“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).
Last time we looked at this vital statement, though a foreign concept in the modern day, we tried to show that all false teaching goes astray at the point of the doctrine of God. To put this in a different way, theology is the study of God. Theology consists in another sense of doctrines. Each teaching that makes up theology is a doctrine. However, as theologians try to systematize doctrines to see if they are consistent with one another, they tend to forget that the doctrine of God is the most important teaching or doctrine. Each doctrine is to fall under the heading of the theology of God and so each doctrine is to be a study of God too. Each doctrine, therefore, must be consistent with the teaching of God first and foremost.
If doctrine or theology becomes a logical or rational system first and foremost without trying to see how it fits with the doctrine of God, then it has lost its true standard of consistency and its true glory. When people separate doctrine from God and set it out logically and rationally only, then that doctrine is really stripped of what it is meant to do. A doctrine is supposed to set out the glory of God. I Corinthians 10:31 should guide our study of the Bible and theology if we are to eat and drink to the glory of God. But even more, that text tells us that whatever we do we are to do to the glory of God. We are, therefore, to study doctrine to the glory of God.
If we take what Tozer says above as simply a rational statement, we will lose much of what he means. He is speaking of seeing the glory of God since He is speaking of “imperfect and ignoble thoughts of God.” All of doctrine and the systems of theology must be held up to the glory and beauty of God rather than just logical statements of a propositional nature. In other words, a study of theology that does not take the glory and beauty of God and see how consistent doctrines are with that, is a study that falls short of the glory of God. We live in a day where the study of doctrine is done in a philosophical manner, though that is necessary in some ways, but not in the aesthetic manner. We simply must look for the beauty and glory of God or we will not see the intent of a doctrine and will not see if it is truly consistent or not. Error in doctrine consists with “imperfect and ignoble thoughts of God.” He did not say that error starts with logical error though it does in some ways, but error starts with low thoughts of God. There is nothing more needed in theology and in the church today than preaching and theologizing from and with God-centered and God-exalting views. One can die and go to hell with orthodox views of theology that all fit with a perfect consistency. People who do not see the glory of God in the face of Christ even with all the “correct” theology have actually fallen far short of the glory of God.
Let us take Open Theism as an example. There are a few things that Open Theists all seem to hold together. Open Theism asserts that God knows all things that are possible to know. However, since man is truly free and all his free actions are contingent on his free will, even God cannot know future acts of a will that have not been decided. So God knows different options and He can respond in certain ways depending on what man does. In other words, as the title of a book written by John Sanders (The God who Risks), God takes risks in what He does. The problem with this view, then, is that it starts with man and limits God by the standards of man. While Scripture speaks of God as working all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11) and God as One who knows the future because He has ordained whatsoever comes to pass, Open Theists do not start with the biblical teaching of God.
Notice again the basic hermeneutical difference. If we are to interpret Scripture according to God who wrote it and know that He is primarily revealing Himself in Scripture, then all things are to be interpreted by how God has revealed Himself. All things are to be interpreted with how they are consistent with the character and glory of God. Open Theists have started with man and a philosophical view of how they think free will should function and operate. They have then sought for consistency by watering down or simply twisting the teaching of the Bible about God. They have denied the true teaching about God’s sovereignty, providence, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, wisdom, love, and all the others by implication. This is the way that bad doctrine gets started. It starts with something other than God and His glory. Even where there are aspects that are somewhat true, the glory has been left out and so man has ignoble and low thoughts of God. That is idolatry.
God Loves... Himself 
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