Biblical Theology: The Queen of the
Sciences Must Recover Her Crown
By Michael P. Andrus
Publisher�s Note:
The following sermon was given by Pastor Michael Andrus on October 26, 2003. Pastor Andrus is the Senior Pastor of First Evangelical Free Church in Manchester, MO which is located at 1375 Carman Rd. The MetroVoice wishes to thank Pastor Andrus for his kind permission to reprint what we consider to be among the finest and most relevant messages of our times for the Body of Christ to ponder.
Biblical Theology: The Queen of the Sciences Must Recover Her Crown
This morning I have what is probably the toughest topic of my current series Marks of a Healthy Church. I believe in �truth in advertising,� so I�m going to tell you in advance that some of you may not want to hear what I have to say, but I think you need to hear it. What I�m about to share is not heresy; it�s not even edgy. It�s actually very conservative, so much so that a few may even think it reactionary, and that�s where I�m likely to get push-back.
You see, those pushing 60, as I am, are sometimes viewed as having a hard time adjusting to the 21st century. We just don�t seem to get it that the church needs to be culturally relevant, contemporary, seeker focused, and appealing to postmoderns. However, in the important and necessary quest to be relevant to our generation, I personally believe there is a great temptation for the church today to go too far, with too much accommodation to the culture, too much of a focus on the audience, too much appeal to postmodern ways of thinking.
Pastor Michael Andrus
My dilemma is this: how can I, as a person identified with the older generation and with more traditional ways of doing church, grab the attention of the younger generation regarding the absolute importance of anchoring all we do to the Rock�the living Word and the written Word of God? Well, I thought I should enlist a little help. I�m going to appeal to a much younger man, a really cool dude, one who has a Ph.D. from a leading university and yet is an expert on what is going on in the church today. I�m talking about a good friend of many of you, Dr. Brad Harper, who served with me here in St. Louis for 13 years.
I�m going to do something this morning that I haven�t done in 29 years of pastoral ministry�I�m going to preach someone else�s sermon�Brad�s (by permission, of course). I won�t preach it word-for-word, but I will lean heavily on it, particularly in the first part of this message. Brad preached this sermon, Why Every Christian Should Be a Theologian here at First Free almost ten years ago, on May 1, 1994, as the first in a series we did together on our church�s Statement of Faith. He doesn�t claim to be a prophet, but I think his sermon was very prophetic. And, if anything, it is more relevant today than when he first preached it.
There was a time when theology was viewed as the Queen of the Sciences. No longer; in fact, it�s not even viewed that way in most seminaries. More future pastors major in counseling than in theology. More electives are taken in leadership, conflict management, and worship styles than in theology. On the secular campus, of course, it�s hard to find any course in theology. The Queen of the Sciences in most universities is definitely not theology, but rather sociology or psychology or philosophy or even technology. Theology is viewed in the same category as psychic phenomena and religious mythology. I would like to share why I believe the Queen should have her crown restored.
By the way, those of you who have had some seminary training will know that the term �biblical theology� is sometimes used as a technical term for an approach to theology that differs from systematic theology, but I am not using it in that technical sense this morning. By �biblical theology� I simply mean theology that is rooted and grounded in the Bible. Let�s begin with the following proposition: Every Christian is a theologian.
I state it that way because all of us really are theologians. We may not be very good ones; we may not always be biblical; but we are theologians, whether we like it or not. Theology is simply the articulation of knowledge about God. So a theologian is one who has a viewpoint and a perspective on God, His creation, His salvation, His church, and the future. And clearly we all do. Some of us are theologians by training and vocation. But all Christians are responsible to be good theologians in practice. Brad asked, �To whom does theology belong? Is it solely the property of academicians and seminary professors? Maybe it makes more sense to ask this question: To whom does the knowledge of God belong? Obviously, it belongs to the entire church.�
Well, what makes the difference between a good theologian and a bad one? You might think it has to do with the years he has studied or the graduate degrees he possesses or the books he has read or his ability to communicate. Not necessarily. A good theologian is one who bases his views on truth. As He stood bound before Pontius Pilate, being questioned about his identity, Jesus said, "All who are on the side of truth listen to me." Pilate, in a haughty display of philosophical cynicism, asked Jesus, "What is truth?" (John 18:37, 38).
Here is a man so confused by the pluralism of the Greek and Roman philosophical and religious traditions that he wonders if there even is such a thing as truth. And in his very next act we see what truth really means for Pilate. Having declared Jesus innocent of any crime, he nevertheless turns Him over to the Jewish religious authorities for execution. Truth for Pilate is a matter of whatever works for him.
Such a self-centered and pragmatic view of truth is widely reflected in our culture today and, sadly, sometimes even in the church. If people don�t know where to find truth (or even whether there is such a thing), their theology is inevitably going to be confused. They will be forced to build their theology, i.e. their view of God, His character and His works, from such sources as reason, tradition, dogma, intuition, culture, experience, or speculation. All of those sources make for inadequate theology, if not out-and-out heresy. The only adequate source is God�s Word, the Bible.
I said a moment ago that every Christian is a theologian. Let me give you three reasons why we must strive to be good theologians, basing our views on truth, or the Bible:
We must be good theologians that we might believe and confess what is true.
No one wants to live a lie; no one wants to build a foundation on sand. But a great many do inadvertently. I submit to you that the reason virtually every mainline denomination is in serious decline today is ultimately found in the fact that decades ago they abandoned the truth of God�s Word as the foundation for theology and in its place began to elevate sources like reason, intuition, consensus, and culture. Now if you belong to a mainline denomination, please don�t take offense at that. I�m not taking potshots but rather simply sharing what the leaders of those denominations freely admit. If you ask any professor at Eden Seminary here in St. Louis if the church can fully trust the Bible for its theology, he would undoubtedly say, �No.� Thankfully, there are still pastors and individual congregations in most of those denominations which still believe the Bible to be a reliable source of truth, but the seminaries and the national leaders have long since rejected biblical authority for their theology.
And every year, as their attendance declines further, they renew their efforts to stop the hemorrhage, not by returning to the Scriptures, but by adapting even more to the culture and by adopting newer techniques of leadership, communication, and church growth�none of which works because they are treating symptoms, not the disease. They just don�t get it�that people are hungry for a Word from the Lord. The church will die without good theology, and good theology is always based on the truth of God�s Word.
Listen to the introduction to the first letter of the Apostle John as he tells us what his foundation is: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched�this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:1-3)
John calls upon virtually all of his human senses and faculties to state in the strongest possible way that "The story you are about to hear is true." In his Gospel, John uses some form of the word "truth" nearly fifty times. He and the other Gospel writers were consumed with the conviction that their message about Jesus was objectively true. And in one of His most well-known statements, Jesus calls Himself the truth, stating in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but through Me."
And what kind of truth is Jesus? Is He the truth merely for His day, the first century? Is He the truth merely for His cultural community? No! He is the absolute, eternal, and universal truth to which every person must submit. There is no other way by which one may come to God. The Apostle Peter boldly proclaimed before the Jewish religious leaders: �Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved� (Acts 4:12).
Our modern culture scoffs at such an idea, for they reject the very notion that truth can ever be absolute. In fact, they are absolutely sure there is no absolute truth. They hold that truth is established by each person's perception and preference. But the apostle Paul would argue vehemently with the notion that truth is relative. Though living in a culture of great religious and philosophical diversity, he charges his young pastor friend Timothy with these words: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage�with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths (2 Tim 4:2-4).
Timothy's greatest responsibility is to preach the Scripture, the message of truth entrusted to believers. It is what Paul calls "well-grounded teaching," which is the literal translation of the phrase "sound doctrine." But Timothy must also realize that many do not want to be well grounded. They prefer a kind of truth which is flexible to meet their individual needs. They want plenty of wiggle-room.
When faced with strong a passage like this, we Christians are likely to respond, "Well, what do you expect? Of course the world is opposed to God and so refuses to accept the teaching of the Bible." The problem is that Paul is not talking about the world here, but about the church. So perhaps we then respond, "Well, of course, the liberal wing of the church has abandoned the unchanging truth of God's Word."
Friends, what I am concerned about today is neither the world nor the liberal church, but we evangelicals.
Brad writes, and I quote verbatim a lengthy portion of his sermon:
I am concerned that we in America who call ourselves evangelicals (and by that I mean conservative Christians who hold to the theological positions of historic orthodox Christianity) have begun to lose our grip on the well grounded truths about God
Dr. David Wells, professor at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, has stated in his recent book, No Place For Truth, �I have watched with growing disbelief as the evangelical Church has cheerfully plunged into astounding theological illiteracy. . . . The effects of this great change in the evangelical soul are evident in every incoming class in the seminaries, in most publications, in the great majority of churches, and in most of their pastors.�
Evangelicals have stopped caring about theology. Oh, it is not that evangelicals have stopped receiving religious input, for the airwaves and Christian bookstores are crammed with religious material being consumed in ever greater quantities. It is the focus and content of much of this material which concerns me. It is through a subtle means that the church is being stripped naked of its protective theological clothing. Let me give you some examples to ponder.
First, there has been a troubling shift in emphasis over the past couple of decades from what is true to what works. The recent significant increase in the study of the methods of church growth has been a mixed blessing. For all it has taught us about how to reach people, it has all too often shifted the focus from theology to methodology. The church seems very concerned about how it is growing, but less concerned about what its people are growing on.
Search committees are more concerned about finding a pastor who has a vision and method for church expansion than about finding a pastor who has a comprehensive understanding of God's truth and a passion for teaching it. Seminary graduates and young pastors I encounter increasingly have as their model of success the corporate CEO, the person who can deftly manage people rather than the teacher who can communicate sound doctrine.
This shift to methodology has turned evangelical Christianity into the "how to" religion, a mindset which is often accompanied by another troubling and unbiblical thought process, the focus upon self. Nowhere is this self-serving attitude more obvious than in Christian marketing and advertising. One would think that what Christians want to know most is how to be happy, how to be financially prosperous, and how to lose weight while being filled with the Holy Spirit. And the material that evangelicals read today is no less self-focused.
A 1983 study by James Davidson Hunter revealed that of the books published by the eight most prolific evangelical presses, 87.8 percent of the titles dealt with subjects related to the self, its discovery and nurture, and the resolution of its problems and tensions. Titles abound at Christian bookstores like God's Key to Health and Happiness, Do I Have to Be Me?, You Can Prevent a Nervous Breakdown, Feeling Good About Feeling Bad, and How to Become Your Own Best Self.
Brad spoke these words ten years ago, and the book titles are different today, but do you think they are any less focused on the self? Check the Christian best-seller list, and you will quickly discover that the problem is still with us. I continue with Brad�s words:
Is there a positive side to the church following cultural trends? Sure. Some churches who have sought to speak the gospel in more culturally relevant and efficient forms have seen many come to Christ. But too much of Christianity, including some of these "seeker churches," has gone too far. When the church structures its message according to the felt needs of its audience it creates a Christianity centered on self. And the ultimate consequence of Christianity centered on self is that theology becomes therapy, the search for righteousness is replaced by the search for happiness, holiness by wholeness, truth by feeling, and God's sovereignty is diminished to whatever it takes to have a good day.
Biblical Christianity is about truth, friends. God has described Himself and we are to hear, learn. believe, and confess the unchanging truths He has given us. It is not our job to accommodate His truth to individual human experience�apply it, yes; accommodate, no. It is not our job to make sure lost people aren�t offended by the truth. Oh, we need to make sure we are not needlessly offending them with our human traditions or our pettiness or our legalism or our lack of communication skill, but the truth itself is inherently offensive.
We must be good theologians that we might share the truth accurately with a lost culture.
In his first epistle, Peter urged his readers, �Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have� (1 Peter 3:15). I think this presupposes a solid foundation of truth behind our witness to unbelievers�we are to offer reasons, not feelings or intuitions or speculations. In a letter to Titus, who was pastoring a brand new church on Crete, Paul writes concerning how a church leader should operate: �He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it� (Titus 1:9).
Church leaders and, logically, those who follow them are to hold on for dear life to what? Their Christian experience? Their feeling that God loves them? No, at least not as of first importance. These other things may be valuable, but they are to hold on tight to the trustworthy message, the objective truths about God, which have been revealed in his Word and carefully communicated to them by faithful teachers. And frankly, I think sharing solid biblical truth is the most effective way ultimately to win the lost. There is, of course, a valuable place for sharing stories of our personal experience with God. One of the great strengths of evangelicalism is its insistence that being a Christian is not mere mental assent to a doctrinal statement, but a personal relationship with the living Christ. The downside is that a lot of believers seem to have come to the conclusion that their wonderful experience of God renders theology of little practical value. �Let�s not nit-pick about doctrine� is the attitude of many in the evangelical church.
We all agree, I think, that the early church father, Chrysostom, was right when he said, �In essentials, unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity.� The problem is that the church seems bent on reducing the essentials to the point that some have only one: believing in Jesus. Does someone confess Jesus? If so, then he�s my brother; nothing else matters. That is terribly naive. Brad asks:
If all we can say in sharing Christ with others is, "You should be a Christian; look what Christ has done for me," we are in real trouble. What do we do when the response comes back, "Yeah, I grew up in the church, but now I have found that what really gives me peace is daily meditation on the higher power which emanates from the egg plant."?
I recently heard an evangelical preacher, whom virtually all of you would know, give an invitation that was so theologically light that it would have been impossible for anyone responding to
Chrysostom
really understand the plan of salvation. He essentially said, �Open your life to God, draw near to Him, let Him be your friend,� and I swear that was the extent of the invitation. Is that heretical? No, but it is warm, fuzzy, and totally inadequate. For people to be truly born again they need to know that they�ve missed the mark of God�s standards (i.e. they�ve sinned); that Jesus paid the penalty for their sin by dying on the cross; that He rose from the dead to demonstrate God�s acceptance of His sacrifice; that repentance is required; that Jesus must be received as Savior by an act of the will. We must be good theologians so that we can give people a clear understanding about salvation and then a solid foundation to grow on.
We must be good theologians that we might live according to what is true.
In John chapter eight, Jesus tells a group of religious leaders that if they knew the truth, the truth would set them free. Free for what? Free to live right. He accuses them of being slaves to sin, even ready to kill the Son of God. Why? Because they don't know the truth. In 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul gives this encouragement to his young friend: "Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." What Paul is trying to explain to Timothy is that good theology and godly living are inextricably bound together. Both are intimidating responsibilities, but Christians must persevere in attaining to both.
Oh, it�s possible for people to live moral lives in the absence of good theology; they simply don't have a very good reason for doing so, and therefore in a pinch they will generally abandon morality in favor of other interests. Unfortunately it is also true that people can know theology and still live like the devil; how else do you explain the number of pastors and priests who have gone down the tubes morally? But in God's economy, right living is to be the result of a constantly growing understanding of the truth about Him, and only if we are growing in knowledge and obedience are we going to be spiritually healthy.
Let me go back to Brad:
I want to tell you about two encounters I had over the past couple of weeks. They illustrate the connection between good theology and godly living. I went to see my father last week in a hospital in California. He is a bitter and angry man, and he is dying. It may be a month; it may be a year. But he knows that the illness he has will take him soon. I went to see him, not because I like being with him, but to honor him as his son and to share with him one more time the message of God's grace.
It was a difficult moment as I held him and wept while whispering God's truth in his ear. He assured me that he believed in a higher power that would make all things work out right in the end. A vague confession of mental assent to a nondescript God. His response broke my heart as it has been broken many times before. But the worst part was that the words he spoke for the next three days to his wife, my sister, and me revealed that my father feels no sense of moral accountability to this higher power. For my father, his confession of a false concept of God has left him in a state of moral bankruptcy.
A couple of weeks ago I encountered another person. She has recently gone through a rough divorce. She has been trying to understand from Scripture if she is free to remarry based on her divorce situation. In an age when long-time Christians are making devastating decisions about divorce based on how they feel about their spouses, here was this new Christian who committed herself to the study of God's Word on this very difficult subject that she might understand the truth and live by it, knowing that the truth she found might be agonizing.
If we are going to call ourselves Christians we must decide that the blueprint for how we live our lives will be the unchanging and absolute truths revealed to us by God. To do that we must not only learn those truths, but we must also rehearse them again and again that they might become part of us and shape the way we live. No one said it better than King David who wrote, "Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you."
I want to share one more proposition with you very briefly.
God�s Word trumps all theological systems.
If you�re a card player you know that even a low trump takes the highest card in any other suit. What I want you to hear this morning is that God�s Word is trump. It supercedes any traditions, any notions, any ideas, any speculations, any hopes, any dreams, anything.
I�ve talked this morning about the tendency of many in the church to minimize good theology. But there are those who exhibit the opposite problem. They give so much attention to theology and consistency of doctrine that they in effect turn it into an idol. Their theological systems become more important to them than Scripture. By theological systems I am referring to efforts to systematize the truths of Scripture into a coherent whole. Some of the systems you may have heard about are Calvinism, Arminianism, Wesleyanism, Dispensationalism, Covenant theology, Pentecostalism, etc.
The point I wish to make here is that when a system of theology conflicts with Scripture, we must go with Scripture. And they do conflict, all of them, because all systems of theology are human constructs. We have a terrible tendency to massage the Bible to fit it into our beloved systems, rather than massaging our system to fit it into the Bible. If I had time this morning I could give you some startling examples of that from every theological system, but I don�t.
Conclusion:
Brad Harper said, �We study theology because the church would die without it.� Let me briefly share two practical ways this morning that you can persevere in good theology. First, if your spiritual involvement is limited to a worship service on Sunday morning, you need more. Go to an adult Bible class here at church or join a community group where the focus is on Bible study, not just sharing life�s problems or reading the latest faddish book put out by one of the latest Christian gurus. Or start attending Bible Study Fellowship or Community Bible Studies or Precept Upon Precept.
Second, look at the bookshelf in your home. Find the Christian book section. If you have one, it probably contains books like Winning Your Wife Back Before It�s Too Late, This Present Darkness, The Left Behind Series, a smattering of books by Max Lucado, John Eldredge, and George Barna, and at least seven Bodie Thoene novels.
Now, make room for a different kind of book. I recommend Foundations of the Christian Faith by James Montgomery Boice, Introducing Christian Doctrine by Millard Erickson, Basic Theology by Charles Ryrie, and Knowing God by J. I. Packer. In addition, almost anything by John Piper (The Pleasures of God, Desiring God, Future Grace, etc.) or John Stott or John MacArthur is theologically sound. Colin Smith, the pastor of Arlington Heights Evangelical Free Church, has recently published a four-volume set entitled Unlocking the Bible Story; I heartily recommend it. These books are not written for theologians but for you. I�m not telling you not to read the other books�just don�t build your theology on them.
Years ago, the great 20th century theologian, Tammy Faye Baker, made this astounding remark: "The Christian life is so wonderful, I would believe it even if it weren't true." Unfortunately, thousands of American evangelicals have effectively looked to Tammy Faye as their model of a theologian. What an embarrassment! Such Christianity can never stand the test of time and adversity. God calls us not to syrupy religious experience, but to truth and to perseverance in sound theology. Are you persevering it?
Let�s pray. Lord, there are so many things distracting our attention from the firm foundation of your Word and the great truths it conveys about You, Your character, and Your works. We�re distracted by human ideas, by eloquent speakers, by media messages that are attractive and exciting, by books that scratch our itching ears. Lord, help Your Church to return to the foundation of biblical theology that we might believe the truth, share the truth so the lost can be saved, and live the truth so that You will be glorified in our lives.
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