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    Theology 101
    Theology 101
    Theology 101
    Ebook151 pages1 hour

    Theology 101

    By Edwin Walhout

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    About this ebook

    Basic Biblical theology with critical examinations of its history. See also the more philosophical companion volume, Christianity Down To Earth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEdwin Walhout
    Release dateDec 11, 2010
    ISBN9781458122599
    Theology 101
    Author

    Edwin Walhout

    I am a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Church, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Being retired from professional life, I am now free to explore theology without the constraints of ecclesiastical loyalties. You will be challenged by the ebooks I am supplying on Smashwords.

    Read more from Edwin Walhout

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      Book preview

      Theology 101 - Edwin Walhout

      Theology 101

      by Edwin Walhout

      Published by Edwin Walhout

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2010 Edwin Walhout

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

      The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.

      Consult Smashwords.com for additional titles by this author,

      including Christianity Down To Earth,

      which is an in-depth analysis of the historical development of Christianity.

      Cover design by Amy Cole (amy.cole@comcast.net)

      Table of Contents

      1 God and Creation

      2 God and the Human Race

      3 God and History

      4 God and Jesus

      5 God and the Gospel

      6 God and Greeks

      7 God and the Roman Empire

      8 God and the Ancient Church

      9 God and the Dark Ages

      10 God and Medieval Civilization

      11 God and the Enlightenment

      12 God and Modern Theology

      13 God and the Present

      14 God and the Future

      * * * * *

      1

      God and Creation

      By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

      and all their host by the breath of his mouth.

      (Psalm 33:6)

      Creation

      Theology begins where the Bible begins. The Bible begins with the story of creation, so that is where we begin also: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

      The word theology means knowledge about God. What do we know about God? That he created the heavens and the earth, namely the universe. The earth, of course, is this planet on which we live, and the heavens are everything else: other planets, space, galaxies, whatever there is out there, the cosmos. God created it all. That is the first thing, the main thing, we know about God.

      Warning! Do not begin by asking if there is a God. People do ask that question, but usually they mean, Is there some infinite Being out there beyond the universe, some mysterious noumenal Being who exists independently from everything else?

      There’s a lot of philosophy behind that question, mainly that by definition God is a Being beyond our knowledge, an Existence that we cannot perceive, cannot see or hear or touch or feel. Is there such a Being out there?

      Well, we cannot prove it one way or another because the question is wrong. The definition of God is wrong. It’s an unanswerable question. You cannot find proof for something like that, something that is beyond our senses.

      God is not such an abstract unknowable Being beyond our senses. God is the creator of everything that exists, and that is precisely how we know there is a God. If the earth exists, God exists. If we exist, God exists. If anything at all exists, God exists. Because he created it all. Nothing would be here if God had not made it. If God were to die, the universe would disappear.

      That is where we have to begin in our theology. So when we think of God we immediately think of the world – God made it. And, vice versa, when we think of the world we think immediately of God – God made it.

      This is also where the Apostles’ Creed begins, I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of the heavens and the earth.

      Monotheism

      Many ancient nations had ideas about how the earth came to exist, that is, about what we call creation. The ancient Babylonians, for example, believed that their great god Marduk killed his great-grandmother Tiamat, split her body in half, making half of it the sky and the other half the earth. This means the earth is the corpse of an ancient god.

      All ancient civilizations except Israel were polytheist, acknowledging many gods. It seems that ancient people all believed there were supernatural beings that controlled the various functions of nature. There would be a god who controlled the wind, another who controlled the fertility of the soil, another who sent rain, another who controlled health and sickness, and so forth, a god for every function of nature. Most of them also had a Father-god and a Mother-god; for example, Zeus and Hera in Greece, Jupiter and his consort in Rome, Apsu and Tiamat in Babylon. The Father-god was often considered the High God, the one with the most authority. Among the ancient Canaanites this High God was named El, a term for God common also among the ancient Israelites.

      However, the Israelites, even though they used the common name for God, El, were unique because they did not acknowledge additional gods. There is only one God and the Israelites were the first and only nation in antiquity to recognize and accept that fact. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. You shall have no other gods before me.

      There was an attempt in ancient Egypt to substitute monotheism (one God) for polytheism (many gods), shortly before the time of Moses, but the Pharaoh (Akhnaton) who tried to impose this belief was unsuccessful. When he died the priests reverted to polytheism.

      Monotheism means that all the forces of nature are under the sovereign control of one only creator God who is directing all things to the end which he himself has set.

      Is monotheism important? Does it matter whether or not we think there are many gods functioning out there in nature and in history? Usually people who believe in many gods think of them as if they were glorified humans. For example, one god may become jealous of another god: the god of rain and the god of drought might be competing for control. Sometimes one is dominant, sometimes the other. So we have on earth periods of drought alternating with periods of rain. When it comes to national gods there is also intense competition. The gods of Assyria and the gods of Egypt are constantly at war with each other, and then the gods of Babylon enter the fray, and later the gods of Persia and Greece and Rome.

      The point is that in the polytheistic worldview there is no one controlling force guiding and directing the course of human life and history. The same kind of competition they see among humans they see among the gods. If Moab succeeds in conquering Israel, for example, it is because Molech has become more powerful among the gods than Yahweh. There is no all controlling, all powerful, all-wise director of time and history, just an ongoing competition for supremacy among the gods.

      The result of this is that each nation desires to be not only independent but to impose its authority if possible on surrounding nations. The result is war, empire building, suppression of enemies, slavery, and many other evils resulting from selfishness of nations. Polytheism does nothing whatever to alleviate the evils of our times.

      In monotheism there is a recognition that one God is in control of everything. He is in control of it because he created it to begin with. This means there is no divine competition and no inherent conflict between the forces of nature. All of the forces of nature are under the sovereign control of one only creator God who is directing all things to the end which he himself has set. Nothing in life and history is out of control. That is what it means to believe in one God only.

      God’s Word

      The Israelites were not only unique in being the first monotheistic nation, but also in the way they understood creation. They understood that God created the world by speaking. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. (Psalm 33:6)

      We ordinarily think God created the world by the exercise of his great power, by his will. But the Israelites insisted it was by the exercise of his word. God spoke things into existence.

      What is so important about that? And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God said, Let us make man in our image. What is important is how God speaks. The product of God’s speech in the beginning is the earth and the heavens, shaped and developed so that the earth could be a suitable habitat for human beings. Humans cannot live on Mars or Venus or Uranus. They can live on Earth. Why? Because God said so.

      God spoke the earth into existence. He spoke the human race into existence. He spoke trees and clouds and stars into existence. If we want to hear what God is saying we must listen to him where he speaks, namely in everything that exists. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. (Romans 1:20)

      It is important to make a strong point of this because there are people who distrust the discoveries of scientists. But the work of scientists is precisely to examine the world that God created. What they discover is what God has spoken. If we reject what scientists actually discover about the world we are rejecting the word of God. We must not do that. We must, on the contrary, accept the duly established insights and discoveries of those who make the world their study; for example, that the earth is globular not flat, and similar insights into nature.

      Word and Power

      Another valuable thing to learn from Genesis is that the power of God and the word of God go together. We can say both: God’s word is God’s power, and God’s power is God’s speech. God’s word never goes out without accomplishing that for which God sends it; it always does something. And vice versa, whenever something happens in nature it is because God has spoken. Never think of God speaking without thinking simultaneously of God doing something. Never think of God doing something without listening simultaneously to what he is saying.

      In life and in nature and in history and in space. God created all of these and he is saying something in it all the time. Whenever something happens in our lives or in the world of nature it is because God is doing it, and by doing it God is communicating something to us. We need to train ourselves to listen carefully to what God is saying to us, either as individuals or as a human race together.

      What does a monstrous hurricane say to us from God? You are not the masters of nature that you might otherwise think. Remember I am God the creator and lord of the whole universe. Live accordingly.

      What does a bout with cancer say to us from God? Your life is in my hand, as is your daily health. I can take it from you at any moment. Remember this and learn how to spend your time and energy in good and righteous ways.

      How does a young person listen to what God tells him to do with his life? He examines the abilities God has given him in his personality, character, interests, likes and dislikes, then prays about it to his creator, and simply listens to God speaking precisely in these personal traits and interests. He says to his creator, I will do what you want me to do, I will be what you want me to be, I will say what you want me to say. Then he makes the choice, in faith and trust, that seems right at the time in the sight of God.

      Development

      Here is another extremely important insight that was first seen by the ancient writer of Genesis, and is confirmed by the studies of contemporary scientists. Genesis pictures the process of creation as a step by step process for which it employs the symbol of days. Modern science has filled in this analogy by recognizing that the process by which the earth was formed was a long, fifteen billion year, development.

      There is no conflict between these two points of view. One could not expect Moses (or whoever wrote Genesis

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