What Is Dogmatic Theology?

What exactly is Dogmatic Theology?

What’s being Dogmatic?

The word “dogmatic” comes from the Greek word “dogma” and it simply refers to a basic set of beliefs that someone holds to regarding any strong set of principles concerning faith, morals, values, or beliefs like those laid down by a church or denomination and is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. The word “dogma” means “opinion,” so for the Christian, it might be dogmatically holding onto the divinity of Christ, the holiness of God, and that we are saved by grace alone as the Apostle Paul writes that it is “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9). Christians tenaciously hold to this biblical truth of being saved by grace alone and for them (and us), it is not negotiable since the Bible records it in several places. A person that holds to this belief is said to be dogmatic in their belief.

Dogmatic Theology

Dogmatic Theology is a set of beliefs that are held by a church or denomination that are, corporately, held to be true and cannot ever be changed. It would be like the sun is always hot and we know that from experience and we will not vary on this clear scientific fact. For churches, dogmatic theology is said to be related to theological beliefs or truths of the faith concerning God and biblical doctrines as revealed in the Word of God, the Bible. Dogmatic Theology was also a response of the Protestant Reformation against the traditions of the Catholic Church, but more than that, it is a guarding of the immutable truths found in Scripture that reveal salvation, sin, repentance, confession of sin, sanctification, and God’s command to obey Him and live lives of holiness (although not sinless-ness, which is not possible this side of heaven). These things are considered crucial to the Christian faith and to deny these essentials would be to fall into heresy and what Jude was striving for when he wrote “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:4).

The Origin of Dogmatic Theology

L. Reinhardt apparently created the term Dogmatic Theology in 1659 which designated the so-called “Articles of Faith” which is close to a church’s creed, but the idea was to have the resolve to hold onto the truths of the Bible and to expose heresy where those who hold to different beliefs can be identified as being false. Theologian Karl Barth wrote a massive six-volume series titled Church Dogmatics that described God as “totally other” or “wholly other,” and as such, He is set apart from His creation and His created creatures, however we can have a personal relationship with God, so it’s not that He’s set apart from us totally and He is unknowable. Jesus told Thomas, who had just asked to see the Father (John 14:8), “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’” (John 14:9)? In fact, to see Jesus or know Jesus, is to know “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:3).

Dogmatism

It’s good to be dogmatic if you’re dogmatic about things that are true. One example is that humans used to believe that the earth was flat but that belief didn’t make it true. Truth is unaltered by human opinion or belief and human belief are subjective to error at times because we may be wrong (and it turns out we are at times), but the Word of God is objective truth and not subject to error as humans are. We need to be dogmatic in things like what the Apostle John taught, where he wrote, “we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (1st John 5:20). A true believer is dogmatic in his or her belief that Jesus was God before entering into human flesh (John 1) and that He lived a sinless life of perfection, that He suffered, died, and was raised again on the third day, and as such, made Himself the all-sufficient sacrifice to redeem those who are brought to repentance and faith by God.

Conclusion

If you accuse someone of being dogmatic or you’re accused of being dogmatic, we must examine what beliefs they (or we) are dogmatically holding too. Just because someone’s dogmatic doesn’t mean they have the truth, but the truth is what we should be dogmatic about when we find it and we must be like a bulldog that refuses to let go of what he’s got in his teeth and no matter what, he will hold on. That is what we must do with the essentials of the faith (e.g. Acts 4:12; Rom 10:9-13); hold on tight and never let go of the basic doctrines of the Bible, for they are always true and they will always be true, even when we are not.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.