Feature
The Pastoral Obligation To
The Task Of Theology
by Todd L. Miles
(Continued from Page 1)
The theological task of pastors is to teach and train the church to apply the powerful word of God to all the questions of life addressed in the Bible. Lest anyone think that the theological task is purely academic and esoteric, I would like to address seven practical and significant repercussions to theological negligence on the part of pastors. When theology is neglected or disdained by the shepherds of the church, the results are moralism, denial of the sufficiency of Scripture, unheard and unanswered prayers, idolatrous worship, neglect of the gospel, deficient and distorted understanding of God, and apathy in missions.
1. Neglect Of Theology Leads To Moralism
When theology is neglected, the teaching and preaching of the church tends to devolve into moralism. This is very much the case when biblical theology is ignored. In contrast to systematic theology which brings questions, categories, and vocabulary to the biblical text, biblical theology seeks to discuss both the form and content of Scripture from the point of view of the revealing activity of God. Kevin Vanhoozer argues that the task of biblical theology is to “present the theology of the Bible–the parts and the whole–in a manner that lets the texts, in all their peculiarity and particularity, set the agenda.” The goal of biblical theology is to understand the story of Scripture; that is, the Bible as a unified whole.
In biblical interpretation, context has long been understood to be the primary determiner of meaning. The largest context of any particular passage of Scripture is the Bible as a whole and any text that is read should be consciously interpreted in the light of the themes that stretch across the Canon, finding its place in the grand story.
The twenty-fourth chapter of Luke records two critical teachings by the Lord Jesus Christ on the nature of Scripture. Following his resurrection, Jesus Christ walked with two disciples who did not recognize Him. Responding to Cleopas and his companion who were troubled over the events of the recent days, Jesus called them “foolish” and “slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:27). Jesus then seized the opportunity, beginning with “Moses and all the Prophets,” to interpret to them “in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (24:27). Though we are not told which passages Jesus interpreted for his listeners, from Luke’s perspective it does not matter. The ministries and teachings of Moses and all the prophets, just as all the Scriptures, point toward Christ and his glory through suffering. The two disciples had to have the Scriptures interpreted for them because they did not read them correctly.
In Luke 24:36-49 Jesus joined a larger gathering of disciples and the same lesson was taught. In 24:44 Christ claimed that his ministry was the focal point of the “Law of Moses, and the Prophets and the Psalms” (metonymy for the entire Old Testament and its tripartite division). Just as Jesus opened the eyes of the two disciples so they could recognize him (24:31), so Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures”(24:45). The parallel establishes that one sees and understands Scripture correctly when one sees and recognizes Christ as pervasive throughout. Christ is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, but He is also the central figure in a divine drama that dominates all of human history. This is demonstrated by Christ’s statement, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (24:46-47). The use of the term “it is written” indicates that Jesus is referring back to the Old Testament. Jesus’ statement, however, was not an explicit quotation of any biblical passage, but was the implicit teaching of the entire Old Testament. The correct reading of Scripture, therefore, is not merely an academic exercise. The heart of biblical interpretation is christological; the goal of obedient reading is to see Christ.
When the story of Scripture is ignored, the teacher or preacher often misses the forest for all the trees. The individual stories lose their interconnectedness and become a collection of isolated and unrelated stories. That is, the stories in the Bible are ripped from the context of redemptive history, and their part in the overarching plot of God’s salvation culminating in the coming of the Davidic heir, Jesus Christ, is completely ignored. The inevitable result is the wonderful stories in the Bible are reduced to nothing more than character studies. The story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 becomes an example of how little people can do big things for the Lord. The story of Joseph becomes an example of persevering during difficult times. The story of the binding of Isaac becomes an example of obedient faith. The story of Jesus feeding the multitudes becomes an example of what the Lord can do when people share. Much that passes for children’s curriculum is notoriously problematic in this regard.
Do not mistake me here. Clearly, there is much value in studying the lives and actions of the biblical characters. They were real people making real decisions in real settings. The biblical saints are offered as examples and there is much in their lives and stories to follow and much to avoid. The problem emerges when the biblical stories are taken in isolation, ripped out of the context of God’s glorious plan to redeem humanity and the cosmos. All that remains is moral example. The Bible is effectively reduced to a collection of moral tales, on par with Aesop’s fables. The implications are terrifying. Is there anything more antithetical to the gospel of grace than naked calls to moral conformity? Imagine the results on our youth who grow up on a steady diet of moral story after moral story. Are they in a position to understand the gospel? When we send them to the often hostile environs of high school and college, are they in a position to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” when they do not understand the Bible as a whole?
