The What, Who, Where, and When of Theology

Guidance Through Scripture

At the command of the angel of the Lord, Philip the evangelist traveled south to a desert road. There he encountered an Ethiopian court official who was returning home from Jerusalem, where he had worshiped the God of Israel. The man sat in his chariot reading the words of Isaiah about one who quietly submitted to death like a meek lamb. Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading. The Ethiopian replied, “How can I, except some man should guide me?” (Acts 8:26–33). Anyone who has spent more than a little time reading the Bible has experienced this need, wondering, “How can I understand unless someone guides me?” This guidance is the work of theology.

What Is Theology?

Theology frightens some people and fascinates others. It introduces us to an unseen world, one far greater and more lasting than the world we see and touch. Doing theology is the most important task that any human being can take on. In fact, as R. C. Sproul said, “Everyone’s a theologian.”¹ Even the atheist’s rejection of God is an act of theology.

The word doctrine means “teaching.” Christian doctrine is the church’s teaching based on the Bible, God’s word (2 Tim. 3:16). The term theology literally means “words or speech about God,” and thus it is the study of God and questions about the doctrines he has revealed. More specifically, Christian theology is a human description of the authoritative knowledge and wisdom that God has revealed in his word so that we may know him and live unto him through Jesus Christ.

Essentials of Reformed Systematic Theology

Joel R. Beeke, Paul M. Smalley

Written by Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, this abridged guide combines content from all 4 volumes of Reformed Systematic Theology, making deep Scripture study accessible to a wider audience.

Systematic theology answers the question, What does the whole Bible teach about each of its major topics and its relation to other topics? Louis Berkhof said that systematic theology “seeks to give a systematic presentation of all the doctrinal truths of the Christian religion.”² It builds in our minds a way of thinking in which each doctrine is clearly understood and rightly connected to other doctrines. It proves how every part of doctrine is deeply rooted in the Holy Scriptures. It neither ignores the theologies of the past nor accepts any one of them blindly. Rather, systematic theology compares all things to the word of God in order to defend true Christianity while deepening our understanding of God’s revelation. Systematic theology is not just a description of what people have believed in the past but an attempt to declare God’s word to the present generation.

The aim of theology should be a right relationship with God through Christ (2 Tim. 3:15). Paul says, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Phil. 3:8).

William Ames wrote, “Theology is the doctrine of living to God.”³ Petrus van Mastricht slightly expanded Ames’s definition to “the doctrine of living to God by Christ.”⁴ This definition shows that theology is a careful study of “doctrine,” which is the teaching of God’s word. Theology is about God. The goal of theology is “living to God”—that is, seeking his pleasure and glory. We can do this only through the Mediator (“by Christ”).

Theology is both knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is important because we must know the truth about God and his ways to have a relationship with him. Wisdom refers to skill or competency. Sometimes wisdom is skill in a trade or art. But more generally it is skill in one’s whole approach to life. Wisdom includes knowledge. But wisdom is broader than knowledge, including the ability to live skillfully and joyfully for the glory of God.

Theology involves both theory and practice. We do not need to choose between having full heads with cold hearts and empty heads with warm hearts. We must know God in a manner that engages our heads, hearts, and hands. Jeremiah 9:24 says, “Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”

Knowing God involves knowing his attributes and actions that set him apart from the false gods of man (Jer. 10:1–16). However, theology demands action, for knowing God moves us to glorify him: “Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? For to thee doth it appertain” (Jer. 10:7). Also, knowing God means imitating him: “He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord” (Jer. 22:16).

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Who Does Theology?

In the art of photography, one crucial factor is the point of view. For example, you can take a picture of a volcano looking up from the ground or down from a helicopter. Similarly, in doing theology, we must be conscious of our point of view. Theology is “the knowledge or wisdom of the divine matters that God has revealed to people in this world . . . and that he has adapted to their capability.”⁵

First, we do theology as creatures of God (Gen. 1:1). We are not God. Therefore, we must acknowledge that he is beyond our ability to fully understand (Rom. 11:33). One danger of theology is that “knowledge puffeth up” (1 Cor. 8:1). John Owen rightly said, “Our thoughts, our meditations, our expressions of him are low, many of them unworthy of his glory, none of them reaching his perfections.”⁶ The true theologian does theology with an attitude of dependence, submission, and godly fear toward the Lord.

Second, we also do theology as God’s image bearers (Gen. 1:26–27). Part of being created in God’s image is the ability to know and acknowledge God (Col. 3:10; cf. Rom. 1:21). However, our theology is not God’s theology but “image theology,” or only the faint echo and dim reflection of the original. Franciscus Junius said that our theology is “a certain copy and, rather, shadowy image . . . [of the] unbounded wisdom which God possesses.”⁷

Third, we do theology as sinners against God. No one on earth does theology from a standpoint of neutrality. Our first response to true theology is resistance: “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Mankind generates its own false theology by which it can never find God (1 Cor. 1:19–21). John Calvin said, “They do not therefore apprehend God as he offers himself, but imagine him as they have fashioned him in their own presumption.”⁸ Therefore, we must repent of our resistance to God’s word. We must depend every day on Christ to open our minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:25, 45).

Fourth, we do theology as born-again children of God, if by grace we have repented of our sins and trusted in Christ alone for salvation. God is our inner teacher (John 6:45). This does not take away the need for studying God’s word. It does not mean we do not need to learn from the human teachers that the Holy Spirit gives to the body of Christ. But it opens a whole new world of possibilities. We were blind, but now by grace we can see (2 Cor. 3:17–18; 4:4–6).

Fifth, we may also do theology as pastors and teachers in the church, if God calls us to serve him in those ways. Pastors and teachers have a special calling to study theology, for they are sent by Christ to build up the church in “the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Eph. 4:11–13). God requires them to be “apt to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2) and “able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (Titus 1:9). Pastors and teachers should never rest in what they already know. Paul exhorted Timothy, “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all” (1 Tim. 4:15).

Doing theology is the most important task that any human being can take on.

Where Do We Do Theology?

Where, in this case, does not refer to our location but to our situation among men.

We study theology among mankind in rebellion against God. True theology always takes a stand against the world. The calling of a theologian is to suffer persecution (Matt. 23:33–35). He is a servant of the gospel that the world rejects. The theologian can say with Paul, “I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10).

We learn theology in the church. The apostle Paul does not sharply distinguish what is taught to ministerial students from what is taught in the church. He says, “The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men” (2 Tim. 2:2). We need the church. Perseverance in sound doctrine and holy living requires godly relationships (Heb. 3:13; 10:23–25). Paul says that our theology is enriched as we worship with the church: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16).

Life is not about merely exchanging ideas through reading and writing but face-to-face fellowship with real people. John said, “Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full” (2 John 12). Communion with God and godly people is the goal of theology: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

When Do We Do Theology?

In asking, When do we do theology? when does not refer to seasons in our lives or times in our schedules but to the time of history in which we stand.

Christians are theologians during their pilgrimage to glory. We have not yet arrived (Phil. 3:12). We are travelers and wayfarers. Wise theologians, like the saints of old, have “confessed that they [are] strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13). Only foolish and immature Christians think that they already reign and have become wise (1 Cor. 4:8, 10). So our theology is not yet the theology of vision, for we do not yet see Christ (1 John 3:2). “We know in part,” but one day we will see “face to face” (1 Cor. 13:9–12). Junius said, “The more we are called along in the whole course of this our miserable life, the more we feel our own ignorance and weakness.” Thus, “true humility . . . occupies the first and most important place in theology.”⁹

Christians are also theologians during the last days. The “last days” are not just the few years before Christ’s return. Rather, they are the entire period between Christ’s first and second comings (Heb. 1:1–2). Theologians today have the privilege of reading the full revelation that God’s Son gave us after his incarnation. Doing theology in the last days also implies, however, that our task is full of danger. The last days are times of error in the professing church (1 Tim. 4:1; 1 John 2:18). We therefore must not shrink from the call to defend the faith and to discipline professing Christians when false teachings infiltrate the church.

Conclusion

We may compare theology to the telling of a story. It is the grand story of God, creation, the fall of man, redemption accomplished, redemption applied, a new people formed, and the restoration of all things. It is not just a story that we read but our story. Therefore, we cannot pretend to be neutral or detached observers. Instead, we must do theology aware of our place in the story.

This article is adapted from Essentials of Reformed Systematic Theology by Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley.

Joel R. Beeke (PhD, Westminster Theological Seminary) has written over one hundred books. He is chancellor and professor of systematic theology and homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; a pastor of the Heritage Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan; the editor of Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth; the board chairman of Reformation Heritage Books; the president of Inheritance Publishers; and the vice president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society.

Paul M. Smalley (DD, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary) is faculty research and teaching assistant to Joel Beeke at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He is also a part-time pastor at Grace Immanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and previously served for twelve years as a Baptist pastor in churches in the midwestern United States.

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