The BibleWHAT IS THEOLOGY?The term theology is a compound made up from the joining of two words from the Greek language:

(Theos): This is the Greek word for God.

(Logos): Word or study.Theology then is the study of God and those things that God has revealed. We also ought to understand what theology is NOT.

Theology is not about man's religious experiences which God or his opinion of what God ought to be like. Many people like to speak about God being real to them. This often indicates a false sense of reality in which God is real to one person but non-existent to another.Theology is the study of God's revelation of Himself to man. This definition presupposes that God has revealed Himself to man. Were it not for the fact that God had revealed Himself, we would know nothing at all about God.Can you discover the depths of God?Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?They are high as the heavens, what can you do?Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? (Job_11:7-8).There is a knowledge gap between God and man. Man cannot, by his own self effort, know anything about God. It is God Himself who must bridge the gap if we are to know of Him. The good news is that God has done this, revealing Himself to man.Today's postmodern movement tends to shy away from the study of theology. It is claimed, I don't need theology, just give me Jesus! But the question then arises, Which Jesus? It is in the subject of theology that we learn of who Jesus really is.Those who say they love the God of the universe without knowing facts about Him are in error. You can know facts about God without knowing Him and loving Him, but it is impossible to know Him and love Him without also knowing certain facts about Him. It is like saying that you know and love your wife when you know absolutely nothing about her.At the same time, it might be argued that it is possible to know all about God without actually knowing Him. This is true and it is one of the dangers of the study of theology. We must answer that knowing God involves more than the mere knowledge of certain basic facts about God, but also that it is not less than at least a fundamental awareness of who God is.TYPES OF THEOLOGY Natural Theology: This is the study that examines those facts concerning God and His universe that are revealed in nature. This is considered theology by our earlier definition because we are examining how God has revealed Himself in nature.

Exegetical Theology: This is a study of each of the individual books of the Bible, taking into account the context of each of those books, the meanings of the original Greek and Hebrew texts, and the interplay of historical, cultural and archaeological backgrounds as we seek to understand those texts. For example, we might do a study of the book of Genesis, noting the internal outline of the book and seeing how the author uses particular narratives, teachings and arguments in order to make his point.

Biblical Theology: This is the study that trace's God's truth about Himself and His relationship with men as that truth is developed historically in the individual books of the Bible. It was this kind of theology that Stephen presented when he preached his sermon before the Jewish Sanhedrin.

Thus we might do a study of the book of Genesis and ask how God is revealed in that particular book, understanding that the writer and the original readers did not have the rest of the Scriptures because they had not yet been written. We would read Genesis and we would ask what was the concept of God those original readers were derive from this book.

Systematic Theology: This is the study that follows an analytically devised scheme to organize into a single system all of the truth that we have about God and His universe. The Apostle Paul uses this kind of systematic approach in his study of the righteousness of God in the book of Romans.

Practical Theology: Taking all of the previous aspects of theology and putting them into practice so that my life is different than it previously was. This is the goal of all study of theology. It is so that my life will be changed so that I love God more and serve Him better.We must recognize that God and the Scriptures rule over our theology and not the other way around. This means that if our theology conflicts with the Bible, we need to change our theology. As such, we are to follow the example of the Bereans.10 And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea; and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. (Act_17:10-12).Here were a group of noble-minded followers of the Lord. They heard the message being preached by Paul and Silas and it was different from that with which they were familiar. Their reaction was to become diligent students of the Scriptures, examining them daily to see whether that new message was true. It is the Scriptures that drive our understanding of theology and not the other way around.

GENERAL REVELATION Definition: When we speak of General Revelation, we speak of the way that God has revealed Himself in a general sense to men through His acts of creation and providence. It is still revelation. It is an active act of God in revealing Himself to men. But it is also general and is available for all men to see and to understand.

Scriptural Support.

The heavens are telling of the glory of God;And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.Day to day pours forth speech,And night to night reveals knowledge.There is no speech, nor are there words;Their voice is not heard. (Psa_19:1-3).

When you go and look at the solar system and the planets and the galaxies, there is a message there for us to be seen and read. Those heavens give us a message and a declaration. They tell us something and it is something we can know if we are listening.In Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe, one footprint on the sand showed to the marooned hero that another person was on his island. In the same way, the heavens and the earth are filled with the countless footprints of the Lord....that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Rom_1:19-20).Here is what we must understand about revelation. It is not merely the existence of random elements of evidence. It is deliberate. It is revelation. The signs of God's presence in the realm of nature are only visible to us because God has revealed them to us.This is also described as natural revelation. This does not mean that it merely comes naturally. Rather, it means that it is revelation that takes place within the realm of nature.This passage states that there are two specific aspects of God's existence which are revealed in creation.

His eternal power.

His divine nature.

This sets forth the limitation of this general revelation. No one ever looked at a sunset and deduced the doctrine of the Trinity. You cannot look through a microscope and see the principles of justification and sanctification. General revelation is limited in what it reveals about God.God has revealed His power and divinity through His creation. The immensity of creation shows that He is very big. The fact of creation shows God's divine nature. This revelation has broken the infinity barrier. This revelation has left men without excuse.

SPECIAL REVELATIONSpecial revelation refers to God's work of actively revealing Himself to men through various special means.

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son (Heb_1:1-2 a).

In these two short verses, the writer to the Hebrews provides a summary of Special Revelation. It is the message that God spoke...

In many different portions: God's revelation of Himself did not come all at once. There was a progression to its unveiling.

He revealed Himself to Adam and Eve.

He revealed Himself to Noah.

He revealed Himself to Abraham.

He revealed Himself to Moses.

He revealed Himself to Joshua.

He revealed Himself to Samuel.

Each of these revelations brought a little more understanding of God to man. The writer of Genesis had a certain limited amount of information. The writer of Joshua had a little more. The writer of Samuel had even more. Each writer added to the pool of knowledge about God. In each case, the Old Testament prophets came away with another glimpse into the character and person and plans of God. But the final and complete communication of God was not accomplished through any of these means.

In many different ways: God's revelation of Himself over the ages took many different forms:

He spoke to Job out of a whirlwind.

He spoke to Joseph in dreams.

He spoke to Moses from a burning bush.

He spoke to Samuel in a voice in the night.

He spoke to Elijah is a still, small voice.

He spoke to Daniel in a vision.

Each of these various forms of revelation were different from one another. There was not one single method that stood out over all the others until the coming of Jesus.

In His Son.

After God spoke through the prophets there was a great silence. For 400 years there had been no prophet to speak the word of the Lord. But now in these last days God has spoken again. This time He spoke through a new agency that had never before been used. He now has spoken to man through His Son.

This is the fullest revelation of God. It is the person of Jesus Christ. It is the person of the One who, being God, became man so that He might communicate God to us.The ultimate revelation of God took place when He clothed Himself in flesh and came to live among us (Joh_1:14). He said to Philip on the night of the Last Supper, He who has seen Me has seen the Father (Joh_14:9). None of the prophets could ever make that sort of claim. Their knowledge of God was always limited. In contrast, Jesus had an experiential knowledge of God because He is God.

Let me use an illustration. If you wanted to get to know me, you could talk to someone who knew me. They could tell you a lot about me. You might come away with a certain number of facts such as where I was born or where I went to school or where I have worked. But if you really wanted to get to know me, the best way would be to talk with me. Indeed, you would be hard-pressed to say that you really knew me if you had never had a face-to-face conversation with me. The same is true of God. The best way to learn of God is to meet Him in the flesh. You meet Him in the flesh when you meet Jesus.

In the Bible.The Bible is the written record of the revelation of God. But it is also more than that. It does not merely contain the word of God; it is the word of God.There are some editions of the Bible that have rendered the words of Jesus in red. That is not a bad practice in that it can serve as an aid to help us differentiate between the narrative portions and the spoken words of Jesus. But we fall into error when we think that those sections in red are more a part of God's word than those that are rendered in some other color of print.

Who Wrote the Bible?The Doctrine of InspirationAt the root of the Reformation were five theological statements known as the solas (Latin for alone). These statements point to five foundational truths upon which the church stands.When they spoke of Sola Scriptura, they did not mean that it is wrong to read the evening paper or to do something that was not expressly commanded in Scripture. What they did mean is that the Scriptures are to be our final rule of doctrine.By contrast, the Roman Catholic church has historically taught that the Bible carries an equal weight of authority to the church. The Roman church teaches that when the Pope speaks officially (ex cathedra from the seat), his words are of an equal weight to the Bible and serve as the only possible interpretation of the Bible.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2Ti_3:16-17).This is the foundational passage on the subject of the inspiration of the Bible. It says very pointedly that all Scripture is inspired by God. The doctrine of inspiration is basic to anydiscussion about theology. If the Bible has not been given to us by God, then we are unable to know theological truths about God. There are three points that need be observed.

The Fact of Inspiration: All Scripture is INSPIRED by God... (2Ti_3:16 a).

I have heard people speak of how they were watching a beautiful golden sunset and inspired to paint a picture or to write a poem. But this is not what this verse is saying. The phrase inspired by God is translated from the single Greek word (Theopneustos). This is the only time that this word ever occurs in the New Testament. To the best of my knowledge, it is the first time this word is ever used in the Greek language. This means that Paul may have coined the word himself to describe the work of God in producing the Scriptures. Paul does something similar in 1Th_4:9 when he says that you yourselves are taught by God to love one another literally, you are God-taught. In both cases, Paul utilizes a compound word, made up of two commonly used Greek words which are joined together to form a new word. Plutarch uses once in De Placit Philos 5:2 where it is in contrast to , but this is after the death of Paul. The first word is Theos. It is the word for God.

The second word is pneo . It is a verb meaning to breathe or to blow. It is also the verbal form of the Greek word for spirit .

Therefore, we could say that all Scripture Is God-breathed. The very breath and spirit of God has been infused into the writings of the Bible. This is why we refer to it as the Word of God.

Although the specific term that Paul coins was a new one, the concept was not. The Old Testament describes God as accomplishing the work of Creation by the breath of His mouth (Psa_33:6). In the same way, the Bible is the result of the creative work of God.

The Extent of Inspiration: ALL Scripture is inspired by God... (2Ti_3:16 a).

All of Scripture is God-breathed. It is not just a small portion of the Bible, but every single sentence and every single word that is God-breathed. This is all-encompassing. Jesus stressed this principle when He spoke of the abiding quality of the Law in His Sermon on the Mount.

"For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished." (Mat_5:18).

The Greek text is even more specific. It says, Not one IOTA or one KERAIA shall pass from the law.

The IOTA was the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet.

The KERAIA was the little horn attached to the Hebrew letter BETH to distinguish it from the letter KAPH.

Don't miss this! Jesus says that each and every letter and dot of God's word would continue to stand. We could say that not one cross of the T and not one dot of the I will pass away. There is not one part of the Bible that is more inspired or more trustworthy than any other part. It is ALL completely God's word.

The OBJECT of Inspiration: All SCRIPTURE is inspired by God... (2Ti_3:16 a).

It is the Scriptures themselves that are inspired. Paul does not say that the writers of the Scriptures were inspired. He says that the Scriptures themselves that are inspired.

If it had been merely the human authors who had received a revelation from God and then had written their own interpretation of that revelation, then we might wonder if they had not permitted error to creep in as they put this truth into their own words. However, this is not the case. It is not the writers, but the Scriptures themselves which are said to be God-breathed.

This means that God did not guarantee that everything that Peter or Paul or any other of the human authors ever wrote were correct. No doubt, they wrote many other things that were not inspired by God and the inerrancy of those other writings is not guaranteed. Rather, it is the truthfulness of the books that make up our Bible that is guaranteed by inspiration.

At the same time, we must recognize the aspect of dual authorship. By this, I mean that there were really two authors of each book - the Holy Spirit and the human author.

There are instances where the human writers described things of which they were eye-witnesses and merely wrote of the thing that they had seen. At other times, these same writers described events that they could not possibly have known about without a supernatural revelation from God (such as those events which took place prior to the creation of man).

There were also times when they wrote and did not themselves understand the full implications of that which they wrote (Daniel writes certain things which are to be sealed up until a future time).

Therefore the principle of inspiration refers to result, not the method in which the Scriptures were written. In this way, the Bible was written both by men and yet at the same time it is the Word of God.DEFINITION OF INSPIRATION What it is Not.

We have all heard people speak of how they were watching a beautiful golden sunset and were inspired to paint a picture or to write a poem. This is not inspiration in the theological sense. Inspiration is not a feeling or a wonderment or an excitement or even a sense of creative energy.

What it Is.

It is the truth that God has moved certain men to write in such a way that the result of that writing, the Scriptures, are the very word of God.

Contrast of Revelation versus Inspiration.

Inspiration is a narrower term than revelation. Inspiration relates to God's revelation of Himself as it is found in the pages of the Scriptures. Although all Scripture is inspired by God and all Scripture is therefore revelation from God, not all of revelation is Scripture. We have already noted how God has revealed Himself at many different times and in many different ways. The Scriptures are therefore only one of the many ways in which God has revealed Himself.

RevelationInspiration

God has revealed HimselfGod in-breathed the Scriptures

Involves both general as well as special revelationConfined to the Bible