{"id":62553,"date":"2024-03-08T01:36:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T06:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=62553"},"modified":"2024-02-18T22:38:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T03:38:41","slug":"ckb-on-problems-in-theology-what-do-we-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/08\/ckb-on-problems-in-theology-what-do-we-believe\/","title":{"rendered":"CKB on Problems in Theology. What Do We Believe?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is an obvious pretext for this subject. But we don\u2019t need a lot to make it relevant, as we are all aware of it, especially preachers.\u00a0 But a good deal of uneasiness is what brought this subject out into the open.\u00a0 My talk or discussion starter, and I hope a response that will be profitable.\u00a0 Note the double title\u2013 a statement and a question. Both are important.<\/p>\n

First of all, there are problems in theology. Anyone who thinks it is easy does not know what he is talking about.\u00a0 It follows that good, well intentioned people can get wrong answers.\u00a0 A child that thinks 2+2=5 is not wicked, though you will not agree with that child. Similarly, in theology one needs patience and tolerance.\u00a0 Consider Wesley\u2019s sermon on Catholic Spirit. Of course there are indeed destructive errors.\u00a0 When we have grasped this, the question follows.\u00a0 Tolerance does not prevent us from seeking answers to great problems.\u00a0 So let us look at some (but not all).<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Where does theology come from? It is the ground of what we say in sermons (for sermons are an exercise in theologizing). Nothing can be Christian theology if it is not focused on Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Therefore, Christian theology is based on the Bible for nothing else really tells us about Him. This does not yet involve the issues of inspiration and authority. It does involve the interpretation of both the OT and the NT for Christ and Jesus. And we are indeed interpreters for simply to repeat the word of the NT is not enough. And in fact none of us does it, offering just the Scripture lesson and no sermon. This means seeing Biblical thought in contemporary terms. While this is always necessary, it is also always dangerous. Thus in the 4th and 5th centuries bout Christian theology and the eucharist were interpreted in terms of substance, ousia in terms of Greek philosophical thought.\u00a0<\/em>This led to a Christological impasse and sacramental error.\u00a0 If you leap to the 20th century there is existentialism. From one point of view this is an improvement, but it loses on the objective side (cf. also traditional Methodism?).\u00a0 This leads to\u2026<\/li>\n
  2. Who was Jesus? What was Jesus? The NT is clear that he was a man. Is that all? NO!\u00a0 What then?\u00a0 This is the hard question.\u00a0 The NT\u2019s answer is perspectival moving toward essential (recognizing the importance of variety). Concepts developed by the Son (starting from ABBA and moving to \u2018I and the Father are One; No one knows the Father except\u2026.\u2019 and by Word (the message moving to personal revealer). Jesus gives what only God can give\u2014 Forgiveness of sins against God and new life.\u00a0 So is he God?\u00a0 That at present we have to ask.<\/li>\n
  3. What do we mean by God? Of course no one can fully define God, for this is the entity which by definition there is only one. a) I am surrounded by things for which no human being is responsible, due either to chance or to a Creator. For example any and all of the material creation and the very universe itself.\u00a0 The Creator theory cannot be proved but it certainly makes more sense. b) Of these things the most interesting are persons. It makes sense to see a Supreme Person behind them. c) of all these persons the most crucial one is Jesus and he believed in one he thought of as Abba.\u00a0 d) the danger of all this is it tends to make God in our image, which is why some (e.g. Tillich) prefer to speak of \u2018the ground of being\u2019. The truth is (for the reason given above) we are bound to use images. These always need correction by one or another (Father, leader, judge etc.). and by finite\/infinite.<\/li>\n
  4. What is the result?\u00a0 If there is such a being as God, nothing is more important than to be rightly related to Him. If He created us, we can be rightly related only by doing what He intends us to do. This we see in Jesus, and we are not doing it.\u00a0 God then has two choices\u2013 either to wipe us out, or put things right. According to Jesus, He chooses the latter option, and we come back to the offer of forgiveness and new life.\u00a0 This leads us in many directions e.g. to the future life since we are manifestly not yet fully renewed.<\/li>\n
  5. Here then are some basic concepts.\u00a0 Let us then in the light of them look at the questions which have been so much debated\u2014 the virgin birth and the resurrection.\u00a0 a) What do the Gospel actually say? How do we understand the Gospels?\u00a0 What final truth do they wish to convey? A biological or a theological saving truth?\u00a0 Did the LXX rendering\u00a0parthenos <\/em>reading of the Hebrew almah <\/em>affect them?\u00a0 What have we lost if the Virgin Birth is given up?\u00a0 In Matthew do we gain anything?\u00a0 Can the historical question be historically settled either by assuming the answer or from an anti-supernatural a priori<\/em>?\u00a0 b) What does the NT say?\u00a0 That Jesus is alive, he appeared to many, the grave was empty. Here there must have been something different or the whole case would collapse\u2013 thus this differs from a).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There is an obvious pretext for this subject. But we don\u2019t need a lot to make it relevant, as we are all aware of it, especially preachers.\u00a0 But a good deal of uneasiness is what brought this subject out into the open.\u00a0 My talk or discussion starter, and I hope a response that will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":62478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14268],"class_list":["post-62553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-is-the-gospel-inherently-supernatural"],"yoast_head":"\nCKB on Problems in Theology. What Do We Believe?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is an obvious pretext for this subject. 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