Everyone's a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology

Everyone's a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology

by R. C. Sproul

Many people react negatively to the word theology, believing that it involves dry, fruitless arguments about minute points of doctrine. Yet as Dr. R.C. Sproul argues, everyone is a theologian. Any time we think about a teaching of the Bible and strive to understand it, we are engaging in theology. Therefore, it is important that we put the Bible’s varied teachings together in a systematic fashion, using proper, time-tested methods of interpretation so as to arrive at a theology that is founded on truth.

That is precisely what Dr. Sproul does in Everyone’s a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology. This book is anything but a dry discussion of minute points of doctrine. Dr. Sproul, demonstrating his trademark ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, surveys the basic truths of the Christian faith, reminding us once more of what God is like and of what He has done for His people in this world and the next.

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Hardcover, 357 pages

Published March 11th 2014 by Ligonier Ministries

tags: faith, religion, philosophy, nonfiction, theology, christian living, christianity, christian, audiobook, christian non fiction

Book Quotes

“Everything we learn—economics, philosophy, biology, mathematics—has to be understood in light of the overarching reality of the character of God. That is why, in the Middle Ages, theology was called “the queen of the sciences” and philosophy “her handmaiden.” Today the queen has been deposed from her throne and, in many cases, driven into exile, and a supplanter now reigns. We have replaced theology with religion.”

― R. C. Sproul

“What we call “the laws of nature” merely reflect the normal way in which God sustains or governs the natural world. Perhaps the most wicked concept that has captured the minds of modern people is the belief that the universe operates by chance. That is the nadir of foolishness. Elsewhere, I have written more extensively on the scientific impossibility of assigning power to chance, because chance is simply a word that describes mathematical possibilities.* Chance is not a thing. It has no power. It cannot do anything, and therefore it cannot influence anything, yet some have taken the word chance, which has no power, and diabolically used it as a replacement for the concept of God. But the truth, as the Bible makes clear, is that nothing happens by chance and that all things are under the sovereign government of God, which is exceedingly comforting to the Christian who understands it.”

― R. C. Sproul

“The Christian formula for the Trinity—God is one essence in three persons—may seem to be contradictory because we are accustomed to seeing one being as one person. We cannot conceive of how one being could be contained in three persons and still be only one being. To that extent, the doctrine of the Trinity in this formulation is mysterious; it boggles the mind to think of a being who is absolutely one in His essence yet three in person.”

― R. C. Sproul

“O alvo final do ministério terreno de Jesus não era a cruz nem a ressurreição. O alvo supremo é o seu retorno final e a consumação de seu reino. O alvo penúltimo, que já aconteceu, era sua ascensão.”

― R. C. Sproul

“Jonathan Edwards comentou, em seu tratado sobre o pecado original, que, mesmo se a Bíblia não afirmasse que existe um problema em nossa natureza moral, teríamos de afirmá-lo com base na observação racional.”

― R. C. Sproul

“Gastamos tanto tempo enchendo nossa mente com muitas coisas, mas não com o conhecimento da Palavra de Deus. Somos negligentes; não somos diligentes em nossa busca da verdade de Deus. Essas atitudes contribuem para as distorções que criamos.”

― R. C. Sproul

“Meu amigo John Guest, um evangelista anglicano, pregou numa ocasião sobre a cruz de Cristo e fez esta pergunta: “Se Jesus tivesse vindo a terra e ferido seu dedo num prego, de modo a derramar um gota ou duas de sangue, isso teria sido suficiente para nos redimir? Se somos salvos pelo sangue de Cristo, isso não teria sido suficiente?” Guest estava formulando o argumento de que não é o sangue de Cristo como tal que nos salva. Para os israelitas, o derramamento do sangue significava a entrega da vida, porque a punição pelo pecado era a morte.”

― R. C. Sproul

“The quest for knowledge is the essence of science. The science of biology is a quest to gain a knowledge of living things, the science of physics is an attempt to gain knowledge about physical things, and the science of theology is an attempt to gain a coherent, consistent knowledge of God. All”

― R. C. Sproul

“We do want progress in our knowledge and growth in our understanding, but we have to be careful not to be lured into the temptation to come up with something new just to be novel. THE”

― R. C. Sproul

“Biblical scholars focus on how God has revealed Himself at various points over time, while the systematician takes that information, puts it all together, and shows how it fits into a meaningful whole. This is a daunting task, to be sure, and I am convinced that no one has ever done it perfectly. As”

― R. C. Sproul

“The purpose of theology is not to tickle our intellects but to instruct us in the ways of God, so that we can grow up into maturity and fullness of obedience to Him. That is why we engage in theology.”

― R. C. Sproul

“A Escritura nos diz que em Deus “vivemos, e nos movemos, e existimos” (At 17.28), mas, em nenhuma passagem, somos informados de que Deus tem seu ser no homem. Ele nunca precisou de nós para sobreviver ou ser, enquanto nós não podemos sobreviver por um instante sem o poder do ser de Deus sustentando nosso ser. Deus nos criou, e isso significa que desde a nossa primeira respiração somos dependentes dele para nossa existência. O que Deus cria ele também sustenta e preserva; portanto, somos dependentes de Deus para nossa existência contínua, como o fomos para a nossa existência original. Esta é a diferença suprema entre Deus e nós. Deus não tem dependência de nada fora dele mesmo.”

― R. C. Sproul

“A razão exige convincentemente um ser que possui asseidade; sem ele, nada poderia existir neste mundo. Jamais poderia ter havido um tempo em que nada existia, porque, se esse tempo tivesse existido, nada existiria agora.”

― R. C. Sproul

“All Christians enjoy a unity of mission in which we have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism (Eph. 4:4–5). There is surely disunity in the visible church, but that is not as important as the reality of the unity that we enjoy by virtue of our shared communion in Christ.”

― R. C. Sproul

“As the psalmist prayed so many centuries ago, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Ps. 130:3). The answer is obvious: no one. The bad news is that the Lord does mark iniquities. The blessed person is the one to whom the Lord does not impute guilt. This is the core of the gospel.”

― R. C. Sproul

R. C. Sproul

Robert Charles Sproul was an American Reformed theologian and ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America. He was the founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries and could be heard daily on the Renewing Your Mind radio broadcast in the United States and internationally. Under Sproul's direction, Ligonier Ministries produced the Ligonier Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, which would eventually grow into the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, of which Sproul, alongside Norman Geisler, was one of the chief architects. Sproul has been described as "the greatest and most influential proponent of the recovery of Reformed theology in the last century."

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