Welcome to session 2 of the Foundation section of Christian Ambassador Training. We are still trying to lay some groundwork before we get into that actual study of the texts and the sources on what we believe as Ambassadors For Christ.

The primary method we will be using to determine what we believe is known as systematic theology. Now, you may not know what that term means. But, you probably do it all the time whenever you discuss what it is that Christians believe. So, we need to spend a few minutes defining what that is as well as give reasons for why we ought to study theology in the first place.

Purpose

So, why are we here? What is the purpose of this thing we are about to embark on? The main goal of any theological study should be to come to know God more. And by “know” I don’t mean filling your head with more facts and data about God – like you would with football stats or how to cook the perfect steak. I mean knowing God in the same way you come to know your spouse or your kids or your parents – on a very personal level. This type of knowledge is transformative. You can’t help but be changed when you have a relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

Knowing God in this way must be our primary purpose because it sets up some guardrails for our next purpose and that is to understand, be able to articulate, and defend basic Christian truths. Our class mandate is taken from 1 Peter 3:15 where Peter tells us we must always be ready to give reasons for the hope that is within us. And, we need to do it with gentleness and respect.

Once you get to know God, you’ll want to share Him with others. And, depending on the lifestyle you led before you came to know Christ, some of your friends will notice a change in you. And, they’ll want to know what’s up. Or, maybe people who encounter you notice there’s something different about you. They will have questions. And, we want to be prepared to answer those questions.

If we don’t prioritize our relationship with God, our discussions with others won’t be very gentle or respectful – it will look more like a political debate. And, nobody wants that.

Structure

In case you’re wondering what this class will look like, what we’ll be doing is surveying Christian doctrine using a systematic theology approach (and I’ll define those terms in a minute).

We will examine Scriptural sources as well as discuss some philosophical arguments and the things discoverable in general revelation – or what we can observe in the world around us.

For doctrines where there are different positions, we will attempt to accurately define the positions so that we can come to a reasonable conclusion on which position to hold.

We won’t be in a hurry to go through these topics. If you are doing this on your own, and something peeks your interest, break away and go study some more on that. And, then come back. If you’re studying in a group, take time to really shew on this stuff. Discuss it amongst yourselves.

Sources

There will be three primary sources I will be pulling from for this class. The first is The Bible. I use the ESV primarily, but you’ll be fine with most other translations.

The second source will be Wayne Grudem’s “Systematic Theology Second Edition”. It’s a great introductory book that’s easy to read. You don’t HAVE to get the book. But, it would be a great resource to have on your shelf.

The second source will be William Lane Craig’s “Defenders” Sunday School class. These sessions are freely available on YouTube and I would suggest you watch those as well if you are looking to go deeper on some of these topics.

I will also refer to various other books, podcasts, and speakers throughout the lessons. I will be sure to link to those when I use them.

What Is Systematic Theology?

Alright. Now it’s time to define some terms. Let’s start with systematic theology. Simply stated, systematic theology is any study that answers the question “what does the whole Bible teach us about X?” When we want to come to a decision on a given topic, we should consider all of the applicable passages in the Bible and then summarize what it is they teach so that we know what to believe on each topic. We don’t want to build our theology on single verses. If we come across a verse on a topic – say God’s grace – we want to make sure we look at that verse along with all of the other verses on God’s grace to understand the full picture that has been revealed to us.

Systematic theology focuses on summarizing each doctrine as it should be understood by present-day Christians. And we give summary words to a lot of these things where the words themselves don’t appear in the Scriptures. The terms Trinity, incarnation, and deity of Christ for example, are not found in the Bible, but they usefully summarize biblical concepts.

Your average Christian doesn’t use the term systematic theology, or say they are *doing* systematic theology. But, people *do* systematic theology all the time when they make statements like “the Bible says we should do X”. So, the question isn’t *are* you going to do systematic theology, the question really is are you going to do systematic theology *well*. And that’s what I hope to achieve in this class.

Now, it is inevitable that when we begin to study theology for the first time, we will have many of our personal beliefs challenged. I most certainly did. And continue to, actually. We have to be willing to have our minds changed. We have to be ready to abandon any false ideas clearly found to be contradicted by or antithetical to the teaching of Scripture.

We also have to agree not to believe something solely because we read it in a textbook or because some teacher we respect told us it is so. Don’t believe what you believe because of what I teach you. Believe what you believe based on the Scriptural evidence.

What Is A Doctrine?

Doctrine is what the whole Bible teaches about a particular topic. Aa doctrine is the result of doing systematic theology on a particular topic. So, we will be doing systematic theology in order to derive doctrine. In other words, when we want to know what the Bible teaches about topics like God’s attributes or who Jesus is or about things like marriage or church governance we are going to look at all of the verses in the Bible related to that topic and try to develop a full picture of the thing we are trying to study.

Don’t be put off by the use of words like “systematic theology” or “doctrine”. I don’t expect us to start working in words like “eschatology” or “hermeneutic” into everyday conversation. But, this is the language of theology. And, if you think about it, every trade or career has it’s own language. IT people like me use terms that people who aren’t in our department don’t understand without a little explanation. But, after I use a term enough, they pick up on it and start using it too. So, I have no doubt that these theological terms will start to become part of your vocabulary, too. You’ll get it. I promise.

Major Doctrine Vs. Minor Doctrine

It may not seem like it by the way some people in the church talk, but not all doctrine are created equal. Some doctrines are more foundational than others. For our purposes, we’ll classify some as major doctrines and some as minor doctrines.

Now, we may not all agree on what are the majors and what are the minors. But, I think it’s important to understand that there is a spectrum of importance. And, I think that it’s important to see this as a spectrum of importance because there’s a lot of drawing lines in the sand that happens in the church. As in, this is a line that WE won’t cross and if YOU cross it, you’re out of bounds and not a Christian. And, while there are certainly boundaries that we should put up, a lot of time in the past (especially in the Protestant tradition of which I am a part) churches have split – even become violent over – differences in minor doctrines.

Here’s a guiding principle on how we can classify things as major or minor doctrine. A major doctrine is one that has a significant impact on our thinking about other doctrines, or that has a significant impact on how we live the Christian life. A minor doctrine is one that has very little impact on how we think about other doctrines, and very little impact on how we live the Christian life.

Our goal should be to seek agreement as a church in the majors and have room for discussion on the minors. A famous way to say this is “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and, in all things, charity.“. We don’t want to major in the minors.

Some examples of major doctrines would be that God exists, the authority of Scripture, deity of Christ, and justification by faith. Example of minor doctrines would be church governance, details on Baptism or the Lord’s Supper, the timing of the great tribulation, number of days in Creation, etc.

A helpful illustration on how doctrines affect one another would be a spider web. The closer a rung of the web is to the center, the more important it is to the structure of the web. So, for instance, if you clip the most central run of the web, the strength of the whole thing is compromised. Clip a rung towards the outer rim and the majority of the web is still in tact.

I would say that the existence of God is the most central rung of the web. If God doesn’t exist, then the whole thing falls apart. But, whether you baptize someone by sprinkling water on their head or you dunk them in a river seems to be less important.

Why Should We Study Doctrine?

1. We Are Commanded To By Scripture

The first reason we should study doctrine is that we are commanded to by Scripture.

>[[Mat-28#v19|Mat 28,19-20]] **19**Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, **20**teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [[Mat-28#v20|]]

In Matthew 28:20, Jesus commands the apostles to go teach people what he has taught them. And, you can’t teach people something unless you’ve learned it yourself.

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (Eph 4:11–15)

We need to be equipped so that we can do the work of the Kingdom we represent. Also, so that when the next goofy doctrine pops up we don’t get fooled and knocked off track.

In order to teach what Jesus said, we need to collect and summarize all of the verses on a specific topic. Yes, it’s great to have as much of the Bible memorized as possible. But, it’s more useful for study, for teaching, and for sharing with no-believers if we can summarize things in a language they understand (remember the traits of an effective ambassador).

If we had a question, we *could* get an answer by saying “just keep reading your Bible”, but imagine having to start in Genesis and read all the way through to Revelation every time you wanted to get your question answered! This is why systematic theology exists. So you don’t have to do that!

2. Benefits Us Personally

The second reason we should study doctrine is because it has a number of benefits for us personally. Like it helps us overcome wrong ideas. If there was no sin in our hearts we would read the Bible and accept the truth that it teaches. But, we all have a habit of reading the Bible and explaining away the verses we don’t like. Looking at them in a systematic way helps us see the full picture of doctrine and deal with the verses we don’t want to deal with

Every Christian is a theologian. In virtue of the fact that you are a Christian you are committed to certain beliefs about reality – a certain worldview that God exists, that God is three persons, that Christ is both human and divine, that God has created the world, that we are morally fallen before God and in need of his forgiveness and cleansing. Therefore, the question isn’t whether or not you are going to be a theologian; the question is whether you are going to be a poor theologian or a good theologian.

Studying doctrine also helps us to be able to make better decisions later on new questions of doctrine that may arise. Part of Christian maturity is doctrinal discernment so that you won’t get fooled every time someone wants to teach something new and goofy.

14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (Eph 4:14–15).

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.(Titus 1:9)

Right living presupposes right thinking about God. If we want to live correctly for Christ as his disciples we must first think correctly about Christ.

The third way studying doctrine befits us personally is it will help us grow as Christians. The more we know about God, about his Word, about his relationships to the world and humankind, the better we will trust him, the more fully we will praise him, and the more readily we will obey him.

If you look in the back of your Bible you may have a thing called a concordance. This is an index of sorts that tells you every passage where a word and it’s various forms are used throughout the whole Bible. If you look up “know” in the concordance, you’ll see that it and it’s various forms (“knowledge”, “knowing”, “knew”, etc) is the second most used word in the Bible. Next to love. And third place isn’t even close. *That’s* how much emphasis God puts on knowing him and the things he has done.

The final personal benefit to studying doctrine is that it is an expression of loving God with all of our minds.

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. 38 This is the great and first commandment (Matt 22:37–38)

I get that same rush of love, excitement and closeness to God when I am learning about Him as I do when I sing a really good song to him. Thinking about His word, asking Him questions, and getting to know Him is just as much a valid form of worship as singing in church or serving the community.

Think about how you feel when you are getting to know someone you are in love with. You’re excited to learn all you can about them because you love them. And, we get to do that with the Creator of the Universe!

How Should We Study?

Now that we’ve made the case that we should study doctrine, we have to decide how we should do it. There are several guideposts that we should keep beside us as we study doctrine. These will help guide our process and make sure we do not get too far off track.

1. With Prayer

First, we have to start with prayer. We must continually ask God to give us an understanding and humble heart. I admit, this is hard for me because I get excited to dig in, to start reading immediately. But, I have to start with prayers to God to ask him to keep my mind open to hear what His words say, to be ready to have my mind changed, and to not get puffed up because I am gathering knowledge.

2. With Humility

This leads us to the second “how” and that is with humility. The vast majority of Christians – even many leaders and pastors – are theologically illiterate. Even so, we must protect our hearts and our minds from puffing up because we have knowledge that others do not.

We aren’t gaining knowledge to win arguments or set people straight; we are gaining knowledge to develop a closer relationship with God, to apply what we learn to our own lives, and to spread the Gospel.

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19–20)

3. With Reason

The third way we should study doctrine is with reason. It is right to use reason to understand Scripture. This is modeled time and time again by Jesus and the NT authors when they cite a verse of Scripture and then reason it out.

Our reason isn’t perfect and we will make mistakes. That is why Scripture holds a higher authority than our reason does. 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.

4. With Others

We also should study doctrine with help from others. Talking things through with others is one of the most enlightening parts of learning because other people will see things that you don’t. I spend hours studying topics that interest me. When I know what topic is going to be taught in a small group, I will do some study beforehand so I can have something to add to the conversation. Sure, I can absorb a lot on my own. But, it isn’t until I get into group discussions that the learning really takes off! Talking things through with others is one of the most enlightening parts of learning because they will see things that you don’t. It’s also a way to make sure I’m not getting too far off track.

5. By Collecting Relevant Verses

We also need to make sure that we are building our doctrine by collecting all of the relevant passages on a given topic. When the text of the Bible was first written, it didn’t have verses. The content of the New Testament is primarily letters written to individuals or groups of people. We would never pull a single sentence out of an email and derive meaning from it without first considering the rest of the sentences in the email.

Doctrine is not made from a single verse. Seeking a single verse to make your point without considering it in the totality of Scripture is an abuse of the text. We must endeavor to see passages in the framework of the entire Bible to develop our understanding of God and his place in history.

6. With Rejoicing And Praise

Finally, we need to be studying theology with rejoicing and praise. Studying theology isn’t merely a theoretical and academic exercise to improve our intellect. We are coming to know the Living God, the Creator of the Universe. God isn’t completely removed from us. He has left us His words about who He is, what He asks of us, the promises He has made to us, what He has done in the past and what His plans for the future are. This should give us a reason to rejoice and be grateful! God wants us to know Him. I hope you’ll take the opportunity with me to do so.