When I was in college students would sit around and debate theology. They would debate nearly every aspect of theology. On my hall there were two students who were not Christians though they both entered our college as committed Christians (we can debate that statement some other time). Both of these boys would do things to drive the evangelicals mad such as playing secular music as loud as possible, put various quotes from philosophers on their door that would be quotes about how Christians don’t use their minds, and they would read books that either reflected atheistic thinking or liberal Christianity. Because our college required that you agree with the statement of faith before you could graduate, they both left to attend a secular university.
Oddly, people would spend hours debating these two boys. Even professors would take them to lunch and would debate with them trying to get them to see the errors of their thinking but to no avail.
What I noticed about all the debating that was going on around me was that it never produced much passion for Christ. It did produce passion for Calvin or against Arminius (although there were very few Arminians on campus) but it largely did not produce a genuine passion for Jesus or His kingdom. The prayer rooms were still empty. The evangelism teams still begging for members. The chapel services were dead as door nails. Sexual immorality still ran rampant. Drunkenness was a problem. Fighting among the boys was a problem. Yet theological debates raged day after day.
The problem with studying theology is that we can do one of two things. First, we can begin to view the Bible as a textbook rather than a book given to us by God Himself to teach us His ways that we might know Him (2 Timothy 3:15-17). There is great danger in viewing the Bible simply as a book given to us to debate with or to proof-text with. The Bible is to produce faith in us as we read and study it (Romans 10:17) yet how few people actually grow in their faith in God by studying His Word (2 Peter 3:18).
Second, without application theology is dry and lifeless. James 1:22-25 tells us that we are to be doers of the Word and not just hearers only. Too often within theological debates there is more passion for proving one’s theology than in loving Jesus and advancing His kingdom. We know the Word but we don’t know the living Word (John 1:14). We know much about the Bible but we fail to live out what we believe (1 Peter 2:12). Jesus said that true disciples are those who hear His Word and obey it (Luke 8:21; John 8:31-32). Obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22-23).
I believe that theology should spark a passion for the God we are studying. Theology shouldn’t just make me mad at Calvinists or Calvinists mad at Arminians but it should drive us to our knees in humble worship of Almighty God! There is no Savior but Jesus and there is no hope apart from Him. Jesus alone is worthy of praise and worship and He alone should be our passion. Our hope should not be in the writings of Arminius or Luther or Wesley but in the Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us (1 Peter 3:18). My earnest prayer to God is that I would not just read my Bible with an eye on Arminianism or Calvinism but with an eye on the Lord God and upon myself.
[Link to original post and comments on Roy Ingle’s website.]
