The Faith Movement Televangelist and the Word of God

Just as a doctor dares not practice surgery until he has studied the several branches of medicine, so a minister, including a media minister, should not presume that he broadcasts the biblical faith until he has a grasp of systematic and biblical theology.  It exhibits a glaring deficiency in both to claim, as does Charles Kapps, that Job "was sure not under the anointing" when he said, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away."  Kapps calls this statement a "lie."  Similar quotations can be multiplied.

Systematic Theology

The call for a systematic theology may seem elitist, as if every Faith Movement televagelist should have a Ph.D.  But this is not the case.  Such a call does not need to sound threatening.  Systematic theology aims at nothing more than an orderly presentation of the teachings of Scripture.  It seeks to "round up" all biblical data on a particular subject and form a conclusion as to what the Bible teaches on that subject.  Eventually a systematic order of beliefs is in place, not a grid that we press upon the Bible, but an order that we construct from the Bible.  Scripture repeatedly argues for the need to develop a sound doctrinal position (Titus 1:9).  

Frankly, it cannot be threatening.  No student of Scripture engages himself in the interpretive process without a "systematic theology" already in place, whether consciously or unconsciously, partially or fully, whether it is profound or shallow, straight or twisted, right or wrong.  This applies to Jesus (Matthew 7:28), the Pharisees (Matthew 16:2), the Apostles (Acts 5:28), and to everyone else.  From one's own doctrinal perspective, anything that is espoused must appear "good" (Proverbs 4:2, N.K.J.V.), "true" (1 Timothy 4:6), "sound" (Titus 1:9; or "wholesome"), the "opposite" of all this (see 1 Timothy 1:10), or simply "new" (Mark 1:27).

That is not to say that systematic theology should dominate the interpretive process.  It may never dictate the meaning of the biblical text or in any way be its final determinant.  The text should always speak for itself.  What it does not say it cannot mean.  Neither is this to propagate the intellectualizing of the biblical message.    The ultimate aim is not the intellectual grasp of the truth, but the submission in heart and the conformity in life to God in response to that truth.

But it is to ask for the recognition of the fact that everyone enters into the hermeneutical process with some kind of systematic theology, good or bad, the influence of which must not be underestimated.  In view of this it would be irresponsible not to develop the best systematic theology possible.  Too much depends upon it.  Although it may not impose or determine meaning, systematic theology can insure that no interpretation of a particular text clashes with any part of God's revealed truth.  It provides the parameters for possible and acceptable meaning.  Systematic theology is a watchdog then specifically equipped to challenge our interpretation of any passage when our interpretation conflicts with the overall biblical view of God, man, Christ, the Spirit, salvation, the church and the consummation.  One can fail or neglect to build a systematic theology only at one's own peril.  

In short, the parts can never be interpreted apart from the whole.  The individual pieces, in other words, have to fit the total system.  Of course, it is also true that the whole cannot be grasped apart from the parts.  In fact, the individual pieces must be allowed to perfect or change the system whenever and wherever that is necessary.  Ideally speaking, a "spiral" should be in evidence in which one's doctrinal position "checks" one's interpretation of a text and one's interpretation of a text "balances" one's doctrinal position.  But the run of the mill Faith Movement electronic message has such a glaring need for a properly developed systematic theology that in this context the emphasis upon one side of the spiral!  The deficiency in the systematic understanding of many modern day Faith Movement televangelists will be substantiated in further detail in upcoming blogs.


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