WSL West Coast Conference 2023 - Grace Warholic - The Purpose and Priority of Theology

[00:00:00] This podcast is a part of CG and Media, a podcast network that points to Christ. We are supported by listeners like you to help us create more great shows visit cgandmedia.org slash support. Hi and welcome to When She Leads, a podcast for Women in Ministry.

[00:00:16] In this episode we are releasing one of our breakout sessions from our 2023 EQUIPped Free Purpose Conference. I pray it encourages you. Let's pray and then we will get started. I'm so glad that each of you guys meet it. You can be ladies, meet it today.

[00:00:35] This is a topic that I am excited and passionate about. And so I'm excited to share that passion with many of you. All of you as I'm sure that you are passionate about it too. But let's go ahead and pray.

[00:00:50] Father, I think you so much that you reveal yourself to us. That you don't leave us to our imaginations that you don't allow us to come up with our own ideas of who you are.

[00:01:03] But you reveal yourself to us in ways that are comprehensible and ways that we relate to. In ways that we can articulate to others. I think that as we learn and orient ourselves around your character that our lives begin to show the redeemed and restored.

[00:01:23] I'm going to remind you of our own ideas that we are honored to be honored and honored. I pray Jesus that our identities would be rooted in who you are and that knowledge of who you are would be rooted in a.

[00:01:36] Good, deep, solid understanding of these theological principles. I pray that you bless each lady here and I pray that you bless our time together in Jesus name. Amen. So my name is Grace Warholic. I live in Las Vegas now. My husband and I planted Paradise Calvary Chapel.

[00:01:58] We were rebels. We did the name of our location before Calvary Chapel. We did Paradise Calvary Chapel in February 2014. So we are almost 10 years old. I have five kids. The youngest was born in December of 2013.

[00:02:16] So she was two months when we planted Paradise Calvary Chapel and that's how I remember how old they are. All I have five kids. My oldest is 17. He is a senior this year and that's really just as they were talking in the session last night of changing seasons.

[00:02:33] You know, that is a really crazy season that we have a senior in that he is moving on. And then we have a 15 year old daughter Mela and then we have a 13 year old son Oliver and then Evan is 11 and Sophia is nine. So that's our kids.

[00:02:51] Tim and I met at Bible College in Hungary. I started here at Mirrieta in 2001 and then I transferred to Austria and then from Austria. I moved to Hungary. I was part of the first batch of Bible College students that arrived and they said,

[00:03:08] we are so glad you are here put your bunk bed together. And so that's what we did and then we had to, they had just bought all the plates and they are like, We also have to scrape all of the stickers off of the plates.

[00:03:20] And so I didn't know that that wasn't part of my spiritual gifts then but I learned quickly. So we met, my husband came to Hungary in 2003 and then we both did an internship which downstairs, Tomson has the his I forgot TCI.

[00:03:40] I think is what he's calling it and it's an internship discipleship program and we wouldn't be where we are today. If it wasn't for people like Rod Thompson coming alongside people and discipling them.

[00:03:53] So if you know anybody who needs discipleship, I highly recommend Rod in anything that he is involved in. So we were engaged. While we were at the Bible College, we had both joined the team to go down to Croatia to do a church plant.

[00:04:11] Before we were dating and so we started I was I would like to know I was on the team first. That's important to me. I don't know if it should be but it is.

[00:04:21] So we were both on the team to go down to Croatia then we started dating that we got engaged. I finished my internship a little bit before Tim did so I moved down to Croatia with the family that we originally went down there to support.

[00:04:34] And then Tim finishes internship, we came back to the States, we got married, we went back to Croatia. And within six months the team that we were a part of dissolved and it was just him and I left. So it was really funny on our honeymoon.

[00:04:48] We're driving down the coast of Croatia of California because I'm from Northern California. And we're driving down the coast of Northern California and I was like do you ever see yourself as a pastor?

[00:04:58] Because we had talked about what we're going to be missionaries but it's different to support than it is to lead. And I just had never asked him that before and it wasn't like we want to be pastors or he wants to be a pastor.

[00:05:11] It was just like it hadn't come up. I was like do you ever see yourself? He was like I don't know why don't know.

[00:05:15] And then fast forward, we were trying to get our visa and they said well you have to show that you're some kind of leader in the church here.

[00:05:23] So then Phil Metzker who was at San Diego was over Eastern European missions and Tim called him and was like hey they said like I need some kind of proof that I'm a leader here. He's like oh that's fine we'll order you. So that's how Tim was there.

[00:05:39] Poor guy but we stayed in Croatia for eight years we planted a church there. We learned a lot of things the wrong way. We learned the language my first my older three children were born there we started a cafe we started the language school.

[00:05:56] And our lives as people in ministry began in Croatia and I don't want to use all the time with background because I have a lot of people in the country.

[00:06:04] I don't want to use all the time with background because I have a lot of stuff to go over but something that was important to understand during that time was that.

[00:06:14] Ministry is hard anywhere and there are two things that rooted me that held me to ministry and to faithfulness to God and that was the character of God.

[00:06:28] Who I am as part of the imagode and my identity being rooted in who Jesus is because if we don't believe that God is good then we will not want to stay.

[00:06:42] And if we don't believe that who we are as people needs to be rooted and who he is first then things like colleagues things like roles things like jobs things like seasons. Will wreck us.

[00:07:00] Once they finish once we are like well I'm not doing that anymore so who am I if we don't know who God is first and if we don't then find who we are in him. We will be wrapped and we live in a time that people are wrecked.

[00:07:17] They're trying to find their identities and so many different things. And as a church individually collectively we are called to know who our God is and then to represent him to the world and that's why theology is deeply deeply important to me.

[00:07:39] So thus forward we move back to the states in 2012. We had Evan in kind of like transition. We were still missionaries but we had come back on furlough there was a mission conference that we were able to make it back for we had Evan.

[00:07:53] We moved back to Croatia but the Lord showed us very clearly it was time to move back to the states so we did and we went back not knowing what we are going to be doing.

[00:08:02] Tim was on stuff for a short time at Calvary Chapel a weekend about a year and a half. And they were wonderful to us very supportive but Pastor Derek and Tim we just you know like we're like we're going to church plan again.

[00:08:15] We just knew we were so Pastor Derek said I really want to send somebody over to the east side by UNLV so that's what we did we bought a house we started the church in our house.

[00:08:25] You know we did church planning the church planning thing and it was wonderful. Then my kid my oldest when he got to middle school.

[00:08:37] We were just in a local school but when he got to middle school it was difficult for him because it was a small school and there were kids that he's like mom I either have to remove myself or I'm around things I don't want to be around.

[00:08:50] We started praying about an open door there's a wonderful private Christian school in town but the tuition is way too much for us as people ministry but they said if you work at the school then you get a 50% discount so I said I will work at the school.

[00:09:05] So Oliver Kister at the school and I started teaching Old Testament survey and I have always loved teaching the Bible ever since I was in middle school.

[00:09:16] It was like let's do Bible study and over time just my passion for the word of God grew and grew and so I had my associate degree in theology from Calvary Chapel Bible College but they are like you really need something higher.

[00:09:31] And so I was able to get into the program at Western where it just kind of bypasses those who have the right qualifications into a master's program. So the last three years I did that program and I just graduated in the spring and that's been wonderful as well.

[00:09:46] And just has really helped me process some things and articulate some things and wrestle through some things and I think that that wrestling is something that we all have to do.

[00:09:59] I heard I was listening to a podcast yesterday and the woman I forgot her name so something so profound to me she said if we take our theology for granted we are on dangerous ground.

[00:10:14] And I agree we need to know why we believe what we believe and be able to articulate that to those around us so with that being said what is theology.

[00:10:26] Theology is the study of the nature of God and religious belief that's if you look it up in Webster dictionary. You can also say that it's religious beliefs and theory when systematically developed.

[00:10:40] How many of you guys when you hear theology or like I like biblical studies maybe topical studies but when we say the word theology if we start talking about anthropology or so terminology or these things were like no, let's just keep it simple.

[00:11:00] But theology when it comes down to it the oath is the Greek word for God and all the G is the word for words and we all have words for God right we all have things we all have thoughts about God and what we believe about him.

[00:11:15] A. W. Tozer said when what comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important part about us and why is that well theology philosophy they have this crossover. Every person asks questions.

[00:11:37] What is the origin of this universe what is the origin of this world because that question has very serious implications of how we answer it.

[00:11:53] This is a question that Greek philosophers asked a really long time ago and their answers to those questions at very serious implications for their lives. Who are we? Who are we as people do we have a significant identity.

[00:12:15] Are we supposed to be having in a specific direction as people how we answer this question has serious implications for our lives as I talked to my ninth graders I tell them that ideas have consequences.

[00:12:30] Good ideas have good consequences bad ideas have bad consequences and there is no neutral with our ideas. And then we do this really quick walk through of who was Charles Darwin he had this idea people latch onto it okay who is Karl Marx he loved Darwin's idea.

[00:12:52] Where do we go from here who's eight off Hitler it started as an idea about identity and it led to horrific outcome. As people who find our identity rooted in a good God that should lead to good consequences for the for ourselves and for those around us.

[00:13:13] Meaning or the Greek were take tales what were we made for what direction are we going what's the purpose of life.

[00:13:21] Genesis one answers this question he made the male and female he said let us make them in our image and in the image of God he created them and he said be for full multiply and fill the earth and rule over and have dominion subdued.

[00:13:36] We find in those verses are identity as in our purpose and our meaning as people we were made to represent God.

[00:13:46] We think of the word image and a lot of times we think of a picture that represents you know like we take a picture and that represents who I am.

[00:13:54] Or it's the word sell him in Hebrew and sell him was the word that was for idle do you guys know that that that phrase says let us make idols in our image.

[00:14:05] Let us make images of ourselves because in an ancient Near Eastern society you had a cellum of the God in every region and that cellum that image represented that God to the people of that region.

[00:14:21] And so when God said let us make cellums or images or sounds really bad idols in our image he's saying I'm going to make representatives of myself.

[00:14:34] In this garden and they're going to represent me to the world and they're going to rule and reign over this creation that I've made and I've ordered for them to live with me.

[00:14:46] And then morality this is a huge one. This is a huge one in the day and time that we live in morality who decides what's right and wrong.

[00:14:55] Is it relative to myself? Is there something I get to decide? Is it how I feel today? Sometimes my high school or sing so. Our morality has to be rooted in the goodness of the character of God.

[00:15:11] Whether or not I feel like agreeing. The morality that I live by has to be rooted in the authority of God as creator and sovereign and King of eternity because I'm going to have to answer to him one day.

[00:15:29] So these questions are theological because they are words about God but they are also philosophical. They answer for us like the philosophical questions that humanity has been asking for all of history look at ancient China Confucius is asking these questions and can you agree Aristotle answering these questions.

[00:15:49] Unfortunately divorced from the knowledge of God how we answer these questions is really bad. And it leads to the opposite of what God created humanity for which is to flourish.

[00:16:04] God created humanity to live in the goodness that he had prepared for them and everything before we started making our own minds up about things was good or very good. And then we started saying this is my idea and it was very bad.

[00:16:24] And then we have this progression of Genesis 1, Genesis chapter 11 of very good to every thought of man was exceedingly wicked and violence filled the earth.

[00:16:37] And that's because most of humanity was not doing what the sons of God were doing in Genesis chapter 5 where it says and they began to call on the name of the Lord. Most of them were following those who said we want to make a name for ourselves.

[00:16:56] And then you get to the flood and then you get to the tower of Babylon where again we want to make a name for ourselves. We want to reach the heavens. We want a deity who will do what we like and reflects our values.

[00:17:08] So we're going to say no to Yahweh and we're going to go ahead and invite this whatever God we like that we make in our image to work on our behalf and then God scatters them. But that's not the end of story so keep going.

[00:17:22] Yahweh and I start with Yahweh because that is the name that God reveals himself as Moses says what is your name?

[00:17:32] And God says A.A.A.A. which is I am that I am and for the Hebrews who are not Yahweh they say Yahweh Yahweh that is who he is.

[00:17:43] And so Yahweh is the starting point and when we consider the starting point for the nation of Israel because that is the original audience of the book of Exodus. God is revealing who he is to a nation of lost identity. They have been slaves in Egypt for 400 years.

[00:18:01] I don't think that they had a strong national identity. I don't think that they had a strong sense of this is who Yahweh is. The last time God had interacted with somebody was Joseph as far as we know.

[00:18:15] Obviously God is good and he's faithful so he's interacted with other people. He's just not recorded for our benefit. So we get to Moses and he says tell me who you are and he says I am who I am. I am self-existent. And then later so good.

[00:18:36] Later after the Israelites have broken the covenant right after they made it with Yahweh where he says, you can be my people I will be your God. You will be a special possession to me a nation of priests. They're like yes, we will.

[00:18:52] Moses goes up the mountain and then I'm like we need an image of our God. So they build a golden calf and then after the whole confrontation Yahweh says, okay I'm going to reveal to you guys my character again.

[00:19:07] And he says the Lord Yahweh, the Lord Yahweh is gracious and compassionate. Slow to anger, abounding and mercy. He forgives and niquity transgression and wickedness but he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. This is God's self-revelation of who he is.

[00:19:29] And I love it because when we try to define God apart from his self-revelation, we start going down a dangerous path. But God says you don't have to do that. You don't have to make gods in your own images.

[00:19:45] I will reveal myself to you and you as my people as you live in my presence as I dwell among you. You will reflect the goodness of my presence. So those are two questions that we all have to answer, ask and then answer. That's the right order.

[00:20:04] Is God real and is God good? And yes like we should have theological answers for these questions but we should also have the personal like this is what I believe about Yahweh because this is what the word of God says.

[00:20:19] And that is what we go back to in the seasons that we feel like our life is being wrecked. Just like they were talking about last night, the difference between the man who builds his house on the rock and the man who builds his house on the sand.

[00:20:32] I love that Jesus starts out with saying, okay we have these two men but what really sets them apart? They both built right? And the beginning Jesus says the wise man listens to the word that I said and he does that.

[00:20:51] The foolish man listens to the words that I say but he does not do them. That's the difference between the wise man and the foolish man. They both build houses but one is taking the instructions that God has given and he's doing them.

[00:21:09] The other one has the same information but he's not doing. He is the man of James who is a hearer of the word but not a doer who goes and looks at the mirror.

[00:21:18] And it's like any of us in the morning we see the mess that we are and more like, it's cool today. I'm just going to go with it. We would not. I witness. We make the adjustments that are necessary because that is what the mirror tells us.

[00:21:31] And the word of God is the mirror that tells us you have to make adjustments. And so I love the word and he was shima. Shimao is real. It's here oh is real. The Lord your God is one God.

[00:21:44] And that word shima means to listen with the intention of doing. Not just to listen. Moses is not saying listen to me. I'm going to talk for a while and then go do your thing.

[00:21:55] He says listen, shima and then do because I'm studying before you life and death. If you listen and you do, you will live in the blessing of Yahweh. If you listen but do not apply to his words, you are heading towards destruction. This is the history of humanity.

[00:22:13] We can listen to Yahweh and we can live or we can ignore him. We can live in rebellion. We can align ourselves with the enemies of a God and we can head towards destruction. So from there. Talk about this a little bit already. I got ahead of myself.

[00:22:31] That's just listening the verse that I quoted. Exodus 3467 which by the way is the most quoted verse of the Bible by the Bible. And isn't that so good that the most quoted verse of the Bible for the Bible is a verse that is reciting the character of God.

[00:22:53] That same, you know as David says in the Psalms, I'm going to trust in your loving kindness because you are gracious and compassionate. One of my favorite quotes is from Jonah.

[00:23:06] He says this is why it would go to these people because I know you are gracious and compassionate God and you will forgive them. He's like, your character is too dependable. You know you will extend forgiveness because they knew this verse.

[00:23:24] I love the John 1 where it says that we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth, who tabernackled among us. He became flesh. He tabernackled among us and allowed to have to be like,

[00:23:41] That's balancing Jesus, nice with his truthfulness. And yeah, that's true. But what Jesus is doing is saying, I am gracious and compassionate, so to anger, abounding and loving kindness, which is that if you are looking at the sub-tudient, the Greek version of the Old Testament,

[00:23:59] is that has said it's the truthfulness, is the loyalty. So Jesus is saying, I am y'all way. And this has implications for us. God is engaging Israel to engage in the same kind of representative relationship that he had created humanity for.

[00:24:20] If they are going to live as ambassadors of Yahweh, they must understand his character. The third commandment is you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And a lot of times we're like, don't say curse words, guys.

[00:24:38] But as I tell my students, I say, what that means is do not slap the label. Of a Jesus follower on you, and then live like somebody who doesn't know him. That is taking the name of the Lord your God in vain.

[00:24:52] And that is what, unfortunately, the church has done to some degree throughout history. There have been some horrendous things done in the name of people who said they knew Jesus and let it never be so. That should bring us to tears.

[00:25:13] That people say that they represent God, but they have such a far understanding of his character that they can walk and misrepresentation of it and not be fearful of their very lives. So the fix orientation of God is the self-existing creator, sustain our moral authority, et cetera.

[00:25:33] The answers of origin, identity, meaning, morality, and destiny are answered. And this leads to the theology of anthropology, the theology of humanity, which is rooted in the self-revelation of Galway. Genesis 1 declares that God created humanity in the image of God, male and female he created them.

[00:25:50] Rationaly, which means how we think. We think we're sentient beings different than animals as much as I love my animals. They are not thinking things and I have to give them grace because they're not a person.

[00:26:03] So when my cat jumps on my counter and like drinks my latte, I'm like you're not rational. Relationaly people were meant to be relational because God is relational. It's inherent in his outward love flowing being. He is relational and you have to have another person to be relational.

[00:26:26] So that's why it wasn't good for Adam to be alone because he was alone. He could represent God as a singular person. So let's make another person. That doesn't mean marriage is wonderful. I love my husband, marriage is wonderful.

[00:26:37] But it doesn't mean that you are not representing God if you are not married. You are representing God if you are in community. Because that represents the relational aspect of Yahweh. And that's super important, especially in the day and age that we live in

[00:26:54] where people have all of these confusions, identity-wise, gender-wise, where they say, well I'm not married. I'm not attracted to somebody so I must be wrong. So I'm going to go find community somewhere else. Instead of the church saying, no, you can find community here.

[00:27:10] Your identity as a Mago day is as valuable as a single, married widow. Whatever you are, you are valuable to the church. And functionally, the functional part is what we do. I live in Las Vegas every time I go down to the strip.

[00:27:29] I'm just blown away by the creativity. Some of it reflects the disorder desires of humanity after the fall. But I'm just like, how did you guys do this? This is crazy. You know what I was like? That whole building is a television screen.

[00:27:42] I'm not sure how this is made. But functionally, we reflect the creative nature of God. We do that in different ways. Bless you. Genesis 1 2 says that, um, but one one in the beginning, I create the heavens and the earth.

[00:27:58] And the earth was without form and it was void. And the spirit of God, to hover it over the waters. Without form and void is total vauval who, in Hebrew, which means disorder chaos, basically. I like the version of a howling wasteland.

[00:28:14] Because that's one of the ways it can be interpreted. And just like has such a great picture. But it's the wilderness. It's disordered chaos. And the spirit of God is hovering over this disorder chaos. And Genesis 1 is this beautiful picture of God separating,

[00:28:32] of God ordering, of God making spaces, and then God filling the spaces. And it's a beautiful order and it's good. And it leads to flourishing. So as people, we have this inherent desire in us. Even if we are not walking with the Lord.

[00:28:53] To take crazy chaos and make order from it. That's how we're made and God's image. We're made to function in a specific way. And we as we do these things, we reflect God's goodness the world into each other.

[00:29:10] So it's important that how we understand those things is rooted in God's character and who he is. Instead of all the philosophies of humanity. We have two ways where we do this. The Bible talks about general revelation,

[00:29:27] which is what we learn about God just from looking out the window. The ecosystem is an incredible testimony to the ordered beauty of a creator. That's why Genesis 1 says, we are without excuse because we've traded the creator for a created thing. So general revelation speaks to a creator,

[00:29:48] but then we have a special revelation and this is so amazing. Because there's no other special revelation like the Word of God. The Word of God is a consistent coherent book of 66 different books, letters, records, etc. Comprised over thousands of years that is still cohesive.

[00:30:14] You look at any other religious book and it's filled with contradictions. And those religious books were comprised of our shorter period of time. They didn't have all the numerous authors. They didn't have all the textual manuscripts that they can go back and they said,

[00:30:29] no, actually the book of Isaiah is the same book of Isaiah that it was. And the time that Jesus was born. It's incredible that we have this special revelation, but special revelation speaks to any time God spoke to an individual,

[00:30:44] sent and spoke through a prophet came as a person, the most incredible special revelation ever. Inspired to Scripture, God Himself revealed in special ways, ways that break into human experience and history. And this is what we call Scripture and Jesus Himself.

[00:31:05] Important theological subject that we have to be grounded in is one scripture. We have to have an understanding of what Scripture is. Scripture is ancient literature. It is that it had authors that were human. It was also divine.

[00:31:26] You know, all scriptures given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. For reproof for correction, for instruction of righteousness. So that the people of God may be fully equipped. Right? No scripture was given by private interpretation,

[00:31:38] but holy men of God moved and wrote as they removed by the Holy Spirit. And I think it's easy for us to be here to either one side, the humanity side where oh, this is written by people or this is only written by God.

[00:31:52] But the Bible is this incredible work that integrates people as God's chosen means of representation. As the authors of Scripture, so it has unique perspectives, just like my perspective of how Tim proposed to me is very different than his perspective. They're both true.

[00:32:15] But they're different because we have different lived experiences. And as much as he wants me to think exactly how he does, I don't. So most of the time I do. But scripture reveals God, it shows us who he is. It instructs us, it shows us how to live.

[00:32:35] The Old Testament is the most amazing literature on ethics and morality. It's crazy. If we compare Old Testament literature to other ancient Near Eastern literature, there's the part, you know, there's the part about like when a war bright is captured.

[00:32:57] And God says okay, if you see a beautiful virgin and you conquered the city, take her and go, shave her head, clip her nails, give her a new robe, leave her alone for a month so she can mourn her father and mother, and then marry her.

[00:33:14] And if you don't like her, you have to give her a month to do these things. If you don't like her, you must like divorce her. But she is now in Israelite bright and she will always be in Israelite wife.

[00:33:26] And you have to let her go and do whatever she wants to do. We read that from the Western perspective and we're like that terrible. You should just take you to whatever you want to take. That's horrible.

[00:33:36] But at that time, any other ancient Near Eastern culture would have probably raped her and then killed her. And would have been completely justified in doing it because that is what their holy scripture said that they could do.

[00:33:51] So the Old Testament and comparison to the ancient Near Eastern time around it is like, whoa, you guys are radical over here. And it still remains to be radical if we look at it for what it is. It teaches us, it corrects us, encourages us.

[00:34:07] Scripture is sufficient which means that it is enough. Scripture is enough. That is not to say that we don't learn from other things because we can learn from other things. But those other things always have to fall under the authority of what Scripture says.

[00:34:23] I love reading and a lot of times I read things that I don't necessarily agree with, but I'm like, huh, what can I take from that and it can fall under general revelation with like everybody can know. And what do I just think is spit out?

[00:34:37] Because I can learn things from lots of different places. It's in Airt which means it is without error. Big important part to this. This does not mean that our interpretations are without error because they can be. But the word of God is without error.

[00:34:56] Because sometimes people are like, well, this is what this means. Well, maybe that's not what it means and the reason why people think it's wrong is because how you interpret it. Okay? Inspired which means it is God breathed the source of Scripture is God himself.

[00:35:14] Sin is an important doctrine. Again, you know, like people were just like either heavy on one side or the other. And sin is one of those things that we they're like, we don't want to talk about it.

[00:35:26] Or we're talking about it too much and we make big signs and we yell at people. Sin is something that we have to recognize and understand as part of our broken, disordered human nature. It is the rebellion against Yahweh that has characterized most of humanity.

[00:35:46] And it has led to all of the terrible things that the world has experienced. If God is good, why do bad things happen? The answer is sin. And we all have it dwelling in us.

[00:36:00] We all have participated and we have all been the recipients of sin against us. But the good news is that if we confess our sins, he's faithful on just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all in righteousness.

[00:36:13] And this covers both the sins that we do and the things that have been done against us. I had a wise man say to me one time that that verse isn't just confessing sins that we do.

[00:36:25] If getting the things that have been done against us out in the open so that we can receive the cleansing for those sins. And I think that that's so powerful. So this understanding it is important for the good news to be effective.

[00:36:43] There is no gospel of the good news of reconciliation, redemption, restoration without verse recognizing I'm broken. Right? We can't have the diagnosis if we don't go to the doctor and we can't have the cure unless we're accurately diagnosed. And then salvation. We like a scripture.

[00:37:08] We have what we call the meta narrative, the big picture. Creation, fall, redemption, restoration. And salvation is that redemptive purpose that was from before the foundation of the world as it says in Ephesians. Before the foundation of the world God chose you to be in him in Christ.

[00:37:30] God was in surprise when Adam and Eve were belt against him. He already had a plan in place and he said, I'm going to work through history and move toward this redemptive end towards salvation. And we see the threads of salvation all the way through the Bible.

[00:37:48] We see God's character of redeeming and restoring humanity all the way through. But it's moving all the way towards Jesus because He is the ultimate purpose and plan of salvation.

[00:38:02] This was accomplished in our behalf and it's simple in regards to what it takes on our behalf to respond to it. What do we have to do? Confess the Lord Jesus Christ, proclaim that He is Lord and you shall be saved. That's easy.

[00:38:16] But we still have to explain it sometimes and we like to make things difficult. Salvation is the ever-present narrative behind all the narratives. We would do well to examine this theology.

[00:38:27] And it's not bad to wrestle with theology guys. It's good because it helps us keep in perspective that we are finite and he is infinite. And he can do things however he wants to do them if he wants to pick some people and other people's views, okay? Whatever.

[00:38:44] Integrating theology and biblical studies. These are two different studies. Theological studies are like themes or studies that focus on key doctrines. Christian theology, I skipped the second one, we'll talk about the old beginning.

[00:39:04] Christian theology was developed early on in church history because there were a lot of Gentiles getting saved. There were Jewish people getting saved and both sides we're like, well what do we have to do? And who is God and how is the church to function?

[00:39:21] So they got together. They had these councils and they're like okay, we're going to nail down what we believe. And then another heresy would pop up and we're like okay, how are we going to address this and we're going to nail down what we believe.

[00:39:32] We have a nice healing council, we have the council of Trent, we have all these councils throughout church history and they're like, we have to know what we believe so that we can communicate it to the people around us.

[00:39:43] Theology oftentimes was for the people around the church, those who were on looking as much as it was for the church themselves. Because these theologies were apologetics which are defenses for the gospel.

[00:39:58] At a time when the world was like, you guys is being is really weird and it's foolish and only women and slaves believe it. And so they would give reasons. This is why this is true.

[00:40:09] And so they developed these doctrines to combat the heresy as that popped up. And then, you know, as we had different times in church history, we have the reformation, we have the awakening, we have different times in history where people have been like, okay,

[00:40:28] we need to re-examine how we're doing things and that has led to more developed theological stances on things. And, you know, throughout history, I don't know if the church has had to address certain issues in the past as much as we are having to address them now.

[00:40:47] Things like gender ideology, we need to really as a church as a whole say, how do we communicate what we believe about gender ideology. And I believe about gender ideology in a way that is good and beautiful to a world that needs to be wooed to the gospel.

[00:41:07] Yes, it needs to be true. Yes, it needs to fall under the authority of scripture, but it needs to be communicated in a way that articulates the goodness of God. And I don't know if we've done that super well so far.

[00:41:21] Theological studies focus on Dr. of biblical studies focus on what the Bible is saying, what is the literary purpose? Like Exodus, it was written to a people who needed to know what their national identity would be.

[00:41:34] It was written to people who had been immersed in pagan mythologies and they had wrong, they had touched and they had all these different gods and they were like, who is Yahweh?

[00:41:46] We don't know Yahweh is. And so it was written for a purpose, that purpose transcends time, but it had an original author, it had a original audience and the point of biblical studies is to tell us what the Bible is saying.

[00:42:02] Again, not what we wanted to say, but what is actually saying and this is important as well.

[00:42:10] Theology informs our lives, as I just said, you know the original recipients of the Torah, the first five books is scripture that is real light needed to know who they were and as people who are called by God's name, how they were to live.

[00:42:27] So it informs our lives and it directs our lives. It has two two things that it's doing there. Everybody good with this. I think I talked about that. Why do we need female theologians? This is one that I'm passionate about, too.

[00:42:52] Because we go back to Genesis 1 again and God said, let us make men and women in our image and I have a very different perspective than my husband does on a lot of things.

[00:43:04] This is not to say that I am going to come up with new doctrines. It's not, but I'm going to come to scripture. I'm going to read scripture. I'm going to interpret scripture as a woman.

[00:43:18] And as I communicate that, I am reflecting an aspect of God that my husband cannot. Just like I cannot articulate everything the way that he does because he is a man and I am a woman. There is a purpose to the corresponding. So God made a helper comparable.

[00:43:42] The, at there, what's the other word just flew out of my brain? Negato, it's the, at there is the ally, the helper, helpers terrible, it's a terrible interpretation. At there was most used for God when he came alongside and he rescued Israel.

[00:44:03] And you know, my husband doesn't always need rescue me, but he definitely needs like an ally more than he needs an assistant. And so I come alongside and I ally him. I come alongside as a strong partner with him.

[00:44:18] And the comparable is like two sides of the same coin. They reflect the same value, but they express it in different ways. And that is what that word means. We are comparable. We are both made to reflect the goodness, the dignity, the value of the Amago day,

[00:44:39] but we do it in different ways. And as I have traveled, might be a logical journey. As a younger believer, all of the people I love to read, all of theologians, all of the biblical scholars, they were all men.

[00:44:55] And so I loved their writings. You know, I love what they had to say. And as a female Bible teacher, I tried to be more like them. And I wanted to communicate scripture like them. I wanted to study scripture like them.

[00:45:11] I wanted to be accepted into that theological club, but as time has gone by, I've come to recognize that who I am as a woman was not an accident and how I process, how I study, how I communicate scripture is not meant to be through the avenue that a man would.

[00:45:35] It can be as a woman. It can be with the perspective as a mom. It can be with the perspective of a daughter. It can be with the perspective of a sister, because more than half of our church is our mother's sisters and daughters.

[00:45:51] And they need the word of God from the perspective of a woman as well. And so we have to be rooted in these things as women. We just recently at our church, we went through Proverbs. We're still going through Proverbs.

[00:46:07] But we got to Proverbs 7 and it's talking about immorality. And my husband gave me his notes. He always shares his notes with me, he's brave.

[00:46:19] And we go over it. And I just told him, you know, like I've always ever heard the men only addressed as we go through like steer clear of the immoral woman. But women struggle with the more immorality as well. Women struggle with temptation as well.

[00:46:36] Women struggle with being temptations as well. And so he let me come up and give the women's perspective. And we had so many women come up and say, thank you so much. I needed to hear that. Like I needed to be encouraged.

[00:46:51] And I wasn't, you know, wasn't doing it by myself. He was with me. But like we were addressing our whole church body. And it was important. And so we need to be able to process these things.

[00:47:07] We need to be able to articulate these things because it gives a full embodied representation of the Godhead. And we need these things to witness and disciple faithfully.

[00:47:20] Titus two that the older women, she's the younger women, how to to care if their children, how to love their husband and to rule their houses as well. That's what to be good keepers of the homeless to rule your house. I like that.

[00:47:37] Even if we're just focusing on Titus two, we can't do that well without a good understanding of who God is. Do you guys know that there is a ton of maternal language for God in the Bible?

[00:47:49] Do you guys know that the word compassion and scripture comes from the word womb? So when God says, I am compassionate. God, the first adjective that God uses in self-discrimination is a maternal word.

[00:48:04] I am a compassionate God. I have that visceral compassion that you better not mess with my kids. I'm going to step in and I'm going to work on there behalf. They're hungry. I'm going to feed them. You know, this is the God that we serve.

[00:48:19] And then later Paul does this a favor too. He says, I was among you as a nursing mother. How tender is that? How many pastors have been among us as nursing mothers? So compassionate. So caring. I know we have such great pastors, but I just like that description.

[00:48:42] We have to be faithful to represent God and to embrace the expression of who God is fully in both the masculine and the feminine. And as we do that, we can go out and we can make disciples of the nations.

[00:49:02] And we can do it with an accurate understanding of faithful ministry because women were in the upper room too. They were praying for the empowerment of the Spirit as much as the men were.

[00:49:15] And they were empowered. In the Old Testament, whenever the Holy Spirit came upon somebody, it was to a noithem for what God had called them too. And women were anointed for what God called us to by the Holy Spirit empowered to be witnesses empowered to make disciples.

[00:49:35] And so we need an accurate understanding of who God is. Oh, that was a second one. Humility, I think. I have two more and then we'll have questions. Theology and theological studies is a practice in humility.

[00:49:51] First reason is because as we know who God is more and more we realize that we have not met that standard. As we see his goodness, as we see his holiness, we should be amazed that he has brought us into his presence.

[00:50:10] That he has elevated to us to a status of a royal member of his family. That should be our response. It should not lead to pride. Good theology should not lead to considering ourselves better than other people.

[00:50:29] And first Corinthians 8, 1 through 3, in the context of Paul talking about convictions. He says, Now concerning things offered to idols, we all know that we have knowledge. Knowledge pops up but love identifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he art.

[00:50:49] As he ought to know, but if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. And as we get into these theological studies, it's good that we become confident in what we believe.

[00:51:06] But confidence in what we should not lead to a disdain for people who don't believe the same thing as us. My professor, Dr. Gary Recher, who is probably the wisest man that I know, who has studied the Bible longer than anybody I know,

[00:51:25] who has transitioned from theological positions more than anybody I know, says good and godly people disagree. And it's amazing to me the people that he is friends with on all the circles of theological circles.

[00:51:44] He's like, oh yeah, that person's a lovely person. I disagree with them, but they are lovely person. And he has these three circles. I think that I have this on the next slide too. We have these circles, a theological priority. The first one is a debatable.

[00:52:03] These are things we can debate about. We can have conversations, very civil conversations. Anytime you fill that blood rising, it's probably time to exit the conversation because you're probably not going to be edifying in love anymore. And I know that from experience.

[00:52:23] This is the peripheral outer border of the circle of doctrines and let's have conversations about them. Let's talk to people who don't have the same opinion that we do. Let's hear how they arrived at their position.

[00:52:37] And then we have the Divide Force Circle. This is the line in the middle. This is like me, I'm not going to go to that church because I can't really get on board with their theological positions.

[00:52:52] I have different convictions than they do, but they love the Lord and their believers. And I'm going to spend eternity with them and have in worshiping King Jesus. But these are things that I'm just not comfortable worshiping God in that way.

[00:53:08] And that's okay. It's okay to say that's really different than where I ended up, but I still think that you have a high view of Scripture. I'm not going to say, well they don't believe the way I do because they just don't believe in the Bible.

[00:53:24] They have a low view of Scripture. That is a showing of ignorance. Because many people have wrestled through the same theological wrestling that I have wrestled through, and they've gotten to a different place. But this is a non-essential. It's okay to have difference of opinion and non-essential.

[00:53:46] It's okay to be friends with people who have differences of opinions and non-essentials. These are not things that my salvation is based on. And then we have the Dye Fork. This is the core of the circle.

[00:53:59] It's the very middle. The core of our faith and in needs to rest on doctrines that are to die for beliefs. I will die for God is who He says He is. God is the creator. God is the authority.

[00:54:15] I'm going to stand before God at the end of time, so I want to be on His side. Jesus is the only way to be saved. That's a core belief. I'm a sinner without Jesus. I can't do it on my own.

[00:54:28] I need the salvific work of Christ on my behalf. These are core doctrines. And they are doctrines that I will live in Dye Fork. But that's a small circle. You guys, it's a small circle. And as we interact with people that are maybe outside of our faith communities,

[00:54:47] it stirs us up. It causes us to think. It causes us to go back to the word. It causes us to be like, why do I believe what I believe? And it causes us to come back to a place where we're like, yeah,

[00:55:01] this is why I believe what I believe. And let me articulate it to you. Again, as Dr. Varsher says, I'll try to pawn my belief off on you. They palm it off. I'm going to try to get you to believe what I believe.

[00:55:13] But if you know what at the end of the day, it's on you. You can be wrong. But these are important circles of theology. All right, we've got a little bit of time for questions and then we'll go downstairs.

[00:55:25] Like five minutes, I think. Anybody have any questions? Yes. So I do. Sandra Richter is amazing. She's an Old Testament scholar in theologian. I love Cindy Westphal. Again, I don't believe I don't agree with everything she says.

[00:55:51] But she is amazing in articulate and she is written wonderful books. Sandra Richter, our ICHTER. I have actually, I'll put it up. Let me put it up. I made one a little compilation for this for you guys.

[00:56:12] Okay, so Carmen, Joy, I'ms is amazing. She's also an Old Testament. I kind of tend to go to Old Testament stuff. But Carmen, Joy, I'ms is amazing. Sandra Richter is wonderful right here.

[00:56:27] This is a great book that was written by a woman, but it's not a theological book. Doctors of the Church is a wonderful history of women from the beginning of Church history. Now, this book has four different perspectives on it.

[00:56:43] Women in ministry. It's really good because it will have a perspective and the other three contributors will respond to that chapter before they write their own chapter. So it's like they're interacting kind of more like they have their own arguments.

[00:56:56] But then they're also able to respond to other people's arguments. And then, Jen Wilken is awesome. Amy Pillar is great. And I have some other ones, but they're not in this. Let me see if I have. Oh, there was a new book that came out by Sandra Glon.

[00:57:15] It's called Nobody's Mother by Artemis of Ephesus. It is so good. It's just mostly historical, but it talks about the history of Artemis of the first century. Because Artemis was like a goddess in all of Greek mythology. But Artemis was to Ephesus, what the Lakers are to LA.

[00:57:38] It was a cultural identity. And her background shines a lot of light on that first Timothy, two passage. Because Artemis was born from one of Lito's many mistresses. Or one of Zeus's many mistresses, Lito. And she was born first and then she helped deliver her brother Apollo's.

[00:58:04] And then so she's the goddess of Midwifery. And if a woman is in labor and she's dying, which was the mortality rate from eternity in ancient Rome, some say it was close to 50%. So having a baby was terrifying in the ancient world.

[00:58:25] And Artemis was the goddess who, if you are having a hard time, she'll shoot you with an arrow and you can just be put out of your mystery. And that was a good thing. You could just like be done instead of being in labor for days and days.

[00:58:40] But she was the defender in Savior of the city of Ephesus. And it's just an incredible book. It just literally came out like a few weeks ago and I highly recommend that one. Just for the sake of like illumination on the text.

[00:58:54] So yeah, if you guys, if you took pictures, that's fine. Any other questions? Yes. Nobody is mother because a lot of people say that Artemis was the goddess of mothering. But she was not. She was the goddess of virginity, perpetual virginity.

[00:59:13] And she was and she like if her followers got married or entangled with a man, she would kill them. She was not nurturing at all of virginity and she was the goddess of of midwifery. And of hunting they actually have found in Ephesus the remains of Ephesus.

[00:59:37] The evidence that Ephesus was at one time a land of Amazonian women. And so they have historical sources where they talk about the Amazonian women's, where it was a very female centric society. And so if you think about this and you think about first Timothy where he's like,

[00:59:58] No, like the women don't get to be in charge. It makes a lot more sense. So yeah, it's just really interesting. But nobody's mother. Sandra Glon, GL-A-HN. I actually don't have it in here. I have it in my car. Any other questions? Yes. Theology and apologetics. Yes.

[01:00:23] They go hand in hand a little bit. Do you think they do? I think so. So apologetics like giving a defense for our fate. We have to have good theology. We're going to be good defenders of our faith.

[01:00:38] We're living in a time now as opposed to past generations that, that based their life more on the ethics of truth and facts. You know, the apologetics of the last couple generations have been, Is it true? Is it true? Can you show me it's true?

[01:00:58] Give me the evidence of this is true. The generation now, like the generation coming up, The generation in their early 20s. They don't care if it's true. They want to know if it's good. They want to know if it's leading to human flourishing.

[01:01:15] They want to know if it's going to bring peace. If it's going to bring identity. If it's going to bring joy. So these are things that we have to be able to, I just because the gospel does all of those things.

[01:01:30] And we want to be able to communicate and defend our faith well In light of every new season. And we have the Bible is sufficient to do those things. But yes, they are connected. Anything else? Yes. Do you have any advice of building Bible studies with my men?

[01:01:53] And we're doing inductive studies. Okay. The women like fluffy or studies. Let's do that. Do you have any advice on how to speak to that in regards to getting them interested? So Jen Wilkin just came out with a new book called You Are A Thielo Jinn

[01:02:14] and it's not hard reading. And it's got questions at the end of every chapter. So it introduces them to theological ideas without being overwhelming. And I think that that's a good introduction to it. I think if you have people like, I think it's good to have a balance.

[01:02:35] Like I'm the women's ministry director at our church. And we do, we have a Tuesday night Bible say, Well, we're going to go through something we're going to have to go to us and just a minute. But we also do things that are just meant to provide community

[01:02:51] that are meant to provide a good time because there are things that happen in interactive one-on-one conversation that don't happen in a Bible study. So I think providing both gives them that balance because we are women. Like Ruth said, I want to go shopping.

[01:03:08] We don't want to deny who we are. So celebrating who we are but not making that, not making that everything about us. You know? Okay. You are a phyologian by Jen Wilkins. She co-wrote it with Tucker or something. But I knew her. Okay. All right.

[01:03:36] Let's pray and then I'll let you guys go downstairs soon. Thank you, God. Just for who you are. Thank you for your word. Thank you for these women. I pray that they would be encouraged just to continue to dive deeper. We all can. We all need to.

[01:03:49] We all should be good students of who you are in your word. And I pray that you bless this succession and Jesus' name, Amen. Well, thanks for joining us today. We hope you find this content helpful. Hey, stay connected with us on Instagram

[01:04:05] and Facebook for all that is going on with when she leaves. We'll see you next time.