"What is systematic theology?"

"What is systematic theology?"

Answer: “Systematic” refers to something being put into a system. Systematic theology is, therefore, the division of theology into systems that explain its various areas. For example, many books of the Bible give information about the angels. No one book gives all the information about the angels. Systematic theology takes all the information about angels from all the books of the Bible and organizes it into a system called angelology. That is what systematic theology is all about—organizing the teachings of the Bible into categorical systems.

Theology Proper or Paterology is the study of God the Father. Christology is the study of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Pneumatology is the study of God the Holy Spirit. Bibliology is the study of the Bible. Soteriology is the study of salvation. Ecclesiology is the study of the church. Eschatology is the study of the end times. Angelology is the study of angels. Christian Demonology is the study of demons from a Christian perspective. Christian Anthropology is the study of humanity. Hamartiology is the study of sin. Systematic theology is an important tool in helping us to understand and teach the Bible in an organized manner.

In addition to systematic theology, there are other ways that theology can be divided. Biblical theology is the study of a certain book (or books) of the Bible and emphasizing the different aspects of theology it focuses on. For example, the Gospel of John is very Christological since it focuses so much on the deity of Christ (John 1:1, 14; 8:58; 10:30; 20:28). Historical theology is the study of doctrines and how they have developed over the centuries of the Christian church. Dogmatic theology is the study of the doctrines of certain Christian groups that have systematized doctrine—for example, Calvinistic theology and dispensational theology. Contemporary theology is the study of doctrines that have developed or come into focus in recent times. No matter what method of theology is studied, what is important is that theology is studied.

"What is New Testament theology?"

"What is New Testament theology?"

Answer: New Testament theology is what God has revealed about Himself in the New Testament. The system of New Testament theology takes the various truths that the New Testament books teach us about God and presents them in an organized fashion. The New Testament discloses the coming of the predicted Messiah in the Old Testament (Isaiah 9), the birth of the New Testament Church (the body of Christ), the Church age, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the rejection of the Messiah by Israel, and the doctrinal beliefs applied to the believer in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

The phrase "New Covenant (Testament)" was spoken by Christ at the Last Supper, and is claimed by Paul as the substance of the ministry to which he was called. He preached the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation. New Testament doctrines were primarily for believers to be instructed and learn how to live lives that would be pleasing to Father God. The Old Testament deals with the record of the calling and history of the Jewish nation, and as such it is the Old Covenant. The New Testament deals with the history and application of the redemption provided by the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, and, as the New Covenant, it supersedes the Old.

The application of theology to the New Testament is the same as that of the Old Testament. It is the study of the progressive revelation that God gave through the New Testament writers. The study of the major doctrines of the Bible makes up a systematic theology for the believer, following the progressive revelations that God made to man from the beginning to the end of the prophetic book of Revelation. Again, theology is the gathering of facts concerning God and His Son Jesus Christ and the work of God the Holy Spirit in all the historical, present, and future events spoken of in the Bible.

"What is Old Testament theology?"

"What is Old Testament theology?"

Answer: Old Testament theology is what God has revealed about Himself in the Old Testament. The system of Old Testament theology takes the various truths that the Old Testament books teach us about God and presents them in an organized fashion. God's revelation of Himself begins in Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." That is a presupposition that all believers accept by faith and is based on the study of God throughout all the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Since the Bible is true in all of its aspects, then all of it, as it comes from God, is true and eternal. It never passes away, nor will it ever deny itself in any of its parts.

God said, "My Word is true...it is eternal...it will never pass away." God Himself is true: Jesus said, "For I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6). John 1:1-3 states, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God." Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (God-breathed)." Second Peter 1:21 states, "But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

Since God revealed Himself, His character, His attributes, etc., then a theological study is made of the Old Testament, and it is discovered that the Old Testament (Old Covenant) gives us an application of theology to a relationship that God established with a created people, the Jews. We must relate the word theology to the word testament or covenant. All through this Old Testament there is a progressive revelation of God to his people in order that they might learn who He is, what He is, and what He was doing in the world, especially with them. The application of the word testament carries one beyond the simple fact of books or writings to their main theme. Into the very heart of the Old Testament is woven the idea of a covenant between God and man, first made with Adam, then with Noah, also with Abraham, with the nation of Israel, and with David. The Scripture refers again and again through the history, the psalms and proverbs and prophecy, to this covenant into which God entered with His chosen people. In Jeremiah, prophecy reaches its height in the sublime prediction of the New Covenant, a prediction declared by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Doctrinal preaching

Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal preaching that will save Christ’s sheep. – J I Packer

GOSPEL AND REDEMPTION

‘The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.’ – C.H. Spurgeon

CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE

Repentance is a mystery; joy in the Holy Ghost is a mystery; no natural man though he be never so great a scholar knows these things experimentally. He knows them only as physicians know physic by their books, but not as a sick man by his own experience. - Richard Sibbes