Wow...ok, I meant to post this Sunday...it's been a frustrating week.
Anyway, in the last post I discussed the importance of theology for our Christian walk. While I'm sure more could be said (in fact more has been said, many books have been written on the subject) I would like to move on and briefly discuss the importance of Apologetics to the Christian walk. I was doing research for an article when I stumbled across this website, the author's 'proofs' that God is imaginary are, by and large, not well thought out, nor well researched. However they don't have to be, the majority of the Christian church today knows little to nothing about the study of apologetics, while the proofs given on the website are a very poor example of arguments against Christianity, they still serve to sway young Christians who know little about their faith.
We are currently in the process of losing an entire generation of young Christians. According to George Barna (whose statistics I honestly find to be suspect much of the time...but statistics are statistics and even suspect ones can show us something) some 85% of teens leave the faith. While there are a great many reasons for this one of them is simply a lack of education in their faith.
In churches we tend to teach the surface material of scripture, the stories. We encourage youth to witness, to pledge themselves to Christ, to wait abstain from sex until marriage; all good things, and things youth certainly need to hear. However what we do not do is educate them on the why's:
Why is the bible trustworthy?
Why should I even believe in God?
Why is it important for me to live a holy life?
Why are my doctrinal beliefs important?
Why is Chrsitianity any more true than any other religion?
and the hows:
How do I deal with discrepincies within scripture, or between scripture and science?
How do I know that Christ is God, or even real?
How do I respond when my faith is challenged?
The study of apologetics forces us, as Christians, to think through our faith. As Christians we are responsible for explaining to others why we believe, why we have hope. However if our reasons are superficial that is what people will see when we witness, a superficial believer. The study of apologetics is about much more than being able to answer tough scientific, literary, or philosophical questions about Christianity when over-educated snobs ask said questions. Indeed, the true value, and the true joy, of apologetics is in challenging one's own faith. Asking yourself the hard why and how questions and then finding the answers.
This discipline is, I believe, especially important for youth who will, inevitablely, be challenged in this way at some point in their lives, probably sooner rather than later. The study of apologetics in now way discounts faith, in fact it strengthens one's faith and adds to it knowledge and, hopefully, understanding.
I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes, this was said by Galileo Galilei, "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended them to forgo their use."
Quote taken from: http://thinkexist.com/quotes/galileo_galilei/
Barna Statistic taken from: http://theworldfrommywindow.blogspot.com/2006/09/survey-question-summary-why-are-teens.html
Monday, February 16, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The Importance of Theology
First of all let me apologize for not posting in so long, I have been very busy the last couple of weeks and haven't been online for more than ten to fifteen minutes at a time. It was originally my goal to update this blog at least once a week and I have not, I am sorry for that. Now, onto the post.
I live in Lynchburg, Va which had, I believe still has, the most churches per capita of any city in the US. However, even here with so many churches and a Christian University and at least two seminaries in the area, I find an extraordinary number of Christians who have no idea what they actually believe. Much of modern Christianity tends to downplay the importance of scholarly religion such as theology and apologetics, and at the same time build up the importance of faith, prayer, and daily practice of a few basic tenants. Now I don't want to come across as saying that such things are not important, I believe that daily prayer and bible study are incredibly important. I also believe that faith, both in God's greatness and in his goodness, are also very important (I personally struggle with the latter at times). However the study of scholarly Christianity such as theology and apologetics is equally as important.
Theology is the study of various aspects of who God is and what he does, it can be broken down into a number of various parts, but to put it simply Theology is the study of what we actually believe. Good theology is the study and collation of what the bible actually says about a variety of subjects and what doctrines we can deduce from what the scripture says. For instance, as Christians we believe in the trinity, that the father, son, and holy spirit are three persons in one divine being. However the word trinity is not found anywhere in scripture, nor is the phrase 'the father, son, and holy spirit are three persons in one divine being'. The doctrine of the trinity is a theological doctrine taken from the collation of what the bible says about the father, the son, and the holy spirit, and their relationship with one another.
If theology is not studied and such doctrines are not clearly understood cults rise up, there have been a plethora of cults throughout the history of Christianity that arose because of a misunderstanding of one or two passages of scripture. One of the, currently, most well known of these is the Jehovah's Witnesses, which arose because of one man's attempt to show in what year Christ would return. Other cults have denied the deity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, the omniscience of God, the omnipotence of God, even the existence of the Holy Spirit. Lack of understanding about our Christian beliefs allows us to be 'blown about by every wind of doctrine'. Now this does not mean that every Christian should be a scholar of theology able to write books and publish scholarly articles. However, every Christian SHOULD have at least a passing familiarity with what they believe about God the father, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Sin, the place of the Church, the end times, angels, and demons and why they believe those things.
In an age of ever increasing knowledge and the ever increasing availability of knowledge it is essential to our witness as believers that we be able to intelligently, and coherently, articulate our beliefs to those who do not share them.
I live in Lynchburg, Va which had, I believe still has, the most churches per capita of any city in the US. However, even here with so many churches and a Christian University and at least two seminaries in the area, I find an extraordinary number of Christians who have no idea what they actually believe. Much of modern Christianity tends to downplay the importance of scholarly religion such as theology and apologetics, and at the same time build up the importance of faith, prayer, and daily practice of a few basic tenants. Now I don't want to come across as saying that such things are not important, I believe that daily prayer and bible study are incredibly important. I also believe that faith, both in God's greatness and in his goodness, are also very important (I personally struggle with the latter at times). However the study of scholarly Christianity such as theology and apologetics is equally as important.
Theology is the study of various aspects of who God is and what he does, it can be broken down into a number of various parts, but to put it simply Theology is the study of what we actually believe. Good theology is the study and collation of what the bible actually says about a variety of subjects and what doctrines we can deduce from what the scripture says. For instance, as Christians we believe in the trinity, that the father, son, and holy spirit are three persons in one divine being. However the word trinity is not found anywhere in scripture, nor is the phrase 'the father, son, and holy spirit are three persons in one divine being'. The doctrine of the trinity is a theological doctrine taken from the collation of what the bible says about the father, the son, and the holy spirit, and their relationship with one another.
If theology is not studied and such doctrines are not clearly understood cults rise up, there have been a plethora of cults throughout the history of Christianity that arose because of a misunderstanding of one or two passages of scripture. One of the, currently, most well known of these is the Jehovah's Witnesses, which arose because of one man's attempt to show in what year Christ would return. Other cults have denied the deity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, the omniscience of God, the omnipotence of God, even the existence of the Holy Spirit. Lack of understanding about our Christian beliefs allows us to be 'blown about by every wind of doctrine'. Now this does not mean that every Christian should be a scholar of theology able to write books and publish scholarly articles. However, every Christian SHOULD have at least a passing familiarity with what they believe about God the father, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Sin, the place of the Church, the end times, angels, and demons and why they believe those things.
In an age of ever increasing knowledge and the ever increasing availability of knowledge it is essential to our witness as believers that we be able to intelligently, and coherently, articulate our beliefs to those who do not share them.
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