God and us- the main ideas of theology
My theology journey: love, blood covenant, God living His principles IN and THROUGH us, 3 types of Christian, commitment, heaven forever, to God’s glory
Al's theology journey
to understanding
God and us
When I became a Christian I had the fortune of receiving a thorough introduction in theology. A retired pastor led a Bible study on Wednesday nights for 2 hours. We rarely missed. Over the period of 3 years, with no book used but the Bible, he led us through topic after topic. We looked at verse after verse, in context. I never heard the term “systematic theology”, he never brought out a theology book, and in 3 years I became a theologian without even knowing it.
We need theology. It gives us a context to look at the world and God and us. It keeps us stable in Christ. The danger is in becoming so convinced our theology is the only right one we become close-minded to other views and what they have to offer. We literally become blind to ideas that are Biblical, and to passages that promote a view different from ours. Been there, done that. We end up not able to answer questions that could be answered otherwise. Not that the answers are critical. We will stay with God and worship Him and bring Him glory anyway. But we can end up arrogant and legalistic as a result of thinking we have the only correct theology, which is not good. We end up in theology wars. And that does dishonor God.
Over time I was exposed to different theology systems, and some of my theology changed, sometimes in “major” ways, but never in the basics of who God and Jesus are. And never in my view of how to handle the Bible texts.
Around 1980 I took an interest in 1 John and the topic of “love” in the Bible as distinguised from the world's idea of “love”. Then that interest went dormant.
About 1995 I saw an ad in the newspaper of a seminar by a local pastor on Blood Covenant. I had no info on this topic, and was possibly the only person at the seminar that was not a member of that church. But the hunt was on. I knew this was a topic too big to ignore, and unfortunately it was not covered in the theology books.
I found and read The Blood Covenant and The Threshold Covenant by H. C. Trumbull. He was a sociologist, and a knowledgeable Christian. He had, over a period of years, in the late 1800's, discovered the idea of blood covenant throughout history and all around the world. It is the idea behind John 6, and behind our present day communion, and stretches from Genesis to Revelation.
When a theology system is formed, it will be largely self-contained, and will be resistant to new ideas, no matter how Biblical they are. This is both good and bad. The system is a safeguard against garbage easily entering in. It can also hinder truly Biblical information from entering.
I had my theology. I knew where I stood. And I was no slouch at defending my positions. But I also had changed my theology when I found it necessary so it was aligned with the Bible.
God had set the stage. I had not forgotten my interest in “love”. And I had encountered blood covenant, which it turns out is the ultimate love situation.
Around the year 2000 I took up a renewed interest in 1 John. I started studying the book in earnest, on my own, without commentaries. Just God and the Bible and me. I relearned Greek largely so I could further my study in 1 John (and Romans). I was convinced the book was poorly understood, but not sure what was missing. 3000 hours of study later, I have concluded a person must know the outline to 1 John, involving “little children”, “young men”, “fathers”, to understand the book. As far as I know I am the only one who applies this outline to 1 John. Definitions of words are also critical, so I applied the definition of agape “love” as being “the unconditional commitment to others”. And I use the definition of “anoint” as being an “enabling endowment”, it being obvious that just dumping oil on someone's head is not the idea of an anointing in 1 John, for us or for Christ. And the ultimate place “the unconditional commitment to others” and “enabling endowment” meet is blood covenant.
A blood covenant involves the intermingling of the natures- the very lives- of the 2 parties involved. We are in a blood covenant with God. God injects Himself- His lifestyle principles- into us via anointing. The Father passes the lifestyle principles down to the Anointed One- Jesus, and Jesus passes them down to us- the anointed ones. And one of God's lifestyle principles is “the unconditional commitment to others”. God's nature is commingled with ours. We have an “enabling endowment” of the lifestyle principles. We live by them. This living by God's eternal lifestyle principles is “eternal life”.
When we enter into a blood covenant we are part of a group, with a common bond, participating in what the group does, along with it's problems and blessings and joys. The parties share resources, responsibilities, traits, capabilities, and a common set of goals. We share life. We take care of each other. And we have this commonality with God!, as He gives us the “enabling endowment” of His lifestyle principles. And we have this commonality with other Christians, also.
And to keep things going, so God gets eternal glory from us, God gives us life everlasting so we will forever do the things of the blood covenant.
Throughout the ages God has given people different ways of interacting with and being influenced by Him in His covenant with us. Adam and Eve got to talk to God directly. After the fall till the flood God possibly worked through the conscience. It may be that from Noah until Abraham God worked through religion. After Abraham people were guided by their social group via social or peer pressure. Then God put the Jews under the Mosaic Law. After the cross we have the Holy Spirit living in us as Jesus implants God's lifestyle principles in us. In each time period God has shown that we can't be holy on our own. We need God in our lives. We need to be in the blood covenant.
In this day and age the blood covenant can show up in different ways in our lives. 1 John shows the 3 stages of commonality the “enabling endowment” can take Christians through. “Little children” enjoy God's forgiveness and delight in having a relationship with Him. They may choose to abandon this relationship of blood covenant and go back into idolatry. “Young men” have permanently chosen to be in covenant with God, and seek purity of their relationship with God and with man, with an emphasis on theology and rules. “Fathers” have been transformed by God to the point they live by unconditional commitment to the well being of others simply because God and people matter.
Through it all God gets glory and we get blessed.
The covenant theology verses dispensational battles. Nonsense. They both have elements of truth in them. The eternal security battles. More nonsense that dishonors God and distracts us from bringing God more glory.
We need theology. And we need to be open to other viewpoints. We need humility.
The problem with adapting one's theology to a new truth is that multiple parts of the theology system often also have to be adapted. This can be a lot of work, and confusing much of the time until it is done. So new ideas are easier to resist than to adapt to.
I have wandered into a new theology system. It can be called Anointing Theology. I didn't set out to do this. It is the result of a lot of direct, no-interference Bible study.
To God be the glory
4-25-2022