History of Theology

Putting it all into Perspective

Outline

I. Reason for the Study

II. Theology

III. Christology

IV. Doctrine of the Atonement

V. Ecclesiology

VI. Bibliology

I. Reason for the Study

• To appreciate and respect our orthodox heritage knowing that we learn in a community.

• To benefit from the giftedness of the entire body of Christ (Church Universal/Invisible).

• To understand that doctrine was developed progressively.

• To gain greater confidence in our faith.• To realize that while truth is unchangeable, our

understanding of truth is not.

II. Theology

Early Church Theology

Council of Nicea 325

381Council of Constantinople

ca. 400Athanasian Creed

311Peace

265Council of Antioch

Gnosticism

Ebionism Modalism Arianism

1 BC 500 BC

Definition of God

One God who in three persons,the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all of which are fully God, all of which are equal.

Modern Church Theology

1. Mormons (10 million +)• Christ is the product of a sexual relationship

between the Father and a goddess. Satan is his brother.

2. Jehovah’s Witnesses• Jesus (also known as Michael the archangel) is

a creation and the Holy Spirit is a force.

3. Muslims• There is one God, Allah. Christ was a great

prophet.

Modern Church Theology

4. Oneness Pentecostals– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one

person who reveals Himself in three different forms.

Questions/Comments

A Christological Christmas

“Many people have sought to be God, but only one God has sought to be

man”

Christiological Heresy

Nestorius

Apollinarianism

390 400 430

Eutychianism

451

Creed of Chalcedon

The God-Man

• The Incarnation: The third Person of the Trinity took on an additional nature.

• Hypostatic Union: Christ is fully God and fully man (“very God, and very man).

• Two natures, one person.

• Theanthropos: The God-man.

Why is it so important that Christ be both fully God

and fully man?

What did Christ mean when He said in the

garden, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will,

but Yours be done.“? (Luke 22:42)

What did Christ mean on the Cross when He said, “My God My God, why

have you forsaken me?“? (Matt 27:46)

Questions/Comments

IV. Doctrine of the Atonement (The Work of Christ)

What does it mean that Christ died for us?

(Mark 10:45)

Defining “For”

Ransom to Satan

100 1200

Recapitulation

500

Substitutionary

Penal, Substitution

False Definitions of the Atonement• Ransom to Satan (Origen, 250)

– Satan is the one who we were held in bondage by.

– In truth, we were held in bondage to Satan by God.

• Moral influence (Abelard, 1100)– Christ’s death did not pay for sins, but it softens

sinners hearts to repent as they see him on the Cross.

False Definitions of the Atonement

• Example (Socinus, 1600)– Christ’s death was an example of obedience,

not a substitution.

• Governmental, (Grotius 1600)– Christ fulfilled God’s governmental Law

thereby enabling God to forgive.

Penal Substitution

• Penal– Legal satisfaction of God’s righteousness

• Substitutionary– Christ died in our place. He took our

punishment.

What passage in the Bible teaches penal substitution

more than any other?

Isaiah 53: 4-11“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; . . . But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. . . . the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. . . He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? . . . By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. . . . Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.”

Atonement Question

• If Christ was our exact substitution (and He was), does that mean that we were destined to die on the Cross?

• Why isn’t Christ still in Hell paying for the countless millions of believer’s sins?

Questions/Comments

V. Ecclesiology

Alexandria

RomeConstantinople

(The New Rome)

Antioch

JerusalemHistory of the ChurchHippo

Alexandria

RomeConstantinople

(The New Rome)

Antioch

JerusalemHippoInvasion of Islam

RomeConstantinople

(The New Rome)

History of the Church

Iconoclasm

Folique

Fight for SupremecySplit1054

Eastern OrthodoxCatholic

Rome

History of the Church

100 AD 1200 1500500Corruption

Greek Orthodox1059

Loss of Gospel

Protestant

Roman Catholic

Questions/Comments

VI. Bibliology

90

O.T.Council of Jamnia

150

Marcion

303

DiocletianAll sacred

books destroyed

397

Council of Cathage accepts 27

books of OT Vulgate

400 1645

Council of Trent

Canonicity

Churches view of Inspiration

100 AD 1979

TraditionReformation

1517 1800

Liberalism

Eva

ngel

ical

ism

Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy

Chu

rch

Fathe

rs

Questions/Comments

Application

• Learn from the great historians of the past.• Doctrine was developed by Spirit led men

of God who were continually reworking their theology. – We also must be willing to advance in our

theological understanding.

• Just as doctrine was developed only when trouble came, so it is with the Christian life.

Questions/Comments

Possible tests for canonicity1. Apostilicity: was it written by an Apostle

or a close associate of an apostle

2. Acceptance by the Church: did the early Chruch (Clement, Ignatius, etc.) accept it.

3. Doctrine: was it orthodox.

4. Was it inspired: did it evidence the work of the Holy Spirit.

Vulgate

• Translation done by St. Jerome of the LXX into Latin.

• Became the official Bible of the Church.

Deuderocanonical Books

• Also called the Apocrypha

• Lit. “Second Canon”

• Placed in the Vulgate against the will of Jerome.

• Disputed for the next 1200 years.

Apollinarianism (c. 310-c. 390)

Human /SpiritMind

Human Body

Divine Logos

Human Soul

Apollinarianism (c. 310-c. 390)Condemned at the council of Constantinople 381

Apollinarianism (c. 310-c. 390)

“He assumes that man who came down from above is without a mind, not that the Godhead of the Only-begotten fulfills the function of mind, and is the third part of his human composite, inasmuch as soul and body are in it on its human side, but not mind, the place of which is taken by God the Word.”—Gregory of Nazianzus (329/30-389/90)

Nestorius (b. after 351- d. after 451)

Human Person Divine Person

Separate

Nestorius (b. after 351- d. after 451)• Denied the term Theotokos

• Affirmed the term Christotokos

• Condemned at the council of Ephesus 431

Eutychianism (c. 378-c. 454)

Human

Divine

Humine

Eutychianism (c. 378-c. 454)• Did not deny they humanity of Christ.

• Did not separate the natures.

• Mixed the two natures.

• Condemned at the Council of Chalcedon 451

Creed of Chalcedon“Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer;

one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.

Nicene CreedWe believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,

of all that is, seen and unseen.We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,true God from true God,

begotten, not made,of one Being with the Father.

Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was

crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he

rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;he ascended into heaven and is

seated at the right hand of the Father.

Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was

crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he

rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;he ascended into heaven and is

seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,and his kingdom will

have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the

Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the

Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life

of the world to come. Amen.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,and his kingdom will

have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the

Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the

Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life

of the world to come. Amen.

Filioque

• Phrase added to the Niceno-Constantinoplan creed in 589A,D at the 3rd council of Toledo. Lit., “and the Son.” Added to clarify the procession of the Holy Spirit, He proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Eastern Church saw this as a compromise of the Spirit’s equality with the Son.

Definitions1.     Ebionism: Early Jewish belief that Jesus was a prophet who came to aid the poor.2.     Modalism: There is one God who displays Himself in three different ways/modes/manifestations (not persons).3.     Gnosticism: Dualists who believed that Christ was the greatest in a series of emanations from God. 5.     Arianism: Promoted in the 4th century by a monk named Arius. Believed that since Christ was begotten then, “There was a time when Christ was not.” Christ is the first created being.6.     Council of Nicea: First ecumenical (universal church) council. Convened in 325. Condemned the teachings of Arius. First official statement on the Trinity. 

Timeline of Doctrinal Development

Theology (200-400)

Bibliology (150-400)

Christology (300-451)

Doctrine of the

Atonement (ca. 1100)

Soteriology (15th Century)

Eschatology(19th-20th Century)