Systematic Theology 3 by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Overview of Systematic Theology Categories

We are building a framework for the entire Christian faith. Systematic theology is the orderly, rational, coherent study of God and his works, organized into major doctrines. It seeks to present biblical truth as a unified whole.

The major categories are Theology Proper (God), Bibliology (scripture), Christology (Christ), Pneumatology (Holy Spirit), Anthropology (humanity), Soteriology (salvation), Ecclesiology (the church), and Eschatology (last things).

Why This Grounding Matters

There is no error being preached today that has not been preached before.

Paul was writing to the churches within 120 years of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus — and already there were people changing the message. He wrote: "If anyone, even an angel, comes and preaches another gospel, let him be accursed." If within a generation the message was being distorted, imagine 2,000 years later.

Paul called false teaching bewitching. Galatians 3:1 — "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" In other words, when someone hears false teaching and cannot be reasoned out of it — they are showing you the scriptures and still arguing — that is not a simple doctrinal disagreement. That is a spirit of error at work. The spirit of error isolates people from the body of Christ.

One of the signs of the spirit of error is that it creates an us-versus-everyone-else dynamic: every other church in the world is wrong, only this group has the real mandate. That is not a mark of truth. That is a mark of error.

Job Is a Real Person — and Why It Matters

Two corrections worth making openly: the book of Job is the oldest book of the Bible, likely written by Moses as a doctrinal treatment of suffering. It is real history — Job had friends, a wife, lost everything, and God restored him. It is not a parable invented to explain suffering.

Similarly, the parable of the prodigal son and the parable of the lost sheep are two separate stories. In the story of the lost sheep, the sheep was found and brought back. No feast was described. In the story of the prodigal son, the father killed the fatted calf. Conflating the two is a mistake — be willing to take back what was wrong.

Christology: The Person and Nature of Christ

Among the heresies the early church confronted, one of the most significant was Gnosticism — specifically the claim that Jesus did not have a real human body. They taught that matter is evil, so God would not take on flesh. Therefore Jesus only appeared to be human.

This matters enormously because:

• If Jesus was not truly human, he could not have been genuinely tempted.
• If he was not genuinely tempted, his victory over sin has no meaning for human beings.
• If he did not have actual flesh, his death and resurrection are not real events.

1 John 3:8–10 addresses this directly: "He that practices righteousness is righteous... He that practices lawlessness is of the devil." John is writing against those who said you could live any way you liked because Christ had no physical nature. By saying that those who practice lawlessness are of the devil, John is saying: the incarnation was real, and the fruit of it in your life must be real.

Simplicity is evidence of mastery. The gospel, properly understood, produces a life. Doctrine that produces no change in living is not the doctrine of Christ.