What is your Theology?

Hello there, sorry it took so long to get this first one up and running, I think it is always the hardest one, the first one. Here it is though, I'm still not sure how we are going to do this so I guess I am just going to post my notes with some questions for discussion, that way if you don't have time to listen to it you can get an idea of what the message was.

I'll put the notes at the end because after looking back at them they probably won't make much sense to anyone but me (so I guess I'd advise listening to it).

I don't really have any questions for this week but this could be a good time for us to maybe talk about our own Biblical Theology as it stands right now? Where it may come from, its influences, hopefully making us think about why we think what we have been thinking right now.


Notes

Luke 24:43-44 – good connecter of new and old of both testaments because Christ is the central figure in both.

What is your theology?

Phillip Watsun
Biblical Theology – it is fact or speech about God – a scientific discipline, purely descriptive role, but fulfills a normative role on behalf of dogmatic theology
Meaning that it simply describes what we think and say about God

Frank Anderson-Australian evangelical scholar – BT – Encyclapedia of Christianity, volume 2 page 63 – much better than P. Watsun on view of BT
William Durness-missionary teacher in Far East – describes BT as study of themes – Evangelical scholar – book is a systematic study – Revelation – God – Man – Christ - Salvation

George Lad – pg 25 BT has to dwell with history – must look at historical setting of each aspect of God’s revelation in each part of the bible – BT is primarily a descriptive discipline – not initially concerned with the final meaning of the teachings of the bible or applying it to today – (worth reading but would depart from his view here)

Dr. Gerhardus Vass approach to BT- book (Biblical Theology)– 3 sets of lectures, mosaic revelation, prophetic, Jesus (gospels) – sets up a good case for how we should understand BT and how we should approach it as we go through it. – BT deals with the self revelation of God that is deposited in the bible. This process has to be understood as having four main features
1. The historic progressive character of the revelation process. Meaning that revelation as a process was continually progressing, moving through history. God revealed himself from creation up to now
2. Embodied in History – God has always come to man. God did not bring people out of history, but entered into our history. Hard to make a relevant point now if don’t understand how it was used in original context (how it was relevant then)
3. The organic nature of the revelation – progressively unveiled as a seed that contains an entire oak tree. What God revealed to Adam and Eve before and after the Fall, were like basic acorns of truth. By the time Moses had come and done his work, the entire revelation of god had been revealed … the truth was there. Was organic, embedded in history, constantly unfolding.
4. Adaptability – God does not speak in ways that are not adaptable to the time when they were spoken. He does not speak nonsense and as you follow the study through the scriptures, you will always find that God had a really meaningful and personal application to the people to whom he spoke. So if we know what the true intent of the original meaning was we can actually begin to understand its significance and therefore apply it to our time.

Thematic approach, so you can follow a theme from the very beginning to the end. What does the bible have to say about… It will give you a good understanding of the various doctrines, but more like systematic theology than following the process of revelation where God interacting with man, his promises concerning the messiah, always working out his covenantal relationships with his people, to see all of these themes together (a bit more complicated) but allows you to see how all of these different kernels develop. A biologist wouldn’t try learning about an oak tree by picking one strand and following that one all the way to the end and then the next, he would study it as it grows as a whole…

Liberal Historical Critical theory - were thinking that the bible works better if rearranged and that the bible was rewritten and rewritten. So the bible was not presented in the way it was and needed to be reorganized. They do not follow the historic approach, hard to follow and describe process of belief, each critic had own way of doing this based on own presuppositions or predilections. Ichroads – can learn from them though, Edward Jacobs, once you get out of process and can read what they have to say about specific verses can be very helpful.

New testament quotation approach – the only way to understand OT is to see what NT has to say about it. From context of NT, try to figure out how OT was written and what it was meant to mean.
Old testament issues basic issues in the current debate – Jehrard Hassle (regretful though that he doesn’t believe in one central theme of the bible)

Confessional Approach – what will the bible help me to confess. But doesn’t work because there is so much more in the bible than just confessions (rebellions to name one)

Vos – successive belief makings – pg 16 – did God make a series of covenants, or did god come and renew and confirm and expand his covenant relationship with his people. This seems to be a very convincing argument.

Problem areas, what is history, what kind of history do we have in the Bible, is it only dealing with the Israel as a nation? Is it a record of believing people? Is a record of religious ideas/ beliefs, or religion? Is it a record of revelation? Also a record of appropriation? Also a record of how people respond to God, with or without appropriation?
Bible gives us a history of God revealing himself to his people, how, why, when and where he did this.

The unity of the OT and NT is essential (can not be denied) seeing as Jesus is at the core of the OT.
The coming of the Kingdom (book)

Is there a central theme to the bible? Three basic themes, the kingdom, the covenant, the mediator (next lecture)

Practicality of BT – can help us understand that you can never separate what God said from what he did. He always did what he said he would, and very seldom did something with out speaking about it first.