Quotes About Theology

Tell me," a rabbi asked Daniel Bell when he said, as a child, that he did not believe in God. "Do you think God cares?")

If we take science as our sole guide, if we accept and hold fast that alone which is verifiable, the old theology must go.

God revealed in the flesh," the God-human Jesus Christ, that is the holy mystery, which theology was instituted to preserve and protect. What foolishness, as if it were the task of theology to decode God's mystery, pulling it down to the commonplace, miracle-less words of wisdom based on human experience and reason! Whereas this alone is its charge—to keep the miracle of God a miracle, to comprehend, defend, and exalt the mystery of God, precisely as mystery.

No priest, no theologian stood at the cradle of Bethlehem. And yet all Christian theology finds its origin in the miracle of miracles, that God became human.

Theologia sacra—it originates in prayerful kneeling before the mystery of the divine child in the stable.

Without that holy night, there is no theology.

Realizing our society as it is, without theology dogmatically telling us how we should react to it, and being humane toward that society, that is all that we're sure of.

The necessity of theology is a question of the necessity of communication from God. Since this is God's universe, divine revelation is the infallible and binding source of information and interpretation regarding all of thought and life. Since God has spoken, and since it is necessary to hear him, to believe him, to obey him, and to declare him, theology is necessary.

the study of theology is the most important human activity.

The necessary result is that the person who claims to believe both divine sovereignty and human freedom believes neither.

Biblical soteriology cannot rest on a non-biblical epistemology, but it rests on a biblical epistemology that emphasizes the sovereign God and the infallible Scripture.

Any compromise in the doctrine of God generates a rippling effect that destroys the integrity of all other biblical doctrines. Once we accept a false view of God, the rest of the system cannot be Christian.

Accordingly, a person who insists that he accepts Christ because of his own free will, and not because of God's sovereign choice and direct action in his soul, cannot at the same time affirm a sovereign God.

Since the only God presented in the Bible is an absolutely sovereign God, a person who affirms human free will cannot, without contradiction, affirm belief in God.

the doctrine of election is foundational to Christian soteriology in particular.

people have trouble with the existence of evil not because it poses any logical challenge to Christianity, but because they are overwhelmed by the emotions that the topic generates, and these emotions disable the minimal level of judgment and intelligence that they normally exhibit.

theology seeks to understand and articulate in a systematic manner information revealed to us by him. Thus theology is concerned with ultimate reality.

The Bible's answer is that it is possible for man to have knowledge about God because God has revealed himself to man.

because it is a study of the ultimate, it defines and governs every other area of thought and life. Therefore, as long as God is the ultimate being or reality, theological reflection is the ultimate human activity.

moral responsibility does not presuppose human freedom, but it presupposes divine sovereignty. We are responsible not because we are free, but we are responsible precisely because we are not free.

The Bible is about God gaining glory from both the salvation and damnation of men and angels. God demonstrates who he is, but by way of story.

It would be wise for Christians to invest their time, energy, and money in pursuit of theological knowledge.

doctrine consists of a set of ideas or propositions on a topic, so a biblical doctrine is the biblical teaching on a subject. Theology refers to the study of the Bible or the systematic formulation of doctrines from the Bible. A biblical doctrine is always binding, and a system of theology is authoritative to the extent that it reflects the teachings of the Bible.

a worthy theological system must be derived from biblical propositions, and not from a non-verbal basis such as religious feelings and experiences, or irrational constructions such as scientific theories.[5]