Steve I'm still confused

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> 
> yhclifto wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> >         When I asked if you were suggesting Apostolics learn theology,
> > you
> > responded by pointing out that theology has a great effect on me
> > whether I
> > learn it or not.  So? how is that a reason to learn about it.  Being
> > influenced by defunct theologians does not take away the fact God
> > saved my
> > life, God filled me with Holy Ghost, God healed me of a chronic sinus
> > infection, God forgave my sins when I was baptised in His Name, and
> > most
> > of those dead theologians had none of that. The Holy Ghost is beyond
> > theology.
> 
> No, the Holy Spirit inspires the hearts and minds of men to do
> theology.  Saying you have no theology is making a theological statement
> about your faith. 

Steve, you read a lot into my comment. I try not to make a blank statement
like "I have no theology." I have, however, read theology (by this I mean
the writtings of Barth, Auggustine, Calvin, Irraenaeus, Aquinus ect.) And
the following comments are evident:

1] It is the source of some the worst thinking on the part of Apostolics.

2] It is incomprehensible to most Americans, and you believe me I have
tried to discussing theology with both ministers (of many denominations) 
and lay men (of many denominations) and it is murder to explain anything.

3] No, grasp of theology does not make a man a bad minister (I'm not
talking about denomination here, most non-Apostolic minister's I've met
actualy do worse at this kind of philosophy than Apostolic ministers.)

4] This in no way implies that the above people were not influenced by
theology, but you have failed to expand on the relevance of this issue.

5]As I pointed out when giving my own testemony, theology rarely if ever
consideres the active nature of the Holy Ghost which is at the core of our
experiance.  Thus to present our experiance to theologians we would have
to develope this in terms of theology.

6]When we try to present theology (with the exception of those very few
UPC theologians) we usualy do worse than those fundamentalists who, as you
pointed out show great ignorance of historical and theological
developement.

So why bother? Our experiance is valid without theology. Learning theology
is a significant undertaking? and is our ability to express ideas in that
language that important?


I follow the Bible and it works. Finding out that the way I read a
scripture was greatly influenced by Peter Abelard is an intersting way to
spend an afternoon, but not important to me.

The question is why should I consider theology for anything more than
entertainment value.

By the way, next time you make a reference to what 'Brother Clifton
thinks' please say which brother Clifton.  I'd hate to answer for Bill.


		Love and Grace in Jesus Name,


		Yeaton Clifton (yhclifto@oakland.edu)