// Bible Doc 1 - Exam 1 //

Key text for Doctrinal themes in Scripture

- Psa. 119 (Your Word is a lamp)

- Dan. (ch.) 2, (ch.) 7 (predictions concerning the times of the Gentiles

- John 3 (Regeneration)

- Rom. 3 (Justification)

- 1 Cor. 12-14 (Gifts of the Holy Spirit) (*we are one in Christ and we need all of us)

- 1 Cor. 15

- Heb. 11 (Heroes of accomplishment of faith)

Key text for A reference that refers to the Word of God being damaged

Jer. 36:22-24

(God keeps His Word for generations. There is no magic formula that promises to keep the original manuscripts from being damaged.)

necessity of theology (quote by Thiessen)

1.) "It has often been demonstrated that only as people are thoroughly indoctrinated in the Word of God do they make STAUNCH CHRISTIANS and effective workers for Christ. THERE IS, THEN, A DEFINITE RELATION BETWEEN DOCTRINAL PREACHING AND EFFECTIVE CHRISTIAN SERVICE."

necessity of theology (quote by Strong)

2.) "Christian character rests upon Christian truth as its foundation."

necessity of theology (quote by Chafer)

3.) "Happy indeed is the student who secures a full-rounded introduction to the vast science of Systematic Theology, but thrice blessed is he who with unrelenting purpose pursues his study to the end of his days on earth."

(aka you need to keep studying theology!)

requirements of knowing theology

1.) Read Scripture in light of knowing it is true (Rom. 1:18)

2.) Faith (*salvation faith) (1 Cor. 2:14)

3.) Recognition of Human Limitations/Finiteness (*we won't know/understand everything)

4.) A Disciplined Mind

5.) A Knowledge of the Original Languages (*Greek & Hebrew)

6.) A Holy Affection for God

7.) The Enlightening Influence of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:12)

8.) Patient & Tireless Study (*there is always more to learn)

categories of systematic theology

1.) Bibliology (doctrine of the Bible)

2.) Theology Proper (doctrine of God)

3.) Christology (doctrine of Christ)

4.) Pneumeatology (doctrine of the Spirit)

5.) Angeology (doctrine of angels)

6.) Anthropology (doctrine of humanity)

7.) Harmartiology (doctrine of sin)

8.) Soteriology (doctrine of salvation)

9.) Ecclesiology (doctrine of the church)

10.) Eschatology (doctrine of end times)

*Doctrines historically develop in this order

systematic theology

(Taking all of the Bible's teaching on theology and putting it into a) Coherent Whole (aka putting it all together)

MORE?

varieties of theology

1.) Historical Theology

2.) Biblical Theology

3.) Systematic Theology

4.) Practical Theology

Liberalism (theological systems)

1.) Human Reasoning & Experience

2.) Religious beliefs have to pass the test of science

3.) The Bible is a record of experiences

4.) No distinction between natural & supernatural (deny miracles)

5.) "Human nature ... is the source of religious truth"

6.) "Science" is a code word for evolution

Neo-Orthodoxy (theological systems)

1.) The Bible is not revelation, but (it is actually) a witness to revelation (*ie, a pic does not talk to you (it is a revelation), but it is a witness to the real thing)

2.) Man meets God in an experiential encounter with Jesus Christ

3.) The events of Scripture are "story" instead of "history"

4.) The Bible can have many "myths," but still has a higher meaning or validity

5.) God is transcendent, the "wholly other"

6.) Man comes to fellowship with God through a "leap of faith" (subjective)

Secular Theology/God is Dead Theology (theological systems)

1.) God cannot be proven to exist

2.) The Bible is "myth" (fictional stories)

3.) Christianity is to solve the world's problems through science and technology

New Age Theology (theological systems) *KNOW THIS* - tenets

1.) All in one (taking away distinctions)

2.) All (everything) is God (are the trees God?)

3.) Humanity is God (violating the Creator-creature distinction)

4.) Change in consciousness

5.) All religions are one

6.) Cosmic evolutionary optimism (world is getting better)

New Age Theology (theological systems) *KNOW THIS* - classification

1.) Names - One World Order

2.) Terms - centering, global village, human potential

3.) Symbols - unicorn, Pegasus

New Age Theology (theological systems) *KNOW THIS* - overview

1.) God is a force, impersonal, is all things

2.) Jesus Christ is God Spirit in man

3.) Man is God, reincarnation

4.) salvation is from disharmony

5.) faith is in human potential

New Age Theology (theological systems) *KNOW THIS* - response

1.) The Creator/creature distinction - to violate is sin (*we are here to elevate God and accept our weakness)

2.) God is distinct from the world; created world; sustains world (Gen. 1:1; Col. 1:17)

3.) God is personal, not impersonal

4.) New Age Theology attempts to deify man & lower God

Theologies of Success

1.) Theology of Self-Esteem

2.) Theology of Prosperity

Theology of Self-Esteem

- Key individual - Robert Schuller

- Very positive thinking

Tenets:

- Sin is a negative self-esteem

- Salvation is an exchange of a negative self-image and moving towards a positive self-image

Theology of Prosperity

- Names - Prosperity Theology; Name It & Claim It; The Faith Movement

- Kenneth Hagin; Kenneth & Gloria Copeland

Tenets

- Every Christian should live free of illness, poverty, demon-possession, or affliction (Is. 53:5)

- The believer can become wealthy by following the "cycle of prosperity" (Eccl. 11:1; II Cor. 9:6; Gal. 6:7)

- Anything that is unusual is from demonic affliction (*if you fall, it is because a demon did it to you)

- The believer overcomes this affliction through 1 John 4:4

- God is bound to obey His laws such as the law of prosperity (*if you give $10 at church, - God is bound to give you back more than that)

what system does Barth belong in?

Neo-Orthodoxy (people)

what system does Bonhoeffer belong to?

Neo-Orthodoxy (people #2)

what system does Bultmann belong to?

Neo-Orthodoxy (people #3)

what system does Copeland belong to?

Theology of Prosperity (people)

what system does Hagin belong to?

Theology of Prosperity (people #2)

various false theories of inspiration

1.) Degree theory

2.) Dynamic theory

3.) Moral theory

4.) Dictation theory

5.) Intuition theory

6.) Illumination theory

Degree theory (false theories of inspiration)

Certain sections of the Bible are more inspired than other sections

(Romans and Galatians are more inspired than Philippians)

Dynamic theory (false theories of inspiration)

The words are not inspired, but the thoughts are

Moral theory (false theories of inspiration)

Passages dealing with moral or salvation issues ARE inspired (passages dealing with history or science are NOT inspired)

Dictation theory (false theories of inspiration)

- Inspiration is given by direct dictation.

- The men of God wrote as God dictated the words into their ears or inner being

- The man with the experience is always at the mercy of the man with the doctrine

- Doctrine always takes precedence over experience

Intuition Theory (false theories of inspiration)

- Inspiration - a product of talented men

- "The Bible then is great religious literature reflecting the spiritual experiences of the Hebrew people"

- *The men of God are religious geniuses or great philosophers who wrote great works of literature (not inspired by God)

Illumination Theory (false theories of inspiration)

- The Holy Spirit gives increased ability to sense spiritual matters

- Similar to illumination of all believers, but more intense

- Their level of sensitivity is heightened

Preparation

- God ordains the life and situations of the writers

- God superintended the course of the writers' lives

- Jer. 1:5

Revelation

- Information given about God

- 2 types :

General & Special

General Revelation

- Redemptive (not leading to salvation)

- Not a specific disclosure of God in the universe

- Man needs special revelation to properly understand general revelation

- 2 Kinds/sources of general revelation: creation & conscience

Special Revelation

- God specifically gives info about Himself (gives it to special people and special times that lead them to a redemptive relationship with Him)

- His special disclosure of Himself

Can you have revelation without inspiration?

Yes (John 20:30,3, 21:25, 2 Cor. 12:1-7; Rev. 10:3)

Can you have inspiration without revelation?

Yes (Luke 2:19, 33, 51)

Inspiration

- "God-breathed out" (*if the text is personal, we should pay attention to God superintending the lives of men)

Illumination

- Work of the Holy Spirit

- The saved man is convinced of the truthfulness of the written Word of God

John 17:17; 1 Cor. 2:4

- *The Holy Spirit (outside of us) works in our hearts (inside of us) to convince us that it is true

Two related areas:

1. Self-attestation/self-claim of authority

2. To disobey the Bible is to disobey God

Canonization

- It is the placement by God of an inspired book into the Bible

- "The canon of Scripture is the list of all the books that belong in the Bible" (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 54)

- Deut. 4:2: don't add or take from these commands

- Josh. 1:8 - "this book of the law" (*God is commanding Joshua to ponder/think about the Bible - this far it was the law)

- Heb. 1:1 - God spoke through the prophets (*God has given us His Word through the prophets)

- 2 Peter 3:16 - "as they do the other Scriptures" (*Paul writes these passages and they are inspired)

- It is God who forms the canon

That is, He inspires a book so that it belongs to the Bible

Self-attestation

- self-claim of authority

- related area of illumination

- The Bible's self-claim of authority based on its Divine Author

- One does not give authority to Scripture; one recognizes Scripture's authority

Perspicuity

- the BIble is clear in its teaching

- related area of interpretation

Sufficiency

- the Bible is complete for the needs of God's people and His revelatory purposes (*God wants us to have info - the Bible is complete)

- the Bible is enough

- related area of interpretation

Hermeneutics

- the science (study) of interpretation

- COMPARE SCRIPTURE WITH SCRIPTURE

Plenary

full, or whole - all words inspired

Doctrine

- Doctrine always takes precedence over experience

- doctrine helps us understand WHY we believe what we believe

- We must understand all scripture to understand the doctrines being taught

Verbal

words are inspired - not just the thoughts

OT inspiration

- Christ considered the OT inspired

- The NT authors considered the OT inspired

- review discussion in notes

NT inspiration

- Jesus predicted the inspiration of the NT

- The apostles recognized that the writings of other apostles were inspired (2 Peter 3:15-16 - Peter recognizes the writing of Paul as inspired/Scripture)

- The apostles refer to their own writings as Scripture

- review discussion in notes

key text for NT inspiration

2 Peter 3:15-16 - writings of apostles are inspired

Infallibility

- "Scripture possesses an infallible authority"

- "It can never fail in its judgments and teachings"

- incapable of making mistakes or being wrong

- dependable

Inerrancy (definition)

- without error

- The Word of God in the original manuscripts is without error

Inerrancy (explanation)

- allows for a variety of styles (*among the authors)

- allows for a variety in details in explaining the same event

- does not demand verbatim reporting of events

- allows for departure from standard forms of grammar

- allows for problem passages (problem is with humans not understanding, not the Bible)

- demands the account does not teach error or contradiction

Inerrancy (implications of denying it)

- AN ATTACK ON INERRANCY IS AN ATTACK ON GOD

- "We begin to wonder if we can really trust God in anything He says."

- "We essentially make our own human minds a higher standard of truth than God's Word itself."

- "Then we must also say that the Bible is wrong not only in minor details but in some of its doctrines as well."

2 Tim. 3:16-17

- key text on inspiration

- The source of Scripture

- verbal & plenary inspiration

- The text & words are inspired - NOT the man

- beneficial for: Doctrine/Teaching, Reproof, Correction, & Instruction in Righteousness

- Scripture is: Perfect/Competent, & Thoroughly furnished/Equipped

doctrine helps us understand...

WHY we believe what we believe

correction

- The idea of restoration or improvement

- Orthos - Greek word

- The Word of God is a straightener of our lives

2 Peter 1:19-21

- The primacy of the Word - v. 19

- review notes

- The "origin" of the Word - v. 20

- Scripture does not come from the impulse of man

- The direction of the Word - v. 21

- "Carried along"

- Note dual authorship (2 Sam. 23:2)

2 Tim. 3:16-17 is that Scripture ___ inspired, and 1 Peter 1:19-20 is _____ it is inspired (?)

is; how