Man Centered (Systematic) Vs. God Centered (Biblical) Theology

I am not sure that I like the name “The Grey Shadow” http://sombragris.villamorra.net/(I don’t want to live in the shadows but in the light and openly transparent. I also am just as sure others would scratch their heads about the name “Sprucegoose.” ) but this good blogger raises a good question. Do we stand with Systematic Theology or Biblical Theology? A distinction must be made.

I am a very firm believer in a “God centered” gospel. By that I mean, it is about God not man. God gives man mercy but man is the result of God, not God is the result of man.
A large part of the church practices a gospel that is about man (self esteem, positive thinking, more compassionate than Jesus, sloppy agape, come to God and get)
I therefore am very suspicious of anything generated by man. The bible says that anybody who puts their faith, trust, and hope in man is cursed. (Jer. 17:5) Systematic theology assumes that you can work it all out and everything will fit nicely in a system that man has developed to contain “truth and revelation about God.”

The problem is that not everything fits. God is both merciful AND just. He is fearful AND gentle. We are chosen AND we have free will.

The end result, as far as I can see, is that a true believer must come to the same conclusions as Job or Habakkuk. The “righteous ones shall live by faith.” I don’t think we will ever work it all out until we see Him face to face. Therefore I am not joining any man’s team, or denomination, or stream. It would be different if the streams flow together into the river of God but instead the Biblical model is that the River flows out to the branches and thus to all of man. It is about the River, not the streams.

(An interesting side note is that I believe that, like the river coming out from the treshold of the temple during the millennium and from the throne of God during eternity, there truly was one river coming out of the Garden of Eden breaking off into four heads. I think you can still see at least one of the riverbeds from satellite x-ray imaging. It flows from the holy land, through North Africa. Then it continues flowing across the Atlantic as the Amazon river. The Amazon ends spreading to all of South America. When the continents drifted and the oceans were formed, the traces of the river were hidden from casual observation. This might have taken place during the flood or during the “days of Peleg” 1Chron. 1:19 )

These are deep waters, a wise man draws them out.