In part one, I told the background to my story. In part two, I introduced the frame upon which I built my faith. In this post, I will discuss each of the individual pieces and how they fit together.
As physicians, we are trained to think critically. We are trained to read journals with an eye to bias and error. We have a scientific method that demands reproducibility and testability of hypotheses. The rest of academia has the eighteenth century German philosophers and the nineteenth century Second Great Awakening that has influenced critical thinking to the present day. Modernity and Post Modernism are the offspring of this thinking and these paradigms have infiltrated Christian theology as well. John Wesley and Charles Finney have done great harm to the Reformation ideas that are our Protestant heritage. We must never give into the idea of Kierkegaard that religion is in the realm of the irrational, while science is in the realm of the rational.
1 Corinthians 15 is a vital Pauline text for this discussion. In this chapter, Paul lays out the historical facts upon which our faith is based. He goes so far as to say that if these facts can be proved false, then Christianity crumbles like a house of cards. Uniquely, our faith is not just an endorphin driven religion of experience. Our faith is based upon historical events that happened external to us, and regardless of how we feel about them. Our reaction to these facts are independent of the facts themselves. This is what is at the core of the uniqueness of Christianity.
At the end of the last post, I gave a list of terms: Covenant theology, Calvinism, Amillennialism, the Five Solas of the Reformation and Framework theory. Let's look at each of these and see what they are and how they influence our thinking. Remember, this is always going to be about thinking. As R.C. Sproul points out, Romans 12:2 is good mantra for all Christians, but particularly for us scientists.
Covenant theology is a system of looking at the Bible as a series of Covenants. There are eternal Covenants that you might read about and there are specific Historical Biblical Covenants. We are talking more about the latter group. Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation. It is the application of rules or presuppositions to a text to assist in interpretation. The basic hermeneutic of Covenant theology is that the whole Bible is about Jesus and the redemptive history of God from Genesis to Revelations. This may sound obvious, but we must review what we think about the Old Testament in this light. This is essentially what it is thought that Paul was doing in his three year sabbatical. After applying this basic hermeneutic, we can then evaluate the various covenants of the Bible. The most important Covenants are the Adamic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant of Grace through Jesus. An excellent reference for this topic is Michael Horton's Introducing Covenant Theology.
Calvinism has evolved beyond the writings of Calvin to a more complete system. Often you will read about five point Calvinism. The acronym TULIP is used as a mnemonic to assist in recall. I have recently written about this and I will link to those posts as I list the five points. T is for Total Depravity, which is original sin. U is for Unconditional election, which means that it is all about God and not about us. This is where the discussion of predestination comes into play. L is for Limited Atonement, which is the idea that while the resurrection was sufficient for the whole world, it was actually efficacious only for Christ's elect. I is for Irresistible Grace, which means that you can run, but you can't hide. Christ, through the Holy Spirit, will succeed in gathering in the elect to Himself. P is for the Perseverance of the Saints, which means that you cannot loose your salvation if you were truly justified by faith. This whole system is about justification and sanctification.
Amillennialism is actually the second oldest view of redemptive history. The most common view held in the US is still Dispensationism, which is a type of Premillennialism. Amillennialism is closely related to Two Kingdom distinctions that you will often read on my blog. In this system, there is no rapture and no Christianization of culture required prior to the Second Coming. Good references on this topic are these two books from Kim Riddlebarger: A Case for Amillennialism and The Man of Sin.
The Five Solas of the Reformation are a statement about justification that are in direct opposition to positions held by Rome. In addition, each of these solas is specifically rejected by Rome at the Council of Trent. Therefore, these are the issues that make us Protestants. We should not discard them lightly. The full formula of justification using the five solas looks like this. We are justified by Grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Alone, to the Glory of God Alone as testified in Scripture Alone. They are usually written in Latin, ironically enough. I have written on these intermingled with other topics, but I will likely go through them in more detail in the near future.
Framework theory is a view of Genesis 1-2 that treats this section of that book as a separate type of literary genre called creation genre. The basic idea is that Genesis is not a science book, but an explanation or laying out of the order of the Two Kingdoms. Meredith Klein has written an excellent piece on this that I have sited by a separate post in the past and I will do so again here. What he calls the two registers is what I will call the Two Kingdoms. The Framework model is a newer name for this discussion and does not appear in this article. This discussion actually dates back to Augustine, but has been supplanted in the US by Genesis literalists as the predominant viewpoint. Framework allows scientists to be scientists and Christians to be Christians and me to be both. This was the great final piece that made it all fit together for me.
In summary, hold fast to logic and reason. Christians do not need to retreat to the irrational realm with other religions. We alone among the religions of the world base our faith upon historical, public events, particularly those that we remember this week. Application of systematic theology is essential for a scientific mind to be convinced of the truth of scripture. I believe the set of structured thought that I have outlined above represents a great starting point for having an understanding of scripture that leads to true faith. Many Protestant denominations have supported most of these tenets, including the Anglican Church. I hope that by following this line of thought, you will have the opportunity to have a revitalization of your faith in the same manner that I have.
Maranatha!
--Ogre--
No comments:
Post a Comment