A Study In Theology

In this Bible study, Dr. Mike Jackson discusses the importance of theology and its role in understanding scripture. Theology is the study of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and the scriptures. The scriptures are the basis for theology and provide wisdom, teaching, and encouragement. The word of God is reliable and confirmed, and it is through God's self-revelation that we can know and understand Him. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to the scriptures, is central to our salvation. The scriptures were not created by human interpretation, but are a reliable and certain source of truth. All right, welcome to the Bible Study Tonight. This is the Bible Institute Online. I'm Dr. Mike Jackson, and I want to welcome everybody that's viewing this video tonight. What we're going to do is we're going to do just a study tonight about theology. When it comes to theology, people have different views about it, the importance of it, and what I share with my Bible students is that theology is basic, it's critical to our understanding of Scripture. It's not something that we should argue about or contemplate about, but it's essential to our understanding of Scripture. Now, when you break the words down, theology, theology, God, ology, study, so we're talking about the study of God. When we talk about theology, we're talking about the study of God, so I want to share a little bit tonight. This is my BibleHub.com study. You all know how I like BibleHub, and so I invite you to go to BibleHub and partake of all the various resources that they have. By the way, I'm just telling you my personal preferences. I'm not being compensated by promoting BibleHub. I love it because it's a resource that I use to help me to rightly divide the Word of truth, and that's what it's all about. So, looking at this, we're going to talk about theology tonight, and so we're going to look at some main points here that can help us understand the Scripture and what we're reading. It says the theology is the study of God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and in the Scriptures. Everything we know and understand about God, he has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ and the Scriptures, so we go to the Scriptures to learn about theology. Now, theology is based on God's self-revelation, God's self-revelation. Now, I've got some Scriptures here I want to take a look at. Let's take a look at 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 15 through 17. And another thing I like about BibleHub, you have your various translations here, so I want to use the NIV tonight. We can do that. NIV, the new international version. 2 Timothy 3.15 says, and now, and how from emphasy, or let's go to, I don't like to start in the middle of a verse, but here it is, but as for you, talking about Timothy, all right, 2 Timothy is a personal epistle written to Timothy. It says, but as for you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you have learned. Verse 15 says, and how from infancy you have known the Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation. How? Through faith in Jesus Christ. And then the apostle goes on to say, in verse 16, a famous verse of Scripture, we know this, all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, and correcting, and training in righteousness. And here's the purpose. Verse 17, so that the servant of God, the servant of God, may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. The servant of God. You see right here, the different translations, the New Living Translation says, the people, English Standard Version says, the man of God. So again, this is why I use, I like to use BibleHub a lot here because it has different renderings from different translations. And we can go all the way down and see King James, New King James, New American Standard, the Amplified Bible. As a matter of fact, let's look at the Amplified Bible, so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work. All right? So let's go back to our main screen here. So, theology is based on God's revelation, self-revelation. And let's see here, Psalm 1, 1 and 3. This is the one who does not walk in the steps with the wicked or stand in the way of sinners that sinners may take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. That person, the one who does what verses 1 and 2 says, that person is like a tree planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, whatever they do prospers. Okay? And so on BibleHub here, here's the context of that man of God. Here's the context of that verse. Here's some cross references that relate to that. Good resource. Romans 1, 1 through 3. Let's check it out. Let's see what it has to say. Okay. It says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. The gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures. Regarding his son, who as to his eternal earthly life was a descendant of David. So again, Paul is connecting the scriptures. It comes from God. It centers around Jesus Christ, the son of David. Romans 15, 4 says, for everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope. Again, Paul was talking about Old Testament because that's all they had at the time was Old Testament. The New Testament was being written, developed, and it hadn't spread around. It hadn't been canonized like it is today. They had different scrolls, different writings. Different writings that were available at this time. They didn't have the whole scripture. So we're blessed today that we have all 66 books of the scripture, but here's Paul's point. Those things that were written in the past, Old Testament. Now he uses examples about Moses and he makes reference to Old Testament events in the book of Romans. These things were written to teach us so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures, they will give us encouragement and give us hope. New Living Translation says, such things were written in the scriptures long ago to teach us and the scriptures gives us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promise to be fulfilled. Okay. Here we go. Amplified. But whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope and overflow with confidence in his promises. Okay. So again, we're talking about the word of God. We're talking about the scriptures. We're talking about theology and theology is based on God's self-revelation. The only way we know anything that we know about God is because God chose, listen to hear me clearly, God chose to reveal himself to us. How did he do it? Through the voice of his prophets who declared it, Jesus Christ, during his earthly ministry and through the scriptures. God's revelation of himself. So theology, again, the study of God, study of scriptures revealed in Jesus Christ and the holy scriptures. First Corinthians 15, one through four, talks about how everything is confirmed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, Paul again, right into the church in Corinth says, now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken a stand. Okay. So Paul is laying it out here about the gospel and he's defining what the gospel is. By this gospel, you are saved. If you hold firmly to the word I preached to you, otherwise you have believed in vain. Here it is, verse three. For what I received, I pass on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. See, according to the scriptures. So everything that Christ did for our salvation was according to the scriptures, right? Look at verse four. That he was buried, he was buried, that he was raised, and on the third day, according to the scriptures, according to the scriptures. So our salvation is based on the fact of Jesus' death on the cross and the fact that he was buried, he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, according to the scriptures. See, so everything that we have as it pertains to theology, our understanding of God, is based on what Jesus Christ did and the written word of God. All right, let's go back. Let's go back to our main screen here. So we looked at, we're still on the first point here, theology is based on God's self-revelation. And we looked at 2 Timothy 3, 15, 17, and 18. 2 Timothy 3, 15, 17, Psalm 1, 1-3, Romans 1, 1-3, Romans 15, 4, 1 Corinthians 15, 1-4. Let's look at 2 Peter 1, 19. 2 Peter 1, 19. Oh, there we go. It says here, 2 Peter 1, 19, we also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, talking about the scriptures. And you do well to pay attention to it as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the early morning rises in your hearts. Now, this is the apostle Peter. Now, he's giving his confirmation of the scriptures. He says, we have the prophetic message. We have the prophetic message as something completely reliable. Let's look at these other translations. Let's look at ESV, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. See, the Barayan Standard Bible says we also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond a doubt, beyond doubt. The King James says we have a more sure word of prophecy. The Amplified Version says, so we have the prophetic word made more certain. See, so the word that we have today is something that's completely reliable. It's something that has been confirmed, and we can have confidence in it. And here's the reason why. Let's go to verse 20. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy, 2 Peter 1.20. First of all, above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. See, this is why we have a more sure word of prophecy, because the scripture, the prophecy of scripture did not come about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. The New Living Translation says, above all, you must realize that no prophecy in scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding. The ESV says, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. King James says, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. The New King James used the phrase private interpretation as well. See, what this does, these different columns here of the verse, it helps to gain a great understanding. So, some people love the King James. I use it to study sometimes with a lot of the study aids on the King James version, but I don't teach from it. I don't preach from it because the language in it is very, very complex. It's old Elizabethan English. It's outdated, and in fact, the language is not even in existence anymore, the old English. So, what this does is helps you to understand it, understand it clearer, because the key thing is, I referenced Proverbs chapter four, verse seven. It says, get wisdom, and in all your getting, get understanding. So, I tell my Bible students, whatever version of the Bible is going to help you get understanding, that's the version that you need to acquire. Okay, let's look at some more. Amplify says, but understand this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of or comes from one's own personal or special interpretation, meaning that you and I don't have the right to just take a verse of scripture and make it say whatever we want it to say. Look at the Net Bible here. Above all, you do well to recognize this, no prophecy of scripture ever comes about Bible prophets' own imagination. Again, there's some prophets in 2022 whose imagination has run amok. They would be wise to heed this verse of scripture. All right, so above all, we must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophets' own interpretation. So, how did we get it? Keep reading, verse 21. For prophecy never had its origins in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So, how did we receive it? The prophecy, our understanding of God, based on the scriptures, based on what Jesus Christ did, the scriptures never had its origins in human will. Do them translations from human initiative. Okay, that's what it says. English Standard Version, SV, no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. King James, for prophecy came not in old times by the will of man. The New American Standard Bible, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. Amplify, for no prophecy was ever made by the act of human will. Okay, the same thing. Okay, so how did it come? Though human, God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So, let's carry it along. Let's see if we can get an understanding of this phrase, carried along. No, these prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit as they spoke from God. SV says carried along. Moran says carried along. King James says were moved by the Holy Spirit. Moved by, see this is the process I do to help understand, get clarification. To move by the Holy Spirit. I'm going to show you something. The Aramaic Bible says being compelled by the Holy Spirit. The CEV says guided by the Spirit of God. See. But I'm going to show you something here. Net Bible, carried along. Okay, the New Testament says was impelled. I think we saw that in another translation. But I'm going to show you something. So, when it comes to understanding words, what I do is I go to a couple of places. The Strong's Concordance, that's a part of the Bible Hub, and the Interlinear. So, let's go to Strong's. Let's go to Strong's. So, here it is. So, you see here the Strong's, what it has is the verse broken down. For no prophecy was ever brought about through human initiative, but men spoke from God as they were carried along. So, that's what we're looking at, as they were carried along. That's what we're going to get an understanding of. So, what we have here, we have this phrase here, as they were carried along, in the Greek. That's the Greek rendering of it. Here is the transliteration of it. All right. It's a verb, a present tense, participle, middle, or passive, nominative, masculine, plural. And here's the Greek Strong's number. One of the things, if you're not familiar with Strong's, how Strong does it, Strong has a numbering system. So, every Greek word, every Hebrew word, has a number associated with it. So, this phrase, carried along, is the Strong Greek number 5342. And it means to carry, to bear, to bring, I conduct, lead, perhaps, to make publicly known, a primary verb. So, it's an action. Action. Now, I'm going to click on this right quick, so we'll see. All right. Here it is. So, we have the same thing we saw on the previous page, with the same breakdown, and the same word usage. But look what we also have here. We have some helps. Helps Word Study. And it talks about the Greek word pharaoh, and it gives a breakdown of that word, where it's used. Okay. I just want to show you that. Now, let's go, I said there's another place I want to show you. Let's go to the inner linear of 1st 2nd Peter 121. Because we talk about the words. The words are important, but the words in the word verses are important also. And we have to understand them in their original languages. And I tell my Bible students all the time, it doesn't mean that you have to have a PhD in Greek or Hebrew. But you need to have some familiarity of the languages. And we have these tools available to us to help us. So, let's see. 2nd Peter 121. I want to go to the inner linear. Here it is here. So, here we go. You have the Greek inner linear here of 2nd Peter 121. And we're looking for this phrase here, being carried. So, there's the word again. The Greek transliteration. There's the Strong's number. There's the Greek and the Greek language, meaning being carried away, being carried. But this is what I want to show you here. This is how this verse would read if it was read strictly from the Greek. Not for by the will of man was brought prophecy at any time, but by the Holy, the Spirit Holy, being carried spoke from God men. Now, again, we're not going to the languages today, but you see how choppy this is? So, when you do a translation or transliteration from Greek to English, there's some words in Greek that we don't have an English word for. All right? So, if you just look at it strictly from the Greek to the English, this is how it would read, choppy, disconnected. So, one of the things the translators had to do, they had to add words in it to make it communicate. Now, this is what I'm saying. They didn't change the scripture, they just added the words to communicate to in English what this verse of scripture is probably saying. Because you see it in the original language, the Greek, it don't make sense. It's choppy. All right? So, the translators of King James, NIV, Amplified, the English Standard Version, the NASB, all the versions that we looked at today, when their team got together, and they got people on the team that specialize in Greek and Hebrew, and they put the words together, and they went through this process of transliteration, translation, transliteration. That's how they came up with that particular version. That's why, if we can go back here, you have the different versions of the Bible. Somebody asked a question why we have all these different versions of the Bible. Again, I'm glad we have them, so we can gain clarity. So, we can gain clarity of the scriptures. And so, again, I want to share that with you, because it's going to be a valuable part of your study and understanding of the Bible. All right? So, prophecy never had its origins in human will, but prophets, because these are the ones that spoke, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Now, let's go, where do I want to go? Let's go here, back to the interlinear again. And Holy Spirit. Okay? From God. Prophecy. Hold the Spirit. Okay? So, the Greek transliteration, okay, first of all, the Psalms number is 4151. The Greek transliteration is pneumatous. Pneumatous. Let's click on that. Pneumatous. It means, here's the Greek, the Holy Spirit. Okay, that's Matthew. I don't want Matthew. I want what we're looking at. Well, that's a good point. When you go there, it's going to show you that word and where it's used in the New Testament. So, you have to find the particular verse that we're looking for. So, we're saying, what, 2 Peter? 2 Peter, what do we got? Acts. Okay. Listen, I love BibleHub. I love this tool. I love these resources to help us understand the Bible, because as Bible students, that's what we're trying to get to, an understanding, and how you're getting a good understanding. Here we go. 2 Peter 121. And here's that word again. Pneumatikos. And here's the rendering in the NAS. The King James. All right. The Holy Spirit. All right. So, let's get back. Let's conclude this session today. This is part one. So, we talked about the day. Theology is based on God's self-revelation. We looked at 2 Peter 3.17. We looked at Psalms 1, 1-3. Romans 1, 1-3. Romans 15, 4. 1 Corinthians 1-4. And 2 Peter 2.19-21. The next time we get together, we're going to talk about the benefits of theology. All right? The benefits of theology. So, thank you all for being part of the study today. I hope that you have benefited from the lesson. The Bible can be understood. It's a process. You need to know how to rightly divide the Word. And that's what we endeavor to do here at the Bible Institute Online. So, until our next session, be blessed.