“I Will Build My Church” Key #2 – Biblical Theology

Theology: “the science of God and his relationship to man and the world.” - B.B. Warfield

θεός (God) + λόγος (word, teaching, study) = “the study of God”

Biblical Theology

Theology is Discovering God

Proverbs 9:9–10 (NIV) 9 Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. 10 “The fear of the L ORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Psalm 95:8–11 (NIV) 8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”

Isaiah 5:13 (ESV) 13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; “ their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 (ESV) 31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the L ORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the L ORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the L ORD :

Jeremiah 31:31–34 (ESV) I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the L ORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the L ORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Habakkuk 2:14 (ESV) 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the L ORD as the waters cover the sea.

1.Theology is Discovering God “LORD” – Jehovah/Yahweh God’s covenant name (relational) “Holy One” God is set-apart and absolutely holy

The Balance of God’s character A.God is intimate but worthy of fear. “the fear of the LORD” We are studying not just facts about God but we are un-covering how deep the Father’s love is for us We must always study with a healthy fear and reverence

The Balance of God’s character B.God is transcendent but knowable. “knowledge of the Holy One” We are seeking to know a God who is set- apart from us This Holy God is in fact knowable – even for the average Joe

Systematic Theology: “an attempt to reduce religious truth to an organized system.” - Evangelical Dictionary of Theology “Theology Proper” (doctrine of God) “Bibliology” (doctrine of Scripture) “Christology” (doctrine of Christ)

Biblical Theology is Discovering God through His story

Biblical Theology: “ the study of how God presents himself and his actions in the text of Scripture.” - Jim Jordan

“Biblical theology pays attention to the soil of history in which God’s revelation came.” - Charles Ryrie

Exodus 34:6 (NIV) 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The L ORD, the L ORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

1 Timothy 4:16 (NIV) 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Titus 1:9 (NIV) 9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Romans 7:18 (ESV) 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Luke 24:27 (NIV) 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Luke 24:44–47 (NIV) 44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

“I Will Build My Church” Key #2 – Biblical Theology