1 / 90

GBI Basics of Grace Summer 2010

GBI Basics of Grace Summer 2010. An Overview of Systematic Theology. Why Studying Theology is so Important. The Importance of Theology. It is the means to a comprehensive framework and understanding of God and His Word.

moana
Download Presentation

GBI Basics of Grace Summer 2010

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. GBI Basics of GraceSummer 2010 An Overview of Systematic Theology

  2. Why Studying Theology is so Important

  3. The Importance of Theology • It is the means to a comprehensive framework and understanding of God and His Word. • God has commanded us to pursue a rigorous understanding of Him, as His multiple exhortations to teach, keep and protect sound theology demonstrate. • Everyone lives his theology. What we believe informs and motivates what we do (which is why what we do reveals far more about what we truly believe than what we say).

  4. Theology Defined Theos + logos = theology God + word = word/study of God Systematic theology is the ORGANIZED, harmonious, arrangement of all known truth about God and His works — based fundamentally and primarily on SCRIPTURE — so that the understanding of Him is both comprehensive and TRANSFORMING.

  5. Theology Defined Systematic theology will typically include at least the following areas of study: • Bibliology = the doctrine of the Bible • Theology proper = the doctrine of God • Christology = the doctrine of Christ • Pneumatology = the doctrine of the Holy Spirit • Anthropology = the doctrine of man • Hamartiology = the doctrine of sin • Soteriology = the doctrine of salvation • Ecclessiology = the doctrine of the church • Angelology = the doctrine of angels • Eschatology = the doctrine of last things

  6. Bibliology:Why is the Bible so Important? A Study of the Doctrine of the Bible

  7. Bibliology Defined Biblos + logos = bibliology Book + word = word/study of Scripture Bibliology is divided into six main areas of discussion: revelation, inspiration, inerrancy, authority, illumination and canonicity.

  8. The Revelation of Scripture Since God is infinite and man is finite, man could not know the truth about God unless God would chose to tell man about Himself. Thus, revelation is “the unveiling of God’s truth as well as the truth unveiled. It is the act of unveiling as well as the contents unveiled.”

  9. The Revelation of Scripture God has revealed Himself in two ways — • General Revelation • Special Revelation

  10. The Inspiration of Scripture Inspiration is the process by which Scripture was given to man through the work of the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing the accuracy of God’s revelation (the revelation of God would be of no value without such a guarantee). “The Scriptures are not the product of God and man, nor of God in a man. They are the result of God speaking through man.”

  11. The Inspiration of Scripture Key verse = 2 Timothy 3:16-17 • The Scriptures are “God-breathed” • This Bible, while written by the pens of men, is fully and finally God’s very own Word

  12. The Inerrancy of Scripture “Inerrancy means that when all the facts are known, the Scriptures in their original autographs and properly interpreted will be shown to be wholly true in everything they teach, whether that teaching has to do with doctrine, history, science, geography, geology, or other disciplines of knowledge.”

  13. The Inerrancy of Scripture Biblical and logical proof for the inerrancy of Scripture: 1. All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable… (2 Tim. 3:16) 2. The Word of God is truth (Jn. 17:17; Ps. 119:160) 3. God cannot lie (Titus 1:2) THEREFORE: the Scriptures are inerrant

  14. The Authority of Scripture “Authority is the triune God in self-revelation who has the right and power to command compliance in thought and deed on the part of His rational creatures.”

  15. The Authority of Scripture Key verse = 2 Pt. 1:2-3 Scripture is to be heeded because every IMPERATIVE of Scripture carries the weight of “thus says the Lord, the unique, authoritative speaker (Word).”

  16. The Illumination of Scripture Illumination is “the ministry of the Holy Spirit whereby He enlightens those who are in a right relationship with Him to comprehend the written Word of God.”

  17. The Illumination of Scripture • Key verse = 1 Cor. 2:12-14 • The reason the Holy Spirit is needed to interpret Scripture for us is that the fall made us unable to understand God and His Word (cf. 1 Cor. 2:14).

  18. The Canonicity of Scripture Canonicity is the science by which the Jewish people and then the early church recognized the Biblical writings to be inspired by God at the time of their writing.

  19. Bibliology Applied Since God is revealed in Scripture, it means that God is interested in communicating with me! Since the Scriptures are written by God and not men, they are fully trustworthy. Anything God says needs to be said only once to be confessed, obeyed, trusted, or appropriated. Since God has written with authority, His words are both forceful and binding. Since God has used 40 writers over the span of 1000+ years to write the Bible, He will not give it to me and allow me to not understand it. If I read to discern, His Spirit will instruct me (1 Cor. 2:12). Since God is the author of the Bible, He is to be worshipped. How shall I read the Bible? Read with the intent of knowing God and His mind, not “solving problems.”

  20. Theology Proper: What is God Like? A Study of the Attributes and Nature of God

  21. Knowing the truth of God will produce restand trustin Him. Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. (Ps. 46:8-11)

  22. “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.…

  23. “…We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech.” Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy.

  24. What are the attributes of God? “An attribute of God is whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of Himself.…An attribute, then, is a part of God. It is how God is, and as far as the reasoning mind can go, we may say that it is what God is…” Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

  25. What are the attributes of God? • INFINITY —God is limitless, measureless and knows no bounds. • ETERNALITY — God is without beginning or end; He is free from all succession of time; He is the cause of time. • God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes have nothing analogous in God’s created beings.

  26. Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. Psalm 90:2

  27. “‘From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God,’ said Moses in the Spirit. ‘From the vanishing point to the vanishing point’ would be another way to say it quite in keeping with the words as Moses used them. The mind looks backward in time till the dim past vanishes, then turns and looks into the future till thought and imagination collapse from exhaustion; and God is at both points, unaffected by either.” A. W. Tozer.

  28. What are the attributes of God? • INFINITY —God is limitless, measureless and knows no bounds. • ETERNALITY • IMMENSITY— He cannot be localized in one place. God transcends all spatial limitations; He is present in every point in space with His entire being. • God’s incommunicable attributes.

  29. “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built! ” 1 Kings 8:27

  30. What are the attributes of God? • Infinity • SELF-EXISTENCE — “The ground of His existence is in Himself.” • God’s incommunicable attributes.

  31. God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.’”(Ex. 3:14-15) “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself” (Jn. 5:26) “…nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;” (Acts 17:25)

  32. What are the attributes of God? • Infinity • Self-existence • IMMUTABILITY — “God undergoes no change in being, perfections, purposes and promises.” God never grows, develops or differs with Himself • God’s incommunicable attributes.

  33. Disclaimer #1: Immutability does not imply IMMOBILITY. God is a God who is always in action in His relationship with man. But in His being, attributes, purpose and promises there is a complete absence of change. Disclaimer #2: When Scripture says that God “changes” or “repents,” it does not mean that God Himself has CHANGED.

  34. God does not change in relation to His being (Ex. 3:14; Heb. 1:11-12) • God does not change in relation to His perfections (Rom. 1:23) • God does not change in relation to His purposes (1 Sam. 15:29; Dt. 28-30) • God does not change in relation to His promises(Num. 23:19) • God does not change (Mal. 3:6; Js. 1:17)

  35. “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” (Mal. 3:6) Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. (Js. 1:17)

  36. What are the attributes of God? • Infinity • Self-existence • Immutability • UNITY — God is numerically ONE and is UNIQUE. All other beings exist of, through, and unto Him. God is not composite and is not susceptible of division into parts. The three persons of the triune Godhead are not parts of which the Divine essence is composed (1 Pt. 1:2). • God’s incommunicable attributes.

  37. …yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. (1 Cor. 8:6)

  38. What are the attributes of God? • God’s incommunicable attributes. • God’s COMMUNICABLE attributes are not experienced completely in man, but man does demonstrate something of God’s nature in him (Gen. 1:27a).

  39. “There are many of the divine attributes that, if God had not created the world, never would have had any exercise — the power of God, the wisdom of God, the prudence and contrivance of God, the goodness and mercy and grace of God, the justice of God…” John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory.

  40. What are the attributes of God? • HOLINESS — God is “set apart, distinct,” that is, He is free from and set apart from sin. God’s holiness cannot and does not tolerate sin. His holiness refers both to the absence of sin in God and the presence of infinite purity in Him. • God’s communicable attributes.

  41. “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” 1 Pt. 1:15-16

  42. “We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible, and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine.” Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

  43. What are the attributes of God? • Holiness • OMNISCIENCE — God is all (Latin, omni) knowing. His knowledge is perfect and complete, knowing all that is actual and all that is possible. And His knowledge is intuitive — it is immediate (not coming through the senses), simultaneous (not acquired through observation or reason), actual (complete), and according to reality. • God’s communicable attributes.

  44. God is omniscient Ps. 139:1-6 — God knows all things that actually exist. Mt. 11:21 — God knows all the variables concerning things that have not occurred. Dan. 2:36-43; 7:4-8 — God knows all things that will yet transpire.

  45. “God sees you as much as if there were nobody else in the world for Him to look at. If I have as many people as there are here to look at, of course my attention must be divided. But the infinite mind of God is able to grasp a million objects at once and yet to focus as much on one as if there were nothing else but that one.” C. H. Spurgeon.

  46. What are the attributes of God? • Holiness • Omniscience • OMNIPOTENCE — God can do anything that he wills to do and anything that is in harmony with His perfections. • God’s communicable attributes.

  47. “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Dan. 4:35) “Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” (Gen. 18:14) “And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;” (Rev. 20:2)

  48. “Nothing is too hard for Him. If God were stinted in might and had a limit to His strength we might well despair. But seeing that He is clothed with omnipotence, no prayer is too hard for Him to answer, no need too great for Him to supply, no passion too strong for him to subdue; no temptation too powerful for Him to deliver from, no misery too deep for Him to relieve. ‘The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’ (Psa. 27:1).” Pink, Attributes of God.

  49. What are the attributes of God? • Holiness • Omniscience • Omnipotence • OMNIPRESENCE — God is everywhere present and everything is immediately in his presence. • God’s communicable attributes.

  50. “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’” (Acts 17:24-28) “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU” (Heb. 13:5)

More Related