UNDERSTANDING THEOLOGY

The Bible is God’s word or if you will God’s testimony concerning Himself and truth. Truth is an absolute that can never not be truth. Basically, man can only think in one of two ways. When man thinks in that particular way, he cannot think in the opposite direction. Man can only think one thought at a time. Man is limited in his thinking ability. The only way that man can think in the opposite way is for there to be a transformation. A transformation is the changing of the cause.

Man will either think in spiritual or visible terms. The spiritual thinker thinks in terms of cause and effect and understand that the spiritual precedes the physical. The visible thinker thinks in only what he can visibly see. He thinks only in terms of effects. These two types of thinking will obviously have two different results. The spiritual will look at the world through the lens of absolutes, while the natural man (Paul’s word for the unspiritual) will think that there are no absolutes and therefore, the world is relativistic.

There is no third alternative available. To understand where the truth lies, all one has to do is to know what mode of being God is. John 4:24 reads in part, "God is a Spirit..." God is Spirit and therefore all truth will be spiritual, not physical. In other words, all causes are spiritual. Effects are a result of the preceding spiritual reality. When someone thinks in spiritual terms, they are thinking like God, who is Spirit. When man thinks in terms of effects, his thinking is false and dead, which is the definition of idolatry.

Hebrews 11:3 reads, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Faith is spiritual and through faith we have understanding. To understand means to comprehend. Comprehension means to grasp with the mind the significance of truth. To understand a topic means one must think in terms of cause and effect. God created the world by uttering it into existence. Words are not visible. Words are spiritual. It is through words that effects come into existence. Once again, the axiom is that the spiritual precedes the visible or the cause comes before the effect, every time.

Man can only be an imitator of God. He can never be God. There always will be a distinction between God and man that can never be bridged. Understanding who God is enables us to be in accord with His world that He has created. Only those who think in spiritual terms can operate effectively in His world because they think in terms of absolutes. God has preordained how His world is to operate. He has predefined the world. Understanding theology means knowing what these definitions are and making the necessary adjustments to be in accordance with these predefined limitations. This demonstrates our understanding and wisdom.