is not to be understood simply as the expression of a body of beliefs put forward by a denomination or fellowship of churches. It is not to be formulated by using only human logic and reasoning. Theology is not the inventive imaginations of the creative mind of some philosopher or mental genius. Evangelical theology must be biblical! Its sources are the ancient prophets who were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God!

Therefore Gill holds that we must be taught:

the divine authority and excellency of the sacred scriptures; that there but one God, and that he only is to be worshipped, and not angels; that God is the Triune God; that there are three Persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that God is eternal, the Creator, and preserver of all things; that Christ is truly God and truly man; that he is Prophet, Priest and King; that men are by nature wretched, blind, naked, poor, and miserable; that some of all nations are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; and that they are justified and washed from their sins in his blood; the articles of the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, the sad estate of the wicked, and the happiness of the saints may be observed in it.10

There are several places in the New Testament where the concept of theology is expressed. Paul writes about the ta logia tou Theou (Rom. 3:2), "the oracles about God." Peter writes similarly when he speaks of the logia Theou (1 Pet. 4:11), "oracles about God." This reinforces the idea that theology of about one specific subject, namely God. "No consideration of God will be complete which does not contemplate His works and ways in the universe which He has created, as well as His Person."11

Definition of Theology Proper

Technically speaking, while the word theology specifically points to God, it may be very inclusive and encompass many other areas of theological studies. However, the expression Theology Proper has come to refer simply to the study about the God of the Bible, in terms of His person, nature, and activities.

Chafer further writes:

The term Theology Proper is a somewhat modern designation which represents the logical starting point in the study of Systematic Theology, being, as it is, its primary theme, namely, a scientific investigation into what may be known of the existence, Persons, and characteristics of the triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit.12

Scope of the Word Theology

Ryrie argues that the Scriptures attest to two important facts: the incomphrehensibility of God and the knowability of God.13 God is far beyond us. He is Spirit and He is holy. Because of the curse of sin, human beings are cut off from contact with Him, unless He reveals Himself. And that revelation is based on the intercession of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. However, He also reveals Himself by His Word, and by other means that will be discussed later.

Ryrie correctly concludes:

God Himself is the Source of our knowledge of Him. To be sure, all truth is God’s truth. But that cliché should be more carefully stated and used than it generally is. Only true truth comes from God, for since sin entered the stream of history man has created that which he calls truth but which is not. Furthermore, he has perverted, blunted, diluted, and corrupted that which was originally true truth that did come from God. Fro us today the only infallible canon for determining true truth is the written Word of God. Nature, though it does reveal some things about God, is limited and can be misread by mankind. The human mind, though often brilliant in what it can achieve, suffers limitations and darkening. Human experience, even ones, lack reliability as sources of the true knowledge of God, unless they conform to the Word of God.14

All of Life Focuses in on God and Theology

Since God created the universe, the world, all physical life, the food we eat, ourselves, and our children—it only stands to reason that all of life and living is theological, i.e., it is about Him! Every day, and every hour, should bring about a love of Him, and a worshipful response to the salvation He has granted us in Christ!

But human beings, even born-again Christians, are incapable of a sustained response to the glory and the Being of our God. Our senses, mind-set, and pre-occupations, all lead us away from His grace that surrounds our existence.

The old Puritan scholar William Ames agrees that everything in life is theological. He said,

Man should rest in the ordaining power of God which he can know and trust. This power is not dimly stated in an hypothesis that God can do whatever he wills, but is full known in the assurance that he always wills and does certain things. … Let not man limit the ordaining power of God, for he who is "at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20).15

From knowing God through the Scriptures, believers in Christ should be loving, honoring, obeying, worshiping, praying to, and witnessing of the person of God the Father and of His grace in Christ Jesus! Anything less falls short of what He is due. To make this process happen, God has given His Holy Spirit who illumines what is true from Scripture about Himself. Paul says, "We have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God" (1 Cor. 2:12).

But as the apostle John writes, the ultimate knowing has to do with God Himself. "We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. ‘This is the true God and eternal life’" (1 John 5:20).

Ames concludes:

Since the highest kind of life for a human being is that which approaches most closely the living and life-giving God, the nature of theological life is living to God. Man live to God when they live in accord with the will of God, to the glory of God, and with God working in them.16

And, the:

practice of life is so perfectly reflected in theology that there is no precept of universal truth, relevant to living well in domestic [life], morality, political life, or lawmaking which does not rightly pertain to theology.17

______________________

  1. Robert P. Lightner, The God of the Bible and Other Gods (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1998), 198.
  2. Ibid., 205.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Gene Edward Veith, Jr., Postmodern Times (Wheaton: Crossway, 1994), 16.
  6. Ibid.
  7. Ibid., 18.
  8. Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1979), 2.
  9. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 66.
  10. John Gill, A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity (Paris, AR: Baptist Standard Bearer, 1995), xliii.
  11. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, 8 Vol. (Dallas: Dallas Seminary Press, 1976), 1:3.
  12. Ibid., 1:129.
  13. Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology (Chicago: Moody, 1999), 27.
  14. Ibid., 27-28.
  15. William Ames, The Marrow of Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 24.
  16. Ibid., 77.
  17. Ibid., 78.