“Theology has become a bad word in many Christian circles…Theology is often linked in people’s minds with cold, dead religion that cares more about principles and matters of the head than deeds and matters of the heart. It is associated with fundamentalism and with cold conservatism. Yet if we look at the meaning and etymology of the word, we cannot help but conclude that God requires all Christians to be theologians.” (Tim Challies, “The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment,” p.48) The author above could not be any more accurate!! Theology, or the thought of it, has become almost unheard of these days. The Church has almost erased it from their “doing church.” The Church has thrown it out the window and replaced it with Pragmatism. What use to be the driving force of the reform Church is now archaic and useless for our age according to the naysayers! What are we to do with this rampant and rabid consensus? Should we raise our white flag and surrender to these prophets of doom? Absolutely not!  We have been given a Precious and Grand Theology borne out of an exegetical harvest of the past. We are to honor the men like—Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon—who have left us with a legacy of Theology. We are to take up the baton and run the race that they so faithfully endured. Theology is every Christian’s endeavor and charge. We are not to heed the spirit of the age. We are to carry the torch of truth continuously. Our job today is to recover the “Biblical Theology” that so characterized the lives of those that preceded us. How are we to do this?

1). Recognize the urgent call that Biblical Theology must be placed back into the life of the Church.

2). Recognize that without it, the Church is nothing more than a light bulb that shines no light.

3). Recognize that Biblical Theology is critical for a truly Christian worldview and for a genuine Christianity.

4). Recognize that Theology is not a cold and dry exercise but an invigorating and inducing meditation into the mind and heart of God.

5). Recognize that Theology, when given its proper place in the Church, will energize and electrify the Church into proper worship.

I believe that if the Church is to experience renewal, recovering the study of theology will be one of the ways that it can accomplish it. Let us be mindful of this and not ignore the statements made by Tim Challies about this woeful condition the Church finds itself in. Let us be faithful. If you are one of those that thought around these lines of depreciating the role of theology, then I pray you repent and begin to ask God to change you. I pray that you begin to value, relish, and preserve Theology in your heart. Help to change the current state of the Church. Let us together strive to be theologians of the first rank. God help us!

Pastor Jim Cater