“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God” (A. W. Tozer).
This statement by Tozer is so powerful and thrilling to read that it is hard to get beyond it. If only theologians, biblical scholars, and pastors would wake up to this basic but ignored truth. The Bible is the revelation of God and His glory first and foremost. If we approach Scripture from a man-centered point of view we will miss the vital issue and the real point of it. Reading theology is a good practice for all, but reading people who try to write about theology (theos = God and ology = study of) without taking God into consideration is amusing on the one hand and horrifying on the other. God is the center of theology and the study of theology is to be primarily a study of God. If we have low views of God or try to study the doctrines that theology consists of without the primary reason for them, that is like using plastic toys to study biology. This is exactly why theology has lost much of its meaning for the average person and that is why the academic study of the Bible has lost much if not virtually all of its power. The study of Scripture and the study of theology should be a study of the glory of God.
John Calvin said that man cannot know himself without knowing God. Perhaps that is why there used to be so many people wondering around trying to find themselves. While different terms are used today, that is still an issue. People cannot find out who they are and their purpose in life without knowing about God. The Death of God movement has largely died out in one sense, but the concept of God has been largely so watered down that most people who attend church these days hear nothing but idolatrous blather. If Tozer is correct, and I certainly think that he is, then the real problems within the church have to do with a low view of God. The real issues that people fight about concerning theology are missing the main point. They use logic and historical documentation to try to come to an understanding, but those are almost never the real issue. The real issue that divides people is God. The real issue that divides one theology from another is the view of God that one has.
For example, let us look at the issue of free will. I can almost hear someone laughing now and saying something to the point of how crazy it is to assert that the real issue that divides people on free will is their view of God. That is exactly what I want to assert. As Tozer said earlier, and I tried to defend his statement in an earlier blog, the most important thing about us is what comes to our mind when we think of God. While our true views of God may be hidden underneath piles of rubbish of modern religious notions, our true view of God is what determines virtually everything we believe and do. My view of man and his freedom is determined precisely by how I view God and His sovereignty. If God is free to do as He pleases and free to allow only that which He pleases, then how much freedom does that allow man? If man is dead spiritually and God is the only author and sustainer of life in the universe, then how free is man in light of that? If man has no spiritual power other than what the Holy Spirit works in man, then how free is man in the spiritual realm? In other words, man’s freedom can only be conceived of where God’s freedom sovereignty, and power are cut off.
What are the real issues in theology today? Some of them are the New Perspective, Open Theism, and the Auburn Avenue Theology. All three have to do with the Gospel and both ultimately have to do with the very nature of God. While there are important historical (hysterical?) issues that some think are the basis for the New Perspective, at root the real issue is over the character of God and how He saves. The Gospel is about how God saves according to His character. The issue is not ultimately over how one stayed in the covenant during the times of Christ and of Paul, but how God glorifies Himself in the Gospel. Indeed we must be faithful to the text of Holy Writ, but just as important if not more so is to be faithful to the character and glory of God. We may not always be able to figure out exactly what a text means, but we can know that God saves according to the good pleasure of His will and to the glory of His grace. Those are basic because God does nothing that is not ultimately to the glory of His name. We can know that the New Perspective is wrong because it adds works to the Gospel and so it is not a Gospel that exalts the pleasure and grace of God. The New Perspective goes wrong because it is wrong on the character of God. It ends up with a man-centered view of the Gospel that is not dependent on a full and glorious free gift of grace that exalts God. It goes wrong in thinking that man can stay in the covenant by virtue of his works instead of looking at God who keeps man in covenant because of who He is. It is a wrong view of God.
God Loves... Himself 
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