Wednesday, September 09, 2020

Part 2: Systematic Theology, the fullness of Christ theme and cultural engagement/relevance

 One of the issues facing Systematic Theology is whether it is relevant to or can be communicated winsomely to people cross-culturally or in a situation where there is strong diversity in a community -- and where there is always a huge challenge to reach people with limited education, worldview and cultural influences, life experiences, assumptions and perceptions and more. Where, also, mere declarative relevance is never enough in an increasingly post-Christian context. 

So, we face the question of a theology relevant to the contemporary and future Caribbean and world beyond.

Step one, is that we need a way to map and understand community factors, forces and trends, so that we will be able to think strategically and act operationally. For that (and without endorsing what others may say about Mr Wallnau et al or even originators such as Dr Francis Schaeffer, Bill Bright and Loren Cunningham back in the '70's), for some years now, I have found the seven mountains model, as I have adapted it, helpful:


We can also interpret it as a Greek-style temple with seven pillars and a roof. The issue is that there is a two-way interaction between key social institutions and a dominant worldview with its "narratives" and policy agendas. Where, once a business as usual system exists, it is very hard for it to be transformationally changed save through crisis:


That of course points to counter-culture strategies where the church is an embassy of the Kingdom of God, pleading the case for reconciliation with God:

2 Cor 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [ESV]

. . . while, modelling a new culture:

Titus 2: 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

This then provides godly, prophetic intellectual and cultural leadership and sound discipleship-based service that sets an example that prepares us to be the good people in the storm of crisis:

Eph 4: 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 

19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 

20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self,6  which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Q: But, how does all of this connect to systematic theology?

ANS: Through a too often neglected facet of Christology, Ecclesiology and Missiology -- the systematic study of Christ, the Church and its global mission. Namely, the fullness of Christ theme. Let's look a little higher in Eph 4:

Eph 4: 9 ( In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?2  10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds3  and teachers,4  

-- 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 

-- 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,5 

--  to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 

-- 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

This of course ties directly to our vision of the Christ and his mission, thus the gospel core of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. He came as messiah, loved, served, healed, delivered, rescued, served. He was targetted by many conspiracies until one succeeded, one led by corrupt Jewish and Pagan elites playing out their dirty power games. So, we come to an execution between two rebel brigands outside Jerusalem's northern gates, with an inscription over his head in Aramaic, Greek and Latin; languages of a polyglot civilisation pivoting on the heritage of three key cities: Jerusalem, Athens and Rome. Nailed him!

But, he didn't stay nailed. Against all the order of nature but in fulfillment of prophecies 700 years before the time in Isaiah 53, he rose from death, commissioned the church, ascended to his Father and poured out the Spirit jointly with his Father in resurrection power. As, Peter preached in the very first sermon of the church. And so, that sermon culminates:

Acts 2:32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

 “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
 35 until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ 

 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 

 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 

38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Thus, we may now look at Eph 4 with this side-light. Jesus came, descending and ascending in order to -- purpose -- fill all things. He is Lord and Saviour, Son of God and God the Son, the one before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue swear. In that context he is head of the body, the church comprising all who believe and are serving through the truth in love, with purity and resurrection power. He gave the famous five fold ministries as equipping services that empower us in that body of service. Obviously, our spiritual gifts are enablings for that service, and indeed we are indwelt and empowered by the Spirit, this is how we are the body of Christ manifest on earth even now; however imperfectly. 

Where, we grow in unity and knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, the image of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

That is, it is through the church, its witness, discipleship, service that Christ gradually, growing-ly, fills all things. With obvious culmination at his return. But already, we are a microcosm, a partial, imperfect, immature but growing manifestation and model of that fullness in the here and now, in families, communities, nations, civilisations, the whole world. thus, we become a counter culture and source of reformation. Which of course implies our relevance and the relevance of the faith once for all delivered to the saints for all peoples everywhere in each generation.

As I have pictured this engagement, using the 4 R's framework, there is a progression:


That impact leads to a general principle, the Gospel Ethics reformation Principle:

GERP: the gospel and discipleship, by direct implications of built-in gospel ethics, inherently have strong reforming, civilising, positively transformational influence. 

 Something, that was once so generally recognised as undeniable fact, that Jesus was regarded by common acclaim as one of the all time great teachers and reformers of our morally struggling, hypocrisy plagued race; simply contemplate the all time most famous sermon ever, the Sermon on the Mount.  

But, then, even our struggle to overcome our hypocrisy and moral inconsistency implies acknowledgement that we are morally governed through inescapable first duties. So stubborn and self-serving are we that it bears repeating, this specifically includes duties such as those to truth, to right reason, to prudence, to sound conscience, to neighbour, thus, too, to fairness and justice, etc.

From this, it is possible to frame law and an agenda for reformationof civilisaiton. Allow me to summarise in a heavily loaded paragraph:

We can readily identify at least seven inescapable first duties of reason. Inescapable, as they are so antecedent to reasoning that even the objector implicitly appeals to them; i.e. they are self-evident. Duties, 
-- to truth, 
-- to right reason, 
-- to prudence, 
-- to sound conscience, 
-- to neighbour, so also 
-- to fairness and justice etc
Such built in law is not invented by parliaments or courts, nor can these principles and duties be abolished by such. (Cf. Cicero in De Legibus, c. 50 BC.) Indeed, it is on this framework that we can set out to soundly understand and duly balance rights, freedoms and duties; which is justice. The legitimate main task of government, then, is to uphold and defend the civil peace of justice through sound community order reflecting the built in, intelligible law of our nature. Where, as my right implies your duty a true right is a binding moral claim to be respected in life, liberty, honestly aquired property, innocent reputation etc. To so justly claim a right, one must therefore demonstrably be in the right. Thus, too, we may compose sound civil law informed by that built-in law of our responsibly, rationally free morally governed nature; from such, we may identify what is unsound or false thus to be reformed or replaced even though enacted under the colour and solemn ceremonies of law. These duties, also, are a framework for understanding and articulating the corpus of built-in law of our morally governed nature, antecedent to civil laws and manifesting our roots in the Supreme Law-giver, the inherently good, utterly wise and just creator-God.

Where, already, we see that this comes full circle to evidence pointing to God as the root of reality. In Paul's words in Rom 1:

Rom 1: 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,7  in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Where, let us note a parallel to Eph 4:14, and 17 - 19: it is rebellion against God and his voice in creation and in our own hearts that dulls the conscience and en-darkens the mind, rendering us vulnerable to winds and waves of doctrine and to the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Beyond this, Eph 4 shows how evils are addictive, ensnaring, pulling us ever deeper into a quicksand of self-destructive sin. All of which patently has implications for societies of the spirit of Nimrod, erected in part in rebellion against God:

Gen 10: 8 Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man.1  9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel [city of rebellion scattered by God], Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and 12 Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.

The gospel obviously brings a reforming model and critique, calling to repentance and reformation.

But there is a subtler side. Notice from Eph 4, that it is the mature who are not vulnerable to deception, confusion and con games of wicked men. Insofar as the church is immature, in need of strengthening, it too will be vulnerable. And woe betide the church where such weakness extends to its leadership;something that all too readily explains some of the sorrier chapters of the history of church and civilisation.

So, let us heed Ac 2 and 11:

Ac 2:40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe5  came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
with . . . 

Ac 11: 19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen [~ mid 30's] traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 

20 But there were some of them [some time later], men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists3  also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 

22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. 

For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people [mid 40's]. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Antioch became Paul's Missions-sending base and a great centre of the faith for many centuries.

So, we see a powerful coherence that ties the reaching out to the nations back to the core of the faith, and that the fullness of Christ theme is pivotal to that. More to follow DV. END