Beeke and Smalley reminds us that “the most basic truth of theology is that there is a God, and you are not him”.
On this basis, we can never study theology from an objective and complete perspective, but from “a particular perspective, as finite, fallen human beings who are products of our culture, time and place. This is not to relativize theology, for theology is based upon God’s true revelation. However, it is to recognize that 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”.
‘As who’ do we do theology?
We do theology as creatures of God, images of God (Genesis 1:26), sinners against God (Genesis 3:1-5), and regenerated children of God (2 Corinthians 5:17).
As creatures of God, we must acknowledge God’s incomprehensibility – that God is beyond our ability to fully understand (Psalm 145:3). Moreover, “we do theology under God’s sovereignty as Lord … God is not subject to us in our theological studies; we are subject to him … therefore we must do theology with an attitude of total dependence [upon God]”.
At the same time, as images of God, “we can know God and do theology. However, our theology is not God’s theology, but ‘image theology’, or only the echo and reflection of the original … we cannot judge God by our logic”. The authors cite Isaiah 55:8-9:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.As sinners against God, “our first and fundamental response to true theology is resistance … therefore, if we would do theology in a manner faithful to God, we must acknowledge and repent of our resistance to God’s Word”.
Lastly, as regenerated children of God, “we do not enter into the work of theology alone, but with God the Holy Spirit as our inner teacher”.
Where do we do theology?
The authors remind us that we do not do theology in isolation, but as a member of the body of Christ. We do theology in the Church.
When do we do theology?
The authors remarked that “we are privileged to live in the last days, when God’s revelation has reached its highest point”. We are blessed with the full canon of Holy Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments.
We live in the age of already, but not yet. As Desiring God explains, Jesus inaugurated the last days in his first coming. Jesus will complete the last days in his second coming. In the meantime, we live in the “overlap of the ages”.
As such, Beeke and Smalley warn us about false teachers in the last days. “We therefore must not shrink from the call to polemics and the necessity of church discipline when false teachers infiltrate the church. We must also beware of ‘itching ears’ in the congregation, [because] many professing Christians ‘will not endure sound doctrine’, and in fidelity to God’s Word we must be willing to diminish in popularity while false teachers successfully gather large crowds to their churches” (2 Timothy 4:3).
All the more reason to study theology so we can be equipped against false teaching!
This article is part of a series on systematic theology, based upon the first of four volumes of Reformed Systematic Theology by Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley.
