Why Study Historical Theology on Wednesdays @ Heritage?
An informed understanding of Christian historical theology serves to offer direction for the modern church which is often lacking an anchor in the turbulent times of shifting denominational lines and doctrinal uncertainty. In general, the average church member is grossly confused about the difference between humility and conviction. Any type of pronounced, public religious conviction that defines truth is often met with cries of arrogance from a world that denies an absolute of anything.
Desiring to be clothed in sincere humility the church often responds with an uncertain message absent of any conviction regarding doctrinal integrity and ultimate truth. G. K. Chesterton once remarked about his own era that “a man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert – himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not doubt – the Divine Reason…We are on the road to producing a race of man too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.”[1] Chesterton warned Christians that any person of faith should never confuse arrogance with conviction or uncertainty with humility. It is not humble to be uncertain and it is not arrogant to be a person, church or denomination of conviction.
It is true that no single being or collective humanity for that matter, knows everything. But there are some things we do know by divine revelation. There are some things God intends for us to know with certainty. Christians have a responsibility to humbly yet readily and courageously acknowledge what we do know. Truth is intended to save the world from itself. We should know what God wants us to know with humility because we understand that knowledge is a gift from God. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding” (Psalm 111:10). It is God Who has given us minds with which to love Him (Deuteronomy 6:5). In grace God has sovereignly chosen to reveal His infinite Self to finite humanity. We do not perfectly understand our perfect God but we must acknowledge that we do know what God wants us to understand; else it can be perceived that God’s revelation, not mankind’s ability to understand, is lacking in efficacy. In other words, if God is God, He should be able to (and is able to) effectively communicate His truth to His creation.
On the other hand, Paul wrote to Timothy encouraging him to “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (II Timothy 2:7). The apostle recognized that learning was a gift from God to be received with humility but equally dependent on human effort. Thus we should also acknowledge the truth with confidence since Christians are commanded to speak the truth as an essential aspect of living in relationship with others (Ephesians 4:25). What we should know by divine revelation we can know. What we can know we ought to know. What we ought to know we should know by human effort and reasoning, all of which, knowledge, effort and reasoning, are gifts of God.
In a world where ‘truthiness’ has replaced truth, where light is confused with darkness and in which the platform of certitude has sunk into an abyss of uncertainty it is all the more imperative that we both know the truth and pronounce its value and advantages. In that vein, historical Christian theology reminds Christians of the modern era about what has been historically invaluable to Christians in the past. In turn, the past has created what was once future and is now the present in which we learn and live out doctrinal truth. Christians are Christians for a reason. Such historical reflection offers a platform for the contemplation and discussion of issues that are critical to Christian thought and life throughout its history and even into the present day.
What do Christians believe that is distinctive from other religions? A part if that answer is discovered when one recalls that Christianity did not originate in a vacuum. Only when the full weight of the circumstances surrounding its genesis and the persecution levied against that small initial band of Christ-followers is felt by the Christian church of the 21st century will modern believers appreciate and laud the historic value of their own heritage.
The doctrines of grace that gave birth to a 17th century renaissance within the sound of the Reformation’s 16th century echo can create light and heat for modern era churches and individuals alike. This will lead to a personal passionate pursuit and public promotion of those inaugural dynamic truths that served to create the identity of the original Protestants. These beliefs were so self-evident that men and women died for them rather than repudiate what they humbly knew to be certain truth that had irrevocably changed their lives and their eternal destinies.
The facts of Christian history and its theology can be known and the distinctives of Christian thought and practice can be appreciated without minimizing the thought and practice of those who choose not to believe or to believe differently. There is certainly something to believe. God has something to say; hence the Bible. It behooves us then to know what God has said and to apply it to our own lives and pray its blessings on those we love. “For the wise men of old,” C.S. Lewis wrote in The Abolition of Man, “the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline and virtue.” The knowledge of God always leads to self-discipline which creates virtue in individuals and societies. To know these things imparts humility to those who come behind such stalwarts of the faith. It also generates the conviction that Christian distinctives should be remembered and esteemed. Such renewed knowledge can only lead to personal piety and public reformation five centuries from their origin.