Don’t Mistake Your Passion for Theological Precision

Caring Enough to Be Careful

I’m glad there are people in the world—most people in the world, it turns out—who know more about cars than I do. I don’t want good-natured well-wishers to replace my alternator. I want someone who has paid careful attention to the intricacies of auto repair. I want someone who cares about precision. I want someone who knows what he’s doing. I want an expert.

To act as if no one knows more than anyone else is not only silly; it’s also a serious mistake. In his book The Death of Expertise, Tom Nichols cites a survey from a few years ago in which enthusiasm for military intervention in Ukraine was directly proportional to the person’s lack of knowledge about Ukraine. It seems that the dumber we are, the more confident we are in our own intellectual achievements.

Nichols relays an incident where someone on Twitter was trying to do research about sarin gas. When the world’s expert on sarin gas offered to help, the original tweeter (a world-class “twit” we might say) proceeded to angrily lecture the expert for acting like a know-it-all. The expert may not have known it all, but in this case, he knew exponentially more than someone crowdsourcing his research online. And when it comes to chemical warfare, I’d like my experts to have as much expertise as possible.

We live in an age where passion is often considered an adequate substitute for precision.

We’ve swallowed the lie that says that if we believe in equal rights, we must believe that all opinions have equal merit. Nichols also tells the story of an undergraduate student arguing with a renowned astrophysicist who was on campus to give a lecture about missile defense. After seeing that the famous scientist was not going to change his mind after hearing the arguments from a college sophomore, the student concluded in a harrumph, “Well, your guess is as good as mine.” At which point the astrophysicist quickly interjected, “No, no, no. My guesses are much, much better than yours.”1

The Shepherd as Theologian: Accurately Interpreting and Applying God's Word for God's People

“No profession in the world suffers more from a serious lack of clarity, when it comes to the basic requirements of the job, as the pastorate/eldership. Everyone but pastors seem to know what their job is. In fact, if we are honest, clergy malpractice goes on everywhere, all the time. It is ubiquitous. It is pandemic. There is widespread confusion about what it means to be a pastor/church leader, and widespread indifference to biblical duties. As a result, the church has no concept of what the pastor is to be or do. One thing is clear. Most pastors have no interest in being theologians, nor do their congregations expect them to be. The devolution of theology and biblical scholarship as a serious matter for Christians can be traced back to the absence of doctrine and careful biblical scholarship from the pulpit. This is a dereliction of duty. This is clergy malpractice. The pastorate is no longer an intellectual calling, and no longer do pastors/elders provide serious intellectual leadership. Instead today’s pastors merely manage programs. They give uplifting talks, apply culturally invented principles, and put their energy into everything but biblical scholarship- everything but an intense study of the text, which yield sound doctrine.” All of this contradicts the clear direction of the New Testament Scriptures (note 2 Timothy 1:14; 2:1-2, 15; 4:1-5; Jude 3). 

From John MacArthur's book- The Shepherd as Theologian.

The Shepherd as Theologian: Resurrecting an Ancient Vision

The Evangelical Church in America is, by in large, "a mile wide and an inch deep" yet relatively few seem to notice or even care. What does the God of the Word think of this trend? "By New Testament standards, pastors/elders are, whether they like it or not, the appointed theological leaders of the church; the theological integrity of the church will seldom ever rise above its pastors/leaders, no matter how astute the local university's religion department. And insofar as pastors have largely lost their ability to provide theological leadership, and indeed no longer see doing so as part of their vocation, the theological integrity of our congregations has suffered considerably. But most significantly, as an inevitable consequence, with the collapse of theological integrity in our churches, a corresponding erosion of ethical integrity has followed (for examples- note Galatians, 1 Corinthians, and James)... Correct understanding can't get us all the way there, but wrong understanding is often all that is needed to shipwreck one's faith. And it is the pastor's sacred duty, above all others, to guard the theological integrity of the people of God." Hiestand- (see Titus 1:5-11; 2:1, 15; 3:1, 8; 1 Timothy 1:5-11, 18-20; 3:1-2; 4:13-16; 5:7; 17-18; 6:2-5; to name but a few proof texts).

Pastors/elders must also shepherd, lead, oversee, and care for the spiritual needs of the flock BUT never at the expense of fulfilling the God-ordained role of being a shepherd-theologian within the local church.

Join us Sunday at Lake Country Bible Church as we consider "The Anatomy of a Biblical Church" and specifically address the role theology/doctrine plays in the maturation process of ordinary believers (Ephesians 4:11-16).

Children Need Theology Too

Theology isn’t just for adults. Children need to learn theology too.

"It’s not enough for children to read the bible or have it read to them; it’s not enough that they memorize bible verses. Parents need to teach them what the bible means (Deut. 6:7). They need to learn theology so that they know what the bible is communicating.

Children can begin to learn theology even before they can begin to read. There are lots of ways to teach theology to children. In our house, we use a catechism. (The catechism we use is adapted for young children from the Westminster Shorter Catechism and modified to reflect a more Baptistic understanding of scripture.) Catechisms are a great way to begin teaching children Christian theology and doctrine. (They are actually good for adults too.)

Why is this important? Right at the outset children will be able to learn the answer to a question that plagues lots of people, including some Christians: Why are we here? What’s our purpose on this earth—not just as Christians, but as human beings created in the image of God? The answer to this question is stunningly simple but easy to get wrong if we don’t start with the revelation of scripture. It’s so simple that young children can learn the answer and have it impact the way they live for the rest of their life.

As some Christians have tried to answer for themselves the question of why God created mankind, they sometimes speculate that perhaps He needed someone to love. I’ve heard more than one Christian offer this opinion as a possible explanation. But this is a false view of God, and such a god is not the God revealed to us in scripture. What we believe about even this question does matter. It’s important that we get this answer right, not only for ourselves but for our children too.