LESSON 1 
 

What is Theology

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Theology / study of God is important so we know who God TRULY is, and not based on our assumptions or what we hear from other people (even if it's trustworthy sources or quoting off the bible) 

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- Academic Orientation (intellect) and Life Orientation (develop doctrines that focus on broader issues of our lives) FIND A BALANCE. 

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• Studying Theology exercise one of God's gifts to humanity - our rational ability. (but we must act and live out what we understand too. Theology should be knowledge that informs our hearts and lives. James 1:22) 

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• Theology is important because truth will affect our experience (what will we lean into  when truth and feelings conflict) , there are alot of alternatives and challenges present (false teachings) and because correct doctrinal beliefs are IMPORTANT to our walk with God. 

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• 1 Tim 4:16. Watch your doctrine. You need to know your doctrine so that you can watch it and persevere in it. 

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Goals of Building Theology

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1) Orthodoxy (right thinking/beliefs)

John 17:17

- Postmodern culture teaches that everyone is entitled to what they believe, that truth is not exclusive. 

 

2) Orthopraxis (right behavior) 

John 14:15
- Put truths in proper action, our behaviour matters to God. 

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3) Orthopathos (right feelings) 

Gal 5:22-23

- we can have the right behavior, right thinking but do we have the right feeling/attitude before God? (or do we do things unwillingly, how do we feel during worship) 

- emotions are morally neutral, but how do we bring these emotions honestly before God

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3 Fields of Theology

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1) Historical

- insights and mistakes made through how people in different periods understood the faith

- at this point, theologies are more or less firmed up

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2) Biblical

- Focus on what the author of the book originally wanted to bring across (i.e. book studies) 

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3) Systematic

- what does the whole bible teach us today about certain topic (i.e. topical) 

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- What are some assumptions I have about God and are they truly based on scripture? 

- Do we view God as a supplement or an antidote? (it affects the way we see our salvation, the way we relate to people and the way we serve Him). The Gospel is simple yet profound. 

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God's Revelation of Himself

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God initiates to Reveal Himself to Man

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 Heb 11:1

Is this blind faith? 

• Theology begins with God's self revelation 

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How God Reveals Himself

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1) Nature

Psalms 19:1-2

Romans 1:20 

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2) History 

especially the history of Israel that is inline with geographical and historical records outside of the Bible

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3) Humanity

Romans 2:14-15 (moral code) 

Acts 17:22-23 (mankind has always been inclined to worship something) 

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4) Experiences 

Acts 14:17

- our experiences should reveal WHO God is, not just what He can do. 
(eg. the miracles God gave the Israelite is to reveal bit by bit who He is) 

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5) Scripture and Christ

John 1:1-2

John 14: 6-7

- through knowing Christ through His teachings, death and revelation that we can understand and know God.

- if we can know God without knowing Christ, then there was no need for Christ to come. 

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God's Intent for Revelation

- for us to know Him and our relation to Him

- His purpose for us to be reconciled to Him

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- if i receive a letter i can

1) Disregard (don't open the letter)

2) Open it (disagree, choose not to reply and throw away)

3) Open and I reply 

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- God has been sending us these letters through nature, history, prophets, miracles, Jesus, scripture

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Practical Issues Concerning Revelation

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1) Understanding & Interpreting the Scriptures

- don't seek answers to questions that God didn't intend to address in Scripture 
(eg. Genesis is not to show us how creation came about but to show Israelite that God is a Creator God. WHO created the world, not HOW the world was created) 

- read and understand scripture correctly

- Examine scripture to make sure what we believe is the TRUTH (Acts 17:11)

- Re-visit / Un-learn past assumptions we have about God that are inaccurate 

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2) Doctrine of Incomprehensibility

- we cannot know God completely and exhaustively due to our finitude and sin (do we allow what we do not understand affect what we already understand) 

- we can have a true but incomplete knowledge of God

- we shouldn't have a very self-centric faith where everything we read in the bible or the things we do is all about ME. 

 

Job 11:7-8

Isaiah 55:8-9 

1 Cor 13:12

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- How do we respond to God's revelation in our personal experiences? (many times when God does something is not just to show us what He can do but to reveal who He is) 

- Do we read the Bible as God's revelation to us of who He is? (the Bible and God shouldn't be a means to an end just for me to serve. Do I find joy in reading God's word?) 

- God has already revealed all that we need to know of Him, so that we can be reconciled to Him and live a fulfilling life in Christ. Is that ‘enough’ for us? Or do we demand for more specific revelations or experiences with God before we decide to trust Him?

- Is my faith built on my preferred notions of God or based on truth revealed by God in the Bible? 

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Attributes of God 

permanent qualities that sets God apart

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Attributes of Greatness 

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1) God is Spirit

- Israelites made a golden calf and called it YAHWEH. Why was God so against idolatry?
- Israelites limited God into a physical form. Omnipresent God become trapped in a physical form.

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2) God is Personal

- do we treat God so personally that we bring Him to our level? God is HOLY and Righteous. Don't lose our reverent fear

- God is a Being with self consciousness and will, capable of reciprocal feelings.

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3) God is Living

- God's existence is underived and inexhaustible, independent of everything outside of Himself. 

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4) God is Infinite

a) Space.

- omnipresence. Psalm 139:7-10. Can be anywhere at any one time

- eg. 1 Kings 18:25-29. Elijah challenges the baal prophets.

- last time ppl had to build their temples at 'high place' and they go there to worship gods. but the Israel God built His tabernacle in the middle of camp, choosing to dwell in the midst of His people

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b) Time

- timeless, He doesn't grow or develop 

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c) Knowledge

- access to all information and understanding is immesurable. God acts in light of all the facts and of correct values

- God's foreknowledge and free will

(by knowing our actions in the future, does God cause this actions? by God knowing, it doesn't mean He will cause us to act a certain way)  

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d) Ability 

- Omnipotence

- we can find comfort that God knows even when we don't know what's going on with ourselves

- God's plan will not be frustrated. 

- Can God do anything and everything? (God will not do anything against His nature, He will not contradict Himself or frustrate Himself. His omnipotence is consistent with His character) 

- once he has chosen a certain course of action, He is limiting himself through that decision. (eg. God creates man with freewill. Because of that, God cannot mind control us, though technically He can do that. - divine self limitaion) 

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e) Unchanging

- Does God change his mind? 
(eg. Sodom and Gomorrah, God withholding His wrath when the Israelite worship calf. God relented when His people interceded. No change to His eternal purposes and what He plans to do.)

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- Do we subconsciously reduce who God is, for our own preferences or so that we can experience Him on our own terms. 

- Do we have a transactional relation with God? What do we tend to talk to God about when we pray, what does these reveal how we treat God?  

- What does it mean for believers to continuously live in God's presence, what would that look like? (we are more likely to fall into sin  when nobody is looking. Do we compartmentalize what we know?) 

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LESSON 2

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Attributes of God 

permanent qualities that sets God apart

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Attributes of Goodness

(if God is only great, we might see Him as a tyrant. But as we see that God is also good, we can learn to trust and love Him)

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1) God is Holy

- Majestic holiness (Exodus 15: 11 and 1 Sam 2:2), in creation.

- Our response is one of awe, reverence and worship

- Perfect in the way of absolute purity or goodness (how do we worship God in light of this?  

- God is righteous and just. (God's justice must not be evaluated here and now. Because this life is incomplete. God's justice will ultimately prevail and be complete) 

- God's holiness sets the moral standard for Believers

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"You will never make yourself feel that you are a sinner, because there is a mechanism in you as a result of sin that will always be defending you against every accusation. We are all on very good terms with ourselves, and we can always put up a good case for ourselves. Even if we try to make ourselves feel that we are sinners, we will never do it. There is only one way to know that we are sinners, and that is to have some dim, glimmering conception of God." - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

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2) God is Love

- out of God's love He give himself to us 

- Goodness, Lovingkindess, Compassion, Mercy, Grace

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3) God is a God of Truth

- 2 Cor 4:2 (when we present the Gospel to other people, we also need to be honest.) 

 

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- When we say "Today's worship was very good, i'm very ministered by it", do we mean that the worship was for us? Who is worship originally for? Worship can bring about transformation, restoration and breakthroughs in the believer's life, but is this truly the main point?  

- Sometimes when we face injustice for doing what is right, we have a tendency to want to fight for justice. But now God tells us He is the Judge. Are we able to let God be the judge? 

- When we measure our lives against God's holiness, our spiritual condition becomes apparent. (It's easy for us to accept that God is love. But God's love is a holy love. He loves so much that He hates evil. Very few of us love till a point where we hate evil) 

- What is our view of unconditional love and judgement? (God doesn't accept us unconditionally, God loves us unconditionally. He only accepts us on account of Christ. Unconditional love can only be experienced when we realized there is something unlovable about us)

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Sense of God's Presence and Activity

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Immanence of God

(God's presence and activity within nature, human nature and history) 

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dangers: Not all activities that happen in the world are endorsed by God

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The implications of biblical immanence are:

 

• God is not limited to direct means of accomplishing His purposes.

 

• God may work through persons or organisations that are neither godly nor Christian.

 

• We should have an appreciation for all that God has created.

 

• We can learn something about God from His creation.

 

• There are points at which the Gospel can make contact with the unbeliever.

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Transcendence of God

(to God being separated from and independent of nature and humanity)

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The implications of biblical transcendence are:

 

• God is the highest Being in the whole of creation, not man.

• God can never be fully explained by human concepts.

• Salvation must come from God, not by human achievements.

•  There will always be a gap between God and man.

• Reverence is appropriate in our relationship with God.

• We can expect God to work through supernatural as well as natural means.

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Strike a Balance between God's Immanence and Transcendence

- Emphasis on God's immanence and transcendence depended largely on historical events and the prevailing mood of people. 

- Isaiah 57:15 & Acts 17:24-28 (talks about both qualities of God) 

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LESSON 3 

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Works of God

 Isaiah 55:8-1 
In our lack of understanding, we fall back on God's attributes that's revealed to us through Christ and scripture.

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Sovereign Plan

Psalm 139:16. 
God is guiding creation to a certain purpose He has, if we choose to align ourselves to His plans then we are moving towards an assured outcome..

God is out of time, He doesn't make decisions as history unfolds. 

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- Calvinism (God's will is not conditional on man's will. It's fixed. His decision rendered it such that individuals will act in a particular way. ie. God in His plan already chose some shall believe and he foreknows what will happen because he has decided what is to happen) 

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- Aminiasim (God expects humans to exercise our freewill, but God remains sovereign because He already know what we going to choose. Therefore he has willed what will happen base on His foreknowledge.) 

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- God is in control of the final outcome (Story of Joseph - Gen 50:20).
God knew Joseph's brothers were going to sell him and also that Joseph will eventually rise up to be the right hand man of Pharaoh. In the world, people can choose to sin and there is sin, but God is sovereign enough to influence the final outcome. 

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Creation

Scripture focus on the fact of creation, not the process. 

John 1:3 (doctrine of creation and natural science - evolution) 

These are questions of how the earth came to be, but christianity addresses WHY the earth came to be. Even if we argue that the earth was created with Bigbang, we can ask back one question, Why was there bigbang? 

- We are called to take care of God's creation. 

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Providence 

Psalm 104:20-23

God takes care of His creation. 

- If God is the one who sustains and preserves, then no part of creation is self sufficient. 
- Does God leave me alone until I need help then He come back and help us or is He continually involved if not things will crumble.
- Do we tend to be self-sufficient? Self-sufficiency can be the root of sin, we want what we want. 
 

 

Miracles

God is free to order His world in a way that's different or contradictory to the natural order and His purpose is to reveal Himself to enter a redemptive relationship. 

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- Do I really know what God saved me from? Do I really depend on God to walk right with Him day after day? 

- How good are miracles? How should we respond to miracles? Are miracles always beneficial for us? Could there be good out from it if God choose to withhold that miracle that I'm asking for?  

- Miracles are like signposts. It's neither good nor bad. It's our response to miracles that really matter (israelites experienced so many miracles but still went astray) Miracles didn't always cause people to respond towards God, when we encounter problems is our first response to ask for a miracle to solve the problem? (even when it's for a good cause, for ministry) Mark 1. The crowds were coming to Jesus for healing, to experience a miracle. But Jesus chose to go to the opposite shore because "that is why I have come" 

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Triune Nature of God

 Trinity is important because it concerns how we relate to God. 

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Oneness of God

OT

- Deut 6:4

- God repeatedly affirms there is only ONE God, especially in a context where the communities around Israelite were worshiping many gods. 

NT

- 1 Cor 8:4-6

- 1 Tim 2:5-6

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The Deity of Three

- As God affirms His oneness from the beginning, He also reveals that He exist in three persons.

- Philippians 2:5-7 (affirms that Jesus has the same nature as God)
- Heb 1:3 (Jesus exactly represents who God is) 

- Mark 2:8-10 & Matt 25:31-33 & Matt 26:63-64 (Jesus indirectly asserts that He is God) 

- Acts 5:3-4 & 1 Cor 3:16-17 & 1 Cor 6:19-20 (references where HS is used interchangeably with God)

- John 16:8-11 & John 3:8 & 1 Cor 12:4-11 (HS having qualities and performing works of God) 

- Matt 28:19 & 2 Cor 13:14 & 1 Peter 1:2 (HS has equal footing with God) 

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Lessons from History on the Trinity

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How Orthodox Doctrine of Trinity was Formed

- In the first 2 centuries, Church was preoccupied with matters of organisation, expansion and survival. 

- Controversies started to arise, wrong teachings started to arise.

- Council of Constantinople was formed to state out clearly what the Church believes in the Trinity. 

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Heresies / False Teachings (understand what is wrong so that we are clear when we explain trinity) 

1) Sabellianism 

God is one God but manifest in 3 modes, expressed in different form at different times. One PERSON, not three. 

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2) Arianism

God is 3 different essences. Christ don't exist eternally. God existed first then Christ came later. Therefore Christ and HS are subordinate in status and nature to God

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Essential Elements of a Doctrine of the Trinity 

1. The unity of God is basic 

2. The deity of each of the three persons. 

3. The threeness and the oneness of God are not in the same respect

4. The Trinity is eternal

5. The function of one member of the Trinity may for a time be subordinate to one or both of the other members, but does not mean he is in any way inferior in essence.

6. The Trinity is incomprehensible

 

Holding the Tension

- Trinity is DISTINCT but not DIVIDED

- Each person play a different role, yet they are not separate. 

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- When it comes to explaining the Trinity, human analogies fall short. To what extent are we comfortable with not being able to fully explain the mysteries of God like the Trinity? What may be some dangerous consequences of “trying too hard” to explain these mysteries?  

- If God is truly completely understandable, there's not really an element of awe and wonder. 

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Q&A

Wake Up Olive incident

not trying to twist God's arm to make something happen and also not declaring that God will do thing that He didn't say He will do

- fully understanding my position that I'm unable, fully trusting the God who is able and at the same time very close to the person who is suffering

- trusting fully and calling out to God to help, yet. not my will but Yours be done. 

- When we look and approach praying healing, we ought to be careful with what we are declaring about God. 1) We have faith that God can heal 2) We empathize for them and ask for God's help but 3) we respond in submission that it's not our will but God's Will (rather than presume how God must act)

-  As Christ followers, do we WANT to follow God's will or HAVE to? We submit our will to God's will because we trust that He is good and His ways are high and better. But in any case, we still have a choice. 

Why does Lord's prayer has "Lead us not into temptation" it's a prayer to ask God to help us not succumb into temptation

- Why did God create humans and regret it (Gen 6:5-6) 'regret' in hebrew describes God's emotional anguish, not His remorse. God regret doesn't mean He didn't see it coming. It's a metaphor because God is not man, we cannot assume God experiences emotions the way we do. God knew they weren't going to repent, He was pained because the sin of men required His judgement here. 

Does God receive honor at the 'expense' of us (John 9:37). Did God cause him to be blind? Why would a good God cause a man to be blind so that He can receive honour? 

- Should we judge people? Matthew 7. We shouldn't judge others hypocritically; we shouldn't judge others more severely than we judge ourselves. 1 Cor 5:12. We are supposed to judge, and we first judge the believers, because we know God's expectations. 

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