Yum Yum Yum!!!

SABC's Theology Breakfast re-commences this wednesday morning.

No better way to start your day than studying the truth of God's Word.

Doctrine has a bad rap these days. Over the last century the Christian church has been gradually succumbing to our modern culture's suspicion of any claim to absolute truth, and no longer just within the Liberal wing - writers such as Francis Schaeffer and David Wells have described how even Evangelicals now seem to be united more by the social and moral issues that concern them than any doctrinal truths held in common. Doctrine is increasingly seen as secondary, a merely private matter, or the specialism of the academy; or else it is seen as divisive and an obstacle to building community and welcoming outsiders. Community and openness are indeed commended by God, but his Word does not permit us to think that they can be had by expending with doctrine. Page after page of the Bible gives us teaching on what God is like, what he has done, and how we should respond - doctrine does indeed matter.

But while contending for the truth, we need to be careful that we do not pursue theological knowledge simply as an end in itself. If we do, warns J I Packer in his book "Knowing God", it is "bound to go bad on us ... and we shall come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians". Instead our knowledge about God must be turned into knowledge of God. That is the aim of Packer's book, which we'll be studying in Theology Breakfast's 2008/9 programme.

The book's 22 essays lead us to know God better through meditating on the Bible's rich teaching on topics like the incarnation, God's wrath and love, grace, our adoption, and guidance.

Starting on 8 October, join us at 7:30-8:45 on Wednesday mornings in the Fellowship Room for a light breakfast as we listen to a chapter from this modern classic and share our thoughts.

2008-10-08 Theology and the Study of God

2008-10-15 The People Who Know Their God

2008-10-22 Knowing and Being Known

2008-10-29 The Only True God

2008-11-05 God Incarnate

2008-11-19 He Shall Testify

2008-11-26 God Unchanging

2008-12-03 The Majesty of God

2008-12-10 God Only Wise

2008-12-17 God's Wisdom and Ours

2009-01-21 Thy Word is Truth

2009-02-11 The Love of God

2009-02-18 The Grace of God

2009-02-25 God the Judge

2009-03-04 The Wrath of God

2009-03-11 The Goodness and Severity of God

2009-03-18 The Jealous God

2009-03-25 The Heart of the Gospel

2009-04-15 Sons of God,

2009-04-22 Sons of God,

2009-04-29 Thou Our Guide
2009-05-06 Those Inward Trials
2009-05-13 The Adequacy of God
2009-05-27 Reflection

Join our facebook group here... (SABC folks only I'm afraid - sorry world!)