How Theology For You Got Started
Ben's Story
It all started in a traffic jam, believe it or not when my family was heading to Georgia.
I had been talking with Victoria, my wife, about different outlets to teach and to get a God-centered theological message out. At first, I wanted to write a four-part systematic theology but, she suggested a podcast because back in 2015 podcasts were beginning to gain traction and become more popular. And so, we did it. We started it and we did it together originally, both me and her on the podcast because I am not that entertaining nor that good of a speaker. So, I knew I needed some emotion, some heat if you will.
Two college students who recorded a video for us also pitched doing a podcast. We started and we did it for about a year, I think originally, and as more kids came it was harder to keep up with and it fell to the wayside. We just didn’t have time. Then, a couple of years later, in comes Joey who has a passion to do theologically based videos.
Joey's Story
As I (Joey) was growing in my faith, I wasn’t in a solid church and I was looking online for answers to my theological questions. I was going to Ligonier or Desiring God or the Gospel Coalition to get my questions answered, because unfortunately, at that time I didn’t have a pastor that I could reach out to ask, “what does this mean?”
As I searched, I could never find a central hub to answer all my questions to help me grow in my faith that I could consistently rely on. I would always have to dig deep in different websites before I would finally find an answer to the questions that I had. It’s at that point that I met Ben, it probably had been three or four years that this desire had been growing in me to be able to produce videos that could help answer people’s questions about their faith. That was my desire, where I thought to myself, I didn’t get this, but maybe I can be a resource for others to help them grow in their faith.
John's Story
So, I (John) have somewhat of a similar story to Joey. As a young Christian in college a few years ago now.
I was amazed when I first came to know Christ, amazed at the fact that God has given us Himself and what’s true about knowing Him and about life, about good and evil. I was amazed at how God has revealed in His word how we can live in this world. We don’t have to go on some mountainous journey and find a guru to discover the meaning of life. God revealed it to us and means for us to tell people about Christ ourselves. And so, I was just fascinated by that concept that, wow, God has truly revealed himself. His word is sufficient to instruct us and to change us. He does that through His Spirit as He uses the word of God.
I would have questions and I knew the Bible had answers. But as a young Bible student, you’re limited sometimes. And it’s a process of growth and sanctification.
But there was this underlying sense that many opted for minimal theology and I was looking for big answers, not just mere Christianity. I wanted to understand the whole counsel of God that teaches the whole wisdom of God. There was a nagging sense that a hole needed to be filled in some ways.
Christian history has such an amazing tradition of thinking through so many issues. And things have been answered in the past but that has been lost in the last couple of centuries. But that was where I came in.
At Theology For You, we are trying to apply the Bible to people’s lives and help them see that God has given His great word for all these purposes.
And so, let’s be a part of bringing that to people, especially young Christians who really could benefit so well from these rich, wonderful truths about who God is and who he has taught us that we can communicate that through video is important.
We Are Here to Support the Church
We want to be clear from the beginning that we want to come alongside local churches to be a support. For those who watch our videos, we are not their church.
Christians should be going to their church, their pastors. The resources we provide should be a help to come alongside what is happening in the church
We are a ministry of our church; we don’t operate outside of the confines of our local church. We report to those elders.
So that’s the how, but why did we start Theology For You, what’s the motivation behind it?
What is the Purpose of Theology For You?
John Frame defines theology as the application of the Bible to every area of life. We believe that Scripture is relevant to our lives, we don’t have to make it relevant. Over the years our focus has sharpened so that we want to understand the whole counsel of God to draw the theology out and be able to apply it to our own lives and help others do the same.
We want to help people understand the Bible so they can grow in their relationship with God.
People have various questions about what the Bible says about certain subjects and the Bible has answers. The underlying theme for us is an understanding of the question, what does this world need the most? It’s Christ.
And how do we know who God is? How do we know who Jesus is? How do we commune with Him, have fellowship with him? Through His word we know Him, we grow in deeper fellowship with Him and grow in deeper fellowship with the church, His body. What this world needs most is a right understanding of God’s Word.
Because of the nature of the internet, you can find a lot of wrong answers and we want to be a trusted, faithful, and biblical resource to answer your questions.
Christ-Centered Theology
This great theology must be Christ-centered because Scripture is Christ-centered. And if we want to know God, we must know Christ. In John 1:1 we see that Jesus is the Word at the beginning. The Word was God. When we get to verse 14 we read that the Word became flesh and walked among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son from the father. Jesus came and revealed the Father to us.
In Second Corinthians four Paul writes, “to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,” and he uses that same language in Colossians 1:15. He is the image of the invisible God. Then in Hebrews Christ is called the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.
If we are going to know God, we must know Christ because He is the way, the truth, and the life. Therefore, when we seek to have a right understanding of Scripture, even in the Old Testament, it’s going to have to be filtered through the lens of Christ.
And that’s our prayer for Theology for You. As we find certain truths from Scripture and communicate and teach those, we pray that it would help people get a better understanding of God’s Word, that it would point them to Christ, and that they would worship God and enjoy him forever.
As the Westminster catechism says, what’s the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever.
And so that’s our prayer that this would be the case for us here at Theology for You.