The Theology Project interviews Dr. Stephen Nichols, Reformation Bible College President

We define theology as the study of the existence, wonder, and nature of God. That’s where most people live, in terms of their Godquest: Does God exist? How do we interpret the wonders of the natural world and human life, including the profound beauty and the good, as well as the heartbreaking questions of suffering and evil? What about money, sex, power, fame and fortune, health, wealth, disease, poverty and violence? And morality and ethics, politics, race, family, science, tech and the arts? Does God have anything to say about those?

One would think that the Christian Church would be the flourishing center of the theological quest, orbiting around God’s Word as revealed in the Scriptures, always brimming with thoughtful discussion, full of folks pursuing levels of mastery of the basics, and growing towards deeper wells of understanding and living together in Christ. Is that what’s going on?

In our article a few weeks ago with Chris Larson, CEO of Ligonier Ministries, we explored those things a bit and we mentioned we’d soon post our interview with Dr. Stephen Nichols, President of Reformation Bible College, and Chief Academic Officer of Ligonier. We are honored and excited to explore a bit more here with Dr. Nichols, and we encourage you to check out the State of Theology (SOT) survey for further insight. Here’s the interview, which includes some really straightforward and helpful guidance:

One would think that the Church is the place where theology, the study of the existence and nature of God, is thriving. But research by Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay paints a very different and startling picture, a nearly epic theological and Biblical literacy problem. And it’s almost a scandalous secret, in the sense that while one would think alarms would be going off to address it, it sometimes seems the Church is asleep at the wheel. 

As President of a Bible College and one who has a love for education, can you help us understand all this? 

In the pages of the New Testament, we find the great care with which Jesus appointed the disciples and entrusted to them, under the sovereign guidance of the Holy Spirit, to carry on Christ’s mission of making God known (John 15-17). We also find the apostles carefully guarding and handing on the “deposit of faith.” Paul declares to the Ephesian elders that he has taught “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) and he exhorts Timothy to teach sound doctrine (2 Tim. 1:13-14). Paul further exhorts Timothy to entrust the teaching of doctrine to others, to set up a long and unbroken chain of training and teaching the next generation and the generations to come (2 Timothy 2:2). This is the biblical pattern.

Sadly, we have crept away from that biblical pattern in our day. We’ve exchanged theology for therapy, biblical literacy for cultural literacy. Having said that, however, I’m encouraged in what I see happening among many Christians and at many churches. We are seeing a thirst for confessional and convictional Christianity. With the demise of “cultural Christianity” in our current moment, the true Christians are standing up—and they’re craving teaching. Our youth today, from tweens on up to twenty-somethings are faced with unprecedented challenges and complex questions. They need answers. They’re learning that the best answers to the timely questions are the timeless answers anchored in God’s Word. Pat and squishy answers won’t work. We need something solid, and we find such only in God’s Word and in the orthodox, confessional tradition that seeks to teach “the whole counsel of God.” 

I think we need to be aware of the moment we live in and the realities we face, both inside the church and without. But we also need to be encouraged that Christ is building His church in the 21st century.

 How do we measure things like biblical literacy?

The other day I re-watched Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash biopic. There’s a scene where Jack, Johnny’s older brother who died, is reading his Bible. Johnny asks him why. Jack replies that if he’s going to be a pastor, which is what he aspired to be, he needs to know the Bible stories and he needs to know the order of the stories. “How else can I help people?” Jack asked.

One way to measure knowledge of basic biblical content is simply knowing the 66 books, knowing some of the contours of Old Testament and New Testament history, knowing key passages, and knowing key moments in the unfolding of God’s plan of redemption—these are all basics. The Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the twelve disciples—these are all basics.

These basics become part of our mental furniture, our worldview. How well do you know these basics?

How do we know whether we possess a theologically accurate and coherent belief system?

This is where creeds and confessions come in. Creeds and confessions are not contrary to or unrelated to biblical teaching. They reflect it, they systematically organize and present it, and they faithfully witness to it in the light of challenges and questions.

Take the biblical teaching on Christ. It’s immense and, at times, complex. What we find in the early church is the attempt to synthesize and organize that massive biblical teaching. When we confess, alongside the Nicene and Chalcedonian Creeds, that Jesus is Christ is truly man and truly God, two natures, in one person, we are pulling together wide swaths of biblical teaching. Creeds helped keep the early church on track against the threat of heresies. Confessions kept the church of the Reformation era on track as they sought to reform the church and restore the pure worship of the true God to the very center of church life.

Creeds and confessions serve as guard rails, keeping us from swaying off the path of the biblical teaching. They don’t lead us away from the Bible. Creeds and confessions lead us right into the Bible; they lead us right into the Stream of living water.

How do leaders and laypersons alleviate this crisis of biblical and theological literacy?

Primarily, we go back to the pages of the New Testament. We look to the example of Christ and of Peter and of Paul and of John. We teach, and we teach sound doctrine. The Greek word translated sound is actually the word hygiene. We are healthy as a church and we are healthy as Christians when we feast on healthy doctrine. Laypersons need to demand of preachers that they teach and preach sound doctrine. Let supply follow demand. Leaders need to ensure that they are rooted in God’s Word and committed to teaching it. We need ministries and colleges and seminaries committed to teaching the Bible and defending and contending for sound, orthodox, confessional, and convictional theology. God has ordained the church. He has given us His eternal and abiding Word. These are the means at our disposal, and they are powerful.