Stand for something
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Introduction into Theology
Introduction into Theology
Ever heard this saying? “Stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.”
Today’s world and our ever increasing access to “data” and “systems” of thinking sometimes put us into a “thinking spiral”
The difficult questions end up being,
What are you going to stand for?
how do you know what to stand for?
IF we are honest, the task of forming a consistent world veiw seems daunting… and truthfully, it takes work.
Any discipline you engage in is going to take time, focus, and energy. Any Hobbie that turns into something more is expensive.
I like to go bowling. I’m sure some of you do as well… To go bowlling isn’t terribly expensive. Rent the nasty shoe and touch some disgusting ball… doesn’t sound like very much fun anymore.
But, professional bowling… it’s an investment. When I used to bowl competitively I had tons of gear and spent tons of money. A professional ball can run you up to $200, and a professional pair of shoes can be $120-$150.
At one time in my passion - I owned six bowling balls… All high end peices of equipment.
Jenn and I were talking about body builders the other day… I mean, I would love to have all those ripped musciles.. But the truth is, that type of body takes a TON of work and dedication, not only to get, but to maintain too. To have a build of pure muscle, every thing in your life would flow around that one goal.
Following Jesus:
So, how about it? What is the one thing your life is orbiting?
If you invited others to examine your life, what priorities would they say your time and energies are focused on?
Not our preferred, what we think, but the actual sum totals of what we do.
If you are going to stand for Jesus, especially in our time, it’s going to take work and dedication.
Jesus says:
Luke 9:23 “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
When you think about your spiritual life:
what is the direction you are heading?
Do you have an idea of a destination?
Consider What we just read in Luke 9:23, Jesus said “Come after me”
The Goal of our pursuit is Jesus
Denial of yourself.
You willingly lay aside your personal ambition and deisres to fulfill God’s will
A Cross is the burden associalted with following Christ. It may involve loss, but we are called to endure, even if there is no release on this side of Heaven.
To Jesus’ followers in Luke, this meant even to the point of death.
Luke 9:24-25 “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”
There were litterally people in is hearing that would expereince death as a result of their allegience to Christ.
What would cause someone to be willing to follow after Christ is the manner? How can someone get to a place in their faith and mindest to have such confidence in Christ that no matter what, he is to be followed?
In part, I think this involves to hard work of developing a world view rooted in truth.
Doctrine affects deeds
what I beleive affects what I do.
Something that each of you willingly sacrifices for.
I can’t develop your world view for you.
I want all of us to get to a place as followers of Jesus where we are masters of the English Bible. I say english, because that’s our spoken language.
You don’t need Greek and Hebrew to instill the principles of God’s word into your heart.
I want to take some time over the next few weeks to develop with you a world view that is rooted in the Biblical Text and Christian Theology.
Todays Theological TERM.
Prolegomena (lit.: pro, “before,” and lego, “speak”) is the introduction to theology. It deals with the necessary preconditions for doing systematic theology.
What does this mean? Words matter! You know we can be using the same word, but have two entirely different meanings.
15 years ago:
a TWEET was a noise birds made
a SNAP was a noise I made with two fingers.
a Tik Tok was about clocks
My Space… was just that… my personal bubble.
When Mike tells me some one “Put their foot in it,” It’s important to know what that really means!
Funny story: We hosted an event for a Harvest Church plant and some people who showed up thought that a well known speaker was going to be at the event. In fact, one of that participants voiced their displeasure that the speaker wasn’t there in the meeting. I’ll never forget what the pastor said.
“That guy is just a donkey.”
What? I wasn’t sure what he meant, and neither did the guy in the audience who became visibly upset.
After the event, I asked the pastor what he meant by “The guy being a donkey.” Imagine, if someone stood up here and said, “Pastor Adam is just a donkey.”
With all seriousness, he looked at me and said, “Well, you know, Jesus road into the city on a donkey. We’re all just donkeys to exhault high the name of Christ.”
I said, I’m not sure people got your reference!
When we talk about Theolgoy, It’s going to be important that have a few things in view.
Theology (lit.: theos, “God,” and logos, “reason” or “discourse”) is a rational discourse about God.
The doctrine of God is the horizon of all Christian theology.
It’s built into the very name “theology”: it’s “logos about theos“—that is, “speech about God.” That’s why people sometimes call the doctrine of God “theology proper,” meaning that theology is actually talking about the doctrine of who God is in his essence, in his existence, in his attributes, and in his eternal being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
When you gather to talk about God, you are doing Theology.
The existence of God is the foundation of Christian theology.
FOR TODAY, THIS IS OUR Prolegomena
When we speak of God proper, we are speaking about the mono-theistic God of the Bible. Christian Doctrine is based in the Bible and one aspect is to consider what God
If the God of traditional Christian theism does not exist, then logically evangelical theology crumbles.
Probably the most profound philisophical statement in the Bible is Gen. 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Perhaps a simple, but extremely signifigant idea is that God is or that God exist.
Not only does he exist, his creation speaks to his existence.
Ps. 103:19 “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”
There are several arguements for God’s existence. The arguement I’ll give today is one of several that we use to build a case for the existence of God.
Romans 1:19-20 “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
The Cosmological Argument:
The essence of this argument is as follows:
(1) Everything that had a beginning had a cause.
(2) The universe had a beginning.
(3) Therefore, the universe had a Cause.
Part of this idea is that you can’t get something from nothing.
“You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip” If the thing we are referencing doesn’t exist, then nothing can come from it.
We often talk about the “Big Bang” and Christians always comment back, “Right, God spoke, and bang it happened”
But really, even Science will tell you that the Universe is finite and had a beginning.
First, the universe is running out of usable energy (Second Law of Thermodynamics), and what is running down cannot be eternal (otherwise it would have run down by now).
Second, the universe is said to be expanding. Thus, when the motion picture of the universe is put into reverse, logically and mathematically it reaches a point where it is nothing (i.e., no space, no time, and no matter). So the universe literally came into being out of nothing. But nothing cannot produce something.
Third, the radiation echo given off by the universe, discovered by two Nobel Prize-winning scientists, Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson (see Jastrow, GA, 14–15), has the identical wavelength of that which would be given off by a gigantic explosion.
Fourth, the large mass of energy resulting from such an explosion and predicted by Big Bang proponents was actually discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1992.
What we are saying is not only does the universe have a beginning, but that beginning must be dependant upon something…
16 For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, [things] visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [that is, by His activity] and for Him. 17 And He Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe.]
Why is all this important? Because God exist! If that be the case, then what God specifcally tells us is important, must become priority 1..
This becomes the foundation of our world view.
Since God exist, next week we’re going to look into who this God is and what we can know about him.