Do We Need Theology If We Have the Bible?

Hey, Pastor Adriel here, and we want to hear from our podcast audience specifically. Give us a call at 1130 Pacific Time, 833-843-2673.

That's 833, the CORE, with your question about the Christian faith. Hi, I'm Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We would love to hear from you, and you can call us right now for the next 25 minutes or so. Here's the phone number, 833, the CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Of course, you can always post your question on one of our social media accounts. You can watch Adriel right now live on YouTube and message us through our YouTube channel, and you can email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, let's go to Alexis in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Alexis, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? My question for Mr. Sanchez is, when Noah was on the ark and he sent the dove, the raven, out when the rain was drying up, what does that symbolize? That's a great question and something I actually was thinking about not too long ago as I was preaching through the book of Genesis.

Really, it's this picture of recreation. Some of the language that we see in Genesis 8 echoes what we see in the very first chapter of the book of Genesis. In other words, what I'm saying is it reminds us of what was said earlier. In Genesis 1, we read, verse 1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The Spirit of God there over the waters, hovering almost like a bird, this sort of aviary imagery. That's what you see also here in Genesis 8.

The chapter begins in verse 1. God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark, and God made a wind blow over the earth. The same word wind is the same Hebrew word for spirit, ruach.

You have that similar language being used, but then you also have this picture of this dove over the waters. I think what you have here in terms of the symbolism as you're asking, Alexis, in Genesis 8 is this picture of recreation. The world had gone astray, sin covered the earth, and so God brought this judgment through the waters and this recreation. One of the beautiful things is when we look at the New Testament, the flood here recorded in the early chapters of Genesis is a picture of baptism, which is this image also of recreation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I think you have those themes there, and as we carefully read the scriptures, that's what we find. Thank you for your question, Alexis.

Interesting question. This is Core Christianity, and if you have a question for Pastor Adriel, jump on your phone right now. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Now, we do receive voicemails here, and you can leave us a voicemail anytime, 24 hours a day at 833-THE-CORE. Here's a voicemail we received from one of our listeners named Joshua. Yeah, I'm really sick of your stupid theology nonsense when you're supposed to be speaking God's word, but all I hear is a bunch of garbage about theology.

You gotta change that. Yeah, thank you for that question or that comment. It's something that I really want to address because there is this idea out there, brothers and sisters, that there is a tension between, a conflict between the Bible and Bible teaching and theology. Now, what is theology?

It is the study of God. The fact of the matter is, all of us, if you open up the scriptures and begin reading the Bible, you are engaging in theology. The question is, as you study the scriptures and as you talk about the Bible, are you a good theologian or are you a bad theologian? There is no conflict between theology and God's word unless we're twisting the word of God, but the fact of the matter is we need good theology. That is the right synthesizing of the scriptures that we're looking at in order to come to the conclusions that God wants us to come to.

We really have to get this. Again, sometimes people will pit theology against the Bible or love against theology, but they're not to be pitted against each other. I think of what Paul said in the book of Philippians as he was praying for the Philippians. He says to them, God is my witness, this is Philippians chapter 1 verse 8, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, get this, with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. In other words, all of these things come together, brothers and sisters. Our love, our piety, our faithfulness to Jesus Christ grows in that true knowledge of who he is.

Where does that true knowledge come from? It comes from the holy scriptures as we're studying them, as we're growing in them, and in the right understanding that is the right theology of the scriptures. If you listen to Core Christianity, you know that we spend the majority of each broadcast flipping through the pages of the Bible saying, what does God have to say about this particular issue?

That's what we're going to continue to do. As we do that, as we bring scripture together, we're engaging in theology. Is it good theology or bad theology?

That's the big question. Of course, we want to be faithful to the scriptures. We want to have a good theology.

Thank you so much for that question. I remember when I was interested in going to seminary when I was younger, I had an older brother in the Lord say to me, don't go to seminary. Seminary, cemetery, that's where people go and their faith shrivels up and dies as they get into all this theology. Maybe for some people that's the case, but what I found is that the more I've studied the word of God and theology and the history of the church, the more I just marvel at who the Lord is and how amazing he is as I go deeper and deeper. I think that ought to be the case for all of us as we're studying the word of God and theology.

That's what I have to say about that. One of the arguments I often hear from some Christians is that the Bible is the word of God, theology is the ideas of man. I'm curious, how would you respond to that? Like I said, whenever we're reading the scriptures and making observations, we're engaging in theology. The fact of the matter is this is something that Christians have recognized throughout the history of the church is even false teachers quote the Bible.

Satan himself, when he was tempting Jesus in the early chapters of the gospel, what does he do? He quotes scripture. We have to go beyond just quoting scripture to the right understanding of what the scriptures teach. When we do that, when we're digging in, when we're bringing scripture together in its context, we're engaging in the work of theology.

That's what I would say. It's too simplistic to say, well, just quote the Bible. Satan does that. Heretics do that.

We need to quote the Bible as it's rightly understood. That requires work. Study theology. That's what I would say.

Good. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or about theology or Christian doctrine, you can call us anytime. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 833-THE-CORE. Now, we have this item here at our headquarters and in our studio. If you go online and you watch Adriel live on YouTube or on Facebook live, you will see this particular item sitting next to him on his desk, and it's something that we'd like to offer to you today.

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What an idea. Here's the website. It's corechristianity.com forward slash offers to find the Core Christianity coffee mug. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

We'd love to send you one of those for a donation of $15 or more. Well, let's get back to the phones. We have Tom on the line from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Tom, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Hi, yes. My question had to do with evangelism and more specifically, evangelism pertaining to creation issues. What I mean by that is when we share the gospel with somebody, if the topic of creation comes up like a particular view, should we steer away from that and just go back to the gospel? And the reason why I ask that is because I hear many in their gospel presentation, they insert their particular view of creation, whether it's young earth or something else, and they make that part of their presentation.

So that's why I ask that. Yeah, Tom, excellent question. Well, immediately my mind went to Acts 17 where Paul is sharing the gospel with a group of people who don't believe, and he does in that context talk about creation to give people some background, some history, but it's not a debate about young earth creationism or the day-age theory or that kind of a thing. He just says in Acts 17, verse 24, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life, breath, and everything. So he talks about creation as a sort of preamble to what he's going to go on to say in talking about the gospel, but the point is not getting into debates about creation, but just saying this is the Lord of the universe that we're talking about. I think if we're going to talk about it, we can talk about it in that way. I don't think it's helpful to attach to our presentation of the gospel our particular view on the age of the earth.

Really, I think that really steers the conversation, I would say, in the wrong direction. We want to focus on what Christ has done and who he is. That's the gospel. Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection from the dead, and so my encouragement to people as they're sharing the gospel is to focus on that.

Too often, there are these sort of smoke screens and people will even bring them up. They'll say, oh, well, what about the crusades or what about what you think about science or this, that, and the other, and we can talk about those things, but let's focus on the main thing. Let's get to the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, the good news of salvation, and so I would say focusing on that, and if you're talking about creation, then just talking about really the main point, I think, that we can glean from the creation of the world.

God, in the early chapters of Genesis, which is that he's the king, the lord of everything, that there isn't anything that exists that exists apart from him, his creative brilliance, and that means that he's sovereign. He's lord, and as lord, he commands all people everywhere to repent, and he sent his son into the world so that we might receive forgiveness. Focus on that. God bless, Tom. Great advice, and yes, we can get caught up in majoring in the minors, and as you mentioned, sometimes an agnostic or an atheist will lead us down that path, and we get stuck, and we need to get right back to the heart of the matter. Who is Jesus Christ, and what has he done for us?

That is so key. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Selah in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Selah, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi, yes, I have a question. I just had a curiosity, I guess, about the Garden of Eden back in Genesis, where it talks about Adam and Eve and the first sin being committed, and God immediately rejected us from the Garden of Eden. I'm just curious if we could ever find that Garden of Eden on earth. Is it somewhere in a different dimension? What do you know about what it says about where that actually is? Yes. Selah, Southern California. San Diego. We're here.

I'm here. No, just kidding. I don't think so. Genesis chapter 2, there's been debate about this, because in Genesis chapter 2, you have some markers there in verse 10. The name of the river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided. It became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good.

Delium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.

The name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. You have these markers, these geographical markers, but the fact of the matter is the garden that was there as it was is no longer what it was today, wherever this was. They think this is a real place where God was present with his people in a special way, but that time has come and gone. I don't think that we're going to be, potentially, but I don't think that we're going to be able to go back and find it.

Even if we did, it wouldn't make that much of a difference. It ultimately is a picture of, a type of, the new creation that we're looking forward to. In the new creation, through the work of Jesus Christ, the whole world is going to become better than Eden. This new garden, when you look at the picture of the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem in Revelation chapter 22, you have a lot of this Edenic garden imagery. The good news is, we're going to get back to that, better than what it was, through what Christ has accomplished. No need to go looking for the old Garden of Eden. It's just not there anymore. Thank you for your question. It's now a parking lot in Turkey. No, I'm just kidding. We don't know where it is.

We know the Tigris River was in there somewhere. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, Pastor Adriel has been exploring the book of Genesis during his sermon series at his own church. So you've really been engaging with, a lot of the questions that are coming in are actually based, kind of a lot of what you're teaching right now, your own congregation, right? Yeah, thank you all for taking it easy on me and just asking questions about basically what I'm preaching through. But it's been a delight to preach through Genesis. Well, let's get back to the phones, and we have Melvin from Archie, Missouri, on the phone. Melvin, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yes, I really enjoy your program. I like to post stuff on Facebook to get people interested and maybe open up the Word of God. However, I don't want to take it out of context, so I was reading on 2 Peter 3, verse 8. Okay, yeah, well 2 Peter 3, verse 8. What was your question specifically, Melvin, about that verse? Well, you know, if it says 1,000 years here on earth is like a day with the Lord, so would that be like 500 years would be like a half a day, 250 years, six hours, and so on? Yeah, I'm bad at math, Melvin.

This is why I never got into it. But what I can say about that in particular is what is the point? I mean, as you said, let's put this in its context. Peter is talking about the day of the Lord. In particular, 2 Peter is written as this warning against false teachers who are coming into the church and are going to face judgment. And Peter says one of the things that they do is they scoff at this idea of the fact that Christ is coming back. They say, oh boy, look at all the time that's elapsed already. Everything's continuing as it was before. The day of the Lord, what's the big deal?

Not going to happen. And Peter is encouraging his audience by saying, hey, don't forget this. It might seem like a lot of time has gone by, but don't overlook this one fact, verse 8, Beloved, that with the Lord one day is 1,000 years and 1,000 years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance. In other words, you might feel like God is taking his time, but look, in the eyes of the Lord of heaven and earth, it's like just a couple hours have gone by, a couple days, that kind of a thing.

And so don't overlook that fact. Why is he tearing? He says God is being patient towards you. He's not willing that any should perish. He's calling people to repentance and faith. That's the point of what Peter is getting at there, is God's patience towards sinners and calling them to repentance and really this encouragement to lay hold of the gospel and to believe in Jesus Christ, because there is a day coming when the Lord is going to return like a thief in the night. The judgment is going to be here, and we need to be ready.

That's Peter's point. So thank you for your question. Thanks, Melvin, and thanks for digging into God's word. We always appreciate that when our listeners are in the Bible on a regular basis. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go to June in Strum Lake, Iowa. June, what is your question for Adriel? I thank you for your program because of its foundation on biblical insight.

So thank you for that. We have a nephew that's around 26, a family member that we have followed and supported through the years who is planning a wedding with his homosexual partner in just a couple of weeks. They've gone through all the traditional wedding preparations, etc.

It's going to be a large wedding, as I understand. We have decided after prayer and studying the word that we cannot attend. Family members say that we are not being loving and supportive. Are we wrong in this decision? And secondly, we want to send a note to this young man to explain that we still love him and he's welcome to our home at any time, but that we cannot support or we cannot attend this. How do we say this? What reasons do we give without being judgmental?

Thank you for your help. June, a difficult situation. If I could just ask one follow-up question with regard to your nephew. Does your nephew profess faith in Jesus Christ?

Not that I'm aware of, but he grew up in the church, so I don't know where he thinks he is in that situation. With regard to the first part of your question, I don't think necessarily that you've made the wrong decision. Part of attending a wedding is celebrating with the couple and even affirming what's taking place. If you knew a couple and it was a very abusive relationship and you knew that the relationship was going to lead to pain and hurt and you thought, I just can't support this, I can't go to the wedding because it's going to be a bad situation, it wouldn't be wrong for you not to go. In this situation where, clearly, when Scripture talks about marriage and the covenant of marriage, it's between a man and a woman, and I know that in our culture there are a lot of people who have taken a different view, but according to what God's Word says, this is something that is clear. You don't want to affirm what it is that is taking place, and yet at the same time, I really appreciate your heart, June, and I think it's the right attitude to say, hey, we can still love you and want you to be a part of our lives and want you in our home. Of course, the challenge is oftentimes when we say, I'm not going to support this decision that you've made, people don't want that, but I think it's still appropriate to write this letter, and in doing so, I think you can focus on the love of Christ, on the fact that all of us are made in the image of God, and that each of us are deserving of respect, of dignity, of honor, by virtue of the fact that we're made in the image of God, and this is true of your nephew, and that your decision was not to deny those things, but that you just didn't agree with his particular choice to engage in this marriage or go through with this marriage.

So I would say, use it as an opportunity to express your love, and maybe to try to keep the door open with your nephew, because you do want to have that relationship still, even if you're not going to go to the wedding. And it'd be interesting to find out more in terms of his own faith background. The apostle Paul, he says, what have we to do with judging outsiders in 1 Corinthians 5? In other words, people who deny the faith, who don't believe in Jesus, who aren't a part of the church, we're not called to cut them out of our lives. That doesn't mean that we have to affirm everything that they do, but I think we're still called to have relationships with them, to express the love of Christ to them, to encourage them in ways.

But for professing Christians who are living in ways that are contrary to the scripture, well, in those situations, we do take a step back, and in one sense, Paul says, don't even eat with such a person. And so there are a lot of factors here, but I think, June, that it sounds to me like you're exercising wisdom, you're studying the scriptures, you're prayerfully considering what to do, and how to love your nephew still, even while disagreeing with him. And so may God continue to give you confidence in the decision that you've made and wisdom and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and may He bless you as you write this letter. And I pray that your nephew's heart would remain open to still having that relationship, familial relationship with you. And maybe that's something that the Lord will use down the line.

This is Core Christianity. We're coming to the end of our broadcast today. But you know what? We're going to keep recording some phone calls and some questions. So if you want to call in, now is your time to do it. We'll be taking calls for another half hour or so for a future episode of our program. The number is 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Want to take a quick second to have Adriel say thank you to some very special people, part of our core audience.

Yeah. I really want to give thanks to all of you who support us in the inner core with your monthly gifts and prayers. So encouraging to us. And what a joy it is to be able to answer questions about the faith every day.

That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together. Thank you for listening to Core Christianity. Give us a call with your question about the Christian faith at 833-843-2673. We're live 1130 Pacific time.