a healthy church: biblical theology
 
This month we continue to answer the question, “What is a healthy church?” Last month we said that the first mark of health was biblical preaching. This month we move on to a second mark: biblical theology or, to put it another way, theology that is biblical. It is always tempting for us to take one or two verses and base our entire system of belief upon them; but when we do that, we easily fall into error. Instead we must allow the entire Bible to shape what we believe. I grew up with several friends who were Church of Christ. On Pentecost, Peter tells the crowd, “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38). The Church of Christ takes this to mean that baptism is what justifies you before God. However, a theology that takes account of the entire Bible realizes that we are saved by grace through faith, not of any work that we can perform (see Eph 2:8-10 especially). Therefore, Peter must be commanding the people to be baptized because it is “the pledge of a good conscience toward God” (1 Pet 3:21 NIV). It is so easy for us to take something that God is teaching us and run with it without seeing the big picture. The Bible corrects such wrong thinking. We tend to emphasize God’s judgment or God’s love, but the Bible shows us a balance. We want to pick between man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty when the Bible teaches both. I could go on with more examples, but you get the point: We need to believe what we believe based upon a holistic understanding of the Bible. We are told that the Bereans whom Paul and Silas preached to “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). It is my prayer that we at Elk Lick will develop that habit. Let’s truly be a people of the Book. Bro. Josh Based on material from What Is A Healthy Church? by Mark Dever. More at 9marks.org http://www.9marks.orgshapeimage_1_link_0
Elk Lick News
March 2008