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The Importance of Theology: Historical Friday

The last several Fridays have been devoted to examining ancient heresies and how they still influence Christianity today. I pray that this has been an educational couple of weeks that has helped you grow in understanding about our faith. Spotting these heresies matters because they can cause a lot of damage to some one's walk with Christ.

Studying about these heresies has strengthened my conviction that we need a strong theology. I have talked about the importance of theology before, but now seems like an appropriate time to reiterate this. Seeing the various misinterpretations that have cropped up over the centuries, sometimes with good intentions, should make all of us take pause and reconsider our faith.

Theology is the backdrop against which we live out our faith, sort of like the backdrop of a play. What the actors/actresses are doing on stage must fit within the backdrop of the play. If the stage was set up to be the arctic it would make no sense for the actors/actresses to wear swimsuits. Obviously this isn't a perfect analogy, but I think it gets the point across.

As we live out our faith it must make sense with our professed theology. In fact, knowingly or not, all of us live out our theology in our lives. What we believe about who God is and what Jesus has done for us affects every part of our lives. The way we live shows what we actually believe. It shows the backdrop of our theology.

Theology is not some intellectual exercise to make us think. It is the very fabric of being a disciple. To be a disciple you must know WHO you are a disciple of, and theology aims to answer that question. It takes the teachings that are peppered throughout the whole of Scripture and presents a unified image of who Jesus is.

I pray that all of us as followers of Jesus will live out the faith we claim to possess. Thank you for reading this blog. I am encouraged by the responses I have received. Starting next week on Historical Fridays we will begin to do a broad overview of the history of Christianity (emphasis on broad) in chronological order.

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