WHERE DO WE LEARN ABOUT GOD, OR THEOLOGY?
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER IN BIBLE?
Many churches are not equipped to talk about God. Many churches really do not have a real interested about knowing who God really is. Many preachers just want to teach the simple gospel's abc. Many church members are not smarter than a fifth grader in Bible.
A thought provoking comment by Machen on theological ignorance in the church:
- Machen thought that liberalism had spread to such a great extent in the church because of the theological ignorance of the whole church. In his classic book Christianity and Liberalism, he wrote "An outstanding fact of recent church history is the appalling growth of ignorance in the church...The growth of [such] ignorance is the logical and inevitable result of the false notion that Christianity is a life and not a doctrine; if Christianity is not a doctrine then of course teaching is not necessary."
- Hart adds:
The church needs not only people with M.Div.'s and M.A.R.'s but, more importantly, people who know and love the catechisms of the various confessional traditions. In fact, one of the reasons why seminary graduates may have such a hard time finding an outlet in the church for what they have learned is that theology has become the exclusive domain of the seminary, with the congregation and home existing as bystanders. Seminaries don't need more programs. They need more families and churches to do what they are called to do.
Many church members just want to hear a simple gospel or a talk and keeping it short as possible. There is little room for dialoge that would require a lot of thinking and thought.
In many church members just think you are trying to show off, if you want to talk about church doctrines.
- From D. G. Hart, "Overcoming the Schizophrenic Character of Theological Education in the Evangelical Tradition" in Michael S. Horton [ed.], A Confessing Theology for Postmodern Times, p. 126
^ Thank it over...... Go to church Sunday and have a serious talk about God.
