Most of us have
had the opportunity to travel by air and get a glimpse out the window of the
plane. Your perspective of the world is quite different when looking down from
an altitude of 30,000 feet! Even if you are afraid of heights, getting that
awe-inspiring perspective is worth it. We
see more details on the ground, but the view from 30,000 feet has its own
advantages. That view from 30,000 feet is the idea we are using for this series
of lessons in theology.
It is a common
problem in the Church that we often get small tidbits and brief glimpses of
Divine truth without seeing the whole picture of God’s revelation to us. And
just as some people get scared of flying, there are Christian people, and even
whole denominations, who get nervous about theology. It can be difficult to
understand sometimes. It is known to cause conflicts. It is also known to be
dry and academic. But theology is the knowledge of God. This knowledge of God is
the whole point of the Bible and the reason why Christ redeemed us. Knowing God
is eternal life (John 17.3).
How can we know
God? Obviously, God must reveal Himself if we are to know Him. Christians
believe that the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself. So, we must read and
study the Bible to know God. Everyone has a method for reading the Bible, even
if the method is implicit rather than explicit. It is always better to be
explicit about how we read and understand the Bible. There is nothing wrong
with having a method if we humbly rely on the Spirit of God and are willing to
admit our limitations and repent of our mistakes. We must never exalt our
theology above Scripture. And a theological method is no replacement for faith,
obedience, and the Holy Spirit.
There are two
basic theological methods: 1. Biblical Theology, and 2. Systematic Theology.
Please understand that there should be no conflict between these two methods.
Both methods are going for the same thing. Both methods have their strengths
and their limitations. We need both methods in order to build our theology and
draw out the teaching of Scripture.
What is the
Biblical Theology method? It is unfortunate that this method has been called
“Biblical Theology” because it implies that other methods are not as Biblical.
But this is not the central claim of this method. All theology must be
Biblical. With this method we are trying to understand the Bible as a single
revelation that unfolds much like the plot of a story. We do not mean that we
only read those sections of Scripture that are narratives while neglecting the
other genres. You cannot build a theology that neglects large portions of
Scripture. Rather, we look at the whole Bible as an unfolding revelation and we
fit all the various parts of Scripture into this framework. We do not seek to
impose a framework on the Scripture, but to understand the framework that is
suggested by the Scripture itself. Biblical Theology points out that this
framework is something like a story or a drama. The method of Biblical Theology
seeks to uncover the Bible’s own narrative framework rather than studying
topics or going verse-by-verse through individual books. Our goal is not just
to understand what the Bible says on a single topic, but to understand the
single topic of the entire Bible. And we do not study the Bible just to
understand individual books, but how each book contributes to the whole Book.
Understanding the
Bible as story will also give us a greater appreciation for history as the
sovereign plan of God rather than just a random, meaningless series of events. Christians
have a specific view of the meaning of history and this view differs greatly
from a pagan view. History had a definite beginning and will have an appointed
end. And God is there from beginning to ending. A pagan view of history is
cyclical, much like the endless repetitions of nature or a dog chasing his tail
around and around for no good reason. It is extremely powerful for us to find
meaning in our own lives by seeing the meaning of God’s story in Scripture.
A story is the
setting or the background of life from which we construct meaning and
significance for everything. Stories are more than just a form of
entertainment. Stories explain something about the meaning of life. Imagine you
are standing at a bus stop and you overhear a man saying: “After I got out of
there, I went home and put the money under the rock by the back door.” What is
going on? You must know the story of the man who is saying these words.
Different stories will change the meaning of this statement. Did he just leave
some cash for his daughter at home? Has he recently been released from prison?
Story provides the context or the background by which we make sense of the
things we encounter in the world around us. Different stories give life
different meanings. And there are many different stories about what human life
means.
Most people in
the modern world believe that there is no single story that explains
everything. “They would argue that a true account of the world can’t be found;
that individuals and communities must be content with the separate meanings to
be discovered in their own more modest and limited stories. A commitment to
pluralism often implies that we should not even look for any such overarching
story, one which could be true for all people, all communities, all nations – for
to find such a thing would imply that not all stories are equally valid” (Craig
Bartholomew & Michael Goheen). Behind this way of thinking is relativism,
or the belief that no truth claim can ever be considered absolute. The essence
of pluralism is the belief that each culture, nation, or ethnic group has its
own, unique story about the world.
Stories provide
the framework for how we form our worldview. “Human life, then, can be seen as
grounded in and constituted by the implicit or explicit stories which humans
tell themselves and one another” (N.T. Wright). Stories help us make sense of
the world and our place in it. Of course, the Bible does not claim to just tell
one story among many, it claims to tell the story of the entire world. In other
words, the Biblical story is the true story about the meaning of life on earth.
The Biblical story is one, big story which is supported and fleshed out by many
smaller stories. Before we focus on any single story in the Bible, we should
have an awareness of the larger story. All the smaller stories in some way
contribute to the meaning of the larger story. When we do not understand a
certain part of the Bible correctly, it is often because we have not understood
the larger story.
The basic
approach to Biblical Theology is to see the whole Bible as a progressive,
unfolding revelation of God that is structured like a narrative or story. We
can understand the entire Bible as God’s revelation of Himself. This revelation
did not come all at one time or just to one person. Rather, there was a gradual
unfolding of God’s revelation taking place at various times and in various ways
(Hebrews 1.1-2). We can trace some of the epochal periods of God’s revelation
of Himself within human history. There are several critical periods of
revelation in which God was opening His will and His plan for the world. Not
all periods of revelation were the same. God does not change, but how He speaks
and what He reveals to mankind is somewhat different during each epoch of
revelation history.
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