But sadly, most people don't feel this way. Now are our home church I was blessed to be involved with multiple people who loved reading and discussing theology almost every time we saw each other. Most lay people nowadays are afraid to read theology, or they don't know where to begin, or, even worse, they think that its not important to living a fulfilling Christian life.
Why is that? Why would people shy away from studying the big things of God? One reason is that they see theology as a purely academic exercise, reserved for seminary professors or really smart pastors. Others think that they are not theologians because they were taught that learning (when it comes to the Bible) what other people think about the Bible is dangerous and that if you learn about the various atonement theories or whatever you are squelching the Spirit from being able to lead you. Others actually see doctrine as being divisive, and they see how people can get worked up over whether one holds to a amil, post-mil, or pre-mil view of the end-times and they don't want to be apart of that and either be hurt or hurt someone else over something as "silly" as theology.
All of these excuses are really bad. They ultimately show that the people who hold them don't understand the importance of theology in the life of the Christian, even the average, run of the mill believer who has never taught a Sunday-School class or even been asked to lead prayer at the annual men's breakfast. They don't understand that what you believe actually matters, that they influence your views of God, His work in the world, in salvation, in history and in your life. They don't understand that theology, when done right, leads to praise and adoration of God. They don't see that through reading and discussing various doctrines of the church they are actually growing in godliness and intimacy not only with God but also with the people they are discussing these glorious topics. They have a stagnant Christian life and they think that everything is hunky-dory simply because they go to church on Sundays and have no interaction with the Bible on deeper levels of thinking, really dwelling on the Word and thinking about the implications of how a particular passage plays out in the real world, because that is what theology is!
So let's take a quick look at some of the excuses that I gave and try to talk through them a bit, this is in no way comprehensive, there is so much more that can be said in each of these points. Ok, here we go!
1. Theology as Academic
One of the main problems that the church faces is that most of the local congregations are theologically weak and anemic. Sure the pastor and teachers may be up on what's going on in the theological world, but quite a few people see it as a specialized field of academia. I'm not saying they are wrong, I'm saying there is a problem with that. Theology is first and foremost for the church as a whole. It should not be just for those ivory tower guys, but theology is also for people living in the trenches of everyday life. Studying various doctrines of God and His immutability could help remind a person whose life is spinning out of control that God never changes, and therefore will keep His promises. Or someone who has prayerfully studied through the doctrine of assurance can rest a bit easier when he is having a dark night of the soul.
2. Learning about the Bible is dangerous
This, for some reason, is the excuse that you hear from mostly rural churches that are in the Deep South. Or Arkansas. The people who think that all that education at a Bible college will mess you up and turn you into an atheist and a democrat, so don't mess with books, even about the Bible. This is so crazy, considering the multiple places in the Bible itself that we are told to guard the deposit of faith, to make sure that we are qualified to teach and preach the gospel correctly, to be able to rightly divide the Word. To be able to understand and properly interpret the Bible is very important, not just for pastors, but for the average layman. As Baptists, we believe in the priesthood of believers and therefore we all have the right and responsibility to read the Bible and should be able to interpret the Bible. The fear of education corrupting good men called to the ministry comes from the modernist/fundamental crises from over a century ago, where seminaries actually did corrupt and destroy the faith of good men because of bad theology. But now there are good books by good men who love the Bible and all that it contains, who want for the men who preach in the pulpit to be able to read, interpret and defend his own sermon and approach to interpreting the Bible, and therefore their faith. I would be hard pressed to find any pastor worth his salt who said that he would rather not have a theologically (and therefore biblically) literate congregation who had the ability to call his error when it occurs.
3. Doctrine divides
There is a saying, that theology divides, it divides the sheep from the goats. That may sound harsh, but I think that it's true. The fact of the matter is this: everyone is a theologian, everyone believes something. Whether they take what they get from the pulpit as gold and never question their pastor, or get their theology from the plethora of garbage from televangelists who promise God's blessing for a little seed of faith, more money with which to buy their next jet. Or they might get it from the pop section of their local bookstore, where soft heresy is floated as being ok and for the most part, directed at unsuspecting Christian women it seems.
There is good doctrine. There is bad doctrine. The good doctrine agrees with Scripture, the bad does not. The good doctrine will be edifying to the church as a whole and will deepen the relationship of the believer with God and his fellow brothers and sisters. Bad doctrine will cause a person to have a crisis of faith when God is not blessing them the way they feel like they deserve, or they will allow sin to be tolerated because they want to be seen as "loving" because they hold to bad doctrine that does not reflect the truth of the Bible.
So yes, doctrine divides, but if we say that we don't want to read and study the glory of God through various doctrines or theology then we are ultimately of the opinion that theology and doctrine is itself, merely opinion and not an attempt to define and explore truth. We will run the risk of having bad theology ourselves, maybe even tricking ourselves into a false sense of security with regards to our salvation. The truth is that theology and doctrine, what we believe and how we articulate it, has eternal weight attached to it. Not all doctrine is of the same level as gospel-level importance. Christian unity is centered on doctrines regarding Christ first, and doctrines that naturally flow out of that (justification, sin, good works, etc.) come to play very important roles within the church. We need to try to make sure that as much as we can, we hold the same theology as the Bible, and good theology starts with the Bible itself. These doctrines are worth dividing over, worth disrupting congregations and denominations over truth. These types of doctrines are precisely why the Protestant Reformation even happened in the first place. Other doctrine, like how the end of the world plays out, whether you are amil or pre-mil, that is not a gospel issue and should not hinder two people from having unity in Christ. Some doctrines are more important than others, some are worth causing division over, some are not, wisdom is learning which is which.
For Christians who have no interest or have a fear of studying theology, I hope they understand there is nothing to be afraid of, as long as we are faithful to God and His Word. Theology and doctrine naturally flow out of a desire to know and understand God better, to take what His Word says, to see how He has revealed Himself to us, and try to articulate that truth.
The next step for us is seeing that theology cannot be done by ourselves in a vacuum. It needs to be first and foremost accompanied by a robust walk with God. One where the Bible is treasured and devoured daily as sustenance to carry us through our various trials and tribulations of our days. If/when we decided to take up theology, then we need to be humble and do so in community, ask your pastor, ask your small group or Sunday-School leader. Read through something with a friend and meet for coffee and discuss it. Pray over your theology, but do not worship it. Pray that it is honoring to God and bringing Him glory.
Once we have begun to study and to revel in the knowledge of our God and King, then we can take the natural next step and worship Him because of what we read and how we grow in grace and understanding.
As the old saying goes, theology leads to doxology.
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