I moved to Lagos at the completion of my housemanship program in Ogun State. And yes, I had big hopes and expectations.

Suppose anyone had asked me what my biggest lesson was six months after that move. In that case, they might have expected me to talk about my job, or about my struggles adjusting to the lifestyles of the people of the city that is no man’s land, or even about my search for career clarity… Instead, what marked my stay was my foray into reformed, or to be named more accurately, biblical theology. And it all began when a close friend recommended a church in Lagos. He had anticipated my soul’s hunger and thirst for practical biblical truths necessary for living and delicately suggested, without any ounce of coerciveness, that I visit the church. Call that providence.

The following essay is the result of my positive consideration of his recommendation and my studying of Christian literature to my benefit, and to God’s glory. And for what it’s worth, my primary identity as a Christian does not threaten, but instead backs my secondary identity as an African.

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What is theology?

If you ask around what some good first date questions are, you might get replies such as: What job do you do? How tall are you? What is your favourite colour? Do you like insert-the-name-of-the-celebrity more than insert-the-name-of-another-celebrity? 

It is improbable that you will get questions such as these: What theology guides your relationship with God and other creatures? What theology do you need to build a marriage on in order to glorify God? What theology do you need to raise children on in order to glorify God?

But these are important and necessary questions that do not get asked enough by young people who want to commit to a close interpersonal relationship. This section will not be about dating but the need for a biblically sound theology, the importance of which has been severely and compromisingly relegated in our society.

Notice how the emphasis is not on religion nor philosophy but theology, which is the study of God and all that he has revealed to us in the Scriptures. Therefore, this essay will not be about the worship practices of humans, nor will it be about the science of the pursuit of truths about reality, existence, and human values. In other words, this essay will talk about man but will not be about man. Instead, it will talk about God and his revealed word. The purpose of this essay will not be to just rouse the intellect but to instruct in the way of God.  Some may question the practical need for a sound theology while navigating life. However, everyone has a paradigm from which they view the world and a fundamental understanding of at least some personally accepted truths, on which they base their actions. Let’s call this a worldview – a conceptual scheme by which we consciously and subconsciously place or fit everything we believe and by which we interpret and judge reality. The biblical theology on which a Christian worldview is based is the standpoint from which he understands God’s special revelation – the holy Scriptures – and his natural revelation in creation for the purpose of glorifying him. To know about the truth, however, is not nearly as important as personally being in fellowship with the Truth. We are not mandated to intellectualize the world but to gospelize it.

A biblical worldview built on the foundation of biblical theology helps to determine by what standard a piece of knowledge claim is true or false, how the world should function, what the nature of a human being is, what one’s personal purpose of existence is, how one ought to live, what hope the future holds, what happens at and after death, how one determines what is right and wrong, and how to correctly interpret human history.

So, it is not a question of whether you will engage in theology as a Christian. It is about whether your theology is sound or unsound. Biblical theology attempts to understand doctrines in a coherent and unified manner. And because theology is systematic, every doctrine of faith touches other doctrines in some way. Sadly, many Christians now prefer to do everything else other than study the Scriptures personally from a theological foundation. They have yet to completely embrace the authority of the Bible, sola Scriptura, which was one of the two chief results of the Reformation.

But what is theology?

John MacArthur writes in Biblical Doctrines:

 “Theology – from the Greek theos, “god,” and logia, “word” – is not a uniquely Christian word. The Greek verb theologeo refers to the act of speaking about a god, while the noun theologos refers to a person who engages in theologeo, that is, a theologian. The adjective theologikos describes something theological, while the noun theologia means “a word about god” — theology. These words were used in pagan religious contexts centuries before the New Testament. The earliest known Christian use of one of these terms is a reference to the apostle John as a theologos early in the second century AD.”

The study of theology is necessary to ascertain the character of God, contemplate his attributes, discover his design for man in the original and present state, to know God as far as he may be known, to understand our duty to him, to love him, and to serve him with the time and resources he has given us.

Biblical theology is a component of systematic theology, which basically means a synthesis of scriptural teachings and is summarized using major categories that encompass what faithful scholars understand about God’s written revelation. These categories are Bibliology, Theology proper, Christology, Pneumatology, Anthropology, Hamartiology, Soteriology, Angelology, Ecclesiology, and Eschatology.

 “To understand the Bible, it is essential to grasp the sweep of that history from creation to consummation. It is also crucial to keep in focus the unifying theme of Scripture. The one constant theme unfolding throughout the whole Bible is this: God, for his own glory, has chosen to create and gather to himself a group of people to be the subjects of his eternal kingdom, who will praise, honor, and serve him forever and through whom he will display his wisdom, power, mercy, grace, and glory.”

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Christian and African

I have often contemplated what it means to study the word of God, but more specifically, as someone who lives in Africa. It is not that staying in the developing world has some special bearing on the understanding of God. But how is one supposed to, while fully conscious of one’s space within the geographical location that is Africa and all the problems and blessings unique to this part of the world, practically apply the truths of God’s word? How can the average African profit from the accurate understanding of God’s word in order to be able to successfully execute his assignment where God has designed him to function (assuming God created him so that he may function in this part of the world), whatever that assignment may be?

In an attempt to understand those things that God has revealed about himself, the African would need to study the historical covenantal relationship that exists between God and the people of Israel, or the nation of Israel. There is a growing, palpable antipathy among some groups of African intellectuals who believe that the African living in this age and time has no business whatsoever labouring to study the history of any other nation other than his own – as if by having to study God’s relationship with the nation of Israel, he would unavoidably have to be less patriotic to the longstanding plights of his countrymen in the present.

But these are only lame excuses that thrive on confusion. The interesting thing is that the African does not have to replace the study of his history with another. And he sure does not have to replace the study of his history with the study of what God has revealed about himself. These are not mutually exclusive undertakings. God formed a covenantal relationship with his chosen people – the nation of Israel – and prophets, priests, kings, and leaders from that nation wrote the Old Testament books in Hebrew and Aramaic, while the apostles and their associates wrote the New Testament books in Greek. The continuity of God’s revelations in the Old Testament witness-nation of Israel and the New Testament witness-people, the church, is clear in the Bible.

We have intellectuals who claim to be Christian but who are living in darkness and gnawing at the wrong problems in the right way or tackling the right problems in the wrong way. The result is a world that is so spiritually devoid of substance that men and women have no foundation on which to build their national identities.

You can be Christian and be a patriot of your nation.

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On work

What about work? Work is that which God has called you to do, whether you are qualified to do it in the eyes of men or not, even in your own eyes. Note that while what you do for work has much to do with your perceived abilities, God’s call supersedes that.

Your life calling, assignment, work is not, strictly speaking, your job. A job prepares you for your calling; you can be fired or retired from it; you are trained for it, you do it with your learned skills; and sometimes it can make you rich, but it can never make you wealthy. Your calling, your assignment, on the other hand, is what your job prepares you for; you cannot be fired or retired from it; your trainings, learnings, and skills prepare you for it, but you execute it with gifts given by God and refined by your job(s); and it is what will make you truly wealthy.

The only way to know what it is God has called you to do is to be close to him. You may not need to understand theology to be called into your work, but you definitely need to understand what God has revealed about himself to be able to know what work glorifies him the most in your life.

This is where a faithful study of theology becomes necessary for a biblical understanding of work.

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On suffering

I once spoke to a deacon at the church I attended in Lagos, the church recommended to me by my friend, and the deacon said to me, “If you don’t know what you ought to know theology-wise, you will suffer as a Christian unnecessarily.” And I couldn’t stop thinking about that.

Studying theology is not the only thing that will make you a mature Christian. Prayer, a constant reading of the Scriptures, fellowship with believers, and faithfulness during trials are key, with the grace and mercy of God.

One of the weapons of the evil one is to keep a person in ignorance of the things of God, or have a Christian believe a sensational and attractive quasi-truth that is rather comfortable. 

Such ignorance can keep a person doing a very wrong thing that they somehow believe is right for years on end, and even ferociously refuse counsel to change. In the end, the result is a kind of providential pain and suffering; a kind of avoidable suffering that a Christian willfully subjects himself to.

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On marriage

And what about marriage? 

I began to be more interested in biblical theology the moment I realized that understanding what is comprehensible about God tells me all I need to know about the first institution he created. I have always thought it important, if not necessary, to date and marry someone with whom you have a similar understanding of biblical theology.

We live in a post-truth world with clashing personal ideologies on masculinity, femininity, feminism, patriarchy, gender roles, and equality, etc., that gives the impression that there is a lot of struggles and battles going on with men and women. It is not that the struggle itself is surprising, as this is one of the results of the fall; what is rather surprising is the manner in which these ideological cocktails have permeated the church and the Christian community.

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On parenting

How can a couple begin to raise children someday and teach them in the way of the Lord if they themselves do not know these ways properly? The training of a child begins at home and then continues in the church, schools, and the larger society. Parents set the theological atmosphere for the family, and children, especially in their early years, are great imitators.

Biblical parenting is severely lacking, and where present, it is often inadequate in our society today. Notice that religious parenting is not the same as theologically sound parenting. And while not everyone has been a parent, everyone born has been a child. A good grasp of what God has revealed about parenting is key to having any hope of executing this job, which is arguably the most difficult job in the world (never mind the United States presidency), well.

In this century, there are cultural clashes that can leave a trail of confusion for children and parents alike. For example, there are ideas children consciously and subconsciously absorb in cyberspace alone that can be the basis for many of their actions and replace a solid spiritual foundation.

How can parents not be able to teach their children biblical theology? It is unconscionable.

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On false teachings

A personal study of theology also helps to guard against false teachings, builds a solid foundation for spiritual growth and maturity, and ensures that the faithful transmission of God’s word in the church is preserved when believers can hold each other accountable for what they understand, believe, and teach. The greatest enemy of the Christian faith has always been from within – apostates, heretics, false prophets, teachers of false doctrines.

We live in a society where, even though Christians have access to the Scriptures, they prefer to place the word and interpretation of a spiritual leader over the truth and correct interpretation of the Scriptures. We live in a society where false preachers vainly teach a repertoire of hodgepodge doctrines, engaging in transactional ignorance with their congregation, who sometimes willfully and so stubbornly subject themselves to these unbiblical teachings.

These leaders are usually self-acclaimed pastors, prophets, apostles, etc., who have turned modern-day celebrities and who have cunningly turned their church members and followers into fans. Celebrity worship and submission to authority figures in the church are becoming more difficult to separate from true obedience to godly counsel that comes from a pastor or elder.

This is another reason all teachings ought to be examined in light of the Scriptures.

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The spiritual value of faithfully understanding the Bible from a sound theological perspective is incalculable. A personal study of biblical theology is key for every Christian, especially when combined with prayer, fellowship with believers, and faithfulness during trials. This was what the people who fought for the reformation fought for. It is not that studying theology will solve all your problems and move you to prosperity, even though it might do that. But what it will do is glorify God in every area of your life. If that alone is not enough reason to embark on a personal theological study, no other reason will ever be enough.