Whether you’ve grown up learning the Bible at Sunday School, hearing the word preached at church or training at college for ministry, it is so vital to understand how the Bible all fits together and what our response as Christians should be. We caught up with Dr Graeme Goldsworthy who’ll be teaching the Biblical Theology intensive at BST in 2015.
What is Biblical Theology?
Biblical Theology is simply another name for the study of the comprehensive view of the unity of the Bible. It involves us in the task of responding to the Bible the way the Bible demands of us. It takes seriously the fact that Jesus, the apostles and the other New Testament authors interpreted the Scriptures (the Old Testament) in the light of who Jesus revealed himself to be and what he came to do in his life, death and resurrection.
So how does learning Biblical Theology help us?
Biblical Theology, when engaged according to sound biblical presuppositions, has many advantages. It promotes:
- a sound view of the Bible because the better we understand its structural unity, the more we can have confidence in its teaching; and it will affect the way we teach people to read the Bible
- a high view of Jesus enables us to grasp more of what it means for “all things to be summed up in him” (Eph. 1:10)
- a high view of the gospel work of Jesus by showing us the all-embracing purpose and effects of Jesus’ work
- a high view of the ministerial task by showing us the overall plan and purpose of God in Christ that we are called to proclaim
- a high view of the people of God shows us the role of God’s people in the grand scale of things
- sound biblical interpretation; and since the Bible is self-interpreting, no course in hermeneutics is complete without a sound heart of biblical theology.
Who should come to the Biblical Theology intensive at BST?
No pastor or teacher – whether youth leader, Sunday school teacher, or anyone charged with teaching the Bible at any level – should be let loose on God’s people until they have done some basic training in biblical theology.
Christian parents owe it to their children to teach them the Bible with a biblical view of the Bible (i.e. with a sound biblical theology). A pastor who does not have a sound biblical theology at the centre of their thinking about ministry and Christian living, is not a biblical pastor and the consequent ministry will not be biblical.
Graeme Goldsworthy is a retired minister of the Anglican Church of Australia. He lectured Old Testament, Biblical Theology and Hermeneutics at Moore College, Sydney, and for fourteen years was minister for Christian Education at Coorparoo Anglican Church. He is a graduate of Moore College, the Universities of Sydney, London, and Cambridge, and received his Ph. D. from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Virginia. He now lives with his wife Miriam in Brisbane and continues to pursue his ministry in writing. He is the author of a number of books and articles on Biblical Theology.
Graeme will be teaching the Biblical Theology intensive from 16-20 February 2015. Whether BST is your home campus, or you attend another college as part of your Master of Arts in Theology/Ministry, we welcome all applications. Alternatively, if you have an interest in the topic, but are not yet ready to do a Master of Arts , you can audit the lectures at a cost of $260. Graeme is also our special guest speaker for the BST Commencement and Graduation Ceremony next year.
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