The Doctrine of the Trinity

Here is a recent lecture I gave on the doctrine of the Trinity with powerpoint slides. This is part of the Rooted in Truth class I am teaching at Bethel Grace Baptist Church.

God Bless,

Doug

Rooted in Truth 1: An Introduction to Systematic Theology

Here is the first Rooted in Truth class. This is the introduction to the class and covers what systematic theology is and why it is important in the life of the believer.

God Bless,

Doug

Rooted in Truth: Lecture 1 - MP3

The first Rooted in Truth (Systematic Theology) class is now available on line.

Rooted in Truth: Prolegomena

All future lectures will be available at this link also.

God Bless,

Doug

Rooted in Truth: Class Calendar

Here is the calendar for the Rooted in Truth Class.




Prolegomena
-Sept. 11 – What is Systematic Theology and Why is it Important

Bibliology
-Sept. 18 – Revelation and Inspiration
-Sept. 25 – Clarity, Necessity, and Sufficiency

Theology Proper
-Oct. 2 - The Existence of God and the Attributes of God
-Oct. 9 –The Trinity

Anthropology and Harmatiology
-Oct. 16 – The Imago Dei and the Effects of Sin

Angelology
-Oct. 23 – Angels, Demons, Satan, and the Problem of Evil

Christology
-Oct. 30 – The Incarnation and the Offices of Christ

Soteriology
-Nov. 6 – The Atonement, Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification
-Nov. 13 – Monergism and Synergism
-Nov. 20 – The Divine Plan: Dispensational and Covenantal Theology

Pneumatology
-Nov. 27 – The Nature and Work of the Holy Spirit

Ecclesiology
-Dec. 4 – The Church

Eschatology
-Dec. 11 – The Millennium and the Return of Christ
-Dec. 18 – The Final Judgment, and Heaven and Hell

God Bless,

Doug

Rooted In Truth: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine

I will be teaching a class at Bethel Grace Baptist Church during the Sunday school hour. The class will begin the second week of September and will run through December. The study will be an overview of systematic theology and the lectures should be available on the Bethel Grace website. Below is a video introduction to the class. I was out of town the morning the new class offerings were introduced to the Bible study group so I dusted off the cobwebs where I used to shoot videos (literally) and put this together to let them know what the class was going to cover.




God Bless,

Doug

Audio Resources (Theology, Apologetics, and Philosophy)

Here are the links.All Past Shows...
http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?...

Postmodernism's Influence of Evangelical and Emergent Churches...
http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?...

10 Arguments Thoughtful Atheists Won't Use...
http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?...

Eschatology 101: Repent! The End is (possibly) Near(er)! ...
http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?...

Christianity and Liberalism: Can Both Survive?
http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?...

Unitarianism, Universalism, Inclusivism Against the Kingdom of God ...
http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?...

The Glorious Reformation
http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?...

God Bless,

Doug

Does God Learn?: Problems with Open Theism

Eschatology 101: Repent! The End is (possibly) Near(er)!

Here is the link to the latest Apologetics.com radio show.

Eschatology 101

The show can also be downloaded through the itunes podcast. Simply search for Apologetics.com. in the itunes store (the download is free).

Here is the description of the show as written by my good friend Christopher Neiswonger.
___________________________________

The Apologetics.com Radio Program for Friday night February 6th on KKLA 99.5

Hosted by Christopher Neiswonger with special guests Donald McConnell, Dean of Trinity Law School in Santa Ana CA, Pastor Kent Moorlach of Communion Presbyterian Church of Irvine CA and Doug Eaton College and Career Minister of the 1st Southern Baptist Church of Downey CA.

The other day I was driving by USC and I saw a guy on the street with a sandwich board that said, “Repent! The End is Near!” I’m not the kind to argue with something as authoritative as a sandwich board, but really, this is not the church’s historical position on these things. The sandwich board should have read, “Repent! The end could possibly be near depending upon your hermeneutic and your eschatological position!” But it’s hard to fit all of that on a sandwich board, so, we at apologetics.com are bringing in the experts to show and tell on the end or thereabouts; give or take a millennia.

The Four Big Players Are: The Dispies, the Premies, the Amils, and the Posties.

Dispensational Premillenialism (The newest innovation in eschatology and the current default position in American Evangelicalism, popularized mainly through religious fiction like the “Left Behind” series. Important points include the distinction of Israel and the Church, a series of returns of Christ, the coming of the AntiChrist, The tribulation (pre-mid-or-post), the battle of Armageddon, and the literal thousand-year reign of Christ, on the earth, before the several judgments. Since Dispensationalism seems to be a fading hermeneutic, and it has suffered dozens of failed predictions of the imminent end of the world over the last 50 years, it’s questionable whether this one will survive even with its iconic pop culture status.)

Historic Premillenialism (A position held by many in the early church but carefully avoiding the dispensational understanding of the relationship between Israel and the Church, the nature of the age, and the interpretation of key eschatological texts. With many leaving the Dispensational understanding of scripture for Progressive Dispensational and Reformed understandings of some key texts, Historic Premillenialism is receiving a bit of a revival among those that have a Premillenial expectation without what might be thought of as eccentricities in the Dispensational Premillenial camp.)

Amillenialism (A position that would take much of what Premillenials think to be about the end of the world to be about the historical past (the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. for example) and takes much of what is taken by the church today to be eschatological to be better understood as spiritual in nature. For most Protestants, the system simply has too little practical application and seems overly dismissive of major portions of biblical text.)

Postmillennialism (The current minority position that has at times been the majority position and by far the most influential in early American Christianity. There are two active forms currently vying for the claim to the title postmillennial: the theologically Liberal version that translates eschatological data into a program for social action and tends to be dismissive of any literal reading of the text, and the theologically Conservative version that sees the progress of the gospel in history as being recognizable in tangible effects upon the Church, the State, and the culture writ large; culminating in the return of the King. Though conservative American theologians could have been assumed to postmillennial a couple of hundred years ago, this system has yet to get past the fact that the dominant form of postmillennialism in the last century was identified with Liberalism, and Liberalism being identified with apostasy, causes an instant wariness and lack of credibility in the Evangelical mind.)

The Return of Christ: How Should It Cause Us to Live

The Inspiration of Scripture

What does it mean for Scripture to be inspired?

The Necessity of Christ's Death

Couldn't Jesus have just forgiven us without punishing Jesus? Can we as humans do something that God Cannot when we forgive someone without payment?

-Doug Eaton-

Systematic Theology: What is it and Why is it Important?

What is Saving Faith?

This is a short look at the three aspects which are usually spoken of when discussing saving faith.

Islam: Its Origins and Beliefs

Here is a lecture I did about a year ago on Islam at The First Christian Reformed Church in Artesia, CA.

Doug

Reformation Radio Show

Oct. 31, 1571, It was a Wednesday morning and everything seemed normal. Business was going along as usual in the German province of Saxony. In fact, most people were most likely not focusing on this day since the following day was "All Souls Day". A day when Frederick the Wise would bring in religious relics for the city to see, and offer the people a chance to buy indulgences. But little did the world know that an unknown emaciated Augustinian monk with a hammer and a piece of paper with 95 thesis was on his way to the Castle Church in Wittenberg. And God was going to use this hammer to shake the world and call light out of darkness.

This weekend I had the privilege to be a guest on the apologetics.com radio show in Los Angeles with host Chris Neiswonger. The topic was the reformation. We spent the majority of the time discussing the five solas of the Reformation.

Sola Scriptura - Scripture alone
Sola Christus - Christ Alone
Sola Gratia - Grace Alone
Sola Fide - Faith Alone
Soli Deo Gloria - To the Gloria of God Alone

If you would like to listen to the program you can download the mp3 version at the Apologetics.com radio page. Just scroll to the bottom and you should see a link for there. You can also go download it as a podcast in itunes. Simply search for Apologetics.com.

Happy Reformation Day!

Doug

More Great Theology Lectures (MP3)

Gospel Prizim has put together a great list of resources if you are looking for more theology lectures. See the link below.

Virtual M. Div.

Enjoy,

Doug

Christian Theology: A New Team Blog

There is a new team blog I will be participating in. It is simply called Christian Theology. We also have access to a podcasting studio, so once we get things up and running we hope to make some audio and video resources available. It is still in its beginning stages, but to kick things off be sure to check out Chris Neiswonger's new post.

On Atheisms and why they are unthinkable.

God Bless,

Doug

Castle Church: A Social Bookmarking Site

Below is a link you might be interested in if you are looking for a one stop place to find a lot of the good theological articles posted on the internet. The Castle Church site is used to gather links from blogs and other websites that deal with reformed theology, apologetics and other issues facing the church today. You too can join and post articles to the virtual Wittenberg Door.

Castle Church

God Bless,

Doug

The Trinity and the Nature of Personhood

Hey Everyone,

This past Friday we did a radio show on the Trinity and the nature of personhood. If you want to check it out you can download it here.

Or you can go to the itunes store and search under podcasts for apologetics.com.

God bless,

Doug

Systematic Theology - Prolegomena

I probably should have started with these notes, these are the notes from the first lecture.
Doug


Doctrine – We live in an time when doctrine is despised. “Doctrine divides,” “no creed but Christ” are battle cries of many in this time in Church History.

What is Doctrine- Any teaching that is found in Scripture, particularly one that summarize what the Bible teaches on a certain topic. (Creeds)

Christianity does not exist without doctrine. Believe in Christ and be saved. Who is Christ, believe what about Him? Why Christ not Buddha etc.

Everyone has a set of doctrines they believe, even if they say they don’t believe in doctrine, that is their doctrine.

True and False Doctrines- The more true doctrines we understand and believe the more we will be growing in the grace and knowledge of God. Any false doctrines we believe will hurt us if we try to live by them.

Different types of doctrines

Essential – If you deny these you are not a Christian.
Non-Essential – you can deny but still be a Christian
E.g. Church Government,
Cardinal Doctrine – These are very important. To deny these may be saved but your treading close because, these mess with the essential to some degree.
E.g. The inerrancy of Scripture. Free Grace stuff.
Tertiary and peripheral- Should the pastor wear a robe. Church Sports programs, etc.

Orthodox – right belief
Heterodox – Still a Christian but has some bad doctrine.
Heresy - Non–Christian belief.
Apostate – Denied the faith

Systematic Theology- Any study that answers the question, “What does the whole Bible teach us today” about any given topic. -Wayne Grudem-

Systematic Theology – Evangelical systematic theology is the comprehensive study and coherent organization of what can be known, primarily from Scripture, (theology’s only final and ultimately authoritative source) and secondarily from any and all relevant sources, about God and His relation to the created universe, in a manner that is understandable and applicable to contemporary audiences, the end that God’s people are strengthened and satisfied in Him, to the praise and glory of His name. –Bruce Ware-

Other disciplines-
Apologetics- Presuppositional, and Evidential
Historical Theology – Syncronic and diachronic
Philosophical theology – Platonic, Aristotelian, etc
Ethics- descriptive and prescriptive

Exegesis- What does this passage say? (1 Cor.14:37)

Biblical Theology- What does this book, genre, or author say? Progressive Revelation (1 Cor. 11:5)

Systematic Theology – What does the whole Bible say? (Exodus 15:20)

Important aspects of Systematic theology -Comprehensive, Coherent Organization, from God’s revelation, Applicable to today’s Christian, for the glory of God.

Puritan Definition- The science and art of living unto God

Orthodoxy affects Orthopraxy- Theory effects practice.

Why Study Systematic Theology- Why not just keep reading the Bible for the rest of our lives without systematizing it?

1. The great commission tells us to teach people to obey all that he commanded. What did he command? We must know what we are to teach the world.
2. It benefits our lives, by overcoming wrong ideas we hold, and we begin to see the total weight of truth.
3. God gave us teacher to help us understand the word of God, and some of them are systematic theologians.
4. There are many challenges to the Christian worldview, and if we know it we live unguarded to the wolves in sheep’s clothing. The Mormon’s boast that they baptize a Baptist Church every month.

Where to start- Two axioms since Christian follow Christ we start with two presuppositions that Christ held.
1. The Bible is true, and is the Absolute Standard for truth.
2. The God of the Bible exists and is the only true God.

Have we proven these? No but if we don’t start with these we are not really doing Christian theology. As we build the theology we can then test it to the real world, in doing this we will see that these that Christianity is true therefore showing the necessity that our axioms are true.

Transcendental argument for God’s existence- No other worldview besides the Christian one is completely logically consistent nor can stand up to the test of experience with the real world.

Organization of the truths. How do these truths relate and do they build upon each other?

Jigsaw puzzle- You must use all the pieces and you cannot alter any of them.

Typical areas of systematic theology.

Bibliology- The Doctrine of the Word of God
Theology Proper- The Doctrine of God
Anthropology- The Doctrine of Man
Harmatology- The Doctrine of Sin
Christology – The Doctrine of Christ
Soteriology- The Doctrine of Salvation
Ecclesiology – The Doctrine of the Chruch
Eschatology – The Doctrine of Last things or the future.

Some objections to systematic theology-
1. You can’t make the Bible fit into a nice neat system.
But this assumes that there is no system to God’s knowledge?
Does any of God’s knowledge contradict any other of His knowledge. If they don’t contradict they must agree and synthesize. This is what we are seeking.

2. Systematic theology is just taking a framework and trying to make the Bible fit into it. (Eisegisis) This objection has it backwards, but has a legit caution in it.