REVIEWED: "Truth Aflame"

"Christian spirituality combines a sense of the awe and majesty of God with a sense of His intimate presence. This is hard to describe but easy to experience." --- N. T. Wright, in Simply Christian

The Anglican bishop will find no heartier agreement than among those of us known as pentecostal, charismatic, or, full gospel people.

Known as the saliently experiential branch of the christian faith, we have nestled up to the kind of God found in the benediction of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians:

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (English Standard Version)

We have found Him majestic and awe-inspiring ... yet knowable. Still, the "harder" work of describing should not be left undone. Like Israel of old, we have the need to rehearse the goodness of God so that we remain enamored with Him. We must also describe what has happened to us for our neighbors, because "how are they to hear without someone preaching?"

Obviously, we must also reflect on our experiences in tandem with the scriptures, so that our "describing" is meaningful and that it is also true to what has been revealed about God. This is the work of theology.

One of two things is usually meant when talking about theology in evangelical circles. We either mean we are studying about God in particular, or, christian doctrine generally.

Systematic theology, as the name suggests, is an organized study of doctrine.

Professor Wayne Grudem says "systematic theology involves collecting and understanding all the relevant passages in the bible on various topics and then summarizing their teachings clearly so that we know what to believe about each topic." (Systematic Theology, Zondervan)

To further define systematic theology, we can compare it to biblical theology. Unlike systematic theology, where the categories of study are determined by the contemporary theologian who is writing, biblical theology follows more strictly the aims of the biblical writers.

For instance, the systematic theologian will want to consider all texts in scripture relevant to "works" to come up with a balanced understanding, whereas, James has a specific point in mind when mentioning "works" in his New Testament letter.

Another example of biblical theology would be inductively learning from Paul's writings. Using the history in the book of Acts as a framework, we can put together --- roughly --- a chronology of Paul's writings. It could be argued, and is, that Paul's writings begin with the Thessalonian letters (or, Galatians) and end with the Pastoral letters. We can follow along and notice how Paul presents the christian faith, taking into account political, social, religious, and even personal events that shape the occasion of his letters. We can be sure that he will not answer all the questions that we have for him (what is "baptism for the dead"?), but we may observe as he addresses the topics he feels compelled to.

We get biblical theology quite naturally from the sermons we hear preached in church. Meaty, authoritative systematic theology is more commonly found in books like Larry Hart's Truth Aflame (Zondervan).

Besides being a professor at Oral Roberts University, Hart is an ordained Southern Baptist minister. He earned his Ph.D. at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It was there that he came under the influence of theologian Dale Moody, easily the most quoted person in Truth Aflame.

But, there were other influences that brought Hart to such unSouthern Baptist-like career moves such as teaching at ORU and writing a book that theologian Timothy George says, "brings together charismatic renewal and classic evangelical theology better than anything I have read."

As an 18-year-old attending a seminar at ORU, Hart says he "was impressed with the erudition of American Baptist theologian Howard Ervin. And there was also an impressive Southern Baptist gentleman by the name of Pat Robertson, who was just beginning a new television network. Robertson counseled and prayed with me the night I was 'baptized in the Holy Spirit.'"

However, his fellow Southern Baptists can remain confident that Hart's theology is orthodox New Testament christocentrism.

He says in his introduction, "Only a theology centered on the person and work of Christ --- his incarnation, earthly ministry, atoning death, triumphant resurrection, and second coming --- will adequately nourish the church in this or any age."

As I mentioned earlier, the contemporary writer is the one who creates the categories for his study. He frames the questions that elicit answers from the biblical text. However, evangelical systematicians follow, more or less, a long-established structure when doing systematic theology. The variations in categories are negligible. Hart explains his organization: "I will use the categories in which systematic theology was first presented to me. These seem as useful today as 30 years ago --- a classical progression of thought from creation to final redemption:

Revelation --- How does God make himself known?

God --- Who is God, and what is he like?

Creation --- What does it mean to believe in God as Creator?

Humanity --- Who are we, and what does it mean to be created in God's image?

Sin --- What is the nature of sin, and what are its consequences?

Christ --- Who is Jesus, and how does he save us?

Faith --- What is the nature of the salvation God offers us?

Hope --- What is the nature of the Christian hope?

Love --- What is God's plan for the church?

Since I am not a theologian, it is not appropriate for me to frame my review of Truth Aflame as a critique. Rather, I think it will be constructive for me to simply present an impacting portion of each category.

REVELATION --- "Biblical revelation is the foundation of Christian theology. The term itself might mislead some to equate revelation with the Bible --- that is, to think of revelation as only the Bible. But our survey thus far explodes such erroneous thinking. The Bible is not the Exodus; it is the inspired record of the Exodus. The Bible is not the Easter event; it is our God-given account of that unparalleled event. The Bible is not the Living Word (Jesus); it is the written Word of God. The Bible is not God; it is the Word of God.

"Some overzealous types have fallen prey to such reductionism or into the error of bibliolatry (worship of the Bible). I have seen charismatic preachers hold up the Bible and say, 'This is God!' No, it is the Word of God, and there is a big difference. However, the expression 'biblical revelation' is still useful because it points to the unique role the Scriptures have in preserving and communicating divine revelation."

GOD --- "Through his infinite knowledge and power God can be in complete control of everything and still give us authentic freedom of choice. He is also able through his infinite knowledge and his transcendence of time to know the contingencies of the future as contingencies and to foreknow our free choices. Of course, only his grace can enable our decision to receive his offer of forgiveness and salvation. But there is still a divine-human reciprocity: He does not coerce this decision, and it is an authentic choice. God will not violate our personhood. By far, the most satisfying treatment of divine omniscience and foreknowledge that I have found has been that of Thomas C. Oden."

CREATION --- "In broadest terms, evangelicals tend to take one of three approaches to the creation/science problem. Some emphasize miracle only, in a literal six-day creation some ten thousand years ago. Others combine miracle and process over a long period of time, as in progressive creationism. Still others put even further stress on process, as in theistic evolution. The last two of these three approaches are the most closely aligned, but all three share a strong conviction concerning God as the Creator and humankind as uniquely created in God's image. In short, all seven theories outlined above can be considered as 'evangelical' (even though the appearance of age theory may be somewhat tongue-in-cheek!). While we aspire to be intellectually rigorous, we should at the same time seek to be personally generous. Tolerance has never been our long suit. When a modern scientist refers to the Big Bang and the Christian recites the words of Genesis 1:1-3, they may be saying two different things --- but they are also surely referring to the same mysterious moment: that awesome epoch when God by divine fiat literally spoke the universe into existence."

HUMANITY --- "Because of sin we are now less personal, less spiritual (spiritually dead, according to Scripture), less relational (alienated from God, each other, and even our very selves), and less competent --- in short, less human. Because we have forgotten our Creator, we suffer spiritual amnesia. We simply do not know who were are because we do not know who God is. (Again, recall Calvin's words concerning knowledge of God and knowledge of self.) Once, while speaking at an Ivy League school, Billy Graham was asked by a seminarian, 'Who am I?' Many laughed nervously, but Graham took the young man's question seriously. We cannot fully know ourselves until we know God. Theologically, we must remember that our doctine of God informs our doctrine of humanity. As Dale Moody observed, 'Likeness to God is the image of God, but one's view of God determines the view one holds of the image.'"

SIN --- "Did Adam and Eve die? Spiritual death was immediate. Physical death came later. Again, a half-truth from the evil one had tricked them. Augustine in The City of God rightly asserted that the death against which God had warned them was threefold: spiritual, physical, and the second death of the final judgment. This same comprehensive conundrum of death confronts humankind to this day."

CHRIST --- "Did Jesus actually think of himself as God? Could he be both God and a man at the same time? If so, what does this tell us about the nature of God himself? We naturally wonder about Christ's own beliefs concerning himself. Did Jesus himself have a christology?

"David Wells makes a helpful distinction between self-consciousness, which is a psychological concept , and self-understanding, which is an interpretation of who we are and the meaning of our lives. We will never fully fathom Jesus' self-consciousness, but there are abundant biblical evidences as to Jesus' self-understanding --- his stated and implied interpretation of who he was."

FAITH --- "The Puritan pursuit of piety is a paradigm of the Christian life. 'Puritan' is a helpful term because these stalwart believers, often maligned and misrepresented by historians, provide perhaps the best theology and example of what Christian living is all about. All of life, both public and private, is to be related to God. Christ is seen as Lord of culture, preventing any kind of retreat into a privatized faith. Holiness (piety) is something the Christian must actively pursue. Personal sanctification and social ethics are not seen as antithetical but as complementary. How far we American Christians have drifted from our roots."

HOPE --- "Even though I embrace the premill position, some of my favorite books on eschatology have been written by amillenialists .... My one problem with these brothers and sisters is their handling of Revelation in general and the two resurrections of Chapter 20 in particular.

"Whatever our millenial view, we should remain centered on Christ himself and strong in our optimistic and certain hope of his return. After all, the clear overriding purpose of Revelation is to provide us with a transforming glimpse of the grandeur of our conquering Savior, whose return we all eagerly await."

LOVE --- "In our discussions concerning the spiritual gifts, we often miss the forest for the trees. We debate the nature of the individual gifts, dogmatic in our conclusions, when in all honesty there is little in the texts themselves to provide the precise definitions we defend. We also debate which gifts are still extant, assuming our lack has a theological explanation rather than a spiritual one. We disagree on the number of the gifts, when Paul clearly is giving us representative lists, not exhaustive ones. Most important, we too often are blind to the attitudes presented as the seedbed of all our gifts and ministries. To repeat, these character issues --- foundational to all authentic ministry in the spiritual gifts --- can be summed up with the slogan: Unity within Diversity, Love and Humility."

In light of Grudem's definition of systematic theology, I need to comment that Hart uses copious amounts of scripture (the scriptural index is six pages of agate type). I wanted readers to have here a sample of his reasoning and presentation.

It is significant to also note that reading through Truth Aflame was, for me, much more than an intellectual exercise. Many nights, I eagerly looked forward to my reading because the previous night's reading was like attending an anointed bible teaching seminar. I remember particularly the joy that flooded in as I read the section on God's glory. That teaching bouyed me for days.

Truth Aflame will be profitably read by individuals and theological classes because Hart has more than adequately met his stated objectives for writing the book:

"I hope this work will prove to be evangelical in the most comprehensive sense of the term, encompassing Reformed, Arminian, Pentecostal, charismatic and ecumenical perspectives. Utilizing insights and illustrative materials from leading popular writers, I have attempted to produce a volume that was both contemporary in style and classical in substance --- a comprehensive theological survey that might actually be read! And, loving the preaching ministry the way I do, I wanted to serve preachers with materials to enhance their pulpit ministeries."