Becoming a theologian: God's Wisdom

Today, as we continue looking at God's attributes, we come to wisdom. Dictionary.com defines it as "the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight." As we look at God's wisdom, we will focus on three things:

1. God is wise
2. God knows best
3. God gives us wisdom

God is wise

His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?

Job 9:4

• Job was a godly man to whom a lot of bad things happened. He struggled to figure out why the bad things were happening and yet he recognized that God was wise.
• The definition above refers to "knowledge of what is true or right." Where have we read about what is true and right?>
• From what we read in Psalm 119, many of the words in this definition are applied to God's word or coming from God Himself: true, right, just, judgment, discernment, and insight.

God knows best

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

• In all things God works for our good
• Though, like Job, we may not always see the good in what's happening to us, we know that God is working for our good.
• If God created us and created the world around us, you would certainly think He knows what is best

God gives us wisdom

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

James 1:5

So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"

1 Kings 3:9

• The verse in James says that God gives us wisdom and does so generously!
• The verse in 1 Kings is where Solomon asked God for wisdom. God granted him wisdom and he became known as the wisest man on earth!
• If you ever think you need wisdom, ask God and He will give it to you

Becoming a theologian: God's knowledge

We continue on our exploration through God's communicable attributes and today we come to God's knowledge. God is all-knowing and a big word for this is omniscient. As we look at God's knowledge, we will examine four things.

1. God knows Himself
2. God knows everything that has happened and will happen.
3. God knows everything that can possibly happen.
4. God already knows all of this and doesn't need to learn it.

God knows Himself

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 2:10a-11

• We see here that God alone fully knows Himself.
• We also see that know man can know all of God's thoughts, but as we have established previously, that we can know God.
• Since we know that we have the Holy Spirit in us, we can begin to know and understand God.

God knows everything that has happened and will happen.

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

Isaiah 46:10

• We read here how God knows end from beginning and knows all time. God knows everything that has happened and will happen.
• We've read before in Psalm 139 how all the days of our life were written by God before one came to be.
• We can always remember what has happened. Sometimes, God gives us insight into what will happen through prophecy, dreams, or visions.

God knows everything that could possibly happen.

"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

Matthew 11:21

• When Jesus made this statement, Tyre and Sidon were a distant memory.
• Yet, Jesus speaks with authority that if Tyre and Sidon were to have seen the miracles they would have repented.
• This is one of those things that we can't emprically prove, but to me, if Jesus said so, it's good enough for me.

God already knows what he knows

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Matthew 10:30

• How many hairs are on your head?
• How would you find out? You would have to count
• God knows the number of hairs on your head, He doesn't have to count!

Becoming a theologian: God's invisibility

We continue on with our study of God's communicable attributes and today we come to God's invisibility. If something is invisible, we cannot see it. Though we may not see God, God reveals himself to us through visible, created things. Invisibility is another attribute that describes God's being.

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

John 1:18

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Timothy 1:17

• From these two verses, we can see (ha ha) two things:
1. No one has seen God.
2. No one can see God.
• Just as we discussed briefly yesterday, we personally have never seen God.
• Have you ever seen evidence of God? If so, what did you see?
• We know that God is omnipresent, which means that's He's everywhere, which implies that He is here with us. Do you see Him? Do you know that He is here.
• If you were invisible, how would you get someone know you were there?
• Knowing that God is invisible, what are some ways that we know He's there?
• How, you may ask, can we say that invisibility is communicable? Obviously, we can see each other. But what we see is our physical bodies. Yesterday, we talked about how we have spirits. Can you see someone else's spirit? Isn't that invisible?

Becoming a theologian: God is spiritual

Today, we turn our attention to some of God's communicable attributes. Communicable attributes are attributes that we may see not only in God, but also we may see evidence of in our lives. The first attributes we will look describe God's being - or in some way what God is made of. Today we will look at God's spirituality.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

John 4:24

Here in John 4, Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman at the well. The Samaritans were descended from Israelites who had married people of other religions. Though the Samaritans may have practiced their religion similarly to the Jews of Jesus days, they had differences in how and where they worshipped God. Jesus is explaining to the Samaritan woman how God is to be worshipped. In this verse, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman both about God and about God's worshippers.

• God is spirit. The Greek word used here is pneuma which sometimes is used to refer to the Holy Spirit and more generally refers to the spirit or soul of someone/something. Other times it is even used to refer to the wind.
• From this little bit Jesus says about God, we can infer two things
1. God, the Father, does not have a physical body. We've already, from our study of the incommunicable attributes, learned how God cannot be measured and how he is omnipresent. That would be impossible if God had a physical body.
2. The Holy Spirit, as part of the trinity, is equal to God, the Father.
• Jesus goes on to say how God's worshippers should worship God in spirit and in truth. The Greek word used here for spirit is also pneuma. From this we can learn...
1. We are not just physical bodies. We posses a spirit or a soul.
2. From our spirit, we should worship God.
• Have you ever seen the wind? Or have you only seen the effects of the wind?
• Have you ever seen God? Or have you seen what God has done and is doing?
If God is spirit and he has given us a spirt, is this one way that we are created in the image of God?
• Do you want to worship God in spirit and in truth?

Becoming a theologian: God's unity

Today, we look at the last of God's incommunicable attributes in our list: God's unity. By unity, we know that God doesn't have parts. His many attributes are all of God and though we may see one or another emphasized at a given moment in time, God is no less of any of the others at that time.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:8

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5

• God is love. God is light. Is love light? Is God still both love and light?
• Simon is both a third grader and a Cub Scout.
• Is being a third grader the same as being a Cub Scout?
• When Simon is doing school work which of these is emphasized?
• When Simon is wearing his Cub Scout uniform, which of these is emphasized?
• Does wearing his Cub Scout uniform make Simon any less of a third grader?
• Does doing school work make Simon any less of a Cub Scout?
• In the same way, God has many different attributes (which we will continue studying in coming days.
• There may be times in our lives where we see more of one of God's attributes than others. But, God does not cease to be any less of those other things. God is all of these things together even if we don't always see all of it.

Becoming a theologian: God's omnipresence

Today, we will be looking at God's omnipresence. The definition we looked at last week was God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with His whole being, yet God acts differently in different places.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? ⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. ⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, ¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

Psalm 139:7-10

• God is everywhere.
• You cannot hide from him. The Psalmist tried to hide from God, but everywhere he went, God was there. Adam and Eve tried to hide from God, but they couldn't, because He was there.
• If God is everywhere, then we can still trust Him no matter where we go.
• If God is everywhere, then no matter where we are, we can pray to God and know that He will hear us.
• God does not have spatial dimensions.
• You cannot measure God.
• You cannot put God in a box, no matter how big the box is.
• The biggest problem you have, God is bigger.
• The biggest fear you have, God is bigger.
• God acts differently in different places of His creation.
• Some times and places, God is present to punish. If people are unrepentently sinning, God may be there to bring punishment to them.
• Some times and places, God is present to sustain.
• When Noah and his family were in the ark, God sustained them. They weren't able to work to grow food and God sustained them.
• In heaven, God is present to be worshipped.
• God is present with you to bless you and guide you.
• What aspect of God's omnipresence is most important to you?
• Do you feel blessed that God is everywhere?

Becoming a theologian: God's eternity

The next incommunicable attribute we come to is God's eternity. God has no beginning or end. God sees all time. God is timeless.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

Revelation 1:8

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Psalm 90:2

• God has always existed. There was never a time when God did not exist.
• In fact, we can go as far as to say that when God created the universe, He also created time. Though we may not understand time to be a dimension such as length, width, and height, it is. And if God created the length, width, and height, then God also created time.
• As we'll look at tomorrow, God is omnipresent and exists in and can see all points in space. Then, if time is really a dimension, God exists in all times and can see all of it equally.
• Think about the Star Wars: Clone Wars movie. We can watch it and it takes time for us to watch it. But the ending - even when we're watching the beginning - has already been written. If you were to look at the DVD, the whole movie is there on DVD at the same time. We just can't see both the beginning and end at the same time because we are limited to watching the movie one scene after another.
• In the same way, our lives are written by God. God already knows and sees what lies ahead for us because He has already written it. We must live our lives one day at a time, but God sees it all because He is not bound by time.
• Even though God sees all time equally, He knows all time individually.
• We can read in Psalm 139:16b "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
• Each day is like a page in a book to God. He has already written the book even though we haven't finished reading it yet.
• This page on the book is not just plain words to God, it has vivid pictures. It is
• Ian's birthday
• inauguration day in the U.S.
• It's supposed to be cloudy and 31 degrees here.
• It's supposed to be 51 degrees and mostly sunny in Flordia.
• And much, much more.
• All of the details of a day that is not complete are already known to God.
• If God is not bound by time, do you think you can trust Him to lead you in the way that you should go?
• Knowing that God will still exist tomorrow (and be unchanged), do you think you can still trust Him tomorrow?
• Aren't you glad for God's eternity?

Becoming a theologian: God's unchangeableness

We're continuting to look at God's incommunicable attributes. Today, we will be looking at God's unchangeableness.

²⁵ In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. ²⁶ They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. ²⁷ But you remain the same, and your years will never end.

Psalm 102:25-27

God doesn't change. His being doesn't change. He is always perfect. His promises do not change. But, how He is expressed in different situations may be as different as the situations are, but even then, He doesn't change in His will.

• It may sometime seem like God changes His mind (which would mean that He is not unchanging). Consider the story of Jonah:
• Jonah is sent to Ninevah to tell them that God is going to destroy them because of their sin
• The Ninevites repent from their sins
• God chooses not to destroy them
• Did God change His mind? No, God wanted the Ninevites to repent. The message He gave Jonah was of the consequences of their sin. The Ninevites repented as God has wanted and thus were spared the consequences of their sin.
• As situations change, how we see God act may change. But how God acts is always in keeping with His character. And because how we see God is colored by our circumstances, how we see God may change - but He doesn't.
• The fact that God is unchanging is good for us. How could we ever hope to get know Him better if He changed all the time.
• Consider this, you both have had the same Sunday School teachers since September. Do you know them better than you did in September?
• Have you learned what they expect of you and what you can expect from them?
• Is it sometimes hard to adjust when you have a different teacher?
• God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As we get to know Him better, we know more about Him. As we go through different situations, we see different aspects of God.
• Aren't you glad God does not change?

Becoming a theologian: God's independence

Now that we've taken a quick look at five of God's incommunicable attributes, I want to start taking a closer look at each of them to make sure we really understand them. The first one we come to is independence.

Per dictionary.com, indepence is roughly defined as "being independent." Independent is defined as "not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, etc.; thinking or acting for oneself:" The key phrases I see here (as it relates to God) are not... controlled by others and acting for oneself.

²⁴"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. ²⁵And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

Acts 17:24-25

• From this passage, how can we see that God is not controlled by others?
• He is Lord of heaven and earth
• He is not served by human hands
• From this passage, how can we see that God is acting on His own?
• He made the world and everything in it
• He gives all men life and breath and everything

God said to Moses, "I am who I am"...

Exodus 3:14a

• In this passage God is telling Moses who to say is sending him to Pharaoah. This is where God tells Moses his name: YHWH.
• From His name, we can see that God is. There is no cause suggested for God. Nothing created God. He just is.
• In this verse, do we see God as being controlled by anything? No
• In this verse, do we see evidence of God acting on His own? Yes, if He just is, he must be acting on His own
• Can you agree, based on these two passages (and there are others like them) that God is independent

Becoming a theologian: Incommunicable Attributes

Today as we continue our quest in becoming theologians, we want to start looking at God's incommunicable attributes. Both of these are words are ones we don't use very often, so, like we often do, let's turn to dictionary.com for definitions:

attribute means "something attributed as belonging to a person, thing, group, etc.; a quality, character, characteristic, or property"

incommunicable means "incapable of being communicated, imparted, shared, etc."

Based on these definitions, I want to define God's incommunicable attributes as being qualties or characteristics of God's that belong only to God and are not and cannot be found in others. The incommunicable attributes that we are going to look at are (with definitions from Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology:

1. Independence - God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify Him and bring Him joy.
2. Unchangeableness - God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises, yet god does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations.
3. Eternity - God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time
4. Omnipresence - God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places.
5. Unity - God is not divided into parts, yet we see different attributes of God emphasized at different times.

As we usually do, we're going to look at the Bible to learn a bit more about these attributes. But this time, I want to read some verses and see if you can figure out which of these attributes they relate to.

⁶ And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

Exodus 34:6-7

• What attribute does this refer to? Unity

"But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

1 Kings 8:27

• What attribute does this refer to? Omnipresence

For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night

Psalm 90:4

• What attribute does this refer to? Eternity

But you remain the same, and your years will never end.

Psalm 102:27

• What attribute does this refer to? Unchangeableness and Eternity

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

Psalm 139:7-10

• What attribute does this refer to? Omnipresence

How great is God beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.

Job 36:26

• What attribute does this refer to? Eternity

Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.

Job 41:11

• What attribute does this refer to? Independence

"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

John 8:58

• What attribute does this refer to? Eternity

"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

John 17:24

• What attribute does this refer to? Independence

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

• What attribute does this refer to? Unchangeableness

Becoming a theologian: Can we know God?

Yesterday we discussed whether God exists. We answered, "Yes!" Perhaps the next question - certainly an important one since we are defining theology as knowing God and knowing about God - is "Can we know God?"

We can know God because He makes it possible for us to know Him.

"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Matthew 11:27

• So, who can know God?
• Jesus (the Son)
• and those that Jesus chooses to reveal God to
• Jesus also helps us to know about God.

No one has ever seen God. But God, the one and only Son, is at the Father's side. He has shown us what God is like.

John 1:18 (NIrV)

Though we can know God, we can't understand him completely

• We are finite, which means that we can be measured. Whether we want to measure our height, weight, or age, we can be measured. God, however is infiite, which means that He can't be measured. He has no beginning or end.

Lord, you are great. You are really worthy of praise. No one can completely understand how great you are.

Psalm 145:3 (NIrV)

• Consider for a moment, Star Wars. Certainly, you boys know a lot about Star Wars.
• Do you think that you know everything there is to know about Star Wars?
• What planet is Han Solo from? Corellia (I had to look that up
• But Star Wars - even with the six live action movies, the Clone Wars movie and TV, video games, and books - is finite. If we could devote all of our time to studying Star Wars (and before you ask no, you may not) we might eventually know all there is to know about Star Wars.
• Even though you've seen each of the Star Wars movies a whole lot of times, don't you still want to watch them again and again?
• When we consider again that God is infinite, can we ever expect that we could know all there is to know about God?
• Even though we can't know all there is to know about God, we should still strive to know as much about God as we possibly can.

We can know God and that is a good thing

This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 9:23-24

• God Himself says that we CAN know Him.
• Knowing God is something that we can boast about. What is boasting?
• If God says we can boast about knowing Him, do you think it is good to know God?
• Do you want to know God better?

Becoming a theologian: Does God exist?

As we continue our quest to become a theologian, where we are studying to know about God and to know God, we must first ask ourselves a simple question: Does God exist?

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."

Psalm 14:1a

Fools deny the existence of God. The Bible tells us that people who don't believe that there is a God are actively denying the evidence that there is a God. But, how can we know that there is a God?

All creation testifies to the existence of God

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Romans 1:20

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Psalm 19:1

• What about the world around you makes you think of the existence of God?
• Do you ever look up at the stars or the moon and praise God?

We were created to know God

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...

Genesis 1:26a

• The Hebrew word for image is tselem which means an image kind of like a picture of something. In some usage it means a shadow of something.
• If you see a shadow of a person coming from beind us, do you expect that if you turn around you'll see a person?
• Do you believe in God?
• Do you think you believe in God because God created you to know Him?

Becoming a theologian: Rightly handling the word of God

As we continue to become theologians and as we realize that the Bible is our starting point for knowing God and knowing about God, we must realize that it is important to correctly handle God's Word. In other words, we must make sure we don't use it - or part of it - inappropriately.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15

We're not reading the Bible in the original language(s) it was written in

• We are reading from translations which means that we're not reading the original texts. Thus, the words we see, are a person's or a group of people's interpretation of what the original words mean. Sometimes, an original word in the Hebrew or Greek may be translated into many different English words or several different Hebrew or Greek words may be translated to the same English word.
• This means that if we're having a hard time interpreting what Scripture is saying, we may need to consult someone or something that knows more than we do about what the words in the original language mean.

The world has changed a lot since the Bible was written

• When the Bible was written, a lot of things that we take for granted for living our daily life did not exist: there were no cars, telephones, TVs, computers, interstate highways, and many other things.
• Thus, when we read things in the Bible that sound strange to us (like Jesus washing the disciples feet), we may need to read other books called commentaries to help us understand what was happening.

Context is important

• Context means understanding the big picture around what we are reading.
• If we read just one sentence of Isaiah 56:12, we can read "Let us drink our fill of beer!" Does that mean we should drink beer until we're full - until we can't drink any more?
• If we look at this in context by reading what's around it, we find that this is said by wicked people who according to verse 11 "lack understanding." In other words, the people who are saying this aren't very smart. With that in mind, do you think everyone should go out and drink beer until they are full?

Even though Scripture has clarity and we can understand it, we need to make sure that we are studying it carefully so that we know we're doing what God wants.

Becoming a theologian: Why we use the Bible

As we continue our study to become a theologian, I want to look today at why we can use the Bible as our starting point. The Bible as we know it has four characteristics:

1. Authority
2. Clarity
3. Necessity
4. Sufficiency

Let's look at what each of these mean.

Authority

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

2 Timothy 3:16

• If Scripture is God-breathed (inspired by God), can we trust what it says about God?
• Who knows God better than God Himself? nobody
• If God inspired all of Scripture, then the Scripture itself has authority to tell us about God

Clarity

⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

• Some of Scripture may be hard to understand, but for the most part, it is clear and easy to understand.
• Would we be commanded to teach it to our children if it couldn't be understood clearly?
• Would we be commanded to talk about it in different situations to different people if nobody could undertand it clearly?

Necessity

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:4

• We know we need to eat to live. Jesus tells us that we need God's Word to live.
• If Jesus tells us we need God's Word to live, do you think we need it?

Sufficiency

¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

• Scripture equips us to do every good work.
• Are there things we should do that Scripture does not help us with? No
• You may also recall from our study of Psalm 119 that Scripture is useful for many things.
• Is there any thing else that we can take as having authority, clarity, and necessity? no

Becoming a theologian: Where do we start

As we pursue becoming a theologian, we must pick a starting point. What is one thing that we can use through which God has revealed Himself and told us about Himself and told us of what He has done? If you're thinking the Bible, you're exactly right! We've studied a lot about God's word in Psalm 119 and Psalm 19 and 2 Timothy 3:16 among other places. Let's look at what the Gospel according to John says about itself.

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:31

We see three purposes mentioned in this one verse:

• Knowing that Jesus is the Christ. In other words knowing that He was the Messiah. This relates to His purpose in coming to earth.
• Knowing that Jesus is the Son of God. Here, it's talking about understanding the relationship between God the Father and Jesus, His Son.


• Believing in God and having eternal life. In other words, the John didn't write this just so we could know about God but also so that we could believe in and know God!

We're going to use the Bible as the starting point for becoming a theologian. It would be helpful to know a little bit about the Bible.

• What are the two major divisions of the Bible? The Old Testament and the New Testament
• How many books are in the Bible? 66
• What kind of books are in the Old Testament?
• the books of the Law - telling the Law and how it came to be (contains some history)
• History books - telling about God's people
• Wisdom books - containing poetry, songs, and wise sayings
• Prophecy books - containing prophecy
• What kind of books are in the New Testament?
• Gospels - stories about Jesus
• Acts of the Apostles - stories about His followers
• Epistles - letters written to teach believers in Jesus
• Prophecy

Tomorrow, we'll learn a little bit more about the Bible.

Becoming a theologian

Today, we begin our next "unit" of Bible study. Today's Bible Study is titled "Becoming a theologian." Well, what is a theologian?

dictionary.com defines theologian as a person versed in theology, esp. Christian theology; divine. Well, then, what is theology? dictionary.com defines theology as the field of study and analysis that treats of God and of God's attributes and relations to the universe; study of divine things or religious truth; divinity.

If you look at the individual parts of the word theology, it literally means, the study of (or knowledge of) God. For our purposes, I want to define theology as knowing God and knowing about God. Let's quickly look at a couple of Bible verses that talk about knowing God and knowing about God.

¹When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ²For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. ⁴My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, ⁵so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

The apostle Paul was a theologian. He did not think of it as being something fancy and involving big, fancy words (although some theologians use big fancy words). To him, it was as simple as knowing Christ and that Christ was crucified for our sins. He didn't want the believers in Corinth (to whom 1 Corinthians was written) to trust in fancy words, but to trust in God's power. Paul wanted to teach the Corinthians about God because he wanted them to know God. What would happen in they knew God? Let's read what Jesus said about knowing and keeping His teachings.

³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

John 8:31-32

Jesus wanted people to know and follow His teaching because the truth (about Him and through Him) would set them free.

• Do you want to be a theologian?
• Do you want to know about God?
• Do you want to know God?

Tomorrow, we will look at our starting point for knowing about God.