Is Theology Important?

(I have previously posted this elsewhere--but I feel that I should post it on this venue as well; and I should have done so long ago).

Theology has been given a bad name in the church today. Many people see theology as a weapon used by radical Bible-bashing-out-of-sync-fundamentalists who just want to win arguments and degrade people. It is seen as impractical, leading only to knowledge, and knowledge in itself, as the Bible is so very clear (1 Cor. 8:1), while love builds up (and so theology is seen to be the upset of Christian practice in love and compassion). But is this understanding of theology correct? I mean, after all, we have this forum on here that is titled "theology".

“Evangelical theology is not a popular cause these days. In many evangelical churches, theology of any stripe is something for which apologies are rendered from the pulpit whenever an intrepid preacher ventures onto its turf.” -John G. Stackhouse, Jr.

I believe, and have found this to be true in every single case, this is an absolute truth, that theology is an essential study of every Christian. Now, before you get angry, hear me out. I am not saying that every Christian should read Theological books every waking moment (though I think it would be beneficial for every believer to study good theological books, such as Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology (it may be long, but each section is pretty short), Graeme Goldsworthy's According to Plan, and books such as these). So why study theology?

First of all, the Puritans, who were probably the people who knew the Bible inside and out, were heavy theologians. They knew theology as the queen of all sciences. This is because theology effects the whole of a person.

J.I. Packer, one of the most respected Christian teachers today says,

Quote:

“Having come to faith in my first term at Oxford, in 1944, I was nurtured in a fellowship where zeal for Christ and evangelism, and fortitude in the face of criticism, were magnificently present, but where the operative theology was limited to a few Bible-based, surface-level ideas about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and personal faith and faithfulness. The accepted view of theological inquiry was that it was an unspiritual and dangerous distraction from the real demands of discipleship, unfruitfully muddling the mind and hardening the heart. In my foreword to Bruce Milne’s fine little handbook of theology, Know the Truth, I recounted what a fool I had made of myself by explaining to my college chaplain that theology (not bad theology, but theology as such) is poison to the soil. I was at that time a very young convert, naively regurgitating what those teaching me to love and serve my Lord had told me. Though I soon saw the stupidity of thus rubbishing theology and started profiting from the Puritans, who were theologians to their fingertips, I never realized how theologizing can sanctify the mind and heart and deepen one’s doctrine, devotion, and doxology all together until I read the Institutes and found it happening to me as I followed Calvin’s argumentation.”

Theology comes from the Greek "Theos" = God and "Logos" = reason/understanding. So every Christian is a theologian.

Quote:

"The Bible speaks of us as knowing God and as being known by God. Both of these important facts are part of the theology that each of us builds up during the whole of our lives as Christians. Have you ever heard a person say (particularly in the middle of a discussion about the Bible), 'I'm no theologian, but...'? My answer to that is, 'Yes you are! All Christians are theologians, but some are more able theologians than others.' Every Christian by definition knows God, thinks about God and makes statements about God. So, you are a theologian. Part of being a Christian is that we do theology. That is, we put together different aspects of what we understand about God, and we build it into some kind of coherent understanding of our existence as God's redeemed peole living in the world."

-Graeme Goldsworthy

David F. Wells says,

Quote:

“Let us not think… that we really have a choice between having a theology and not having one. We all have our theologies, for we all have a way of putting things together in our own minds that, if we are Christian, has a shape that arises from our knowledge of God and his Word. We might not be conscious of the process. Indeed, we frequently are not. But at the very least we will organize our perceptions into some sort of pattern that seems to make sense to us. The question at issue, then, is not whether we will have a theology but whether it will be a good or bad one, whether we will become conscious of our thinking processes or not, and, more particularly, whether we will learn to bring all of our thoughts into obedience to Christ or not. The biblical authors had a theology in this sense, after all, and so too did Jesus. He explained himself in terms of biblical revelation, understood his life and work in relation to God, and viewed all of life from this perspective.”

Theology effects our view of the Bible and its coherence.

Quote:

"Biblical theology enables us to map out the unity of the Bible by looking at its message as a whole"

and

Quote:

"provides the basis for the interpretation of any part of the Bible as God's word to us."

-Graeme Goldsworthy

Quote:

"[Theology] is about seeing the truth of God, seeing the gaping chasm that lies between that truth and the nostrums of modernized society, seeing how to practice that truth in this world....Without theology, however, there is no faith, no believing, no Christian hope. And the Church's loss of preoccupation with theology goes a long way toward explaining its current weakness: it has inadvertently exchanged the sensibilities of modern culture for the truth of Christ."

-David F. Wells

Quote:

"Many doctrines of the Bible are intimately related. If a person holds to a deficient view of one doctrine, it will logically lead to a defective view of other related doctrines."

-Brian Schwertley

And good theology is important since human understanding can tend to deteriorate in proceeding generations.

Quote:

“All bad theology, it’s always like a bullet, bad theology for a generation goes in small, but it comes out that big.”

–Tommy Nelson

Quote:

“Stressing doctrinal identity will always be criticized by some as divisive and by others as non-relational. But for those who see beyond this generation and love the people in generations not yet born, clear doctrinal identity is a non-negotiable.”

–John Piper

So what about the Bible? Does the Bible say anything about the importance of good theology?

Quote:

“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

–1 Timothy 4:16, NIV

Quote:

"And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ"

-Ephesians 4:11-15

Jesus said,

Quote:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. Thsi is the great and foremost commandment."

-Matthew 22:37-38

Why study theology?

Wayne Grudem shows that part of the great commission is to teach new disciples to observe all that Christ has commanded us.

Quote:

"Now, to teach all that Jesus commanded, in a narrow sense, is simply to teach the content of the oral teaching of Jesus as it is recorded in the gospel narratives. However, in a broader sense, 'all that Jesus commanded' includes the interpretation and application of his life and teachings, because in the book of Acts is is implied that it contains a narrative of what Jesus continued to do and teach through the apostles after his resurrection"

.

He continues,

Quote:

"Although the basic reason for studying systematic theology is that it is a means of obedience to our Lord's command, there are some additional specific benefits that come from such study."

1. Helps us overcome our wrong ideas.
2. Helps us to be able to make better decisions later on new questions of doctrine that may arise.
3. It will helps us grow as Christians.
-Wayne Grudem

Yet the Bible is clear and all of these men whom I have quoted are convinced, theology is to be practical, not merely a head knowledge of facts. Theology can actually be harmful if it remains only as head knowledge, since it can cause us to be arrogant and it will not cause us to grow in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. So when studying theology we must make every effort to make our theology heart-knowledge, that it might cause us to walk closer to Christ and in His precepts. Theology is absolutely practical, it will effect every area of your life. Bad theology will cause you to have a deficient understanding of God and His ways and will cause you to teach falsehoods. We will all be held accountable on the day of judgement for our bad theologies, since they will lead us to transgressions, so let's root them out, and practice our theology.

Quote:

“Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”

(James 1:22)

(I could quote many others upon this subject; but for the sake of brevity, I will leave this as it is--perhaps I will update this post down the road).