One of life’s great mysteries is what will happen in the end times. The primary reason it’s a mystery is that it hasn’t happened yet. How will the world end? When will it happen? What will those events look like? These concepts are alluded to in the Scriptures, but the answers given are not clear and detailed - at least in our limited understanding while on this earth.
One related topic that we do have slightly clearer answers on is what happens to a person when they die. The Bible does tell us about heaven and hell (click the links for more on each). Roman Catholics also believe in purgatory as a place people go after this world but before they go to heaven or hell. While we don’t know the details of heaven and hell, we know that heaven is where we will exist with God, and hell is the complete absence of God.
How does the timing work after a person dies? Are you immediately sent to your “final destination,” or do you exist in some other space for a while, or do you have no sense of time at all? There are a lot of opinions on these matters, but we don’t have clear answers to these questions from Scripture. There are 3 primary positions held by Christians on this topic. The first is that a person goes immediately to purgatory. When their sin is “taken care of” by enough prayers being offered for them by those who are still alive, that person goes to heaven. If a person has committed a mortal sin, however, they go directly to hell; they would also go to hell if they’re still in purgatory when Christ comes again. The second position is some sort of intermediate state between earthly life and the new heaven and the new earth that will happen in the future. The third position is that a person is immediately judged upon their death and then proceeds to heaven or hell depending on their relationship with Jesus Christ.
Now, onto the bigger topic - the end of the world. When will it happen? Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:36: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” This is mind-blowing when you look at it in the context of the Trinity; the Father, Son, and Spirit are three persons yet one God, and there’s this one piece of information that is not shared among them; only the Father knows it! So, anytime someone claims to know the day or the hour that the world will end, the world will definitely not end at that day or time, or else that would go against this passage of Scripture.
One commonly disputed point regarding the end of the world is that of the millennium, a period of 1000 years that is introduced in Revelation 20. There are also 3 positions on this: amillennialism, premillennialism, and postmillennialism. Amillennialists believe that the 1000-year period does not represent a specific time period but the reign of Christ in heaven during the current age of the church. Christ will return again at the end of history, so the church presently lives in the final era. Premillennialists believe in a literal interpretation of the book of Revelation regarding the last times, including a rapture of believers, a seven-year time of tribulation, a reign of Christ on earth for 1000 years, and a final victory over evil. (This is the view held by the authors of the popular Left Behind series.) Postmillennialists believe that the millennium is a time period of undetermined length where the world is at peace, and Christ will return at the end of this period.
Various theologians over the years of church history have held each of these positions, and they each have Scripture passages that they use to support their views. So which is actually true? That is the ultimate question.
Personally, I’ve been asked which view I hold, and I had to write a paper stating my view on it as part of a theology class when I was in seminary. My official belief is that I don’t know, and I’m really glad that God does know how it’s all going to play out! Many people worry about the end times and what’s going to happen, but I’ve landed on this position of really not caring about it. Sure, I’m looking forward to being in heaven and meeting Jesus face-to-face someday; but it’s because of Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection that I know I don’t have to worry about how this world will end. I am living in this world for whatever the span of my life here ends up being, whether I die a natural death or if Jesus comes again before my time comes, but my true home is in heaven, thanks to the work of Jesus on the cross.
If we’re currently living in that 1000-year period, then I will still end up in heaven for all eternity because of Jesus. If there will be a rapture, tribulation period, etc., then I will still end up in heaven for all of eternity because of Jesus. If there will be 1000 years of peace before Christ returns, then I will still end up in heaven for all eternity because of Jesus. That’s all that really matters. Sure, it’d be great to know the details, but that’s clearly not something that God wants to reveal to us just yet.
What do you believe about what happens after death? What do you believe about what will happen in the end times? If you do not yet have that faith in Jesus Christ that you will end up with God for all eternity, please reach out to us at Worldview Warriors; we’d love to talk with you about that!
While today is very likely not the end of the world, this is the end of my blog post series on theology. I hope you have enjoyed digging into all of these topics with me!
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What is the church? Depending on who you ask, you’ll likely get a variety of answers. The song I learned as a small child tells me that, “The church is not a building; the church is not a steeple; the church is not a resting place; the church is a people. I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together! All who follow Jesus, all around the world! Yes, we’re the church together!” While many people (and I have been guilty of this as well) refer to the church as the building where we go to gather together for worship services, this is not the Biblical definition. Through this look into ecclesiology, or the study of the church, we’ll find some insight into what the church really is.
The word ecclesiology comes from the Greek ekklesia, which most literally means a gathering or an assembly. Whenever we see the word “church” in the New Testament, this is very likely the word that’s in the original Greek. So, even the very word itself points to people instead of a building.
In the Old Testament, the people of Israel were representative of the church. The New Testament describes the people who are the church in a variety of specific ways: the people of God (1 Peter 2:9), a community of salvation (Matthew 28:19), the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27), a servant people (2 Corinthians 4:5), and a community of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:4).
While the focus of the early church was defining what doctrines are true and which are false more than defining who they are as a church, they still had consensus on what the church was and is. The church was to be a spiritual society of sorts to replace the nation of Israel as God’s holy people. All people were now welcome, regardless of their ethnicity; you didn’t have to be “born into the club” anymore! The church was responsible for spreading the Gospel message, helping believers to grow in their faith, and making disciples. In the first century, it was the only place where authentic Christian teaching was taught.
There have been many good books written about the history of the church (this being one that I personally recommend), so I’m not going to go into all the details of how the church went from the first century to the twenty-first century. One of the “highlights” of church history was the Reformation in the 1500s. The church had previously split in 1054 into the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church. The Reformation further split the Roman Catholic Church into Roman Catholics and Protestants. In 1541, theologian John Calvin defined the essential doctrines of the Protestant church to be preaching God’s Word and rightly administering the sacraments (such as baptism and communion).
During that same time period, John Calvin also made the distinction between the visible and the invisible church. The visible church is what we see and experience as the church; it’s the group of believers who come together to worship God, for the preaching of His Word, and for the sacraments. The invisible church, however, is the fellowship of all the saints; it includes all of the believers who have gone before us. Regarding this, Calvin said, “Wherever we see the Word of God preached purely and listened to, and the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, we cannot doubt that a church exists.”
The church itself has 4 primary characteristics: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. The church is one because it is unified in the belief in Jesus Christ. While there are many individual congregations of the church, it is still one unified church. All members of the church are in a relationship with the one true God of the Bible. Many other things (structure, worship styles, leadership, etc.) will differ, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is the one thing that truly defines the church.
The church is holy not in the moral sense of doing no wrong (as it’s made up of imperfect people), but in the sense of being set aside by God for His good purposes. The church can also be considered holy because we always have forgiveness of our sins through our faith in the work of Jesus Christ.
The church is catholic not in the sense of Roman Catholic but meaning universal or extending across time and space. The church is not limited to one geographic area, one people group, or even one time period. Check out this blog post for more on that idea.
The church is apostolic because it carries on the teachings of Jesus’ apostles. Jesus’ twelve disciples were the first apostles of the church, and it was the teaching that they received from Jesus and continued to proclaim that has been passed down as foundational to the church as a whole.
The church today is still God’s people, even though the church exists in a very divided state in our modern world. We should strive for unity as a church, but it is most important to remember our mission as the church, direct from Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
That is what makes us the church: following the mission of our ultimate leader, Jesus Christ Himself. He is the reason that the church exists.
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Last month, I wrote on Theology Proper, which helps answer the question of who God is. We can never fully know God, but He has revealed much of His character to us. In that post, I also looked at the idea of the Trinity - how God is three distinct persons yet one God. As humans, we find the ideas of God as Father and Jesus as Son somewhat easy to grasp, especially since Jesus came to earth in human form. But the Holy Spirit is a much more vague concept for many Christians to understand. Today, we’ll look at pneumatology, which is the study of the Holy Spirit.
The word pneumatology comes from the Greek word for spirit, pneuma. Both pneuma and the Hebrew word for spirit, ruach, have the idea of breath or wind also. This is where we get English words like pneumatic from; not because pneumatics have anything to do with the spirit, but more of the idea of wind.
The person of the Holy Spirit can best be described within the concept of the triune God. The Spirit is a full person along with the Father and the Son, so any characteristic that applies to one person of the Trinity applies to all of them. The Spirit is also eternal and unchanging, just as the Father and Son are. The Spirit is also omnipresent (all-present), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omniscient (all-knowing), just as the Father and Son are.
We often think of the Spirit as some sort of mysterious divine force rather than as a person, often because it’s easier for us to relate to the Father and Son as persons. But we can have a relationship with the Spirit just as we can with the Father and the Son.
In the Bible, we see the Spirit expressed in a variety of terms and images. Here are some examples:
- Life-breath (Genesis 2:7)
- Wind (Genesis 8:1)
- Fire (Matthew 3:11-12)
- Water (Isaiah 44:3)
- A cloud (Exodus 24:15-18)
- A dove (Matthew 3:16)
- Paraclete/comforter/advocate (John 14:16)
There is no single passage in Scripture that we can point to in order to learn all about the Spirit, but it is evident throughout the Bible that the Spirit is working as God. We see the Spirit present at Creation in Genesis 1:2. We see the presence of the Spirit in Jesus in Luke 4:18-19. In the book of Acts, we see multiple times that the Spirit facilitates salvation. Throughout the Scriptures, the Spirit gives power and gifts to the people, such as leaders and warriors in the Old Testament and the apostles and others in the early church, especially leaders and missionaries. We see the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. These are not traits that we can live out on our own, but ones that the Spirit lives out through us. They’re not our fruit, but the Spirit’s fruit that we make evident through our obedience to Him.
We are given lists of the gifts of the Spirit in Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12-14, Ephesians 4:1-16, and 1 Peter 4:8-11. There are three main views on the status of these gifts, particularly the gifts that are considered “ecstatic” (healing, miracles, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues): continuationists, cessationists, and cautionists. Continuationists believe that these gifts are still present and active today. Cessationists believe that these gifts are no longer active at all. Cautionists believe that it is possible that these gifts are still active but that is not a main focus of the Church. Personally, I am a cautionist, but I believe any of these views are plausible today.
We see that the written Word of God was inspired by the Spirit in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. The Word also refers to the person of Jesus, who shares a unified relationship with the Spirit. There is a definite connection between Jesus and the cross event of salvation and the Spirit revealing that truth to individuals to provide for their salvation. God could work in people’s lives through the Spirit without the written Word of God, but He has revealed Himself through the Word so they may work together. The Holy Spirit uses the written Word of God to make us wise, lead us to Christ, bring us salvation, bring us to faith and sustain our faith, to teach us, to reprove us, to correct us, to train us in righteousness, and to make us complete in God for every good work.
The Holy Spirit may still be difficult for us to define, especially in our Western culture where many do not acknowledge the presence of spiritual beings. But, we know from God’s Word that the Holy Spirit is very much an active part of the Trinity, and the Spirit dwells within the hearts of all believers. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).
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What is salvation? As followers of Jesus Christ, we tend to put a lot of emphasis on salvation, but what exactly is it? That’s what we’ll look into today as we dig into soteriology, the study of salvation.
Specifically, soteriology deals with the divine work of God to bring His Creation, especially humanity, to enjoy His divine purpose in our existence. Why can’t we do that without Him? We as people were created in perfection and in God’s image, but the first people sinned, and that sin has continued to separate all of humanity from God’s perfect presence ever since (see Anthropology and Hamartiology for more on that). Because we as humans were disobedient to God, we need Him to save us from that disobedience and restore a right relationship with Him.
All Christians agree that salvation has to do with Jesus Christ and the “cross event,” but many can differ on the details of how and why salvation happens. The “cross event” refers to Jesus, who was both fully human and fully God, died an actual death and was raised to life again on the 3rd day. What actually happened during that remains a mystery; what exactly occurred in those days when Jesus was dead? What was that experience like for Jesus as a person to be raised again by God the Father? We really don’t know, and that’s ok.
The essential part of the cross event is to know that it happened. It was part of God’s plan for humanity to provide salvation for all of us sinful humans through the cross event, and we simply need to trust that it occurred in such a way that God has fulfilled that promise to save all of humanity. God had promised that as early as Genesis 3:15, right after the first humans sinned: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” God will crush Satan’s head and forever defeat death through the work of Jesus Christ.
I love how this quote from 16th-century theologian Martin Luther summarizes why Jesus Christ died: “Christ does not die for the attainment of a personal benefit, for He does not die for us in order thereby to gain a great profit and benefit from us for Himself. Nor does He die in order to satisfy the claims of justices, for He is not obliged or bound to die either for us or for Himself. But He does die for the sake of our sins that He may help us. The great, unending love He bears us moves Him to die for us.”
This is also explained in John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” This makes it clear that God loved “the world” (every person who has ever lived or will ever live), and Jesus was sent to earth to save the whole world. God desires for all to be saved; we see this in 1 Timothy 2:3-4: “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
Everyone has the potential to be saved, but we need to call on the name of the Lord in order to be saved. We even see this in the Old Testament, in Joel 2:32: “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.” This passage is quoted by the apostle Paul in Romans 10:13. Just before that, Paul tells us exactly what we need to do to be saved: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10).
There are lots of theories that are supported by various theologians that attempt to explain what occurs in the cross event and how we obtain salvation. However, none of them can be proven to us this side of heaven since no one knows the mind of God. You can check out this article to get a brief summary of 7 of the primary theories of atonement.
The other aspect of soteriology is known as the ordus salutis, literally “order of salvation.” This refers to the way in which events happen in the process of a person experiencing salvation. For example, Lutheranism teaches that salvation is by grace alone, and that grace is received at baptism. The person is dead in his or her sins and can do absolutely nothing in order to be saved; the work is all done by the Holy Spirit. The Arminian view, however, is one that allows the person to make a decision to follow Christ and be saved, though the work of salvation is still performed by God. The primary difference here is whether God is the sole agent in salvation, or if there is a cooperation between people and God in this act.
The Scriptures are not clear on the details of how salvation occurs in an individual and they can be interpreted in many ways, so personally, I find it difficult to take a solid stance on this issue aside from the fact that salvation has to do with faith in Christ and the free gift of grace that God gives us. We can be assured that when we have faith in Jesus Christ and His saving death and resurrection, we will be saved. This is not something we earn by our good works, but a gift that God has given us.
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:4-9).
Do you have that faith in Christ that you have received His salvation? We don’t need to have all the details figured out, but simply have faith that Jesus’ death and resurrection are what is needed to restore our right relationship with God. If you have not yet received this gift of salvation through faith, please contact us at Worldview Warriors and we would love to talk with you!
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Just over 7 years ago, I wrote a blog post titled “Who Is Jesus?” which focused on the humanity and divinity of Jesus. The nature of who Jesus is has not changed, of course, but for today’s post, my focus will be more on the study of Christology. Christology is the study of who Jesus Christ is - His person and work, the relationship between Jesus and the Trinity as a whole, the two natures of Christ, and the roles of Christ.
We know Jesus to be the person who walked on the earth a few thousand years ago, but Jesus actually existed before the creation of the world (John 1:1-3). Jesus did not exist in a human body until He was born on earth, but because Jesus is God and God does not change, Jesus always existed as a human in some way and had awareness of His human nature. This is one of those areas that we can’t comprehend well with our human minds, how Jesus was human yet not yet human at the same time. We don’t know how the Word was made flesh; we just need to believe that He was.
Some believe that Mary had to be sinless in order for Jesus to be born from her and also be sinless. However, Mary was a regular human person born of sinful parents, so how could she be sinless? (Last week, I wrote about hamartiology, the study of sin; refer back to that post for more on the sinfulness of humanity.) To reconcile this, Reformation theologian Martin Luther believed that the Holy Spirit purified Mary in the moment of conception so that Jesus would not inherit the poison of sin, even though Jesus would inherit the human nature that gave Him the potential to sin. Again, the details of how this actually worked remain a mystery to our finite human minds.
The person of Jesus is both fully human and fully God. How does that work? The theological name for this teaching is the hypostatic union, which was developed at the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451. This doctrine states that Jesus has a “rational soul and a body, being of one substance with us in relation to his humanity, and is like us in all things apart from sin.” Jesus’ divine and human natures are without confusion, change, division, or separation. This, again, is a paradox to our human minds. We are unable to fully understand how any person can fully be two things that are in tension with one another; perfectly God yet fully human with the potential for sin, all at the same time.
Jesus is a full person of the Trinity, as I discussed previously. Even though we commonly refer to Jesus as the “second” person of the Trinity, there’s no hierarchy among the Godhead. What is true of God the Father is also true of Jesus the Son and also true of the Holy Spirit. They are all distinct persons with distinct functions, yet still one united God. Even though Jesus ascended to heaven and is no longer on this earth in bodily form, He did not cease to exist. His presence still resides with us. Jesus still has his human body, yet He is still a full part of God in the Trinity. As seems to be the theme of Christology, this, too, is a paradox that our minds can’t fully understand.
The main work of Jesus Christ is salvation for humanity through His death and resurrection. These events fulfilled the prophecies made about Him in the Old Testament as well as the prophecies He made of Himself as recorded in the Gospels during His earthly ministry. After His resurrection, Jesus began His reign on the throne of heaven over all nations, and He is the one high priest who reigns over all the world.
The primary roles of Jesus coming to earth were to serve as the mediator between God and mankind and to bring us salvation. Our sin separated us from God, and we need Jesus to bridge that gap in our relationship. Jesus is shown to be our mediator in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.” Jesus shows His dual role of mediator and bearer of our salvation in Hebrews 9:15: “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”
Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Christ. He is the one who is both fully God and fully human at the same time, who lived a life without sin, who willingly died for us to bridge the gap that we created between ourselves and God with our sin. Put your faith in Jesus today so that you can experience the reward of what Jesus has done for us - eternal life with Him forever!
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Sin affects everything. We discussed last week that all people are sinful because of the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. But what exactly is sin and how does God address it?
The theological word for the study of sin is hamartiology. It comes from the Greek word hamartia, which means sin, and of course the “-ology” means the study of. As we look at sin today, we’re engaging in hamartiology.
Where did sin come from? Early church scholar Tertullian (who lived in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD) believed that the origin of sin is in the devil. He believed Satan was discontent that God had created the whole world in God’s image, and then Satan passed that discontent to Eve who passed it to Adam, and that’s why sin and death entered into the world. The devil didn’t cause Adam and Eve to sin, but they each made that choice out of their free will.
For a more modern take on the matter, theologian Karl Rahner (who lived in the 20th century) believes that all sin is a rejection of God in every choice that we make. Each choice we make is either a “yes” or a “no” to God. Saying “yes” to God results in obedience, whereas saying “no” results in sin, rejecting God’s attempt to communicate Himself to us and for us to live that out.
The 18th-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard believed that sin is not necessarily an essential characteristic of being human, even though it is inevitable that everyone will sin. This implies that sin is not “original” to us but rather something we will all do. Personally, I believe that the Bible supports the concept of original sin, so I don’t agree with Kierkegaard on this matter.
However you believe that sin came into the world, there are three types of sin that we can commit: personal, social, individual, and corporate. Personal sin is what separates us from God as individuals and from His image we were created in, while social sin separates us from others around us. Corporate sin separates an entire community from God, based on the sins of the individuals and how the community as a whole views their relationship with God.
The Old Testament prophets primarily explain corporate sin for the nation of Israel. Many examples of this exist throughout the books of the prophets, and basically the entire book of Judges, but you can find a few examples in Jeremiah 18:7-8 and Ezekiel 18:30. Any group of people is made up of individuals who make individual choices, so the individuals in that group must repent of their sins in order for the group to repent.
Jesus tells us that sin is both personal and social, separating us both from God and in our relationships with one another. “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15). In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus gives us instructions on how to deal with sin with our fellow believers in the Church. In Mark 9:43-48, Jesus warns about how serious the consequences of sin are: the consequence for sin is eternal separation from God in hell.
The Apostle Paul builds on Jesus’ teachings on sin, and he emphasizes that death is the consequence of sinning against God. Paul’s viewpoint is that sin is primarily individual (see Romans 7:14-20), but there is still a corporate aspect to it (Romans 5:12). Throughout Romans, Paul writes on the struggle that we as humans have with sin, and the constant battle we have between choosing God and choosing what our sinful flesh wants to do.
All this sounds pretty depressing, right? We’re all going to sin. The consequence of that sin is eternal death and punishment. But God is good, so there must be hope for us miserable humans! That’s where God’s grace comes in; that’s the other aspect of hamartiology so that we’re not left in total despair.
According to early church theologian Augustine, the nature of grace is “God’s generous and quite unmerited attention to humanity, by which this healing process may begin.” Grace is God’s presence through Christ that transforms us. It’s God’s act of rescue for humanity. We were created as good in God’s image, but we as humans made the choice to disobey God and needed His rescue and redemption. Grace is freely given to us by God, and there’s nothing we can do to earn it (see Ephesians 2:1-10).
Reformation theologian Martin Luther reflects on the nature of sin, grace, and God’s goodness: “God is so good that He would not allow evil to happen if He did not intend to make something better of it. He allowed Adam to fall, but thence arose a redemption so great that God became man and our Savior.” Our sin is an opportunity for God to show us His goodness by providing a way for us to be redeemed and still experience eternal life with Him.
Romans 6:23 sums up hamartiology very well: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We all sin and deserve death for it, but God loves us so much that through Jesus, He gives us the opportunity for eternal life if we have faith in Him.
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As we continue our study of the branches of theology, the next one is anthropology. The word itself comes from the Greek word anthropos, which means “man” or “mankind.” So, anthropology is the overall study of humankind and what makes us human, which we’ll take a look at in this blog post.
As followers of the God of the Bible, the easy answer to the question of what makes us human is God. We know that God created us in His image (Genesis 1:26-27), but what exactly does that mean?
First of all, being created in God’s image does NOT mean that we are God. God is God, and we are not; we are His creation and He made us (Psalm 100:3). We have some of God’s attributes reflected in us, but not all of them. God’s immanent attributes (love, faithfulness, mercy, justice, wisdom, and goodness) are reflected in us as humans, though imperfectly because of the sin that we brought into this world. God’s transcendent attributes (self-sufficiency, eternality, omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, immutability, and impassibility) are not reflected in us at all. (See last week’s post for more on those.)
Being created in God’s image means that we have the capability of becoming more like God as we strive to imitate Jesus Christ and to become more like Him. This is the likeness of God in our lives. We have the ability to reason because of God’s image in us. Because we are God’s image-bearers, we have dominion over Creation (Genesis 1:28-30). Because every human being bears God’s image, all life is considered to be sacred. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbor in Luke 10:25-37, we know that our “neighbor” is every other person, because every person is created in God’s image. Loving our neighbor is seeing God’s image in them; because we love God, we love that person too.
There are two main schools of thought on what makes us up as created beings in God’s image. One is that we are a dichotomy - we are body and soul, or body and spirit. The other is that we are a trichotomy - body, soul, and spirit. Those who believe that we are a dichotomy see everything physical about us as our body, and everything else is our soul or our spirit. Those who believe that we are a trichotomy view the soul as the image of God in us, whereas the spirit is the breath of life that we receive from God.
Reformation theologian Martin Luther held the dichotomy point of view, basing it on Matthew 10:28: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” That verse clearly refers to only the body and soul. 1 Corinthians 5:5 also refers to the dichotomy point of view, whereas 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrews 4:12 seem to point to the trichotomy idea.
Whether you believe that humans are a dichotomy or a trichotomy, it is clear that we have two natures: our fallen (sinful) nature, and the image of God. God’s original intention for humans was perfection, a perfect reflection of His image. But when the first humans sinned (Genesis 3), they gained a fallen nature. The image of God still exists in us; it is evident in our will, our ability to reason, our self-awareness, knowledge of our place in the universe, and our ability to create. Evidence of the sinful nature exists in death, disease, and our innate desire to worship self and anything other than God. Humans were initially created totally in God’s image, but our fall into sinfulness constantly distorts that image in us.
Are humans by nature good, or by nature evil? That is the question. Martin Luther believed that humans are completely corrupt and fallen, and it is only through the Holy Spirit that we can do anything that is good. Philosopher Paul Tillich believed that we are mostly good, but our sinfulness separates us from God. There was a heresy in the early church brought forth by Pelagius that says that humans are pure and fully able to maintain that uncorrupted state; Christ was perfect, so any Christian has the ability to be perfect as well. This teaching of Pelagius was rejected by the early church in 418 AD, because of the doctrine of original sin.
So, what is original sin? It is the teaching that all humans are sinful simply because we are human. Every person after Adam and Eve is born with a sinful nature; it is passed through our DNA. The idea of original sin is supported by Scripture passages such as Psalm 51:5 and Ephesians 2:3. Some believe that we only have the potential for sin in our lives because of our fallen nature, not because we have original sin in our DNA.
Why does all this matter? How we view mankind affects how we relate to our fellow human beings. If we believe that all people are created in God’s image, we will do our best to treat them all with God’s love. If we believe that people are only some kind of animal and God has nothing to do with it, then we will be selfish and not care about others. If we believe that all people are sinful and in need of hearing the good news of the gospel message, we are much more likely to share that message with them, than if we believe that people are good by nature and not in need of God and the salvation that He offers us.
The questions regarding humanity don’t always have easy answers, but through studying who we are as humans, we can learn more about God and who He is. We were created in His image and His likeness, even though we are sinful and far from perfect as God is perfect. Whether we are a dichotomy or a trichotomy, whether we are by nature good or evil, whether we have original sin in our lives or just sin because we have a fallen nature, God is still God. We are His creation, and we were created to worship Him and bring Him glory.
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Last week, I wrote about why studying theology is important for all followers of Christ. As we begin digging deeper into the various areas of theology, the first one will investigate is known as theology proper: the study of God and who He is.
One thing that is very important is to realize that God cannot be fully described or understood by our finite human minds. He is the infinite God, and as His creation, there is no way we can completely comprehend Him in our fallen and sinful state in this world. Our human minds are unable to understand that which is larger than us, and God is much, much larger than even our greatest understanding. We may try to define God, but it’s not us who defines Him but rather He reveals Himself to us.
But, God has revealed a lot about Himself to us through both general and special revelation. General revelation is what we can know about God through nature and the creation He has given us (see Romans 1:20). While general revelation can tell us some about who God is, there are no specific saving truths communicated through it; that’s why we also need special revelation. Special revelation is God’s Word as revealed in the person of Jesus, the written form of the Old and New Testaments, and through preaching, teaching, and study. Special revelation tells us specific truths about God’s character and our relationship with Him.
God’s nature can best be described through His attributes, which are categorized into immanent and transcendent. Immanent attributes are ones that we can know through our reason and reading of God’s Word. Those generally include love, faithfulness, mercy, justice, wisdom, and goodness. Transcendent attributes are ones that can only be accepted on revelation since they are outside the scope of our full understanding. Those generally include self-sufficiency, eternality, omnipresence (all-present), omnipotence (all-powerful), omniscience (all-knowing), immutability (changeability), and impassibility (ability to suffer). You can read about some of those attributes at their links or in this blog series by my fellow author Charlie Wolcott.
We often try to define God in human terms, but God is definitely not a human. He’s not a created being as we are, so He does not have the same attributes as we do. We can only get a dim glimpse, at best, of who God is based on what He has revealed to us. Augustine of Hippo is attributed as saying, “If it is understandable, it’s not God.”
God can also be defined as Trinity - three distinct persons yet one God - though that is also a difficult concept for us humans to fully understand. Each person (the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) has its own function, but none of their functions can happen without the other persons and their internal relationship to one another. We see some of this interaction somewhat explained in the following verses, all of which are Jesus speaking:
“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26)
“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father —the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.” (John 15:26)
“No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” (John 16:27)
There are many analogies for the Trinity, but all of them break down at some point. One is an egg; the yolk, white, and shell are 3 distinct parts, but all make up one egg. Another is juggling with 3 balls; each ball is unique, and the whole of juggling can’t happen without one of them. But both of these analogies break apart in that the pieces of each can be separated, while God cannot be separated. Another analogy, used by Augustine, is a psychological one of mind, emotion, and knowledge; they are 3 distinct aspects of a human personality, and all are present to make up a human.
If all of this sounds confusing, it is. Even the great theologian Martin Luther struggled with describing the Trinity. He once wrote:
“To be sure, a threeness does exist in the Godhead, but this threeness exists in the Persons of the one Godhead. Not three Gods, not three Lords, not three Creators, but one God, one Lord, one Creator, or, as we are wont to say: One divine Essence and yet three distinct Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I call this Being a Threeness, for threefoldness sounds strange. I cannot give this Being a fitting name.”
There is so much more that could be written about who God is, and a lot of theologians have spent many hours and many big words discussing and arguing over nuances of God’s character based on what God has revealed to us. There are a variety of beliefs that exist in the Christian world about specific characteristics of God where the Scriptures are not clear, but the most important aspect to remember is that God is God and we are not. We can never fully understand who He is, but we can be thankful for His general and special revelation to us and the ways He does reveal His character to us.
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What is theology? Isn’t that something the seminary students study? Why should your average Christian even think about studying theology? This blog post will look into these questions and give you a basic understanding of what theology is and why it’s important.
Most briefly, theology is the study of God using various study methods. The word theology itself is made up of the Greek word theos, which means God, and the Greek word logos, which most simply means word but also refers to Jesus (as The Word), and it can mean any sort of rational utterance or study. Most literally, theology is the study of God, but it also refers to the systematic study of the Christian religion as a whole. It is a way for those who follow Christ to attempt to learn more about God, even though He is ultimately unknowable by our finite human minds.
Theology can refer to knowing God through the Scriptures given to us as His Word, the faith traditions of those who have come before us, using our intellect to reason who God is, and our personal experiences of God. If those sound familiar, that’s because I wrote on these sources of authority a couple of months ago. We learn about various attributes or characteristics of God through Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.
There are lots of ways to define theology, as it is a very broad field. Theology is not just an academic exercise but also a formational one. My working definition of theology is that it is studying beliefs about God and the practice of Christianity using particular methods, including academic study and spiritual reflection on God and His Word.
But why is studying theology even important? There are three main reasons: defining our faith, defending our faith, and seeking understanding about God.
Our faith must be defined in some way, or else we do not understand what we believe. I grew up in a Christian home, and for many years I believed certain things about God because my church, my teachers, or my parents told them to me. But to mature in my faith, I had to figure out not only what I believed but why I believed it.
Theology helps us understand the boundaries of our faith, and therefore we can defend the faith better to those who do not believe or who may not believe the same things we believe. One important aspect to remember in defending our faith is the difference between dogma, doctrine, and opinion. Dogmas are truths that are the foundation of the Christian faith, such as the fact that Jesus was fully God and fully man, and that He came to earth, died, and was raised to provide salvation for all of humanity. Denying a dogma is considered heresy. Doctrines are significantly important to the faith, but not as important as dogma. Different churches hold to different doctrines of baptism; they are important, but not as important as the dogma of salvation through Jesus. Finally, opinions are issues that don’t really matter and don’t have a strong basis in Scripture. The Greek word for these matters of opinion is adiaphora, which refers to the stuff that doesn’t really matter for salvation. The particular style of worship used in a congregation is a matter of opinion or adiaphora. Theology is important to help us distinguish what matters are dogma, doctrine, or opinion, and to defend the ones that are important.
Theology is also important for us to seek understanding about God. We don’t study theology for purely academic reasons; we study theology because we want to know the God we believe in. Our God is a relational God; He wants to be in a relationship with us. We desire to know those with whom we are in relationships. This aspect of studying theology deals with the way we practice our faith and experience God in our lives.
Studying theology gives us understanding so that our practice of Christianity is well-grounded and useful for ourselves as individuals and the community around us. When we grow in our knowledge and understanding of God, we are able to grow in our faith and our personal spiritual formation. However, we also need to look at theology from a somewhat neutral perspective; we need to be open to new ideas if that’s where the study takes us. We should not remain stuck in previous beliefs if they are not the Truth of God’s Word. Just because I believed something for many years doesn’t make it the truth; Truth is defined by God Himself and how He has revealed Himself to us.
The first step to studying theology is to believe in God’s Word as absolute truth. Reformation theologian Martin Luther said, “When a person desires to become learned in spiritual and divine matters, the beginning is made by simply believing the Word of God.” Luther’s method of studying theology was to first remember that the Scriptures are of supreme importance over human reason, to meditate on the Word to gain insight from the Holy Spirit, and to prepare to be tempted by the devil as we grow in understanding of who God is.
We need to understand what we are believing in so that we can truly believe it and live it out. If we only pursue studying theology for academic purposes, it will have no meaning in our lives. We need to pursue theology so we can know more about the God who created us.
Theology is studying beliefs about God and the practice of Christianity using particular methods, including academic study and spiritual reflection on God and His Word. This study is important to define our faith, defend the faith, bring knowledge and understanding into the Christian world, and to experience personal formation as a Christian.
Join me on this journey over the next couple of months as we look into each main branch of theology. Join me in learning more about who God is, discovering who we are as His creation, and experiencing growth in our faith.
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
