Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Sept/69

Contributor - T. Hogerwaard

Title - Systematic Theology for members Of Consistory

Topic - Consistory

Theology and speculation

Christian theologians come in various groups. There are the doctors of the Church, among them the professors of theology, to whom especially the task is entrusted to stand guard for purity of doctrine; the ministers, who have to study theology in order to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not something else ! Finally there are the other office-bearers, elders and deacons and the members of the Christian Church who have understood that study of the Word of God and all its implications belong to the command to love the Lord our God with all our heart, our mind and strength. But any and every theologian, no matter to which group he belongs, has to learn, right from the start, to make a clear and sharp distinction between theology and speculation. The confusion between these two has often given theology a bad name in some Christian circles. What is the difference?

Theology - and especially systematic theology to understand is the endeavour to understand what Scripture (in its entirety !) has to say about grace, peace, reconciliation and all the other great words in Scripture. But speculation is the human endeavour to think and to speak about God apart from, God's revelation (often in opposition to it).

Examples.

a.' If a man selects and reads carefully all those places in the Bible where we are told about God's Covenant, then starts to read and to study what great theologians have written about God's Covenant in the course of the centuries, then this right pursuit of theology will give him a far cleaner insight in God's dealings with men than he would have had, if he had never studied that part of theology.

b. But when Johannes Cocceius (160;3-1669), the famous Dutch theologian, wrote that God's Covenant with men rests upon an "eternal Covenant between the Father and the Son", then you will try in vain to find a Biblical basis for that in the Scriptures, for there is not any! Cocceius gave us only his speculative thoughts. Speculation is the source of all the heresies which have inflicted such an enormous damage upon the faith of men in the course of the History of the Church. There is "difficult" theology, also theology that everyone who is really interested and wants to exert himself can understand. There is high-flying, speculation as pursued by the philosophical theologians and lay speculation. Sometimes you find yourself in a rather humorous situation ! Once, at a ministerial meeting, we were discussing speculation. The wife of one of the ministers said that speculation was all wrong, we should stick to the Bible. Fine, every-one agreed! But then she strongly recommended a certain book which was once widely read in some Christian circles. Its title: "What would Jesus do". Well, if there ,,er existed a classical example - of speculation it is that book! What our Lord actually did, we read in the Gospels and the Book of Acts; if we ponder the question: "What would the Lord Have done in such and such a situation", we indulge in speculation and that is airways wrong, no matter how good the intention of author was. So the minister's wife innocently recommended simple speculation as a cure for high-brow speculation! The Lord nas given us His Holy Spirit. He aides us; He lets us know what Christ wants us to do in our circumstances.

"When we study theology, we must be willing to listen attentively and humbly to what our fathers and brothers in the faith have to say (to discover what insight God has given to them for the benefit of us all). Otherwise we are up against the notorious "lay-theology' of men who think that they can explain the Scriptures all on their own: the infallibility which the RC Church ascribes to the pope, when he speaks ex cathedra, these men claim for themselves with horrible results ! When I meet such an "original thinker" I am always reminded of that Arab saying: "The man who studies without a teacher, has the devil for his teacher "' Obviously that is also applicable outside the world of Islam

CHRISTOLOGY

In article no. 6 we learned that the Greek Fathers in Chalcedon set the limits which we have to respect when thinking, speaking or writing about Christ. The spiritual penalties for not doing so have always been heavy! In the period after the Reformation there was a questionable development in Lutheran theology, and our Reformed fathers, in their desire to correct the Lutheran theological aberrations, gave the wrong answers! In my student days I found that piece of Church history extremely dry, boring and highly speculative (hence: irrelevant). In the years which have gone since then, I never had reason to change my opinion, so I will not bother you with it. Those who are sufficiently interested, can buy and read Bonhoeffer's brilliant book Christ: Son of God and Son of man; the Humiliated One and the Exalted One..

In theology, as in ladies' dress, there is always a good deal of fashion that determines the picture. That which is "in" during a certain (mostly brief) period. In ladies' dress as well as in theology we have now the time of the mini-dress and the micro skirt, which are characterized by the fact that (a) very little material is used; (b) a good deal which should be covered is not covered at all! A few years ago the notorious booklet "Honest to God" appeared, written by bishop John A. T. Robinson. The book is worthless, and yet a million copies were sold in the English speaking world alone. The readers are regaled with the following blasphemous trash: (page 66 impression 1963)

. . still the traditional supernaturalistic way of describing the Incarnation almost inevitably suggests that Jesus was really God Almighty walking about on earth, dressed up as a man. Jesus was not a man born and bred He was God for a limited period taking part in a charade. He looked like a man, he talked like a man, he felt like a man, but underneath he was God dressed up - like Father Christmas. However guardedly it may be stated the traditional view leaves the impression that God took a space trip and arrived on this planet in the form of a man". "It (the Incarnation) conjures up the idea of a divine substance being plunged in flesh and coated with it like chocolate or silver plating' .

Bishop Robinson (and his successors whose books are even worse than his!) claim to have derived their ideas from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This is totally wrong for if he were with us nowadays, Bonhoeffer would fiercely contradict them. But Bonhoeffer has strongly influenced many orthodox thinkers. And indeed, one can learn a good deal from that brilliant theologian (who died as a,' martyr for Christ),, without. however, accepting everything he' wrote!

One of the things he stressed was the poverty, the humiliation of Christ; in Christ we see the humble God, Who allows Himself to be treated scandalously by human beings. It is correct to stress that side: a hundred years ago in Scotland as well as in other lands Christ was seen so exclusively as the Son of God, that the Christians were horrified if and when ministers stressed the human nature of Christ, that He also was hungry and thirsty, that He was tired, as we are. But at present a good many ministers are overdoing it. Now, from thousands of pulpits all over the world you hear practically nothing else but this side of Jesus, which Bonhoeffer stressed in the last years of his life (when in prison). But Bonhoeffer, in an earlier period of his - life, wrote the brilliant "Christology' in which the Divine Christ rises before one in all His splendour!

We have to keep in mind (also in our days of mini-theology and micro-theology - in our days of "Christ, the man for- others" and of "4Christ, our Representative" (written by "diese Dame Soelle" ' as Barth, in suppressed anger and indignation expressed himself!) _ that Christ was the Eternal Son of the Father, before the world was made. The Incarnation lasted only a few decades and, since the Lord went back to heaven, He is the One to Whom all power in heaven and earth has been given, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. It is Biblical indeed to stress "Christ died on -the cross in weakness (2 Cor. 13 : 4) but what follows is "but He lives by the power of God". Careful study of 1 and 2 Corinthians and of the Letter to the Ephesians can open our eyes to this fact. In our situation we need it badly to be reminded of the power of God and not only of the weakness of God!

Therefore we should not only study what is theologically "in" at present but especially what has been theologically important - is, and will be during all the ages of the Christian Church. Then the sheep entrusted to our care will be abundantly (and not one-sidedly!) fed., That's exactly what the Chief Shepherd commands us to do. One day I asked our Principal what the secret was that Dr. 0.Noordmans had become the theologian he was. He answered "Well, apart from the great gifts of mind the Lord has given him, it is that he has always - next to what was current and in fashion in his days - studied the classics of the Christian Church (Athanasius, Augustine, Calvin and others). In doing so, he became a great theologian himself.

What a difference it would make if more men followed Dr. Noordmans' example! This time I would like to end with the words of a great Scottish theologian (**) who formulated that which we should say about Christ so lucidly and succinctly:

"Thus to exalt Him as the sole Hope and Redeemer of , men is enough - strong amid the broken, erect among the fallen, living amid the, dead and the dying, Jesus Christ the Son of God, our Lord". Dr. Macgregor ends: "It is thus the Gospel should always be preached, and thus rejoicingly it should be received". Aye!

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