Why study theology?

There is an important lesson waiting for us in Scripture,and it has to do with knowing God. The lesson is this: the trueknowledge of God, when wholeheartedly embraced, is in itself sufficient toenable us to meet life's suffering and disappointments.             We humansget this backwards. In our minds, what is necessary to meet the need of humansuffering is human comfort. It certainly is important to care and expresshuman sympathy, support, and compassion. And it is quite right and loving to doso. To do otherwise certainly would not express the love and kindness of God.            But theBook of Job has something to contribute to this discussion of the sufficiencyof the knowledge of God. Job suffered as few have. He lost his children, hiswealth, and his health, all in a single day. His wife's helpful advice was,"Curse God and die!" (Job 2:9).            Job hadthree outstanding friends who sought to comfort him, investing a huge amount oftime with him, grieving silently with him for seven straight days and nights.Then they sought to help him by bringing some perspective to his suffering. Itis easy to blame Job's friends, but you must admit that they had earned ahearing by their obvious care for him. But their attempts at comfort fellshort. They blamed Job for sin he had not committed, and Job retreated intoself-righteousness, ultimately intimating that God was unfair.            But it wasGod who brought resolution and comfort to the situation. God sent a young manby the name of Elihu to set the stage by defending God's sovereign righteousness.God Himself then finally appeared and spoke to Job. What God said to Job is jarring to our perception of how a suffering person should be comforted. Godessentially said, "Job! Look at me! Are you as great as I am? Can you dowhat I can do?"            When Godwas finished, Job repented of his self-righteousness and became satisfied inhis God. Did you get that? Job was comforted when he gazed on thegreatness of his God !            Think ofthe Letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation chapters two and three. Each ofthe churches was suffering some form of persecution. They each were facingcertain dangers. But God opens each letter by describing Himself ,and closes each by giving them a promise.             WhatI am saying is this: we are so designed, so created, so wrought, that we findour greatest comfort, satisfaction and delight in knowing truly our God. At theend of the day, your proper knowledge of theology is comforting andsustaining. The Catholic Church has a name for this: they call it the BeatificVision. The Beatific Vision is said to be the eternal and direct perceptionof God enjoyed by those who are in Heaven, imparting supreme happiness orblessedness [wikipedia]. What I am telling you is that we have thebeatific vision now, in a sense, as we see our God through His Sonand His Word. And it does indeed impart supreme happiness and blessedness as we glorify Him by knowing Him properly. Isthere a better reason to study theology?

[This post comes from my introduction to Session 7 of our Advanced Theological Training course at BFC.]