Welcome to my very first article and there is no better way to go about this then by encouraging you to start your journey in Christian Theology. If you are curious about who I am, please do go (after reading this article) and read the About section of this website where I briefly introduced myself. To be brief, my goal with this website project is to share articles on Christian Theology in hope that it will help my brothers and sisters in building their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Speaking of faith, all of us began our journey as a baby Christian by first placing our Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, in his finished work on the cross that purchased and redeemed us for His Kingdom. However, this only marks the beginning of our journey, infact most of us still have so many questions in regard to deep theological topics such as the Trinity, Salvation, Scripture, Justification, Sanctification, Baptism, etc. Therefore, in this article I will go through:-
- Why Learn Theology?
- What to expect?
- Where to start?
1. Why Learn Theology?
Before going to the “Why” let’s begin with What is Theology? Theology simply means the study of God, more specifically in this website, Christian Theology. So why is it imperitive for a Christian to study Theology? The very first reason is because God wants us to seek Him. In the Gospel according to St. Matthew,
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. - Matthew 22:37–38 (KJV 1900).
The greatest of all commandment is to love God and how can we love God if we don’t know who He is. So it is vital for us to remember that this journey of exploring Theology begins as an act of obedience that continues to fuel your passion in knowing the Creator. Secondly, by learning Theology we will not fall into false teachings or doctrines which has always been seeping into the church from the beginning. Thirdly, the Apostle St. Peter says this:-
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: - 1 Peter 3:15 (KJV 1900)
And the only way to be able to give an answer is to have a good grasp of fundamental Christian Theology or doctrine.
2. What To Expect?
Learning Theology may be a daunting task to undertake and this can seem over-whelming at first but I assure you it will all be worth it. Hardwork is an understatement in learning Theology but the idea is to take one step at a time and remember that you have the best teacher guiding you, the Holy Spirit. There will be instances where you will be challenged on a certain doctrine you hold (depending in your denomination), at times you will even be in awe of the majesty of God and how miraculous the Bible is, and definitely be convicted of your shortfalls and moved by the Holy Spirit to be changed and renewed. Lastly, expect to be in a spiritual battle the moment you start this journey as satan hates it when one has passion for God and he will definitely bring stumbling blocks and even plant seeds of doubt to turn you away from our Triune God. Therefore, it goes without saying that learning Theology is not just head knowledge but also spending time praying to God and seeking for His protection and The Holy Spirit to fill you with strength and boldness.
3. Where To Start?
From my journey in exploring Theology, starting it was not all too difficult, rather it was the consistency of studying the Word that has been challenging for me. So again, prayer is key to have a consistent learning journey in Theology. Coming to the point in hand, you can start right with what you already have, The Bible, the source of Theology and Christian doctrines. I would suggest you to use a reference bible and a translation that is easy for you to understand, my picks would be Orthodox Study Bible, KJV, NASB, NKJV, or ESV (assuming English is your primary language). The references in the margin will be of great help as you take the first baby steps in unlocking the scripture, and as I mentioned before, prayer is key, always start by asking the Holy Spirit to help you understand scripture, after all He is the author.
There are also plenty of bible study software out there, but I would suggest you to start with a free resource like BlueLetterBible.org which has been my go-to resource from the time I started studying the Bible. I would also suggest for you to try avoid commentaries in the beginning and if you really need it, read multiple commentaries because all commentaries will have a bias depending on the author and you wouldn’t want that to affect the way you understand a passage, so read multiple commentaries so you may have a wider view of any given passage. I would encourage you to read about the ecumenical councils, and early church father writings/commentaries to understand how they explained passages in scripture.
There is generally 2 ways you can start studying the Bible and I actually incorporated both ways just to keep my journey even more interesting. One way is to study systematically, where you take on a specific Theological topic like the Trinity and you study the whole Bible on how it teaches the existence of God, and another way would be by taking a book in the bible and studying it verse-by-verse. Either way (or both) will be an edifying path to start for you.
Conclusion
I have kept this article as brief as I can but I hope that it encourages you to start this journey. I will be posting articles from time to time especially on topics that I am studying, so please do bookmark this site on your devices or use a RSS feed reader like Feedly to be notified of any new posts in this site. I will also be posting most of the article links in my Twitter page (@XPloreTheology) and video based content on my Youtube Channel (ExploreTheology), so you can Follow and Subscribe to me there as well. Finally I would like to end this article by this exhortation from 2 Peter 2:14-18 :-
14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 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, 16 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. 17 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. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. - 2 Peter 3:14–18 (ESV)