DeYoung Daily Doctrine

A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-4335-7288-3
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 432 Seiten

Learn Important Systematic Theology Topics Each Day with This Accessible One-Year Devotional All thoughtful Christians want to better understand the Bible, its author, and its influence on their beliefs. In short-whether they recognize it or not-they want to understand theology. But many find the subject matter too academic, dense, or difficult to understand, and they lack proper study resources to help expand their knowledge of God and his written word. Designed to make systematic theology clear and accessible for the everyday Christian, this devotional walks through the most important theology topics over the course of a year. Each month is categorized into broad themes, starting with the study of God and concluding with the end times. Written by bestselling author and associate professor of systematic theology Kevin DeYoung, each concise daily reading contains verses for meditation and application, building upon each other and easing readers into the study of systematic theology.  - Written for Thoughtful Christians: Offers pastors, ministry leaders, and everyday Christians access to a theologically rich yet accessible study  - One-Year Plan: Daily readings build off one another to help ease readers into systematic theology  - Covers Important Theological Topics: Each month covers a different broad theological topic, including mankind, salvation, the church, end times, and more - Written by Kevin DeYoung: Pastor, bestselling author, and associate professor of systematic theology

Kevin DeYoung (PhD, University of Leicester) is the senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, and associate professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte. He has written books for children, adults, and academics, including Just Do Something; Impossible Christianity; Daily Doctrine; and The Biggest Story Bible Storybook. Kevin's work can be found on clearlyreformed.org. Kevin and his wife, Trisha, have nine children.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Deyoung, Kevin

Leseproben

Prolegomena

Preliminary Considerations and Doctrine of Scripture

Week 1

Day 1

Theology

The aim of Christian theology is to know, enjoy, and walk in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The word theology comes from two Greek words: theos meaning “God” and logos meaning “word,” “speech,” or “statement.” Most simply then, theology is the study of God.

But surely we need to say more than that about theology. The problem with a basic etymological definition is that it makes God sound like another object we analyze and dissect, when theology for the Christian must always aim at more than bare facts and observations. That’s why William Perkins defined theology as “the science of living blessedly forever,”1 and Petrus van Mastricht called theology “the doctrine of living unto God through Christ.”2

The goal of theology must never be reduced to merely getting right ideas into our head. The reason we care about theology, the reason we write about theology, the reason you are reading a book about theology is so we can know God more deeply, enjoy him more fully, and walk with him more obediently. We do the hard work of careful, precise, intellectually demanding theology that we might see and savor the glory of God in the face of Christ.

How then should we undertake the task of theological study? In four ways.

Biblically. We must test every theological conviction and conclusion against the Bible. While church tradition is important and human experience cannot be ignored, theology is ultimately not an exercise in explaining what the church has taught or what we feel in our consciousness. We must always search the Scriptures to see if these things are so (Acts 17:11).

Rationally. Reason is not the foundation of faith, but it is the instrument of faith. For two years, Paul reasoned daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9). He reasoned with Felix and Drusilla (Acts 24:24). And he pleaded with Festus, “I am speaking true and rational words” (Acts 26:25). The truth of the Bible may be beyond reason’s comprehension, but it is never nonsensical and irrational.

Humbly. We approach the task of theology utterly dependent upon God and eager to learn from those who have gone before us. Mindful of our finitude and our fallenness, our posture is not proud and puffed up, but prayerful and grateful. There is no room for big heads when learning about such a big God.

Doxologically. We learn that we might love. We grow as we behold glory. We dig deeper in doctrine that we might soar higher in worship. God is not just the object of our study. He is the one who reveals all there is to know about himself and the one in himself who is worthy of all our devotion.

1  Perkins, A Golden Chain, 14.

2  Van Mastricht, Theoretical-Practical Theology, 98.

Day 2

Systematic Theology

In doing systematic theology, we are trying to answer the question, “What does the whole Bible say about this?” The “this” could be angels, sin, faith, works, law, grace, the death of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, or a hundred other things.

Many prefer the title Dogmatics to Systematic Theology. While dogmatics may sound pretentious and stuffy, it is in some ways a richer term. Dogma refers to an accepted doctrine of the church—the mature fruit of the church’s reflection on Scripture—while systematic speaks to the way in which doctrine is studied. Both terms have their place, and Christians often use the terms interchangeably.

Systematic theology is a specific type of theology, having its own method and structure. If historical theology looks at how doctrine has developed over the centuries, and natural theology examines what can be known about God by reason and observation, and biblical theology traces big themes across the redemptive storyline of Scripture, systematic theology organizes doctrine logically around topics and questions. These topics are sometimes called loci (Latin for “places,” the plural of locus). Systematic theology as we know it is only a few hundred years old, but many trace the discipline back to Origen’s Peri Archon (c. 220). Philip Melancthon’s Loci Communes (1521)—which organized biblical teaching around common topics—is often considered the beginning of the Protestant tradition of systematic theology.

There are many ways to organize systematic theology. Some use a key theme, be it love, or covenant, or Christ, or lordship, or the Trinity. None of these approaches is wrong. Traditionally, however, systematic theology has been comprised of seven main topics: prolegomena (literally “first words,” where ground rules and the doctrine of Scripture are usually covered); theology proper (covering the doctrine of God, the Trinity, the decrees, creation, and providence); anthropology (the doctrine of man’s creation and fall); Christology (the person and work of Christ); soteriology (how we are saved and how saved people live by the Spirit); ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church); and eschatology (the doctrine of last things, both personally and cosmically). Others make pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit) a separate category. I’ve included covenant as a separate category for ease of reference, but it often forms the last part of anthropology.

Systematic theology is not the only way Christians can learn about God’s word, but it is one invaluable way. It builds on the insights of church history and seeks to defend the historic doctrines of the church. Systematic theology helps us put together the whole counsel of God. Even more importantly, it helps us see more of God. Our goal must never be the bare minimum amount of knowledge necessary to get us into heaven. We want to move from platitudes to particulars, from generalities to technical terms and concepts, from seeing the hills of God’s glory to seeing the mountains of God’s glory. That’s why we study, why we learn, and why we need systematic theology.

Day 3

Divisions of Theology

Most of us think of theology as basically one thing: the study of God. But Reformed theologians have long understood theology to be comprised of various divisions and distinctions. The most influential approach comes to us from Franciscus Junius (1545–1602). His Treatise on True Theology (1594) established many of the categories, and set in place the basic outline, that later systematicians would use in defining and delineating the nature of theology. Junius’s scheme is too complicated to examine in exhaustive detail, but the main divisions he employs are relatively straightforward and (once we get used to the vocabulary) extremely useful.

According to Junius, theology can be categorized as true or false. Technically, false theology is not really theology at all since it is based on human opinion alone. But insofar as we call it “theology,” false theology can either be common, which is not disciplined by reason, or philosophical, which is aided by reason. Philosophical theology flourished among the Greeks and Romans in the time before Christ.

Not surprisingly, Junius spends most of his time discussing true theology. Using a distinction that would be foundational for the entire Reformed tradition, Junius taught that true theology is either archetypal or ectypal. Archetypal refers to God’s knowledge of himself. This is the theology only available to God. Ectypal theology, on the other hand, is that knowledge fashioned by God from the archetype of himself and then communicated by grace to his creatures. This is a key point: only God makes true theology possible.

Ectypal theology can be communicated in three ways: by union, by vision, or by revelation. The first is the theology of Christ as the God-man. The second is the theology of spiritual beings and glorified saints in heaven. The third is the theology of human beings on earth. This last category is what we might call “our theology.” It is the theology of pilgrims.

Continuing with his careful distinctions, Junius explains that God communicates this revealed theology in two ways: by nature and by grace. God is the author of both natural theology and supernatural theology. Natural theology is a type of true theology and a species of divine revelation. The knowledge from natural theology can be either innate (known internally by the book of conscience) or acquired (observed externally in the book of creatures). We can know true things about the Creator and his...