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Dear Friend: Systematic Theology

We have similar personal views. I could probably sign the longest list of “do nots” of any fundamental church in the country, but I would not. I have managed to be and remain non-legalistic. The statement of Paul in Romans 14:17-18 is where I like to be. "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval."

Your theology. Besides its distinctives, it has two things in common with other evangelical theologies: 1) the gospel, the deity, death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and grace, faith, and repentance; 2) it is a systematic theology along with Reformed, Arminian, Wesleyan, Dispensational, Lutheran, etc.

We agree on #1 if we are saved people. We disagree on #2 in that the theologies are different from each other. What is common is that all these theologies are systematic. They are a way of studying the Bible.

The question is not, “Which theology is right?” No systematic theology is just an accumulation of topical Bible studies put together. It is a worldview made up of Scripture from all over the Bible that has every piece fitting together perfectly like a 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. As we read through the Bible, none of us can see it fitting together perfectly like we want it to. The Bible is not written that way. But we want it to fit, so we study it systematically. This means that we have to pound a few pieces in to make them work. That seems innocent enough--however, someone else happens to be pounding other pieces in in a different way. Our different pictures will not end up looking the same. This is a wrong way of studying the Bible. We just get to choose which way we are going to be wrong. We do not find truth that way.

Unfortunately most of us have theologies. Our day-to-day living is made up of one of two things: reaction to what we think is not right and conformity to what we think is right. We are cultural Christians more than we are biblical Christians.

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