Why Theology Matters-Discerning Error

By all accounts, Christians have access to more resources today than ever. Christian bookstores are filled with rows and rows of books.  I recall a recent conversation with an acquaintance who attends a Bible believing church.  She was telling me how much she loves Joel and how much she has learned from him.  She meant Joel Osteen, purveyor of the health and wealth "gospel" and deceiver of countless millions (not the Old Testament prophet).  Number one on the New York Times Bestseller list right now is Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo, a book about a little boy who allegedly went to heaven, which of course contradicts how Paul talks about going to heaven in 2 Corinthians 12.  (By way of reminder, Paul did not want to talk about having gone to heaven and he was forbidden to share what he saw).  Major Christian book distributors even sell books by Bart Ehrman and other like-minded authors, whose goal is to disassemble Christianity.  On the website for Christian Book Distributors, they review Ehrman's book Jesus, interrupted and provide the following quote, "There’s something delicious (for nonbelievers, anyway) about the implacable, dispassionate way that Ehrman reveals how the supposedly 'divine truth' of Christianity was historically constructed."  Unfortunately, when they distribute these books, they rarely provide such a clear tag to the actual message. 

The undiscerning Christian may happily gather up these books, assuming they teach truth in equal measure.  They do not. But how are they to know this?  Most Christians do not know their Bible or church history well enough to know how to identify error.  The Pew Forum recently conducted a survey on religious knowledge and found that Christians scored more poorly than atheists/agnostics, Jews, and Mormons.  I have read other surveys that demonstrate the commonplace occurrence of Christians not knowing themes such as how many gospels there are, who Moses was,or how many disciples there were.  How can Christians be expected to guard themselves against error when they do not know God's word and the people who should be selling them materials to help are selling materials directly contrary to the faith without a warning label?

I think that a lot of people who know me assume that for me, the study of theology is a nice hobby or perhaps a quirk of character.  Theology is more than just a hobby.  It must be.  Theology is technically knowledge of God.  I believe that we are called to know God.  Everyone on the planet has ideas about God, the question is whether those ideas are well-founded and Biblical.  You cannot get to know God, in other words, you cannot develop as a theologian, without grappling with your Bible. 

It says in 2 Peter 3:15-18, "And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Peter warns that ignorant and unstable people will twist the Scriptures to their own destruction and that we can also be carried away.  How do we guard against this?  By growing in grace and knowledge.  

How do you grow in grace and knowledge?  The first thing is to know your Bible well, which you will not do if you never read it.  Interact with the word every day.  Most of us never think twice about eating every day; we do it because when we don't, we weaken quickly.  The same is true for God's word.  A person not feeding on the Word daily will soon grow faint.  Job 23:12 says, "I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food."  How many of us can say that God's Word is more important to us than our next meal? 

Second, there is wisdom in understanding church history.  I have heard Derek Thomas, a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, say that he is amazed at how ignorant people are of church history because most of the battles fought today in the church have already been fought in the last 2000 years and the church has come to resolution.  Theologians have been correcting error for centuries and we should learn from their wisdom.  If you hear about some new way of understanding the Bible that veers from a classical understanding, it is probably just an old heresy in new clothing.

Third, sit under Bible believing teaching. If you have chosen your church because the music moves you but they don't really make a big deal about whether the Bible is true or not, go somewhere else.  If the people are really nice, but the leadership makes church about being a good person rather than being a desperately sick sinner in need of a savior, go somewhere else.

Churches abound with error.  Churches claiming the label "Christian" also abound with error.  Each week you may be learning from a humble shepherd or from a wolf in disguise, but you will not know it unless you get to know a little theology.  Theology matters, whether you realize it or not.