THEOLOGY: Real theology is building a system of faith

THEOLOGY: Real theology is building a system of faith and belief and that should be done by studying history in depth. One cannot and should not try to build their faith system from the bible alone. By two or more sources shall everything be established. For instance when the bible mentions the four corners of the earth and from that many believed in a flat earth but that was the knowledge available at that time. So we must ask; what did people know and when did they know it. Adam is said to have named all the animals but on reflexion we realize that animals were scattered all over the world and Adam lived in a very localized place. A church in our town has a sign that says;” God has a plan for every life.” Yet four babies are born every second, 342 per minute,14,400 per hour and 345,600 per day. So that raises a question of how and why God would spend every day seven days per week laying out a plan for each life. My thought is that the church should take down their sign.

Mark Tague [12/23/2015 10:08 PM]
Repent.

Corey Forsyth [12/23/2015 10:46 PM]
There is a lot that doesn’t set very well with me but my biggest question is, why would you place humanistic restrictions on God? The fact that a timeless God would have any concern with our limits of time is, in my opinion, ridiculous. Implying that He has to stress over developing a plan for each person is ludicrous as well. This post seems like an effort at abstract thinking without rationally exploring the context of the basic thought here. 🙂

David Smith [12/24/2015 12:27 AM]
Theology 101:
God is, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. He is infinite, we are finite. Sometimes we major on the minor and overlook the major altogether. often times, in out attempts to look intelligent, well thought, and philosophical we actually look foolish.

John Kissinger [12/24/2015 8:29 AM]
Amen, bro. David Smith but most non-Protestant Christian traditions do draw faith not from the Bible alone…

James L Alldredge [12/24/2015 9:17 AM]
Faith is never static, it is grounded upon the Word of God and informed by the grace of God as it works out God’s will in our lives. Our thoughts and experiences are the proving ground of faith. Since our mind and spirit are always growing, so is our faith. Scripture establishes the framework and boundaries of what is to be believed. Experience and knowledge color in the details. The value of biblical doctrine is in giving us the perspective to interpret our experiences rather than vice versa. It allows to see the events of history, both ancient and contemporary, through the eyes of God. Without scripture as our foundation, then man has no absolute standard against which to interpret his experiences, leaving us “blown about with every wind”…

Charles Page [12/26/2015 3:30 PM]
The Church of God theology is built on the Bible and Church of God history. We need a KJV Bible and a copy of Like a Mighty
Army, 1958 edition.

John Kissinger [12/26/2015 4:26 PM]
which KJV Bible exactly? Rick Wadholm Jr

Charles Page [12/26/2015 4:31 PM]
Conn’s 58 edition is reliable and profitable for instruction in CoG history.

John Kissinger [12/26/2015 4:32 PM]
Have it right here with me (or 1955) which ever is the first edition. Which KJV do you say we need now? Rick Wadholm Jr

Ricky Grimsley [12/26/2015 10:46 PM]
Jim price might need to spend some time at the altar tomorrow.

Jim Price [12/27/2015 12:40 PM]
Here’s a quote from the Revised Standard Version, written in the preface. ” The King James Version of the New Testament was based upon a Greek text that was marred by mistakes, containing the accumulated errors of fourteen centuries of manuscript copying.” And then in the introduction signed by one of the editors: “No man can claim to know with absolute assurance who wrote the book of Genesis.” Shortly after Dr. Conn finished L A M A I had a short conversation with him about the book and have read it several times.

John Kissinger [12/27/2015 12:45 PM]
Jim Price the 1955 or the definitive edition?

Larry Isaacs [12/27/2015 1:48 PM]
I would like to know why when the kjv version of the bible was rewritten,so many things were left out. Were not all these things also the word of Our God,and Savior! Who sits on the throne in heaven! Who sacrificed his only son,our Lord Jesus! So we could be saved and 4-given for our sins. I don’t understand as a child of God,why we should not be privileged to all the word of God.

Jim Price [12/27/2015 5:30 PM]
Good question but I don’t have the answer.

Ricky Grimsley [12/27/2015 5:34 PM]
Luke 24:27 KJVS
[27] And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

John Kissinger [12/27/2015 6:07 PM]
Whereas, both Orthodoxy and Catholicism draw from secondary to the Bible sources; Whereas after the destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian captivity, secondary rabbinic sources were perhaps consulted to restore the original meta-narratives, history, wisdom and poetry of the Hebrew Bible; and whereas, Luther went as far as reducing the original Biblical cannon in order to preserve the purity of the Scriptures, as he understood and interpreted it; Protestantism still stands on the original foundation of Sola Scripture – the original 66 canonical books of the Protestant Bible translated into the mother tongue of the reader. Most Pentecostals have gone even further to establish the “New Testament rightly divided as rule of life” thus disregarding the practice (for most parts) of Spiritual gifts or other extra-Biblical revelation that does NOT correspond with the written Protestant Bible. Therefore, while we should and would discuss extra-Biblical material, we must remain faithful in building our Pentecostal faith system from the Bible alone i.e. “New Testament rightly divided as rule of life” #SolaScruptura

PentecostalTheology .com

3 Comments

Reply May 31, 2016
Mary Ellen Nissley

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

Too many today rest their faith on peripheral things, such as seeming scientific support for the Bible… not realizing that when humanistic forces erode scientific popular opinion, their very faith will fail, because it was built on faulty foundations.

Our faith must rest in the Word.

HOWEVER. Biblical faith does not come ONLY by reading and reasoning the Scriptures.

When our faith rests in what our logical ability has figured out in the Bible, it does not rest in God Himself, but in our ability to reason.

I Cor 2:4,5. New Testament faith is to stand not only in our ability to reason the Scriptures, but in knowing the Author of the Scriptures.

Faith happens in response to hearing the word as it proceeds from the mouth of God.
And that inner hearing ear is opened by the Word of God as it is quickened to us by His Spirit.

It’s a personal interaction with a living God, whose continually spoken word has creative power, even today.

If your God is any less, your faith is faulty.
Reply May 31, 2016
Jim Price

I see theology as the lines that connect the dots; by dots I mean those dots one sees in children’s coloring books so that when they draw the lines it soon becomes clear what the object is. Then when you color in the characters you get a full view. Even so each child will draw the lines slightly different and of course the coloring in will show personal taste and ability. So we never have got exactly the same results because the Holy Spirit is limited because He must work through different minds and experiences. Albeit this is a self imposed limitation.
Reply May 31, 2016
Varnel Watson

I really appreciate Jim Price starting this discussion a few months ago. Back then, it turned into a talk about secondary Biblical and extra Biblical sources for our faith, but THEOLOGY and FAITH really need to be discussed together as both science and experience in Pentecostalism. There are so many out there who abandon their roots instead of rethinking their theology http://www.pentecostaltheology.com/abandoning-your-roots-vs-rethinking-your-theology/