I’ve been attending a Baptist university for some time now.
I’m not a Baptist, and I’m sure many other students aren’t.
One thing I can say about Liberty University is that they have never forced their beliefs on me.
Even though their founders are Baptist, they don’t teach foundational “Baptist theology.”
They don’t sit us down and say, “Here are our beliefs as Baptists according to what we believe the Bible says, and you need to adopt this view, too.”
But why don’t they?
Mainly for one reason, and it’s the reason I want to discuss with you here because all Christians need to be aware of this if they desire to understand the Bible better.
The reason is that they teach Biblical Theology and not so much Systematic Theology.
Biblical Theology vs Systematic Theology
Don’t be scared of those big words. They are so much more common than you think!
Everyone is a theologian. Everyone has a theology, even if they don’t know it.
Let’s start with the meaning of “theology.”
“...logy” means “the study of.”
Putting “logy” on the end of something means “the study of” something.
For example:
Psychology - the study of the mind
Geology - the study of the earth
Biology - the study of life
“Theo” means God.
So, “theo” + “logy” means “the study of God” and “the study of the things of God.”
Everyone thinks, believes, and says things about the study of God. Therefore, everyone practices and has theology.
What is Systematic Theology?
Systematic theology is a way to approach theology.
It does theology by grouping all the teachings in the Bible by topic and gathers verses from all over the Bible to answer questions.
Its goal is to provide an organized presentation of Christian beliefs and how they relate and to help you understand what the Bible says on essential topics.
If you wanted to know about baptism with a systematic theology approach, you would gather verses from all over the Bible about it.
Then, you would think about the concept philosophically and how it relates to the whole picture of the Bible and God.
You would then form your beliefs about baptism based on what you gathered from the Scriptures and your study.
You would repeat this process with every other doctrine in the Bible and have a list of beliefs concerning all topics.
This list would be your theology gathered from a systematic theology approach.
Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology is one of the most popular books that offers systematic theology.
As you can see, it’s a very organized, laid-out “system” of Bible theologies.
What is Biblical Theology?
Biblical theology is another way of approaching theology.
It is more concerned with biblical exegesis and strictly deals with the text itself. It cares only about what the scripture says and means.
It doesn’t start with a topic and then gather scriptures. Instead, it begins with scripture and extracts everything it can from it.
It’s more scripture-by-scripture focused rather than topic-after-topic.
Rather than connecting doctrines across the Bible, Biblical theology often emphasizes the theology of individual books or specific periods (e.g., Mosaic Law, the prophets, the Gospels).
Unsurprisingly, there are books about Biblical theology, but they aren’t as popular as those about systematic theology.
A Quick, Easy Video Explaining the Two
Here is the best video I could find about the differences between Biblical and Systematic theology. It’s quick and easy to understand.
One way that helps me understand it is like this:
When I got my bachelor's degree in computer science, they told me something I’ve always remembered.
They said that data is different from information.
“Data” is the 0’s and 1’s. It’s the stuff that just is. It’s what’s coming out of the source.
For example, if I gave you a piece of paper with numbers, words, and names, that would be data.
But if we then organized that data and realized that all these numbers and names were addresses, phone numbers, emails, and names of people who drink lemonade in Houston, Texas, that would be “information.”
Biblical theology is more like data, and systematic theology is more like information.
Biblical theology is extracting what is simply coming out of the source (the Bible). It’s the “nuts and bolts.”
Systematic theology should then organize and connect it.
Pros and Cons of Systematic Theology
Here are the pros of systematic theology:
1. It’s a more organized way of studying and seeing the Bible.
2. It’s better for answering Bible questions that most people have.
3. It’s generally more popular and easier to grasp.
The cons of systematic theology:
The only con that could come from systematic theology is IF it goes without good biblical theology.
The two need to walk hand-in-hand to produce a better understanding of the Bible.
Systematic + Biblical = good Bible study
Systematic and NO Biblical = could be bad or good
If a person only has systematic theology and doesn’t even consider or care about Biblical theology, their theology could be out of whack.
Why? One of the main reasons there are incorrect doctrines about concepts from the Bible is because Biblical theology is not first consulted.
If we focus more on plain Biblical exegesis and coming to unity on the simple meaning of Scripture, this would allow us to form a better systematic theology that is more in agreement.
The Con of Biblical Theology
You can probably already see the pros of biblical theology—it gets to the primary meaning, deals with historical, linguistic, and Biblical context, and gives us the data we need.
But the con?
If you’re not careful, having only a Biblical theology could lead you to be overly concerned with the details.
In doing so, you miss the fact that we also need to organize all this data in a systematic way we can all agree on.
Don’t get me wrong. Personally, I get pleasure from nerding out and doing deep studies in the Bible.
I can spend hours with my head down, my nose in books and the Bible, surfing through Logos.
But I don’t consider this stuff “deep.” Rabbit holes? Yes, probably.
But what is “deep?” Just because something is more complex doesn’t make it deep.
“Deep” means that you not only have Biblical theology but you also translate it into systematic theology and apply it.
It should show forth in your life as the love and light of Jesus. “Deep” is Jesus himself. “Deep” is the change that all this study produces in your life.
The Challenge to You
I’m grateful that the school I’m attending is only stressing Biblical theology at this point.
My classes are things like linguistics, exegesis, and hermeneutics. I haven’t had any classes about stuff like “The Meaning of Baptism.”
I’m diving into the language and culture of the Bible. They’re giving me some tools to interpret the Bible better so I can arrive at my conclusions.
As Michael Heiser said in the above video, I’m sure they don’t care about what I believe. In fact, I have also received some pushback from my professors for talking too much about theology sometimes!
They don’t want me to come into the class with my systematic theology.
They just want me to come and do good work in the text itself. What is it saying? What did the author mean? How did the audience in their time understand it?
My challenge to you is to adopt a Biblical theology approach to your faith along with your systematic theology.
Take your Biblical theology and do systematic theology with it. Then let it change you.
But again, don’t skip the Biblical theology part. Do the work. Exegete the text.
It’s not just for the academic. Everyone should learn to do this stuff and have it in their life through other teachers.
What do you think is the main difference between Biblical theology vs systematic theology? Let me know in the comments!
