Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

All of Life is about Theology

In this series, we've considered what exactly it means to do theology, and what theology is all about. We learned that, when we're honest with ourselves, we discover that all of life is about theology. That is, any part of life that is worth knowing about and understanding leads us to ask questions, and those questions are always, invariably, ultimately questions about God. And answers to those questions come from learning who God is and what He is like.

We've also considered that there are quite a few people with quite a few differing ideas on how to go about answering those kinds of questions. Some people think we should follow our heart and do what our feelings tell us. Others think we should hang out with our friends and discover what is "true" relative to our particular community. And yet we've seen that God Himself speaks into His creation and to His creatures through His Word -- the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments in which He has revealed Himself.

All of Life is about Worship

We learned that the world is fundamentally about the worship of God, because that's precisely how God designed it. And so the answers to our questions are all relative to that chief purpose for which the entire world was created, for which we all exist to this day: for the worship, honor, glory, and praise of our Creator who is worthy of the highest of worship, the most exalted honor, the most magnificent glory, and the most passionate praise.

We Worship What We Know

And Jesus, the object of all this worship, told us how true worshipers worship. True worshipers of the true God worship what they know. They don't have some vague, ethereal, esoteric fabrication of a god that they would like to exist. They don't make up whatever feels right to them. They don't take pieces from this religion, and aspects of that philosophy, until they come up with a perfect mosaic of a god made in their own image. And most of all, true worshipers don't simply abandon the pursuit of a true knowledge of God because they think doctrine is overrated and we should all just "love Jesus" and have "no creed but the Bible." No, life is about worshiping God, and true worshipers worship what they know. So true worshipers don't mind giving their life to diligent and disciplined study if it means that they will rightly know and thus rightly worship the God they were made to know and enjoy.

We Worship What We Know

And yet, in response to that anti-intellectual emotionalism there has emerged an anti-emotional intellectualism that seeks to squelch all true expression of affections. We see some of the nonsense that goes on in the name of being "Spirit-filled" or "passionate," and we don't want any part of that. So we do our best to turn life, to turn theology, to turn the pursuit of knowing God into a merely academic exercise by which we assimilate and formulate propositional content. We actually abort the actual doing of any real theology by forgetting that theology -- just like everything else in the universe -- exists for the purpose of worship. Yes, we worship what we know, but we also worship what we know.

And you don't honor what you don't enjoy. I don't know any artist in the world that is honored by someone who comes into a museum and analyzes their painting with a cool, wholly dispassionate disposition. Even if that person is an art connoisseur, and can identify the particular technique, the light/dark contrast, the method of the brush strokes, and the use of perspective, but recognizes all those things only with a furled brow and an occasional raised eyebrow. The artist desires to affect those who behold his work, and he is more honored by the one who sees all those things for what they were meant to communicate, actually receives that communication, and revels in the genius of the artist who could produce something so magnificent.

Just the same, to gaze into the most glorious exhibition of beauty and genius revealed in the face of Christ, who is the image of God, and to be intellectually stimulated without being affected, and moved in the depth of your soul, is to dishonor God, and treat as common that which is holy.

Theology exists for worship. Thinking deeply is necessary in order to enjoy fully.

Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

Therefore, our commitment to doing theology must have worship as its end, and our theological method must be entirely shaped by that aim. “Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers….On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought” (Piper, Desiring God, 82).

But as a Christian—as a true worshiper—I must worship in spirit and truth. I must engage in theology and arrive at the formulation of doctrine because I desire to know and enjoy my God as He is. This is impossible without both accurate knowledge and a heart exhilarated by beauty.

As a pastor, I need to do the same, because God has entrusted me with the care and oversight of a flock of His people, and I must shepherd them in the knowledge of Him. I must indeed be the lead worshiper, because if I myself am not thrilled by the clear, contoured, unadulterated vision of an all-glorious, all-satisfying, exalted God as is revealed in His Word, I will never be able to lead people there. And without such a vision, the church is left unfilled by the Spirit, powerless in our fight for holiness, because apart from that vision of the glory of God in the face of Christ we have no resources to battle the desires of our flesh with superior desires for Christ (2 Cor 3:18; Gal 5:16-18).

It's fitting for me to close this series with the thoughts of Jonathan Edwards, a pastor, theologian, and worshiper of the first order, who embodied the Christlike example of a mind enlightened by the knowledge of God as He is and a heart warmed by the passion to enjoy the glory he was created to behold:

If a minister has light without heat, and entertains his auditory with learned discourses, without a savour of the power of godliness, or any appearance of fervency of spirit, and zeal for God and the good of souls, he may gratify itching ears, and fill the heads of his people with empty notions; but it will not be very likely to reach their hearts, or save their souls.

And if, on the other hand, he be driven on with a fierce and intemperate zeal, and vehement heat, without light, he will be likely to kindle the like unhallowed flame in his people, and to fire their corrupt passions and affections; but will make them never the better, nor lead them a step towards heaven, but drive them apace the other way.

But if he approves himself in his ministry, as both a burning and a shining light, this will be the way to promote true Christianity amongst his people, and to make them both wise [and] good, and cause religion to flourish among them in the purity and beauty of it. (The True Excellency of a Gospel Minister, Works, 2:958)

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

Thus far in our series we have battled against an understanding that is critical of theology in general, an ideology that is an ignorant, anti-intellectual emotionalism. However, there is another contemporary enemy of the opposite extreme. More popular in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, yet prevalent today especially as a reaction against feelings-driven theology, this ideology stops theology short of its goal by conceiving of it as a merely intellectual exercise.

We must return to our previously stated, working definition of theology, especially the second half: it is “the comprehensive, holistic interpretation of Scripture for the purpose of intimately knowing and rightly worshiping God.” To stop short of this purpose clause is to abort the God-given purpose for engaging in theology: to become worshipers of God in spirit and truth. If our theologizing does not affect us—if it does not change the way we think, feel, and act—we fail the task of doing theology.

No one has been a greater help to me in assimilating this truth into the depth of my soul than Jonathan Edwards. In his Miscellanies, he writes with staggering insight:

God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate, and the creature receive, His glory; and that it might be received both by the mind and the heart. He that testifies his idea of God’s glory [does not] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it. (Miscellanies, No. 448)

That is a life-shaping, worldview-shattering paragraph.

If nothing else, it certainly provides the vision of the proper goal of the theological process. We must not only endeavor to know about God, studying to tantalize our intellect and amass theoretical knowledge. Rather, our labors in theology are a means to the end of knowing God Himself—in relationship. And then, knowing such a magnificently glorious God, necessarily loving and enjoying Him for the fullness of His goodness.

And it is impossible to have one without the other. What I mean is, God is not the kind of Being who can be known to a greater degree without being enjoyed to that same degree. To know God is to enjoy Him. Biographer George Marsden summarizes Edwards’s thinking in this regard:

“Beauty”…is not just an object of passive contemplation, but rather a transforming power. If one sees a beautiful person, said Edwards, one cannot help but be drawn to that person. One’s heart is drawn to that beauty, and one’s actions will follow one’s heart. So it is with the surpassing beauty of God as revealed in Christ.…If one glimpses the perfect beauty of such love, one cannot help but be drawn to it. (A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards, 141)

There is no room -- not even in a theology classroom, and especially not a Sunday school classroom -- for a passive contemplation of the glories of God in Christ. To study Him dispassionately, entirely unmoved by the stunning beauty that we behold in the face of Christ would be woefully dishonoring to God.

If we are to glorify God, we must not only see His glory (light), but rejoice in it (heat). We must cultivate that vision of who He is and what He has done so well that, as Vanhoozer says, "when we perceive it, it stops us in our tracks and elicits our praise."

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

Loving God with All Your Mind

Worship Requires a Commiment to Thinking Deeply and Studying Diligently

It is not surprising that the pursuit of truly knowing and thus rightly worshiping God requires a resolved commitment to thinking deeply and studying diligently (2 Tim 2:15). Indeed, the greatest commandment in the Law is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind (Mt 22:37). Yet in this age of “evangelical pragmatism…pietistic anti-intellectualism…[and] journalistic bite-sizing” (Piper, Think, 17), it is common that such a call to rigorous study be met with scoffing from those both inside and outside of the church. Many look upon the desire for doctrinal precision as academic snobbery, as they are content to “worship God in their own way.” “As long as one is sincere in their devotion,” contemporary wisdom proffers, “ignorance of truth is to be excused. After all what is truth anyway?”

However, at the well at Sychar the Lord Jesus proclaimed a view of both worship and truth that flies in the face of the relativistic doctrinal apathy that plagues our postmodern culture. “You worship what you do not know” (Jn 4:22), He scolds the Samaritan woman, and thus teaches His people that, as Kevin Vanhoozer notes, “sincerity alone is an insufficient condition of right worship” (Worship at the Well, 8). A true worshiper, as He soon tells her, worships in spirit and truth. It is certainly right for one to be zealous for God and passionately committed to Him. But if that zeal is not according to knowledge, that person is not a true worshiper of the true God, even if he thinks he is (Rom 10:2).

See, it is possible to live our lives intending to worship and glorify God as He has prescribed while worshiping Him defectively (and therefore not truly worshiping Him at all) because of a lack of knowledge. John Calvin underscores the dangers of such an enterprise: “For unless there is knowledge present, it is not God that we worship but a specter or ghost.” Vanhoozer comments, “All of our pious intentions are struck by this thunderbolt, by this thought that we cannot help but worship falsely unless we are guided by God’s Word” (8).

This is precisely why the Christian must commit himself to doing theology, for it is the true Christian’s desire, not to worship in his own way, but to ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name in the way He Himself has prescribed. The stakes are indeed high, especially for those surrounded by a culture such as ours. Bruce Ware admonishes the pietistic anti-intellectualists: “If we are to escape the cult of self and find, instead, the true meaning of life and the path of true satisfaction, if we are to give God the glory rightly and exclusively owed to him…we must behold God for who he is” (God’s Greater Glory, 9).

And so a Christian must diligently apply himself to the discipline of theology, showing himself to be a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. For otherwise he will not worship God for who He is, but who he has imagined Him to be.

And there’s where the pastor’s role comes sharply into focus. This stuff certainly affects the Sunday gathering for corporate worship. Vanhoozer calls us to consider:

What do we do when we worship? We acknowledge and celebrate God’s worth. In worship we come together to remember and to respond to who God is and to what God has done for us. In short, we come together to do theology, though in a form that is more informal, participatory, and musical than it is systematic. (4)

The congregation gathers to remember and respond to who God is and what He has done for us. Yet, by failing to rightly interpret Scripture (comprehensively, holistically, and accurately) the pastor risks leading his people to remember and respond to a god who simply does not exist, a god of the congregation’s own imagination. The severity of such an infraction is arresting, especially in light of Jesus’ statement that eternal life consists in the knowledge of God (Jn 17:3) As we consider such things, I cannot help but hear the terrifying echo of Matthew 7:21-23: “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

With the stakes so high, both the undershepherd and the sheep must make war against every speculation and lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:5).

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

Systematics and Doctrine Matter

In this brief series on what theology is all about, we've defined the task of doing theology as "the comprehensive, holistic interpretation of Scripture for the purpose of intimately knowing and rightly worshiping God." That is, the reason for all our intellectual strain and diligent study is that we would thereby know and rightly worship God, in accordance with His ultimate purpose for all of life.

After that introductory post, we focused on the part of the definition that centers on Scripture. Our definition of theology has Scripture, the Word of God, at its center. This is so because it is in the pages of Scripture -- the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments -- that God has chosen to reveal Himself to His people.

Today, we hone in on the part of the definition of theology that emphasizes the interpretation of Scripture. That is to say, doing theology involves the interpretation of Scripture for the subordinate goal of understanding and stating what the whole of Scripture has to say about a given topic (cf. Grudem, ST, 21). The product of that process is doctrine. For example, if we examine and interpret all that the Bible has to say about the topic salvation, the end goal and product of that process will be our soteriology, or doctrine of salvation. So, theology is the process of correct, comprehensive, and holistic interpretation of Scripture, and doctrine is the result of that process: the summation of a biblical theme that states a truth and calls for a response.

Of course, we immediately face objections here as well. In His gracious revelation to His people, God did not give us a theology textbook. He gave us a library of history books, stories, poetry, songs, proverbial and wisdom sayings, prophecies of judgment and blessing, chronicles of lives and teachings, and didactic letters. Because of this, many have been critical of those who seek to do theology in any systematic fashion. They argue, "If God had intended that we study, codify, and appropriate truth like that, well then He would have given us the Bible in that form." They also are wary that one’s theological confession will eventually replace one’s dependence on the Bible itself. We're too concerned, so the argument goes, with "'epistemological certainty' and 'theological systems.'"

However, the Lord’s Great Commission to the Church is to make disciples of Him by teaching persons all that He has commanded us. If followers of Jesus Christ are to be obedient to the great charge He has given us, we must teach the doctrines of the Word of God. In order to accomplish that task, “it is necessary,” as Grudem says, “to collect and summarize all the Scripture passages on a particular subject” (27).

While it's true that we could simply direct a new Christian to read from Genesis through Revelation every time he has a doctrinal question, such a practice would not be the most beneficial for him. Instead, we must apply ourselves to the task of engaging and interacting with the whole of God's revelation in order to understand what it teaches. And we must do so both comprehensively -- taking into account the entirety of the Biblical witness -- as well as holisically -- taking into account the interrelatedness and unity of Scripture, and ensuring that the Scripture itself be its own primary interpreter.

If "teaching to obey" is part of the Church's Great Commission, then no matter how you slice the pie, doctrine matters.

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know

As we reflect on the doing of theology as a means to the end of the worship of God, the first thing to consider is, as Jesus says to the woman at the well, true worshipers worship what they know. Worship in ignorance is no worship at all. Therefore, if we are to worship God, we must go to the only source of His self-revelation that He has given: the Scriptures.

Many different understandings of what it means to do theology abound even within evangelicalism. For our purposes, we will define theology as "the comprehensive, holistic interpretation of Scripture for the purpose of intimately knowing and rightly worshiping God" (Andy Snider, Class Notes).

First of all, our definition of theology has Scripture, the Word of God, at its center. This is so because this is how god has chosen to reveal Himself to His people. We are aware that there are those who view such a conviction as inherently rationalistic. For example, in an article on theological method entitled, "How I Changed My Mind," John Armstrong wrote, "Theology must be a humble human attempt to 'hear him' -- never about rational approaches to texts."

Such men prefer instead to focus on the experience of God, whether that experience be personal or communal. Friedrich Schleiermacher is the archetypical liberal, emphasizing the individual's personal experience with God (his "God-consciousness") as the source of doctrine. Postliberals such as George Lindbeck and Brian McLaren focus more on theology as a community's dynamic experience of God.

While such detractors object to this exaltation of Scripture, arguing that is in the person of Christ Himself that God is supremely and preeminently revealed (Jn 1:18; 14:9; Col 1:15; Heb 1:2), they err by pitting the Living Word against the written Word. In the opening verses of the letter to the Hebrews, the author indeed acknowledges that in these last days God has spoken to us in His son. And while he does intend to showcase the supremacy of Christ over even the Old Testament revelation to the fathers through the prophets (Heb 1:1-2). God has indeed spoken through the prophets, and such revelation has been recorded for us in the Old Testament Scriptures.

Further, the Apostle Peter, who himself saw the revealed glory of the transfigured Christ on the Mount of Olives, declared that we have in the Scriptures "something more sure" than that glorious revelation (2Pet 1:19). Apparently, Peter regarded Scripture as a superior source of revelation even than his own amazing experience of Christ Himself.

Finally, Christ Himself has legitimized this focus on Scripture as the foundational source of theology (cf. Robert Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, xxviii). When He came to the synagogue in Nazareth intending to teach doctrine, He turned to the words of Scripture and announced that the prophecy of Isaiah had been fulfilled in their hearing (Lk 4:16-21). When He was questioned about the doctrines concerning marriage and divorce, He appealed to the text of Scripture as His authority (Mk 10:1-9). When He sought to expound the doctrine of the Messiah, He presented an exegesis of Psalm 110 (Mt 22:41-46). And when He was teaching the doctrine of the Messiah's sufferings and resurrection, He established its truth by appealing to "all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms" (Lk 24:44).

Thus, the study of the Scriptures, indeed profitable to equip the man of God for every good work (2Tim 3:16-17), is the divinely-appointed means of the study of God Himself. Any vague notion of "knowing Jesus," "studying Jesus," or "pursuing a relationship with Jesus" that does not include the study of, the knowledge of, and the pursuit of the Scriptures, is subbiblical and should be considered suspect. If we are to know God, we must seek Him by means of His revelation: the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments.

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

Light and Heat: Introduction

Reflecting on Theology as the Means of Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth

Upon a moment’s sober reflection, any honest thinker will admit that life is about finding the answers to ultimate questions. “Who am I?” “How did we all get here?” “What is the purpose and meaning of life?” “Why are things as the way they are?” Most foundationally, these questions are all theological questions; that is, answering them requires the study (-logia) of God (theo-)—the study of both who He is and what He has done. He is, as John Frame says, “the supremely relevant one” (Doctrine of God, 11), for He is the self-existent, self-sufficient Creator of all things (Gen 1:1) and does successively uphold all things by the word of His power (Heb 1:3; cf. Col 1:16-17). He is the One who assigns meaning to life—for it is by Him that life itself exists. So we look to Him for the answers to life’s most ultimate questions. "Who am I?" Well, we know ourselves to be creatures by virtue of His being the Creator (Gen 1:26-30; 2:7). "How did I get here?" Well, we look to His divine command as the answer to where everything came from (Gen 1:1-2:3; cf. Ps 33:6-9; 148:5).

And so it's fitting that we look to the Creator of life to discover the purpose of our lives. To ask why things are the way they are is to ask what God’s end, or aim or goal, was in creating the world as He has. The Scriptures teach us that the ultimate purpose of God in all that He does is to bring glory to Himself; for He declares that all who are called by His name have been created for His glory (Isa 43:7), and that He will not give His glory to another (Isa 42:8; 48:11). Indeed, as the Apostle Paul makes reference to His eternal decree and His working all things after the counsel of His own will, he repeats three times that His purpose is “to the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:6, 12, 14). Elsewhere Paul declares that even the exercise of God's wrath is to make known both the might of His power and the riches of His mercy (Rom 9:22-23). And He works out the entire drama of redemption and salvation unto the end that He be known, magnified, and glorified among the peoples of the world (Isa 43:7; Jer 24:7; 31:34; Ezek 38:23).

And so God’s will is to be known and worshiped by all of His creation. To achieve that end He created human beings to be worshiping creatures so that they might “honor Him as God [and] give thanks” (Rom 1:21). That's why we're here. That's why things are the way are. Therefore, if we are to live our lives in accordance with the purpose declared by our Creator, we must shape our lives around the pursuit of knowing and worshiping Him.

That pursuit is nothing other than doing theology. Over the next couple of weeks I want to look into the task of doing theology. How do we go about this process of studying the God of the universe? What undergirds a proper theological method? I'll attempt to answer these questions by insisting that doing theology is the means to worship. If our engagement in theology is to be Biblical, it must be driven by both light and heat, both spirit and truth, both by a commitment to think deeply and a commitment to feel deeply. As we will see, when one of these is abandoned in favor of the other, the ship has begun to sink, and the task of theology is almost irreparably sabotaged. And all of this is to be done in keeping with the purpose for which the universe exists: for the worship of the God who created us all.

I hope you'll read along.

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

"Billy Idol Gets It"

One last post on the infiltration of postmodernism into conservative evangelical circles. (And of course, today's post title comes from this scene of The Wedding Singer, and has come to denote anything that is patently obvious to some but evidently not to others.)

The below is a great video. It's amazing that this guy, ostensibly an unbeliever, can discern the signs of the times so much better than those who profess to be indwelt by the Spirit of the living God.

Ya know?