Return to You and Your Beliefs Series
Return to Wednesday Bible Study Series
Intro:
Do you know what you believe?
Do you know what you believe about...God, the Bible, Man, Sin, Christ,
the Holy Spirit, Salvation, Angels and Demons, the Church, the End Times?
All of us believe something about these matters.
What we believe may be right, or it may be wrong.
We're talking about doctrine. Systematic
Theology.
New Series--"You and Your Beliefs"
Q: What do you believe
about...
1.
The Doctrine of God: Theology
Proper
2.
The Doctrine of the Scriptures: Bibliology
3.
The Doctrine of Jesus Christ: Christology
4.
The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit: Pneumatology
5.
The Doctrine of Man: Anthropology
6.
The Doctrine of Sin: Harmartiology
7.
The Doctrine of Salvation: Soteriology
8.
The Doctrine of the Church: Ecclesiology
9.
The Doctrine of Angels: Angelology
10.
The Doctrine of Last Things: Eschatology
Aim of Series:
a) To spend 2 weeks per doctrine
b) To survey the Scriptures and develop a concise statement of the
essentials for each doctrine (Ask the question, "What would you die for in
this doctrine?")
Examples of Essentials (test for Orthodoxy):
--The Deity of Jesus Christ (both God and Man)
--The Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Scriptures
--The Second Coming of Jesus Christ
Examples of Non-Essentials (not a test for Orthodoxy):
--How many angels could sit on the head of a pin?
--Dichotomy/Trichotomy view of Man
--Systems of Eschatology?
Chart: “Hierarchy of Beliefs” by Ken Bickel—We have different levels of “belief;” we have dogma (biblical absolutes), doctrine (biblical convictions), and tradition (personal preferences); give examples…
Q: How do we determine what
we believe? How do we do theology?
Key: Our Systematic Theology
must grow out of our Bible Study (exegesis).
This
is critical. Often we get the tables
turned...
Illust: We "know"
what we believe, and go to the Bible to find a verse!
Resources:
I will be using the following resources in this study...
--The Bible (!)
--Class notes and materials from Dr. Victor Matthews ("Christian
Life
Class")
--Know the Truth, Milne
--Elemental Theology, Bancroft
--Personal Studies
The
Doctrine of God
Q: What do you believe about
God?
Key: Your concept of God,
more than anything else, determines your beliefs and practices in life.
The way you view God affects how you live.
Q: Do you know one of Satan's
primary objectives?
A: To get people to think
wrong thoughts about God.
Eg--Gen 3:1-10
3:1
"Yea, hath God said..."
Q: What did Satan attack?
A: Satan attacks the
authority of God, namely the authority of His Word.
3:4-5
"You shall not die; For God knows..."
Q: What did Satan attack?
A: The Wisdom and Plan of God
Illust: The real problem with
Evolution is here. As a system, it
attacks the integrity of what the Scriptures say about God.
Did God really create the world like Genesis says He did?
Listen. Once you discredit
God as Creator, there no basis for Him to be Redeemer.
Your "Theology Proper" is what you believe about God.
J. B. Phillips, in his book, Your God is Too Small, has pointed
out that often we have a wrong view of God.
We wrongly think of God like the following.
1. A Resident Policeman--God
is our Conscience.
2. A Parental Hangover
3. A Grand Old Man--God is
sentimental, even forgetful (that's why we pray, to remind Him of things...)
Discuss: What are other
examples of wrong views of God?
Q: Why do we have wrong views
of God?
A: We've been influenced by
various things in our past.
Discuss: What influences have
shaped the way we view God?
1. Parents
2. Church
3. The Bible
4. Preachers/Speakers
5. Friends/Peers
I'll be honest. I'd like to
think that we as a church have the primary influence on the way people attending
WBC view God and life. But we
compete (and often lose!) with some powerful forces...
Eg--Barbers/Beauticians--A lot of "theology" is discussed in
the shop!
Eg--Talk Shows--Oprah, Geraldo, Dr. Phil
Eg—Popular music
Key: These people influence
people's theology. They are
"theologians" (not in the good sense) because they shape the way
people view God and life.
Q: How should we view God?
What is the right view of God?
A: We should view God the way
He describes Himself in Scripture.
Illust:
Challenge: We need to
"re-teach" our consciences about God.
Many people struggle with guilt that shouldn't, and others don't that
should...because they have wrong thoughts and wrong images about God.
Illust:
Next
Week:
How
Does God Reveal Himself in the Scriptures?
I.
The Attributes of God
II.
The Activities of God
III.
The Names of God
I.
The Attributes of God
Q: What's an attribute?
Qualities and characteristics of God
Q: Name some of God's
attributes with references for each...
1. God is a Spirit
Jn
4:24 "God is a Spirit..."
2. Infinite
Ps
147:5 "Great is our Lord...His understanding is infinite."
3. Unchanging
Mal
3:6 "For I am the LORD; I change not..."
4. Perfect
Mt
5:48 "Be perfect...your Father in heaven is perfect."
5.
Warning: We don't know a
person just because we know details about him.
Eg--Take for instance Bill Gates. I
can know the number of hairs on his head, his weight, the color of his eyes, his
IQ, the size of his foot. I could
know all of these attributes of his, and still not KNOW HIM AS A PERSON.
So it is with God. I can know
details about God, and still not know the Person of God.
Why is that?
II.
The Activities of God
III.
The Names of God