Brotherly Wisdom

"The man who seeks to occupy himself with dogmatics and deliberately puts himself outside the Church would have to reckon with the fact that for him the object of dogmatics would be alien, and should not be surprised if after the first steps he could not find his bearings, or even did damage. Even in dogmatics familiarity with the subject must be there, and this really means familiarity with the life of the Church." -Karl Barth Dogmatics in Outline p. 10.

Theology as a (strictly) academic exercise is a contradiction. One cannot seek to know God and not be in relationship to His Son. This does not mean that theology cannot be done in academic contexts or to the greatest degree of erudition. It does mean that those in such contexts must always have in mind how their task of learning will be useful for the building up of the Body of Christ. They must pray with one of my favorite professors, "Lord be helpful to us, that we may be helpful to the Church."

Brotherly Wisdom

"Sometimes we say and do the silliest things, but one of the silliest things we could possibly imagine, is that somehow within us naturally there dwells, apart from grace, the possibility of being authentically and truly pious." -D. Jeffrey Bingham, The Possibility of Piety (Sermon delivered at Redeemer Church)

Brotherly Wisdom

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us...For this reason the gravest question before the church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at any given time may say or do, but what he in his heart conceives God to be like...Before the Christian church goes into eclipse anywhere there must first be a corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, "What is God like?" and goes on from there." -A.W.Tozer The Knowledge of the Holy pp. 9-12

Or as Dr. Bingham would paraphrase, "The most important thought you think is the thought you think about God, because it effects every other thought that you think and everything that you do."

Once For All

Brotherly Wisdom

"Each generation of Christians is tempted to see its way of worship, its way of ministry, its way of doing spirituality as the most biblical or practical. History reminds us that our generation is not the only one that has ever lived the Christian life. We are Christians within a company of Christians, both present and past, both living on earth and with the Lord. History helps keep us from becoming infatuated with ourselves. History nurtures the godly virtue of humility." -D. Jeffrey Bingham Pocket History of the Church p.11.