indoctrahol.

To assume that a Theologian thinks that, with his study, he will be able to know all things about God is putting words in his mouth. We can thank the theologian that there is an orthodox Christianity to follow. A Christian who feels that theology is not important can only be considered lazy and fails to understand the importance of the theological ideas he assumes everyday. One who assumes that theology distracts people from finding the true God is using a self-defeating philosophy that utilizes theological principles to prove his argument. If you don’t study theology, you cannot know God, and it’s impossible to have faith.

In his book Dug Down Deep, Joshua Harris makes this bold statement: “Everyone is a theologian.” I couldn’t agree more. The very aspects of God’s basic characteristics are theological ideas. Theology are the truths that we know about God. As defined in such a simple way, it’s easy to see why Harris feels that everyone is a theologian. There is no way around forming ideas about God. An atheist, who denies God’s existence has theological ideas. But one must understand that people can form bad ideas about God.

To understand God as an objective being, or a being that exists outside of our mind, we must ultimately conclude that God’s attributes must be revealed to us or told to us. The simple things about God that we take for granted, such as, God is good, is a theological statement that needed to be revealed to us. Just as a person would develop the idea of how God created the universe. Likewise, the goodness of God is something that we ought study, especially when we put so much at stake when we learn to trust God. Knowing, in this case is essential having faith in anything. If we don’t study we can get fail to understand even the basic ideas of God’s attributes.

Theology matters because it allows us to have faith in a God that’s bigger than us. In fact, it gives us the idea that God is bigger than us. Faith requires knowledge. Knowledge reveals that God is good, or just, or powerful enough to warrant our faith and worship. Knowledge does not nullify faith, knowledge makes it possible to have faith. Would you have faith in a God you didn’t know was a good and just? Would you put your faith in a world dictator? Just as one would assume that a doctor could save your life when a mason would not be able, it is natural and right to assume God has a nature and a personality and have the power enough for us to put faith in him. These are theological statements, and they’re inescapable.

Theology matters because we have brains. We are required to know God (Matthew 22.37). It is not accurate to understand that gaining more knowledge affects God in any way. How does my knowledge cars make the car any less complicated, or less of a wonderfully made machine created by brilliant minds? Is it possible to think that the more we study God, the conclusions we come to will ultimately be in praise and worship of how powerful and good God actually is? As a theologian would be wrong to think that he can comprehend everything about God, it is more accurate to say that a true Christian will find all the theological facts of God hasve already revealed to us by God. Sure we can’t comprehend the depths of God’s goodness, but God does not require us to do so, and a righteous theologian would never think he is capable of digging that deep. The one who embraces studying theology has, on his side, a powerful foundation that one does not need to twist and grimace at a seemingly irreconcilable balance between faith and fact, he can understand all that God requires and move to taking faithful risks that God enjoys.