Mt Hermon Theological college.35,5th street Gweru. Rev.A.

Chiangwa

MOUNT HERMON THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE

NATURE OF THEOLOGY
REV.A. CHIANGWA

Course Description
This course is meant to give the students a broad understanding and how theology is
structured. This will include the disciplines of study in theology. The issues of
inspiration and revelation are dealt with.

Course objectives
At the end of the course the student should be in a position

To define what theology is in its broader spectrum

To identify different disciplines in theology and be in a position to apply them in

ministry.

Course requirements
1. Exam at the end of the course.
2. Can you prove the inerrancy of the bible and what does this mean?discuss
[2000 words]

Bibliography
Angus J 1952. The Bible Handbook. Edinburgh: Marshall, Morgan & Scott.

Berkhof L 1939. Systematic Theology. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust.

Thiessen H 1949. Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: WM.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Pearlman m 1937. Knowing the doctrines of the Bible. Missouri: Gospel publishing
house.

Rylie C 1986. Basic Theology. Canada: SP publications.

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Mt Hermon Theological college.35,5th street Gweru. Rev.A.Chiangwa

RELIGION, FAITH AND THEOLOGY

Def: Religion comes from a latin word meaning to ‘bind’, religion represents those
activities which bind man to God in a certain relationship. It is whatever is important
for you.
Our point of departure should be defining who God is? The word ‘God’ can mean
different things to different people.
Whatever is important for you is your ‘god’. In most cases your God has supernatural
powers to provide, protect and guide.
One’s ultimate concern or what makes life is his/her god
Religion puts us in contact with whatever comes most in our life (God). It is
impossible for one not to believe in anything, especially those people from Africa.
Africans are born religious and they believe in one god or another. We need to
understand that Africans in Sub-Sahara are polytheistic. Thus most of the tribes in
Africa do not belief in one god.
What comes first in your life is something that is supernatural and transcendent.
One `s God should be someone who has powers to protect, heal and provide because
of the supernatural powers.
In all religion what is important for is the ‘god’ because he is the object of worship.
What come first in one’s life is determined by his/her belief and behaviour.

TRANSCENDENCE AND EMMANENT

If God is said to be transcendent it means He is far above there. Human beings can not
reach him. Every religion has this aspect of having God who is transcended.
We are a result of what we believe. It is our beliefs that shape our behaviour.
Beliefs are ideas, opinions, truths. Truths are important to shape us on how we live.
Belief and behaviour feeds into each other and determine each other.
Beliefs are theories yet behaviour is shaped by our praxis.
We demonstrate what we believe in by our behaviour. Life is made up of acting and
thinking, doing and understanding.
Beliefs are theories, myths, philosophy yet on the other hand behaviour is praxis,
rituals, attitude, and morals
Every belief system has to recognise that there is someone ultimate and transcendent.
That means religion is an encounter with someone or thing above the realm of the
heaven. This will result in belief and belief is often demonstrated in a certain style or
conduct.
There is a religious belief and non-religious belief, which means there is a human
faith and religious faith.
In religious faith people recognize that there is mystery which we may live in
harmony with. Putting trust in those unseen powers and yet trusting them that they do
something for me. This is what we are calling faith. Religious faith builds upon
human faith- it does not trust in the mechanical but in the superior being.

THEOLOGY
The word comes from Greek word ‘theos’God. Then ‘ology’ study of.
This is a critical reflection on living out the faith.
It is the creative process of interpreting one’s religion.
The critical reflection is done in a contemporary
It has three players which are: religious tradition, contemporary issues and individual.

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Mt Hermon Theological college.35,5th street Gweru. Rev.A.Chiangwa

Theology seeks to understand God’s creation especially man and his redemption.
Theology relates to issues of culture- it must be contemporary and in context.
The gospel must be supra-cultural
Theology has to invade all cultures then derive the real Christian meaning.
It is the theology that gives a correct doctrinal belief which is necessary to have a
right relationship with God and man. Correct doctrine gives right belief.
Truth and experience are related. There is a danger of basing our theology on our
experiences. All the cults that we have in Zimbabwe is a result of wrong belief, and
wrong doctrine will in most cases open door to sin.

POSSIBILITY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.

Here we need to answer the following questions: as human beings can we know God?
is that possible?
This is a yes/no answer. On one hand yes our God is knowable because he is an
emmanent God, thus he is God with us. If he is God with us then we can know him.
John 14:7, 1 John 5:20, John 17:9 all these verses show that he can be knowable us.

On the other hand God is incomprehensible which means Man’s mind cannot
understand the knowledge of God. The following verses show that God is
incomprehensible. Job 11:7, Isaiah 40:18.
Both are true even one of them is neither true on its own. Yes, we can know him but
to certain extend. At the same time our minds cannot fully comprehend his knowledge
and understand him. If we fully know him then he ceases to be God.

REVELATION
God Himself is the source of our knowledge of him.
Our God is a hidden God who has revealed himself, and therefore can be known.
Revelation is an act of God whereby he discloses himself or communicates truth to
the mind, whereby he makes manifest to his creatures that which could not be known
in any other way. What God has revealed to us is what is written in the bible.
God is not directly accessible, he revealed himself through various ways including his
son.
God has used human language and concepts in order to accommodate human
weakness. He gave the first people language so as to communicate at all levels.
We have two kinds of revelation, namely general revelation and specific revelation.

GENERAL (NATURAL) REVELATION

It is general in its scope, that is, it reaches to all people.[Matt 5:45. Acts 14:17]. It is
general in location or geography, thus it covers the whole globe.
This means everywhere, to everyone God has revealed himself in the form of nature.
Rom 1:18ff. God revealed himself to everyone through nature that man would not
have an excuse. But man worshipped the created instead of the creator. Although they
knew him but they did not glorify him as God. The truth is suppressed in general
revelation.
 LOCUS . General revelation first of all occurs through the medium of the
heaven and earth.
 CONTENT. The content of this general revelation is God’s invisible things
which are clearly perceived through his visible creation.
RECEPTION. The reception of this general revelation is distorted and darkened
because of man’s sinfulness.

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Although God does not reveal himself in nature, humanity and history exihibits
therein his deity, power and righteous so that all people basically know God,
though the knowledge is suppressed.
The truth is revealed but suppressed

SPECIFIC (SPECIAL) REVELATION

This is where God has revealed himself to specific person or group in a particular
situation. The encounter causes one to know and worship God. This is specific in its
nature and only to a particular person or group.
God comes to people in their plight and gives forth a special revelation of himself, his
ways and his truth.
Its character- it is particular, God reveals himself to a particular people. People who
make up biblical history were at one point encountered by God. There is an
increasingly disclosure of God himself and his truth in the record of the N.T and O.T.
The medium of special revelation is :
1. The O.T prophets. These were the spokesmen of God. his speech came
through these people.

2. Jesus Christ himself was the grand special revelation because through him
people came to the knowledge of God. Those who knew Jesus knew the father
as well.

3. The apostles in the N.T. these are the man God used to communicate his truth
during their time.

INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE

While some people say that the bible is inspired but most of the people do not
understand what inspiration is all about.
2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for a number
of things. This means all scripture, the entire bible, it is inspired and profitable. The
bible is God-breathed both the OT and the NT.
2 Peter 1:21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from
God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
This verse shows that God has used the human writers to produce the bible. The Holy
Spirit moved them to write. The will of the human authors did not direct the writing
of the bible but the Spirit of God did it. This the reason why we talk of the inerrancy
of the bible. Inerrancy means the bible is without error because it the Holy Spirit who
is without error who made it available not human will that can err.
Although the writers were active in writing but what they wrote was directed by the
Spirit who is true and infallible.

DATA
These data demonstrate some of the variety of material that God moved the human
authors to include in the bible:

A] material that came direct from God. The two stones on which the ten
commandments were written came directly from God. [Deut 9:10]
B] researched material. Though some parts of the bible were written straight off [like
some of Paul’s letters], some were researched before they were written. The good
example is the gospel of Luke. [Luke 1:1-4]. Bear it in mind that Luke was not an

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Mt Hermon Theological college.35,5th street Gweru. Rev.A.Chiangwa

eyewitness of the events of the life of Christ. So God would have given him direct
revelation or he could have researched and found out some facts on what he wrote.

C] prophetic material. Approximately one fourth of the bible was prophecy when it
was written, though of course some of that amount of the material was fulfilled. True
prophecy can come only from the true, all knowing God.

D] historical material. Much of the bible records history and does so accurately. Most
of the historical portions were written by those who had personally lived through the
events. Eg Luke who was Paul’s companion.

E] other material. The bible does record things that are untrue, like the lies of satan in
Genesis, but it records them accurately. It records some quotations from unsaved
people e.g [Titus 1:12

This variety of material demonstrates that God sometimes revealed things

supernaturally and directly, sometimes he allowed the human writers to compose his
message using their freedom of expression. But he breathed out the total product,
carrying along the authors in various ways, so as to give us His message in the words
of the bible.
Inspiration of the scriptures means that there is a supernatural influence of the
scripture writers which rendered their writings an accurate record of the revelation or
which resulted in what they wrote actually being the word of God. Revelation is
God’s communication [of divine truth from God] to man, the truth that he needs to
know in order to relate properly to God then it should be apparent why inspiration is
also necessary. Revelation is the communication of divine truth from God to man.
Inspiration relates to the relaying of the truth from the first recipient of it to the other
persons. This revelation may be brought as a vertical action and inspiration is a
horizontal matter.
No prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation because no prophecy
ever comes by the impulse of man but man moved by God. 1Tim 3:16. All scriptures
are inspired
God spoke by mouth to David [Acts 1:16, Psalms 69:25

THEORIES OF INSPIRATION
To what extend is the bible inspired? The biblical doctrine of inspiration was not
considered as above. Other understanding of the evidence have been proposed as
follows.

NATURAL INSPIRATION: This view understands the writers of the bible to be

geniues who did not need any supernatural help in writing the bible. It says that the
writers themselves conceived what they wrote. God did not breathe out the words.
This sort of inspiration can apply to books

DICTATION INSPIRATION: It is the teaching that God actually dictated the bible to
the authors.
DYNAMIC OR MYSTICAL INSPIRATION: It goes a step farther than the natural
inspiration, for it conceives of the writers as more than natural geniuses in that they
were also Sprit filled and guided. Emphasizes the combination of divine and human
elements in the process of inspiration and of writing the bible.

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THE ILLUMINATION INSPIRATION: Maintains that there is in influence of the

Holy Spirit open the author of scriptures but only involves enlightening of their
normal powers – no special communication of truth and guidance from God.

DEGREE INSPIRATION: It simply means that within the inspired bible some parts
are more inspired than other parts. All the bible is inspired but not to the same degree.

CONCEPT INSPIRATION: This view maintains that some concepts of the bible are
inspired but not the words. This allows for an authoritative conceptual message to
have been given, but using words that can in some instances is erroneous.

DISCIPLINES IN THEOLOGY
This discipline refers to the acts of formulating acts about:
God and human existence [of God] on the basis of data obtainable from physical
world around us as well as from the human phenomena of consistence and sense of
purpose.
There is proof for the existence of God.
No information regarding the dynamics of salvation
Is the attempt to attain the understanding of God and his relationship with the universe
by means of rational reflection without appealing to special revelation?
Ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments for the existence of God have
been developed which avoid appealing to special revelation.

Ryrie catalogued theology in various ways as follows:

1. By era – like Patristic theology, medieval theology, reformation theology and
modern theology.
2. By viewpoint – like Arminian theology, calvanistic theology, catholic
theology, Barthian theology, Liberation theology etc.
3. By focus – like historical theology, biblical theology, systematic theology,
apologetic theology, exegetical theology etc. some these distinctions are very
important to any student of theology.

PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY
 Is linked with natural theology, existential issues and advanced philosophical
apologetics are dealt with:
 Christian and secular
 Philosophical categories ground of existence ultimate
 Religious language and belief
 Is this critical examination, truths and ground of ideas and the methods
practised in all disciplines and seeks to evaluate their matter
 Grounds of belief and existence of the identity of God and God’s relation with
the world
 Religious language mystery and religion of human identity and religion of
humanity identity, freedom, revelation, faith and reason.

BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
 Also belongs to biblical studies

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Mt Hermon Theological college.35,5th street Gweru. Rev.A.Chiangwa

 Traces development of doctrine in relation to history.

 This the theology based on the bible. This is dogmatic theology based on or
consistent with the bible
 In principle it is more objective because its purpose is to discover what
theology is in the bible.

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
Systematic theology correlates the data of biblical revelation as a whole in
order to exibit systematically the total picture of God’s self-revelation.
 This is constructing belief patterns linking doctrines together in a particular
way.
 Uses biblical theology and reflects on hermeneutical results.
 It’s an ivory tower theology, must be interactive with the church, life must
meet the needs of the people.
 No neutral theology. Theology reflects the point of departure and God.
 This is the development which has organized specific theology principles and
beliefs into the overall whole in which each part is shown to have direction
beaming on and relevance to others.
 Christians have recognised that

HISTORICAL THEOLOGY. [A DISCIPLINE OF CHURCH HISTORY]

 A study of development of Christian thought.
 Is the study of history of Christian doctrine.
 Over the centuries, there have been always some studies of theology of past
ages. It was established in its right

 It draws attention to the changes in beliefs over the years

 It also points to the influence on theology of the philosophical and social

climate of the day showing that all theology is intentionally contextualized.

THEOLOGICAL ORIENTATIONS
Orientations are found in the theological disciplines and avoid artificial labelling of
theological orientations. Classifications helps to identify people or writings.

EVANGELICALISM
 They have a high view of scripture
 Ontological view of the trinity.
 Deity of Jesus substitutionary atonement
 Real cross resurrection historical
 Salvation calvanistic predestination.
 Miracle faith and supernatural healing upheld
 The second advent and eschatological views vary
 They are creationist. Social concern. Absolute truth and bible contains
revealed and absolute conception propositions.
 They are charismatic and non-charismatic
 It’s a reaction to theological liberalism.

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 The bible is the truthful revelation of God and through it the life giving voice
of God speaks, God is the creator and we are his dependent creation
incarnation. Christ fully divine and fully human. Final judgment.

LIBERALISM
 They have low view of scripture and critical scholarship
 Trinity is seen as problematic. They have functional view of trinity.
 Miracles are downplayed
 Salvation is more into social structures

POLITICAL THEOLOGY
 It is more about externalization of faith and it is holistic in its salvation.
 Scripture and other sources are used
 They believe much in social justice – YAHWEW is involved much in history
and the idea of hpe and freedom
 Sin is institutional
 Salvation is freedom holistically
 Similar to Liberalism on scripture and eschatology
 On atonement Jesus overcomes evil and injustice brings righteousness and
peace
 It attempts to relate religion to the political character of the society in which it
exist to justify political injustice
 Emphasize that all the N.T promises of the kingdom must be fulfilled e.g
freedom,peace, justice and econciliation. These cannot be made private affair

CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT
 Like political it is both a trend and a movement
 Mostly the emphasis is on experience and personal relationship with God.
 Salvation is the beginning of a deeper relationship and power needed

AFRICAN THEOLOGY
 Political independence which should mean religious independence.
 Africanization- home grown theology- it’s a call for contextualization
 Looks at its reapplication of traditional doctrines
 Has various orientations but mostly liberal
 Use various sources as well as scriptures
 Liberals give ATR equal authority with O.T
 They say lets have a selection of scripture for western theology
 African Independent churches can contextualize activities
 There is a controversy on Christ as our ancestor
 Western orientation will fade

LIBERATION THEOLOGY
 This is a type of political theology
 Deals with the problem of oppression
 This is a situational theology – methodology

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 The two main concerns are:1. Oppression and liberation

2. methodology of theology

OPPRESSION AND THEOLOGY

 Yahweh hears any poor – finance status, power, gender and race
 Exodus – God responds and liberate thus the divine option
 Prophetic denounciation took place.
 Incarnation – Christ identifies
 Cross – servant lamb representative victim.
 Resurrection – victorious Jesus has power to liberate
 Christ presents liberation as in Exodus
 Church should also participate- denounce injustice and announce liberation
 Salvation is more social than individual history to be liberated

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