Speculative Theology
Posted by James MacDonald on February 15, 2007 08:05 AM | Comments (10)Sometimes I get really angry (on the inside) when people approach me after a message and ask silly questions about things the Bible doesn't answer and that are completely unrelated to the message they just heard. Like last week when I preached on healing in the New Testament and biblical expectations for healing today. I spoke from Peter's raising of Tabitha in Acts 9. Anyway, after the message this guy comes up and asks me where Tabitha's soul went during the hours they waited for Peter to come and exercise his 'apostolic gift of healing.'
I coudn't believe the question, it was so far from anything the message talked about or the Bible speaks about for that matter. Don't get me wrong, his question was articulate and gracious, it's just clearly a question the Bible does not answer and he knew it. The Bible doesn't tell us what happens to people who have died and then are raised, i.e. Lazarus, etc. Immense confusion has seeped into the church over speculative discussion of where Jesus was between good Friday and Easter Morning. I think He was just hanging out with Joseph in the Carpenter's shop??? "Yeah well I think he was preaching in hell," "yeah well I think . . . " Isn't that the point of teaching the Bible--we don't have to have these 'it seems to me' type discussions. We believe the Scripture answers all the important questions.
I have taken to calling this kind of silly wrangling, 'speculative theology.' That's what I told the guy after church. "Hey why don't we start praying in faith for people who need healling as our response to that message believing that God will heal some according to His Word." "Hey why don't we leave go all the speculative theology and just be content with what God has told us?" Back in seminary we used to mock the first century Pharisees and middle age monks who debated how many angels could fit on the head of a pin, or "can God make a rock so big He can't lift it?" We knew that such questions were a waste of time or God would have answered them in His Word. I just get so weary of books and ministries and people who are giving their lives for speculative theology. It may satisfy the intellect in a fleshly sort of way, but it does not edify, it does not glorify and in the end it doesn't even answer any questions with certainty. Where's the win in that? The debate just goes on and on. Did Jesus die only for the elect? How can a God of love allow a world of suffering and sin and not be responsible for it? How many parts is the nature of man? Two? Three? 2/3? When the 5000 were being fed, did the food multiply in Jesus' hands, or as the disciples passed it out? Was Melchizedek a real person? When is Jesus coming back, I mean exactly when, and wait let me get my chart, I'll show you all things future in excruciating detail . . . How important can a question be if God chose not to answer it with definitive clarity?
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he who reads . . . and heeds the things which are written . . .
As for all that extra stuff . . . let's save that for when we have everything in the Bible done for 30 days straight, OK?
Comments
Posted by: Carolyn | February 15, 2007 01:44 PM
Wow...I have had this argument in my head so many times. I work in ministry, so people sometimes ask me STUPID questions. (BTW, I don't mind when you say "stupid"! Some things are stupid.) And sometimes I get very confused and frustrated in my faith. The "Where did Jesus go after he died?" question is especially obnoxious to me. As well as, "Could God ever create a rock too big for Him to lift?" I am so glad that you remind us to always to go back to what the Scripture DOES say...there is such freedom from fleshy, analytical, "intellectualized" thinking in that.
Posted by: Stephanie Coker | February 24, 2007 05:51 AM
I'm SO GLAD you posted this about stupid comments! My younger sister goes to a more liberal church where the Word isn't really honored as such, and when we talk on the phone, I talk about what I want God to do in my life and what He IS doing in terms of dealing with sinful attitudes. This seems to set my sister off on a quest for stupid info, i.e. speculative theology. My own theory about why people do this with us is that what we're talking about hits home so directly, cuts so deeply to their hearts, that the enemy throws in these stupid questions, or even their fleshly nature does to avoid having to deal with what God is really trying to do in their lives. Thanks again SO MUCH, James, for your insight and your radio program! Many blessings!
Posted by: James Neely | February 26, 2007 11:23 AM
You hit on a hot topic with me although I've not heard it labeled as "speculative theology." That's precisely what it is. And the one area that it runs rampant (in my opinion) is around the debate of creation of all things and how God did it. I have a statement of belief about creation that I use to help direct conversations in the right way and it goes like this: We are not given enough information in the Genesis account of creation of how God created all things to satisfy all of our questions on this topic. That means that we must take God at his Word. We must affect faith in order to “fill in the gaps.†(No pun intended). My belief structure says this about how we got here: “The Biblical account of creation by God is literal, not symbolic or some sort of spiritualized process. I cannot understand it (my ways are not God’s ways), or comprehend how it was accomplished. This account and all other mentions in scripture concerning nature, science and our place in it are 100% compatible with observable scientific method. There is no schism between the two. The most important words about our origins are in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created…†All the rest is just the details.
Posted by: deborah | March 31, 2007 09:34 PM
Respectfully, I think a couple of the questions mentioned are worth exploring and actually are answerable.
Posted by: Heather | April 23, 2007 04:22 PM
While I understand frustion must be experienced at hearing questions over and over again, that you have referred to as speculative. I hope that you are led to not be angry (even on the inside) but given guidance and wisdom to strengthen and encourage those persons faith. Faith can be a difficult experience and I often have questions which the answers are not obvious or known. For instance, my son said yesterday, "When I get to Heaven - I am going to ask God who created him." I couldn't get angry and though I could only say, "God was not created He IS and always will Be" followed by "have faith and one day you will know everything." I know that his intellectual little 12 year old mind was trying to figure it out. God bless you.
Posted by: Gabriel | June 2, 2007 04:07 PM
Brother, thank you for standing for the truth. Nice to see a Martyn Lloyd-Jones reference on a national blog! Also, RE: the speculative theology. I think of Spurgeon's words to his students: "Some preachers - and I speak it with sorrow - are sitting like Nero, fiddling the tune of their own speculations while men burn in sin and misery."
Posted by: Myron | June 12, 2007 06:15 PM
I don't understand why Eve gets blamed for the fall of humanity. She didn't know what was good or evil until she had the knowledge? Didn't GOD make evil so we would have a choice? Didn't HE also not create us with the knowledge of good and evil so that the fall was planned? Discovering HIS LOVE was essential for choosing? Warmest regards,
Posted by: JC | November 10, 2007 05:25 PM
Some how this past few weeks I have been drawn to study reformed theology and calvinism.. I got stuck in a ditch of frustration on Limited atonement/Election Doctrine, weather it is false or not I could not find out... Funny how these questions on election never came up in my mind when I read the bible before. Would you guys say that Calvinism and such topics are speculative theology? I'm starting to think so and I feel I should just abandon such studies... God Bless you
Posted by: Danny F. Harb | January 30, 2008 03:03 PM
Dr. James Macdonald...
May Our Lord God bless your
ministry mightily, thank you
for staying true to the
Holy Word of GOD! Bro Dan
Posted by: The Reformers | April 13, 2008 12:04 PM
"[If Jesus died for all men]...why then, are not all freed from the punishment of all their sins? You will say, "Because of their unbelief; they will not believe." But his unbelief, is it sin, or not? If not, why should they be punished for it? If it be sin, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it; If this is so, then why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which he died from partaking of the fruit of his death? If he did not, then he did not die for all their sins."