by Steve Risner
After a short break, we’re looking back at interviews done by Dr. Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina University, a paleontologist who discovered soft tissue in dinosaur bones. Her findings are consistent with what Biblical creationists believe and have believed all along: that creation of the earth and therefore life forms like dinosaurs happened about 6000 years ago and that dinosaur fossils were likely from the Flood of Noah’s day which was about 4400 years ago or so. Creationists have been attacked for saying such things, but it’s obviously true. We will look at some of the things Dr. Schweitzer, a Christian and former YEC (young-earth creationist), says about her discovery today.
Let’s start with something we’ve often said about how scientists, in their bias, may work in some of these scenarios. Dr. Schweitzer says:
And the danger of thinking you know everything is that it squashes curiosity and discourages further investigation. When I started down this path that I'm on, everybody “knew” organics don't persist in dinosaur bone. The bones are just too old. Organics degrade. You can't get DNA. You can't get cells. You certainly are not going to get cells in tissues. Well, so nobody looks. And if nobody looks...
Everybody “knew” organics don’t persist in dinosaur bones for two reasons: 1) because they believe dinosaur bones are tens of millions of years old and 2) research shows us that soft tissue can only persist for, under the most ideal conditions, for maybe 100,000 years if we’re lucky. Dr. Schweitzer acknowledged this, saying, “So, that leaves us with two alternatives for interpretation: either the dinosaurs aren’t as old as we think they are, or maybe we don’t know exactly how these things get preserved.” In other words, what we believe may be incorrect or what we have studied in the lab and determined fairly conclusively is incorrect. Hmm. It seems a lot of times that scientists don’t want to follow the science, especially if it means they need to abandon preconceived ideas and beliefs that are unverifiable.
Other things Dr. Schweitzer said on this topic of not believing what her evidence was trying to tell her were things like: “…of course everyone knew there cannot be organics in bone this old…” And, after being questioned by someone about what looked like blood cells in the sample, she said, “’What do you think they are?’ And I said, ‘Well, I know they can't be blood cells, but they're in the right place, the right location, the right size, and they're nucleated.’” After another colleague saw the red blood cells, she recalls, “My colleague brought it back and showed me, and I just got goose bumps, because everyone knows these things don't last for 65 million years.” She went so far as to walk on eggshells for a while, even using vague terms to not draw too much attention. “I never called them blood vessels or red blood cells. I said, ‘vessel-like structures,’ ‘cell-like structures.’”
Creationists are often badgered for taking Dr. Schweitzer’s work for what it seems to indicate: that the belief in dinosaur bones being at least 65 million years old is wrong. Many scientists have decided to hold on to this belief and have instead rejected the scientific research telling us soft tissue cannot persist for tens of millions of years. Do you see the problem here? They’ve decided to uphold a belief rather than trust the science. Yet, creationists are ridiculed for such things routinely. In fact, Professor Jack Horner, Dr. Schweitzer’s mentor, even recategorized the facts of the research to be called “assumptions.” In Discover Magazine, Professor Horner says that if soft tissue can last 65 million years, “there may be a lot of things out there that we’ve missed because of our assumption of how preservation works.” You see, it’s not factual anymore that research tells us soft tissue cannot last 1/650th of the time frame they require. It’s an assumption. Perhaps it would do the good professor a little better to realize that claiming the dinosaur fossils are 65 million years old is an assumption—an unprovable one at that. While I can agree our assumptions can cause us to miss things, he’s declared the wrong bit of information an assumption.
With her discovery, her fist instinct, because she “knew” that soft tissue couldn’t be there, was to deny it and then, after she came to grips with it, to hide it. She says in this interview, “And so I sat there and I thought, ‘I'm not telling anybody.’” Obviously, she didn’t stick with that strategy. But, again, creationists are criticized for giving Dr. Schweitzer grief over this find, but the truth is she believed her own colleagues would bad mouth her. And they did. In her words, “The results were not well accepted. I mean, they were very controversial.”
This is one place of several where science can break down in terms of its objectivity. Either fear of ridicule and loss of funding squelch new discoveries or the desire for more funding and notoriety force sensational finds that really might not be so sensational. I believe the discovery of “Lucy” was like this. I wrote a little about that in this blog post called “Lucy’s Split Personality.” Following that link, you can see another famous scientist pointing to the exact same problems with some scientists. Johanson says, “It is hard for me now to admit how tangled in that thicket I was. But the insidious thing about bias is that it does make one deaf to the cries of other evidence.” The “other evidence” in this case would be research I’ve linked to previously that tells us soft tissue cannot remain remotely intact for 65 million (or in some cases a half billion) years.
But this is truly an example of, “Don’t confuse me with the facts. I’ve already made up my mind.” Dr. Schweitzer even recognizes the truth in the research, saying, "Everyone knows how soft tissues degrade. If you take a blood sample and you stick it on a shelf, you have nothing recognizable in about a week. So why would there be anything left in dinosaurs?" Jeffrey Bada, an organic geochemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, cannot imagine soft tissue surviving millions of years, says an article on the topic in Discover Magazine.
As I’ve stated often and even in this series, the “unbiased science” that we all want to trust so much comes down to money and publicity. Dr. Schweitzer complains about this, rightly so I would think, saying, “That's the saddest part about doing science in America: You are totally driven by what gets you funding.”
For creationists, truth doesn’t rest on funding. It is based on the Word of God. John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” The ultimate source of truth is not found in science or scientists but in the God we serve. There are truths that the world can give us—the weight of a gallon of milk, the speed of the moon rotating about the earth, the conductivity of a certain metal. But there are truths far more important than this that truly give us meaning and purpose. Truth that answers questions like: Where did I come from? What is my purpose? Where am I going? Who am I? These questions are found answered in the Word of God. I hope you’ll join me as I join David as he says in Psalm 25:5, “Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”
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by Jaya DeZurik
The most basic teaching of Christianity is that God is love. From the creation of Adam and Eve in Genesis to the promise of Christ’s return in Revelation, God’s love is revealed throughout all Scripture. There are three facets of God’s love demonstrated in the Bible that I will point out.
1. God’s love in consistent. His love doesn’t waver or change from day to day. God’s love stays the same regardless of man’s inconsistency. God’s love for us does not fluctuate; it remains constant and consistent with His character. Even in the days of Noah, God’s love for mankind did not diminish. In fact, God grieved that He had made people because their actions became so deplorable. Their violence grieved Him because of His love for them. In His great love for mankind, He saved the one righteous man, Noah, and his family, thereby saving future generations that include us. Psalm 36:5-7 says, “Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love!”
2. God’s love is persistent. God’s love continues forever despite our opposition and outright defiance toward Him. God will not quit loving anyone. We see God’s patient endurance with people throughout Scripture. As the Israelites repeat the pattern of reaping the consequences of their sin, repenting, and turning to God, He was always faithful to forgive them out of His great love for them. God knows the mind and patterns of men, yet His love continues for us forever. Psalm 106:1 says, “Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
3. God’s love is insistent. God is resolute in His love for us. He WILL love us because He IS love. God’s love for us will not back off or back down no matter what. In His infinite wisdom, God knows how fickle our feelings are and how erratic we are in our behavior. He will love us in spite of our changing attitudes toward Him. God loves us when all we see is the goodness of God and when all we see is the ugliness of life. Romans 8:38-39 says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
When we go through difficult times in life, it seems or feels as though God has rejected, abandoned, or forgotten us. It is important to remember that God always loves us and is always motivated by love toward us because God IS love. Even when it appears that our circumstances are determined by anything but love, God is still true to His character of love. Our perception of love comes through lives tainted by sin and wounds and influenced by our physical perceptions. I encourage you to remember and believe that God loves you, even if your feelings and life situations tell you otherwise.
God’s love for you is consistent; it is steady and unwavering.
God’s love for you is persistent; it perseveres and never quits.
God’s love for you is insistent; it is unrelenting.
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After the remarkable reign of King Josiah of Judah, the next king was his son Jehoahaz. The short 3-month reign of King Jehoahaz of Judah (not to be confused with the previous King Jehoahaz of Israel) is recorded in 2 Kings 23:31-35 and 2 Chronicles 36:1-4.
Even though his father King Josiah was one of the best kings of Judah, genuinely getting rid of all idol worship and cleansing the nation of that sin, King Jehoahaz reverted everything back to disobeying God. King Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and 2 Kings 23:32 reports that “He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his predecessors had done.” Of course, those predecessors do not include King Josiah or the good King Hezekiah, but rather many of the other kings of Judah who did not follow God’s ways.
It is interesting that Jehoahaz was the one to become the king. According to 1 Chronicles 3:15, King Josiah’s oldest son was Johanan, then Jehoiakim, then Zedekiah, then Shallum. Shallum is also known as Jehoahaz, so according to that verse, he was actually 4th in line to become king! Because we don’t hear anything else about Johanan, it is suspected that he died young. It is not known why Jehoiakim was passed over for king, but the suspicion among scholars is that they had different mothers, and Jehoahaz’s mother was more favored than Jehoiakim’s.
But what about Zedekiah, the 3rd son according to 1 Chronicles 3:15? According to 2 Kings 24:18, Zedekiah was actually much younger than Jehoahaz. Zedekiah was 21 when he became king (after Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin), so he would have been maybe 10 years old when Jehoahaz became king. The names of Zedekiah and Jehoahaz were likely written together because they had the same mother, and Zedekiah’s name would be listed first due to his longer reign. It’s all somewhat confusing, really, but when records are from the 500s BC, they don’t always perfectly agree.
Just 3 months into Jehoahaz’s reign, he was captured by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt and imprisoned in Egypt. The Pharaoh made Josiah’s oldest son Eliakim (also known as Jehoiakim) the king of Judah instead. King Jehoiakim’s reign is recorded in 2 Kings 23:36-24:6 and 2 Chronicles 36:5-8.
Just as with King Jehoahaz, King Jehoiakim did evil in God’s eyes. While Jehoiakim was king, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land of Judah. Jehoiakim became Nebuchadnezzar’s slave for 3 years, but then he rebelled, evidently having waited for an opportune time. But his rebellion was not enough to turn the tides in favor of Judah.
We read in 2 Kings 24:2-3: “The LORD sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by his servants the prophets. Surely these things happened to Judah according to the LORD’s command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was not willing to forgive.”
As a reminder, the succession of kings of Judah went: Manassah, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, then Jehoiakim. King Manasseh was considered one of the worst kings of Judah, and Amon, Jehoahaz, and Jehoiakim followed in that path, even though the nation of Judah had a period of following God under King Josiah. Under King Manasseh’s reign, Judah sinned so severely that they should expect a very severe judgment from God, and that was definitely beginning during King Jehoiakim’s reign with the invasion of Babylon.
Remember that King Jehoahaz had been captured by Egypt, and now Babylon was coming after Judah as well. Things were definitely not looking good for this nation! We learn in 2 Kings 24:7 that Babylon was the stronger of these two powers; they had taken over Egypt’s territory. This is foreshadowing how God would use Babylon to send Judah into exile as punishment for their continued disobedience. At this point, there are still two more kings before the nation of Judah is completely taken over by Babylon.
What can we learn from these two kings, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim? For one thing, it’s not about who your parents are. Both of them were sons of King Josiah, who did the most for turning the nation of Judah back to a life of obedience to God. They did not follow in their father’s footsteps at all but rather did the exact opposite. Because of their disobedience to God, both of these kings personally suffered – King Jehoahaz at the hand of Pharaoh Necho of Egypt and King Jehoiakim at the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The nation of Judah also suffered, as both of their reigns pushed the people closer to a time of being exiled from their land.
While God is a loving and forgiving God, there is a point where His anger at disobedience becomes too great and punishment must happen. What are you doing in your own life to foster obedience to God rather than disobedience, both for yourself and for those around you?
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The first and perhaps most important theology “system” we can have regarding the Christian faith is Bibliology – the study of the Bible. Check out my numerous posts about the Bible (including my recent series on how to read the Bible) and my book Ten Reasons to Believe the Bible for more on this, but I’ll provide a quick recap here. The Bible is the source for all Christian doctrine, and it simply amazes me how many professing Christians seem to constantly resist the Bible, even while proclaiming they believe it and that it is inspired.
For the Christian, the Bible is supposed the ultimate authority on all matters. It is supposed to be our go-to for any decision, big or small, and every interaction we make in life. And frankly, as I explained in my last series on how to read the Bible, it has the authority over ALL authorities, includes pagan and secular. It is not an ordinary book. Until just the past one hundred years or so, even secular intellectuals who did not agree with the Bible believed that they could not consider themselves educated unless they had some working knowledge of what the Bible said. And I believe I have a fair argument that the reason secular society lost any respect for the Bible, even though they hate it, is because the church in the West lost respect for it.
I will blame the acceptance of “millions of years” into the Church as the catalyst for this. The moment the big names in Christianity in the 1800-1900s caved on Genesis 1, the world saw that as “open season” to fire upon the Church, and the Church has been totally powerless to stop it. The Scopes Trial pitted Day-Age Creationist William Jennings Bryan against Clarence Darrow, and it was clear that Darrow knew his Bible better than Bryan did. Darrow publicly embarrassed Bryan in his attack on Genesis, and Bryan had no answer for it. This did even more damage that Samuel Wilberforce’s loss to Huxley in the “Great Debate” of 1860. Though Darrow lost on a “narrow” decision because he did teach Evolution, which was illegal at the time, it was shown to be a great victory for the anti-Christians. In 1962, just 40 years after Scopes, God was removed from the public square over the Creation/Evolution debate, and the Church sat back and did nothing, with the exception of a small group of men spearheaded by Henry Morris and John Whitcomb whose book The Genesis Flood, published one year prior to the Supreme Court’s decision, finally gave the church a weapon to fight back with. How did they do that?
They believed the Bible on what it actually said and used it to combat Evolution and the compromised preachers to get people back to actually believing the Bible. They knew the Bible taught a 6-day creation and a global flood, and guess what? Many of the compromised preachers did too. They just didn’t know how to account for the “science” part of it. But they made a fatal mistake: they let science override the clear meaning of Scripture. In regards to origins, they thought it was a secondary issue, partly because origins was not part of the formal list of theological systems, despite being formally codified as part central doctrines in the Creeds and namely the 1647 Westminster Confession of Faith that specifically states 6-day creation (Q9). These compromised preachers did not defend the Bible against the attacks of the “enlightened” deists who were known to vocally oppose the Bible.
What has happened since? It is getting harder and harder to find a preacher who actually preaches from the Bible anymore. As I’ve mentioned, look at the creeds and the confessions of the faith throughout the ages. If not explicitly stated, it is clear they all held Scripture at the top and chief authority by which they get all their facts and ways of thinking. Today, even many top defenders of the faith by the Christian community can hardly be seen with a Bible in their hands. It’s as though they pride themselves on being able to defend the faith without the Bible directly. As a result, they may be able to win some intellectual arguments against bad logic users, but there is no real power in their messages. Despite being able to refute atheism and liberalism left and right, these guys really are not seen as threats by the world system and by compromised churches/pastors. Despite claiming to believe the Bible, they seem to never actually USE it. Do we believe this book or not?
Some will accuse me of “biblidolatry,” the worship of the Bible, but you will find that those who make that accusation are always looking to something else besides the Bible to “supplement,” or rather override, what the Bible actually teaches. But the fact remains that the Bible is our only physically tangible connection to God. It is the only thing that we can physically handle to tell us about God, what He is like, and how we should respond to that knowledge. It is also the authority God gave us to check and confirm any teaching we hear. There is a reason the early Church fathers all cited it to the point that we can easily confirm the transmission of Scripture from their writings alone. There is a reason why Paul and the other apostles wrote “according to Scripture” so many times. There is a reason the creeds and confessions all have the Bible as the source for every statement they make. And there is a reason why those who pioneered the fields of science were predominately Christian and held theology as the “Queen of the Sciences.” Instead, what we see now is more and more that the Bible is not actually treated as the inspired Word of God but a mere feel-good inspirational book – only the parts people like.
All our doctrine come from the Bible. It is the Bible that gives us the authority and the standards of how we should act, speak, and think. And despite what some may say, the Bible has the authority and the final say on every topic. Even if the topic is not explicitly covered, such as quantum physics, if the study of quantum physics leads to any idea that does not fit in or agree with the framework the Bible offers, then that study has false premises and therefore false conclusions. God gave us everything we need to have a fully informed framework for reality by which we can test and examine everything. And the biggest key to all that is that man’s own understanding and way of thinking is never going to cut it. We have to rely upon God revealing to us what reality is because only He sees things clearly.
Over the next couple months, I am going to look at the nine other major categories of systematic theology. There is a category for each person of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are categories regarding mankind, sin, salvation, the church, angles, and the end times. In each case, I’m going to address how origins affects each category as well as the key things we need to know about it. What we believe about these categories actually says more about our worldview than most doctrine tests that are given today. So, let’s see what the Bible shows us about each of these.
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After King Amon of Judah was assassinated, his son Josiah became the new king. Josiah was only 8 years old when he became king! His story is recorded in 2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chronicles 34-35. In contrast to the two kings before him, King Amon and King Manasseh, King Josiah was one of the good ones, following God completely and doing what was right in God’s eyes.
Given his young age when he took the throne, his early reign was likely strongly guided by his mother, named in the account as Jedidiah, and other adults in his life who clearly had a strong faith in God. The author of the book of Kings compares him to his ancestor King David, who is widely considered to be the best king that the nation ever had.
In 2 Chronicles 34:3, we see King Josiah not just living off the faith of his mom or those around him but seeking God for himself: “In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols.” He may have only been 16 when he sought the God of King David, but he had already been the king for 8 years at that point! Four years later, he put that faith into action by destroying everything to do with the worship of false gods.
That account goes on to tell of how he destroyed all of the altars to the pagan god Baal, the incense altars, the Asherah poles, and the idols. He even killed the priests who led the idol worship and burned their bones on their former altars. This was prophesied to happen way back in the time of Jeroboam I, shortly after the kingdom split into Israel and Judah. “By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. By the word of the LORD he cried out against the altar: ‘Altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you’’” (1 Kings 13:1-2).
One of the most important events of King Josiah’s reign was the discovery of the Book of the Law, which happened in the 18th year of his reign – 6 years after he destroyed all of the pagan idols and altars. Josiah’s next mission was to restore the temple to its former glory. It had become very neglected after years of Judah not using it to worship the one true God as it was intended. While working in the temple, the priest Hilkiah found the Book of the Law (2 Chronicles 34:14).
What exactly was the Book of the Law? Later in the account, it is also called the Book of the Covenant. Scholars believe it was likely at least what we know as the book of Deuteronomy, and it may have also contained Exodus 19-24 and maybe some of Leviticus. It’s possible that it was the entire Pentateuch, the first 5 books of our Bible. There is not sufficient evidence within the account to determine what was exactly part of the Book of the Law, but it is clear that it made a great impact on King Josiah and the people of Judah.
“When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes” (2 Chronicles 34:19). King Josiah was personally convicted by what was in the Book of the Law. It is likely that this reaction was caused by all the threats of punishment for disobeying God, which he knew the nation of Judah had been doing for a long time. He needed to find out more about this, so he sent Hilkiah the priest and others to inquire of the Lord about this. He knew that God was angry with the people of Judah for all the idolatry they had committed for so long.
They went to the prophetess Huldah, who gave them a message from God in 2 Chronicles 34:23-28. Her words confirmed that God was going to bring judgment on the nation of Judah according to all the curses they read in the Book of the Law due to their past idol worship. But because of King Josiah’s humble and repentant heart, he would not see these disasters during his lifetime.
The greatest moment of King Josiah’s reign is described in 2 Chronicles 32:29-33:
Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the LORD with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD. The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD—to follow the LORD and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book.
Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it; the people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.
Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the LORD, the God of their ancestors.
The next big event of King Josiah’s reign was the celebrating of the Passover, described in 2 Chronicles 35:1-19. This observance publicly affirmed King Josiah’s and the people’s commitment to following God and obeying His commandments once again. The passover had not been observed in that way since the days when Samuel was a prophet, which was almost 400 years earlier, in the days of King Saul and King David, before the nation divided.
No more is recorded about King Josiah’s reign in detail until the end of his life, roughly 13 years after they found the Book of the Law and celebrated the Passover. The king of Egypt was trying to capture a key city on the Euphrates River. He was not attacking Judah but instead going after the Assyrians and the Babylonians. The Egyptian king even warned King Josiah to not engage him in battle as he was following God’s orders, and God would destroy Judah. But, King Josiah did personally engage in the battle, and he was shot by an archer, which ended up being a fatal wound.
The most important lesson we can learn from King Josiah’s reign is that it’s never too late to turn back to God! God’s decision to destroy Judah may have already been made and they were on their way to destruction, but King Josiah’s reign was a glimmer of hope that the people’s hearts could possibly change and they could be devoted to God once again – even if only for a short time.
No matter how much you have sinned in your life, God will always welcome you back to Him! Perhaps God has given you a great revelation like He gave to Judah with the discovery of the Book of the Law, or perhaps someone else’s dramatic turning back to God will inspire you. But however it happens that God draws you back to Him, know that He will always lovingly welcome you back!
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These days if someone hears of systematic theology and knows what it is, R.C. Sproul will likely come to mind. For the longest time, I would hear the term “systematic theology” and not knowing what it was, I would be thinking “boring seminary junk.” However, let me be clear: you cannot do the Christian life without doing theology. Some may say, “I don’t have a religion, I have a relationship.” Guess what? That relationship requires theology – studying and knowing God. For more on why to study theology, check out this blog post that introduced Katie Erickson’s series on systematic theology.
My first exposure to systematic theology was Todd Friel and Steven Lawson’s series called “Drive by Theology.” It is basically 36 twenty-minute sessions about the major categories of systematic theology. Then I heard R.C. Sproul’s 60-session teachings on systematic theology. And it’s not this giant monster that people tend to think it is. Systematic theology is simply the major “systems” or “themes” that are seen throughout the Bible. Depending on who organizes them, there are perhaps ten major units to systematic theology.
Bibliology: The study of the origins, authority, and transmission of Scripture
Theology Proper: The study of God the Father
Christology: The study of God the Son, Jesus Christ
Pneumatology: The study of God the Holy Spirit
Anthropology: The study of mankind and the identity of man
Hamartiology: The study of sin – its effects, nature, and causes
Soteriology: The study of salvation
Ecclesiology: The study of the church
Angelology: The study of angels and demons
Eschatology: The study of the end times
One that that greatly surprised me about this list: Creation, or Cosmology, is not on the list. Eric Ludy included it on his list of seven in his sermon “Christophany,” but he was listing seven debate points that have a tendency of missing the central focus: Jesus Christ. He also included some terms he made up such as “Sabbathology” (the study of the Sabbath day of rest), “Ettiquitology” (the study of etiquette – moral appearance and clothing) and “Powerology” (gifts of the Spirit including speaking in tongues).
In my personal studies, I have seen creation being completely foundational to every other doctrine, where every single statement about the faith has some root or foreshadow laid down in Genesis. I have heard many preachers make such comments, but to this day, I have not heard or or read any study that actually goes through each of the major doctrines or tenets of the faith to showcase the critical role that Genesis plays. So, I’m working on writing a book that goes through the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed statements and showcases where those have their foundation in Genesis. Worldview Warriors Publishing is aiming to release that book in summer 2023.
In March 2022, The Master’s University launched The Math3ma Institute Journal, which is a full peer-reviewed journal that intends to showcase both science and theology together. The opening article is from Dr. Abner Chao titled “The Queen of the Sciences: Reclaiming the Rightful Place of Theology and Creation.” In this article, Chao showcases the rightful place of theology, creation, Scripture’s revelation, what general revelation actually is, and what man’s knowledge is. It’s a spectacular way of saying the things I’ve been trying to say all along, however he really nailed it when he went through all ten of these systematic theology categories and in one paragraph each, addressing what happened when one gets creation wrong and how it will lead to getting the rest of it wrong.
So, over the next ten weeks, I am going to look at each of these ten major systems, or categories, of central theological topics that are covering throughout the Bible and are central to Christian thought. Why Creation is left out might be because Creation had never been attacked prior to the development of these “systems” (Sproul did not come up with them; he’s just the most well-known teacher of them) and/or because the doctrines of Creation are so intertwined with each of these systems that all ten still cover creation when properly and deeply enough explored.
Another thing I will emphasize is how often all these topics overlap. That’s one thing I love about the Bible. It releases bits and pieces of each doctrine to the point where you cannot ignore or remove even a single verse without affecting something else or in best case scenario, at least having that teaching echoed elsewhere. Never is a single doctrine taught in only one place.
The systems of systematic theology are basically major themes through which we can examine the faith and doctrines and teachings. They give us a structure in how to do our studies and to help keep us on track. Through this series, I simply want to help us with the core structures of the Bible and Christianity because when we understand these systems properly, as much as our finite minds can handle, we will be able to discern true and false doctrines as they come in and out from both friendly and unfriendly sources.
We’ll start by examining Bibliology because one thing Todd Friel pointed out is that in nearly every creed or confession of church history, they always started with the Bible and drew every statement and tenet from Scripture. If we do not give the Bible the place it deserves, we will drift off to who knows where, but it won’t be the truth. And do not be deceived; many profess to believe the Bible when they most certainly do not. That is why Jesus was far more interested in obedience to the Word, not just hearing it. Tune in next week.
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After the very evil reign of King Manasseh of Judah, his son Amon took over the throne. While King Manasseh had followed the good King Hezekiah (who followed the evil King Ahaz), sadly Amon did not continue the trend of alternating between good and evil reigns.
King Amon’s brief reign is documented in 2 Kings 21:18-26 and 2 Chronicles 33:21-25. He only reigned as king for 2 years, even though he was just 22 years old when he became king.
In the short summary of his reign, he is directly compared to his father King Manasseh: “He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. He followed completely the ways of his father, worshiping the idols his father had worshiped, and bowing down to them. He forsook the LORD, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in obedience to him” (2 Kings 21:20-22).
The apple did not fall far from the tree with King Amon. Even though prophets warned the nation under King Manasseh’s reign that God would completely wipe them out if they did not change their ways, King Amon continued all of the idol worship and sacrifices to idols that his father promoted. He did not obey God, and neither did the people under his leadership.
The parallel account in 2 Chronicles says that “But unlike his father Manasseh, he did not humble himself before the LORD; Amon increased his guilt” (2 Chronicles 33:23). King Amon just kept making things worse for himself and for the people of Judah.
But, just 2 years into his reign, King Amon suffered some immediate consequences for that. His officials assassinated him, right there in his palace! The Scriptures do not state the reason for this assassination, whether the officials disagreed with King Amon and his idolatry or if they simply wanted to make a power grab. There was “behind the scenes” drama going on between Judah and the Assyrians, so the officials may have been involved in that.
But right after King Amon’s officials assassinated him, they experienced immediate consequences for that action – the people of Judah rose up and killed them! So if it was a power grab, they didn’t get to experience that power. This all turned out very good for the people, though, since they made King Amon’s son Josiah the next king (even though he was only 8 years old), and he was one of the very good ones who brought the people back to following God.
Scripture does not record the feelings and motivations of the officials or the people of Judah in this situation. But, perhaps the people were smarter than their king, and they knew that idolatry was not the path they should be following. Perhaps they knew that the king had to be taken down, and then for good measure, they took down the people who assassinated the king too! This was clearly God working in the hearts and lives of the people of Judah, as they needed to get away from the idol worship that was rampant under King Manasseh and then King Amon.
How does this apply to us today? Take a look at national politics here in the U.S. today – and even in the last 10-15 years for that matter. Are our leaders more like King Hezekiah or King Manasseh and King Amon? Is our leadership following the one true God and encouraging the people to do the same? Or is our leadership encouraging following idols and false gods and encouraging the people to do the same?
From my perspective, it is definitely the latter and not the former; our government officials seem to be following the path of the evil kings of Judah much more than the good kings. Not only am I not seeing any encouragement to follow God from our elected leaders, but there is an active discouragement of following God. People are encouraged to worship idols, especially the most prevalent idol in our society today – the idol of self.
The transgender movement is one of the “popular” manifestations of the idol of self today. It says that you should pay no attention to how God created you to be, whether male or female; only pay attention to what you feel like. It encourages people to do whatever will draw the most attention to them and their own personal “courage” and “bravery” in the face of the “adversity” of people “misgendering” them. Transgenderism is one way that people are bowing down to the idol of self and encouraging others to do the same.
The idol of self is also seen in the social media culture of today. Social media is primarily about focusing on self and developing an audience of people who want to follow (and perhaps worship) you. Yes, social media can definitely be used to point people toward God and His Biblical teachings, so it is not all bad. But far too often, social media is about promoting and giving glory to oneself rather than promoting and giving all glory to God where it is rightfully due.
Some of the corruption of our government leaders and organizations has been revealed in recent days that they have been censoring the speech of those who disagree with them – those who believe in God’s created order of things and that God should receive the glory rather than His creation. This is simply active idolatry; people wanting the power that only God should have. They want to control others and “play God” rather than encouraging the liberty to which God has called us, where every person is equally valuable in God’s eyes and we all deserve to be able to speak out to honor and glorify Him.
Learn from the short reign of King Amon and pray about what God would have you do to bring Him the glory that He – and only He – deserves. Do not fall into the idolatrous trap of our society today, but continue to rely on the only real source of truth, the Word of God.
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.
