S3 E1 TRANSCRIPT
THE COURAGE TO STUDY
INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at the topic:
THE COURAGE TO STUDY
For those of you who have listened to Seasons 1 and 2, welcome back! If you are new to Spirit-led Hope, let me give you a quick rundown of who I am and a little information about the Spirit-Led Hope podcast.
I am an active ordained minister in the Foursquare movement, or denomination, but I am not on any paid church staff. I volunteer as a pastor, and I make my living as a research engineer developing products used around the world in manufacturing. I have been doing that for decades and I am very close to retiring. But I have had the privilege of working with some brilliant engineers and scientists, and many of our inventions are patented and are used daily to produce anything from food products to rocket parts.
As a disclaimer, my employer is not involved in producing any content for this podcast.
I live in Washington State with my wife, and best friend, Monica. We have been married for over 44 years and have 3 wonderful daughters and 4 grandchildren. We are blessed to have a wonderful family and great friends.
The Spirit-Led Hope podcast was born out of a time of prayer and obedience, and it is a little different than many podcasts. It has taken me a while to learn how to do podcasting and to find my voice, but Spirit-Led Hope is primarily a teaching podcast with connected episodes. In other words, it takes multiple episodes to cover one topic. For example, Season 1 covers the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and Season 2 compares the Biblical account of Creation to naturalism.
I try to keep the episodes between 15 and 20 minutes long to honor your time, and this forces me to be more efficient in how I present the material. During a podcast season, I try to publish episodes every other week…which is about the quickest I can manage as a husband, father, grandfather, employee, and pastor. If I am ever late with an episode, I try to put a notice on the Spirit-Led Hope website, which is found at spiritledhope.com.
Season 1 was 29 episodes long and Season 2 took 17 episodes, but I am going to try and make this and future seasons much shorter. This will make it easier for listeners to follow a complete topic, and it should be more sustainable for me since I will take breaks between seasons.
INTRODUCING THIS AND FOLLOWING SEASONS
All right, I think that is enough of the back-story so let us start talking about the courage to study.
I think most Christians understand that growth in the Christian faith requires study. I would even go so far as to say that Christians who are sincere about their faith want to study. That is most likely why you are listening to this podcast. Studying is one of the ways we learn about God and grow in our relationship with him and each other.
This is one of the reasons why I am excited that in this episode we are introducing not only the topic for this season, but for seasons to come. Starting this season, in Season 3, we are beginning a series of teachings on systematic theology.
Now, hopefully, you did not panic, and you are still listening. There is something about that term, “systematic theology,” that seems to scare people. So let me explain what studying systematic theology will look like, and why we are doing it.
Let us start by looking at the word “systematic.” Being systematic just means that you are following a methodical plan. When I misplace my cell phone, I systematically retrace my steps since I last used it. If a child is lost in the woods, the search team systematically uses a grid pattern to make sure they do not miss an area where the child might be. “Theology” just means the study of the nature of God and religious belief.
If we put those two words together, we might assume that systematic theology is a methodical approach towards studying the nature of God and religious belief. And that would be close to a good definition…but it is not quite the definition that we will use or that is typically used by Christians.
There are several ways that you can define systematic theology, but for the purposes of this podcast I want to use a very easy to understand definition. It is this:
Systematic theology is a methodical study of what the Bible teaches about any given topic.
Let me say that one more time:
Systematic theology is a methodical study of what the Bible teaches about any given topic.
When we look at systematic theology with that definition, it is not so scary, is it? In fact, Season 1 and Season 2 of Spirit-Led Hope cover topics that are part of systematic theology. A sermon, that teaches from the Bible, is a teaching using elements of systematic theology.
The key part about systematic theology is that you methodically look at everything taught in the Bible, in detail. And that is what tends to scare people.
In my personal library, I have three books on systematic theology. The first one is 746 pages long, the second is 1219 pages long, and the third is a whopping 1291 pages…almost 1300 pages long. But the size of these books makes sense, because that length is on the scale of the Bible itself. The Bible is not a short book.
These books can be intimidating when you pick them up, especially if reading is not your strength.
HOW WE WILL COVER SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
Even though systematic theology books can be intimidating, most people are very interested in the topics they cover. For example, does the Bible contain errors? Is there such a thing as free will? Is God responsible for evil? Are there angels and demons in the world today? If so, can demons be exorcised? These are all covered in systematic theology because the Bible talks about every one of these things.
Now you may wonder how we are going to approach systematic theology in this podcast, so let me give you an idea of what is ahead. For starters, we are going to take advantage of the work that people have done before us and use an existing framework. For example, I mentioned that I have three systematic theology books in my personal library.
One of these books, is called, “Foundations of Pentecostal Theology.” The interesting part about this book is that it was commissioned for the purpose of clarifying doctrine for several Pentecostal denominations.
The book came about because Jack Hayford, the president of LIFE Bible College, asked two of the College professors to organize and write the book. The first edition was published in 1983.
I find it interesting that the authors, Guy Duffield and Nathaniel Van Cleave, had also served as pastors in addition to being college professors. This allowed Doctors Duffield and Van Cleave to write a book that is not only technically sound, but one that is practical and contains some pastoral wisdom.
As a side note, LIFE Bible College is now called Life Pacific University, and it was founded in 1923 at the very beginning of the Foursquare movement, of which I am a pastor. And now you know why we will be using that book, “Foundations of Pentecostal Theology,” as the framework for this and upcoming seasons. Actually, we will be using the Second Edition which was published in 2016. I will put a reference to this text in the podcast notes.
We are going to use “Foundations of Pentecostal Theology” primarily to make sure we cover the essential topics, but it will not be the sole source of our material. I will also be using “Systematic Theology, an Introduction to Christian Belief,” by John M. Frame and “Systematic Theology, an Introduction to Biblical Doctrine” by Wayne Grudem. To be transparent, if there are doctrinal differences between these texts, I will follow what is taught in “Foundations of Pentecostal Theology.”
We will also be using other books and websites to supply information and it will be my task to somehow distill all this information into small podcast chunks. If I do quote any of these sources, I will be sure and cite them either in the podcast notes or in the transcripts.
I am excited about where we are headed in the podcast, but this is a daunting task. This will cover many episodes and I know that I will be learning a lot along with you.
Our goal in studying systematic theology is not just to study for the sake of knowledge, but to apply what we learn in our lives. I believe God’s heart is that we see each topic from the perspective of a Spirit-Led life. If we do, each season will give us hope and help us grow into a deeper relationship with God through God’s Word and the work of the Holy Spirit.
THE COURAGE TO STUDY
So where does courage come in? Why is this episode called “The Courage to Study?” Well, if you have listened to Spirit-Led Hope before, you may recall that Season 1 started with “The Courage to Be Wrong” and Season 2 started with “The Courage to Be Humble.” I did not plan that each season would start with courage, but it also seems appropriate for this season. Interestingly, study requires that we have the courage to be wrong, and the courage to be humble.
When we begin to systematically study what is written in the Bible, we will find an area which will challenge us. It may be that we realize we are flat out wrong about something, or that our understanding is at best incomplete. This is to be expected.
Because God is infinitely beyond us, we should expect that we are unable to comprehend everything about God, whether we are a child or an adult. In addition to the vastness of God, we are all born into sin, and we are all imperfect. Combine these two things and you can see that we are bound to be wrong about something and will be humbled.
The very topics of systematic theology are humbling. How can we talk about the Creator of the universe, and the Creation itself, without feeling a sense of smallness? Systematic theology forces us to confront ourselves in relation to God, because that is what the Bible does. There is a well-known saying that as we read the Bible, the Bible reads us. The Bible exposes the real us, but in a way that brings hope and life.
The amazing thing is that when we have the courage to study with humility, and the understanding that we will be wrong about something, the Holy Spirit participates with us to help us learn. The Holy Spirit loves to exalt the Father and glorify Jesus. If we have the courage to study, submitted to God, he will make himself known to us in a deeply personal way.
The bonus for those of you who are Christians like I am, is that in the process of study, the Holy Spirit will continuously work to transform us to be more like Jesus. But this will take courage.
WHAT WILL WE COVER IN THIS SEASON?
I know that this episode has become a very large introduction to Season 3, but so far, I have not told you yet what this season is about. So let me do that now.
Because systematic theology is a methodical study of what the Bible teaches, it is important that we have a foundational understanding of the Bible itself. Starting in the next episode, we will begin to examine the Bible so that we can be confident in what it teaches. If we do not do that, there really is not any reason to continue.
For example, during this season we will look at what is called the “inerrancy of Scripture.” What does that really mean? Does the Bible have any mistakes in it? If I told you that it did, would that shake your faith in God? If I told you that it did not have any mistakes, would you believe me? These are fundamental questions.
This season, Season 3, is all about the Bible. If you are doing your own research in a text on systematic theology, you might see this topic written as the “doctrine of Scripture.”
I am going to try and keep things concise and clear and, I hope, immensely practical. As I said earlier, everything we study together will be from the perspective of a Spirit-led life and a life of hope.
CLOSING
I know this episode has been very introductory, so I am looking forward to the next episode where we will start with an overview of the Bible.
As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please email me at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritLEDhope.com.
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If you are new to Spirit-Led Hope, we end every episode with this blessing:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Until next episode, take care.
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