February 22, 2017 Show with Greg Nichols on “The Importance of Systematic Theology (God, Creation, & Salvation)

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors, Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions. Now here's.

Our host Chris Arnton. Good afternoon Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida and the rest of humanity living on the planet earth who are listening via live streaming. This is Chris Arnton, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Wednesday on this 22nd day of February 2017 and I am here in my studio with co-host the Reverend Buzz Taylor.

How are you,.

Buzz? Just fine today. I wonder if our weather is any better or worse than those down in Florida.

I would not want the weather to be any different than it is today here. That's right. Those of you who may be expecting to hear an interview today with Dr. Don Kistler on the Puritans will have to wait for another day because Dr. Kistler is under the weather and very graciously Dr. Greg Nichols, an old friend of mine who is the pastor of Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filled in today with very little notice and we are going to be talking about the importance of systematic theology with a special emphasis on God, creation, and salvation and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron, Dr. Greg Nichols.

Thank you. Yes, and Dr. Nichols, I know that you are not only the pastor of Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church, but if you could share with our listeners a little bit something about your background because you had no Christian upbringing at all before coming to.

Christ, am I right? True, I was raised in a liberal Methodist church where I learned the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm and the Apostles' Creed, but I didn't know the Lord. And what were.

The circumstances that the providentially the Lord used to bring you to himself, to a saving.

Knowledge of himself? Yes, he saved me out of a terrible wicked life of sin of which I'm now ashamed.

In my life. I'm very grateful for it. Well, Dr. Nichols is the author of What Does the Bible Say About God? The Biblical Doctrine of God, Truth for Eternity, and what we are discussing today, Lectures in Systematic Theology, Volume 1.

And what led you to write this book? Is it filling a void that.

Needs to be filled in your opinion? I think so. I truly hope so. I truly hope it will be a means of blessing and grace to God. Let me just say one thing. Does that mean I should stop calling myself.

Dr. Chris Arnson? Yes.

Albeit in my case it's not accurate. I started teaching Systematic Theology back in 1979. Wow. My education really actually suited me to do Systematic Theology at the Reformed Baptist Seminary. My hope is Systematic Theology around the scriptures, and it's of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689.

That's something that's been a burden upon my heart for a long, long time, and it's something that I hope to accomplish over the next several years. We'll publish seven volumes over the next several years.

The first volume, as you mentioned, is The Doctrine of God, which is now available from one, I think, even from other publishers.

Yes, and I understand that another individual who I've had on my program, Rob Ventura,.

Is the general editor of this series? That is correct. Really, it's a brainchild. If you've ever been on Rob Ventura, you know how effective that is. Systematic Theology is now being published. That is true, for it being published, not me.

He's really carried the ball.

With it from day one. Before we get into the content of the book, though, I think it's a good idea, because I know that we have listeners that run the full spectrum of doctrinal beliefs, and there are some groups out there that think that theology is somehow against the freedom in the spirit or whatever.

It's just useless. It's not...

Doctrine divides.

Doctrine, yeah, divides and so forth. Could you define Systematic Theology and tell us about its importance first?

The question that you are addressing right now is something that I think is very important. It's a question that I actually address in Systematic Theology Volume 1, Doctrine of God, in the of this book, Systematic Theology itself.

And one of the things that I address is the idea that Systematic Theology itself is sinful, that it's wrong, that it is not suggested. They say that Scripture teaches doctrine divides, but sound doctrine actually unifies.

And my hope and my prayer is that a sound and biblical Systematic Theology would not divide God's people, but would actually unify them, bring them closer together. And that's one of the clear teachings of the Scripture in Ephesians Chapter 4, Verses 11 -16.

Sound doctrine, God's people, the bond of peace. One of the things that I hope would be accomplished and benefits to God's people that would come from this work is that it would unify them and bring them closer together.

By studying the sound doctrine, truth by faith, God's people grow closer to each other. That's my prayer, that's my hope, that God would accomplish that concept of Systematic Theology. Systematic Theology is topical teaching.

It's about topics. It's not just about any topic. It's about the major themes of the Bible. And it's topical teaching that presents and applies those, the comprehensive witness of Scripture to the major themes of Scripture, and hopefully does it biblically in biblical categories.

And that's what I want to do in Systematic Theology.

By the way, you attributed the question to me, but actually my co-host, Reverend Buzz Taylor, asked the question, and I want to make sure you try to distinguish her voices because he may say something that's colossally stupid later, and I don't want you to think I said it.

Well, look, I've already made you look good.

But you...

I appreciate that. Thank you.

Okay. The main three divisions of your specialized study in this issue are Canonics, Ethics, and Didactics, or one of those three, I should say. Tell us exactly what those three main categories are, Canonics, Ethics, and Didactics, and explain the one that you are...

Which one is the issue of your focus?

Okay. Yes. I get those ideas from, you know, in Systematic Theology, we have to use big words when people think there's something wrong. Basically, Canonics is the doctrine of the canon or the doctrine of Scripture itself.

That's the foundation of the topical teaching on the various Bible themes, is what does the Bible say about the Bible? And the second category is what I call Didactics, the sum of the Christian faith.

What does the Bible say about God and his two major glorious works of creation and salvation? And the third category is Ethics. Systematic Theology has not been to teach... Or the doctrine of... My focus has been to teach the sum of the Christian faith.

What does the Bible say about God and his two great works of creation and salvation? God, creation, salvation. That's the focus of Didactics, the sum of the Christian faith, and that has been my stewardship over the years to teach.

And I'm going to repeat our email address if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own for our guest, Greg Nichols. Our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com.

And please give us at least your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the USA. I am going to ask a listener question that is not really on our subject, but I figured I would ask it anyway because it's not too far afield from areas that you have taught on and things such as that nature.

Bruce in Gardner, Massachusetts asks, Why are so many churches who call themselves reformed not following the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day? Are they truly reformed if they are not obeying the Ten Commandments?

I've heard pastors teaching their flocks that the Sabbath is not for the Christian because it was just for Israel. They teach the doctrines of grace. They believe in New Testament commandments, but they do not believe that the Christian should follow the Ten Commandments.

Are they truly reformed? That's an interesting question, although I think it may be hard to since the word reformed is an extra-biblical word. I don't know if you can make a strict definition of it as our guest, or I should say our listener is trying to insist, but what is your opinion on what he has said?

It's a general disclaimer about answering questions. And this comes from an elder. I can answer any question. Most of the time, my answer will be, I don't know. I ask my questions about the Sabbath on many.

I do not address the subject of the Sabbath in the doctrine of God. However, I do address the Sabbath in the doctrine of man, or the doctrine of man. Historically, and I expound it. With regard to the historical exposition of the Sabbath, I do expound the doctrine of the reformers on the Sabbath day, because the reformers are, especially John Calvin, are so often misquoted on this subject, to actually do Calvin's sermon of the Sabbath day, of the Christian Sabbath, which was taught by Calvin, and by Luther, and by Melanchthon, and by other reformers.

With regard to the reform, permanent and abiding, and something temporary, observance of the Lord's day, an obligation which is related to the... And fourthly, they teach what I would call the Christian or spiritual observance of the sacred day, which is not what he called crass, Sabbatarian superstition, but which is laying aside the mundane, that we may focus upon God and his work sacred day.

Those are the categories by which we define the doctrine to decide who or who does not. And I'm willing to back that up by putting it in print, God willing, that the doctrine of the original creation, often called the doctrine of man, send all that information on the Sabbath, God willing, will be in that volume, in volume two.

I could say on the historical, one other concern, we not go out on the one hand superstition,.

And on the other hand,.

That in this matter, we always remain occupied with the Lord and delighting in him, and that that would be the...

Well, thank you, Bruce, in Gardner, Massachusetts. If you could provide me with your full mailing address, because you have won a free New American Standard Bible, since this is the first time you have written a question to us.

And this NASB is provided to you free of charge by the publishers of the New American Standard Bible, one of our sponsors here at Iron Sharpens Iron, and it will be shipped to you by our friends at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, CV as in Cumberland Valley, BBS for Bible Book Service dot com, absolutely free of charge.

And we thank Todd and Patty Jennings at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service for sponsoring Iron Sharpens Iron, and for sending out all of our winners, their Bibles and books and other things for free.

Also, Ligonier Ministries really has blessed me recently by informing me that I am one of a handful of their favorite talk show hosts. I was totally blown away by this revelation, and they are trying to set up an interview with me and Dr. John MacArthur, because they have published a new book by Dr. MacArthur, and actually that is the first of four new books by him that are taken from sermons and lectures he has given at Ligonier Ministries conferences, and they are working on setting up that interview with me, so pray about that, because I'm looking forward to having Dr. MacArthur back on my program.

It's been quite a number of years, about a decade since I've had him on my show. But they have given me free copies of a book by Dr. Stephen J. Nichols, who is the president of Reformation Bible College.

His book is called A Time for Confidence, Trusting God in a Post-Christian Society, and you are also getting that free of charge, Bruce, so thank you very much for submitting your question. We also have Pastor Sterling Vanderwerker of Shepherd's Fellowship in Greensboro, North Carolina, whose question for you, Greg, is what is the scope of this first book on systematic theology, and what is the position advocated on creation and predestination in relation to creation and the fall?

Are you there, Greg?

I'm here. I'm thinking. Would you please...

Yes, I'll repeat it very slowly. What is the scope of this first book on systematic theology, and what is the position advocated on creation and predestination in relation to creation and the fall? Could he be talking about supra versus infralapsarianism?

I'm not sure exactly what he means. All right, the first question, there's really two questions there, Christo.

The first one...

...to the doctrine of God, systematic theology. After that, I open up the doctrine of God in five parts. The Bible say about God's existence, and we know God, the knowledge of God. And in there, I say that God is knowable, that he can be truly known, and that he is incomprehensible, that he can never be known exhaustively by finite, crude, simple, simple nature.

God's ideality, his ideal being. In the second division, I open up his supreme spirituality, his incorporeality, the majestic spiritual form of God, God's amnesty, his omnipotence, and God's morality, his supreme virtue.

I open up his good, and I introduce that with his... And I conclude it with what I call God's self-esteem.

God's...

It's how God is aware of when he comes under attack. And finally, I open up his... The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one and only supreme... Part three, the nature of God, and God's supreme spirituality, his ideality, self-existence, supreme mind, supreme will, supreme affection, his morality, his incorporeality, his life and power, and the Trinity.

And then, I open up the names of God. How should we address God? What names does God select for himself and reveal to us? And finally, in part five, I open up the decree of God. I give an overview of God's eternal...

Decided before the foundation of the world in eternity when only God was, everything that would happen in history. So he decided then to create, and he decided to save. And it's in that section that I address the issue of predestination in general.

Now, I also address predestination specifically with regard to salvation when I open up the doctrine of salvation. So I deal with predestination in two places. I deal with it at the end of the doctrine of God where I address the totality or the big picture of predestination, God's eternal decree.

And then I deal with it again. I deal with the predestination of the elect and of the reprobate. I deal with election and reprobation again at the salvation. So I deal with predestination in two places.

So that's the contents development of the doctrine of God. That's what's in the book. Now, let's have that second question again.

Well, basically, the listener in Greensboro, North Carolina emailed me a second time while you were speaking, and he confirmed that I was right. He wanted to know if you are making a decided or taking a decided position on either superlapsarianism, the fact that the decree of election and reprobation were made prior to the decree of the fall or infralapsarianism, that the decree for predestination was made after the fall.

I think that's a very good question. And I do address that question of God's decree. I'm not going to dodge. It's the eternal act of God's will in which the triune God, emphatically the Father, solely out of his good pleasure, designed and determined in eternity, everything that happens in history, the London Confession, that God's decree does not contradict conditional, ideal, and immaculate, and it is incomprehensible.

Then I address exclusive logical priority to exclusive logical priority to salvation. The position that I take with it is inappropriate, really, by decree into the box or force it into the mold of one-dimensional human logic.

Exclusive logical priority over salvation, and salvation does not have exclusive logical priority. We suppose each other. And I also, with teaching on the subject, some might wonder what to call my position.

You can call me an infra-dairy.

And just touching on that, I sometimes unconsciously use the terms election and predestination interchangeably without giving it a too serious thought before I speak. What are the differences specifically between those two concepts of predestination and election?

They're part of the terminology for God's will, God's decree. The one word means to ordain or decide beforehand. That's predestination. The other word election means...

So is it an error to use them almost interchangeably when you're speaking of God's decree to save people before the foundation of the world?

No, it's not an error.

Because it's used in that connection. In fact, they're both used in that connection in several passages.

Okay, we're going to a break right now. And by the way, thank you, Pastor Sterling Vanderwerker in Greensboro, North Carolina, for that excellent question. Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away. We will be right back after these messages.

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Welcome back. This is Chris Orns and your host of in studio with my co-host, Rev. Buzz Taylor, and our guest today is Greg Nichols, one of three pastors at Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

We are discussing Greg's book, The Importance of Systematic Theology with a Special Emphasis on God, Creation, and Salvation. If you'd like to join us on the air, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail dot com.

C-H-R-I-S-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail dot com. And again, I'm not 100 sure, Pastor Greg, how familiar you are with the book, The Shack, but since you deal with the doctrine of God in your systematic theology, I have a listener all the way in Slovenia who says, Brother Chris, along the lines of sound doctrine uniting God's people, please ask Pastor Nichols to address the errant theology of the Trinity put forth by William P. Young in the novel and movie, The Shack.

How do false views of the Trinity, such as his, skew our understanding of the remainder of biblical theology categories? Thank you for blessing us in tremendous ways every day.

Shack, but I've never read it, so I'm not really qualified or competent to comment on that question.

OK, well, I can tell Joe in Slovenia that I don't know if your full answer, or should I say the answer to your full question, will be a part of this program. But you can look up on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in the archive, ironsharpensironradio .com, I should say.

If you go to the archive where it says past programs, podcast in the top right corner, if you click on that and type in The Shack in the search engine, I did a full two hour critique of The Shack with Paul Flynn over there in the Republic of Ireland, who has read the book many times over and has done a very excellent critique of it and how just demonstrating how damaging and dangerous it is.

So I hope that you are blessed by that and sorry that we could not address that today. We have Tyler in Mastic Beach, Long Island, New York, who says, is it safe to say that systematic theology helps Christians express clearly what they believe already in the word of God?

Greg, did you hear that?

I heard it, I'm thinking about it.

Okay, and if anybody else while he's thinking, you can join us on the air at chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com, and please always give your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA.

I'm not sure that I would.

Put it that way.

I think that Christians are already disposed to believe what the Bible says. I think that sometimes, because they have the presence of the Holy Spirit working in them, it doesn't mean that in their understanding they always have a clear comprehension of what it says before they study it.

I'm not sure I would say they already believe it before they study it and understand it. I'm not sure I'd go there. I understand that they find out what it says, but not before they study it.

Right, but wouldn't it be more of an organized way of teaching the truths of God rather than the reverse of what seems to be what our listener was saying?

Well, I think that what he's trying to communicate has an element of truth in it. I'm not saying that the fellow's wrong. I think that he's trying to communicate the predisposition of Christians to believe.

Everything that the Word of God says.

The Word of God is true and inerrant and infallible in all that it affirms. And for that reason, when they study it, they believe it. So I think that's what he means to say. And I think that systematic theology, if it's done biblically, should know what the Word of God says.

That's one of my hopes,.

Is that systematic theology.

Would help Christians in that regard, absolutely.

Well, I know that we can have you on many, many, many more times to address all the subcategories under the umbrella of lectures in systematic theology. And even in just this first volume, I'm wondering if this first volume is 10 ,000 pages long because you have a lot of parts to it.

But you have...

It's about 678 pages.

Wow, that's quite a substantial volume there. You begin with an overview of the doctrine of God, if you could explain.

For all of my systematics courses this way, I give the students and understand them what I'm going to tell them before I tell them. I tell them what's required of them. I tell them the outline of the course and the reading that's recommended.

I don't like to end the course on a Monday with something that... Something that is experiential and something that would stir them up to want to study the doctrine of God and encourage them to study it in a way that would be spiritual... spiritually beneficial to all of my students.

That's what I always hope. I hope that it would not just be an exercise in filling their heads with knowledge, but that it would be glorifying God in all of our hearts. So after I go through the overview requirements for the doctrine of God, or the doctrine of God, God...

What the Bible says about God, God's nature and God's existence and knowing God and God's decree, we should study it with reverent hunger. Jehovah said to Moses, I will do this thing before you and will proclaim the name of Jehovah before you.

So Moses hungered to see the glory of God. And that's our attitude. That's what it ought to be when we study the doctrine of God. Show me your glory. And then I said, I based that on Isaiah 6, that when Isaiah saw it, it's impossible to be well pleasing to God.

For he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he was a rewarder of those that diligently speak him. Hebrews 11, 6. What good would it do us to study the glory of God with an unbelieving heart?

Imitation of God's virtue. As we see God's goodness, holiness, justice, faithfulness, that we would have the disposition increased in our heart to be like him. You are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellences of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Peter 2, 9. So when we see increased measures of God's glory through the study of his nature in scripture, that we would imitate those virtues.

That we see.

And finally, grateful adoration to God. I mean, the end of that passage, Moses made haste and bowed his head and worshipped. And my hope and my prayer is that as we study the doctrine of God and see more of who he is and what he does, how I try to introduce the doctrine of God to students and...

Tyler in Mastic Beach just wanted to clarify what he said. He said, Sorry for the wrongly worded question. I meant to ask is systematic theology a tool to help Christians better understand and serve the God shown in scripture?

And I think...

That's what I thought he meant. He didn't say no apology needed. I took him to mean that. And yes, I think that's exactly the point.

Amen.

And Pastor Sterling Vanderwerker of Greensboro, North Carolina, who asked the question about supra versus infralapsarianism said, excellent answer. Pastor Greg holds the same position that I do, but I call it post-lapsarian.

Stop tying God to a post arguing that infra and supra... And arguing about infra and supra. Lean toward the first infra and acknowledge the last supra.

Okay.

There are many ways to skin a cat.

I like his way. I think it's very cute.

Well, tell us something...

Why please, Chris? Address that a little more because sometimes that whole discussion to like, what are the... Yes.

And it's usually brought up in a joke where somebody is trying to say that something is totally unpractical and beyond the scope of our understanding.

Right, exactly. So let me just say...

Yes.

Here it is. God had already decided to create when he decided to save. The other part of the truth, that God had already... And of course, this is all take place in eternity, not time. God had already decided to save when he decided to create, when God decides to save.

And yet, salvation is viewed as certain when God decides to create. And the scripture clearly teaches both of those things. Can't strap God's decree with one-dimensional human logic as though only one of them is true.

They're both true at the same time, which is mysterious and marvelous and shows us that God is incomprehensible and his decree is incomprehensible. And we have to receive all that God's word says about him and not try to put him into...

What did he say? Bind him with some kind of post.

Or something like that? I thought that was cute.

Now, here's the thing. The scripture clearly teaches both of these things. In Ephesians chapter two, verses one to three, and I just quote part of it, that we were by nature.

Children of wrath, even as the rest.

What God decided to do in eternity. He planned in eternity a transition from wrath to grace, which means that he viewed us as under wrath, created, sinful, under wrath when he decided to save us. Scripture also, of the one who is to come in Romans five,.

When he created Adam, he created Adam, pattern of Christ.

Already decided to send Christ.

When he created Adam,.

Which means he already decided to send Christ when he decided to create Adam. How do you put all that together in one dimension human logic? You can't. You shouldn't even try. But that's why I say, Labsirian.

By the way, I'm really enjoying this interview because I feel as if I am sitting in a pew in the church where you preach because you cannot remove the preacher from Greg Nichols. That's for certain. And if anybody in the listening has not ever heard Pastor Greg Nichols preach, you've got to make it a point to look him up on sermon audio or drive a fly or take any means necessary to get to Grand Rapids, Michigan and visit the church.

I acknowledge what you just said. I have been accused for years. It's been said of me for years. It's been said he doesn't know the difference between preaching and teaching, and I am guilty as charged.

When we use these phrases, when did God decide this and so on? Those are anthropomorphisms, aren't they? Because there has never been a point where a light bulb goes off over God's head and he says, Hey, I got an idea.