Jesus answered, “Thou wie the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, and intelligence” (Matthew 22:37).
Reformed people seem to like to make mistakes at this point. When Paul describes the body of Christ, including his hands, ears, etc. , do we rush to mark our territory?we are the brains of the church. We are the ones who are so concerned about our theology. The great minds of the Church were reformed, and it can certainly be said that the greatest of them, theologically or beyond, who once set foot in these American lands, was Jonathan Edwards.
- There is no doubt that the man had an imposing intellect.
- We should have the wisdom to sit at his feet and learn from him.
- Edward speaking of volition is certainly a genius.
- About the Trinity.
- Edwards turns his head.
- Edward was a titanic spirit whose luminosity was diminished only by his fiery and passionate heart.
- Should we adopt Edwards’ theological vision?Of course.
- No doubt.
- However.
- It would be even better if we could appreciate his touching dedication.
Of course, we do not increase the fervor of our emotions by obscuring the capacity of our brain; However, we will also not feed the fruit of the Spirit if the seed of the Word is planted only on the rocky soil of our brains rather than the fertile land of our hearts. We must certainly know him to love him. You certainly have to study it to know, but no one studied it more than the devil, and it didn’t do him any good.
A few weeks ago, Reformation Bible College opened for the first time. The first course taught a very pretentious name: the basic theological prolegmenos. This intellectual title roughly translates as “Introduction to Systematic Theology”. This is the study we are doing before we start our study.
Historically, such a class would logically begin with the doctrine of revelation, exploring how God reveals Himself in His Word and in nature. I would consider the questions of the canon and various theories of inspiration. Over time we will come up with these important issues. In another semester, we will focus our attention on what we call “theology itself,” the current study of God’s nature and its tributes. Despite the theme of the future course, we will begin the first course with a classic book, The Holiness of God.
My fear, looking at this first group, was that we fall into the trap that has already captured many retirees; I feared that even with the truths of the glorious scriptures, we would simply please our ears. I would be guilty of tickling my ears in my classes if I encouraged students to conclude, “What intelligent person am I?instead of “What a glorious gospel that saved a wretch like me. “When we studied this book together, I wanted us to look at ourselves in the mirror of their character and glory so that we never lose sight of how vile we are. I wanted us to understand something of the scope of his transcendence if we were tempted to conclude that our studies would take us to heaven in the same way as the Tower of Babel, I feared for my students precisely because I remembered what it was like when I was a student, what a smart devil, which we are fighting, that manages to transform our study of good theology into a case of pride.
We will not be better until we accept this obvious truth: intelligence is not one of the fruits of the Spirit. Of course, we must love God with our spirit, but we must love God with our spirit, not just understand Him. knowledge cannot cross the distance between our head and our hearts, we suffer from a spiritual void. We will not be better until we have adopted this obvious truth: we come into the kingdom not as students or academics, but as children.
In fact, we will not be better until we learn to stop seeking academic respectability and begin to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We must leave behind all earthly concerns. We must stop looking for the things the Gentiles are looking for. For.
Love, after all, is the fruit of the Spirit. Love begets love, love brings joy. Love gives peace. Patience, kindness, kindness, and self-control – everything sprouts like the beautiful bunch of grapes that the twelve Israelite spies saw in the Promised Land, but none of them come from the arid soil of our intellectual curiosity, much less the arid land of our intellectual pride. .
Edwards was a great man of Dieu, but I was like that because he sought to be a man of God, instead of being a great man, his descendants, senators and governors, professors and rectors of universities, meant nothing to him. that they would follow the son of the carpenter of Galileo, it was what he expected, prayed and for what he worked for, is the fruit of piety.