The Importance of Theology

All of Scripture applies to all of life. Theology is not something to be held between our ears, but something that permeates our lives. There is no area of life to which Scripture does not speak (2 Tim. 3:15-17). The Christian reformation extended to every area of life. As we have retreated from the breadth of Scripture to a theology that is only personal, we have seen the forces of evil rise to pummel God's world. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. We need to have answers for those who ask what they suppose are rhetorical questions or unanswerable questions.

Experientia Docet?

The position that experience is ultimately the best teacher is certainly a possible one, but it is not a necessary one. … While experience is crucial to our understanding, experience must begin with some presuppositions some axioms, a place from which to begin. A Christian would assert that the Bible is, by faith [i.e., presuppositionally], true. Our experience is thereafter interpreted by the Scripture. It is not the other way around. We do not interpret the Bible in the "light" of our experience. Experience may exemplify Scripture's truth, but it cannot "prove" or buttress it. If our individual experience proves Scripture, then we are implicitly presupposing that our experience is superior to Scripture in validity.


Excerpt from "Presuppositions of Experience"

What is Truth?

The special revelation of God in His Scripture is unique. At our peril did we as a culture lead the world into a divorce of our observations of the material world from the revealed Word of God. Experiential observations must be openly linked with revelation to be rightly useful. To separate the two is to pretend that we can live without God. Remember Eve’s empirical approach to the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” Gen. 3:6. Eve was living by a reason separated from revelation; she wanted to live by her senses unbound by God’s word. Observation and reason were separable from revelation, she thought.

Psalm 119:160: “The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.” There is nothing in all of science of which this statement can be made. What is truth? Truth is every word which comes from the mouth of God. All of our other truths are derivative, partial, fallible. Not one of them can stand alongside revelation. Do not support your culture in thinking that they can be. As you have opportunity and standing to do so, challenge those who do, beginning in the house of faith. None of us should ask Pontius Pilate’s question with his attitude, expecting that there is no answer, or that we can determine the answer with our ears and eyes and reason alone. Use logic, yes. Use as accurate observations as you can, yes. But give the world Scripture, and link it with logic and observations.


Excerpt from "What is Truth?"