Today's passage of Scripture is 1 John 4:8 which reads: "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

Today's words from a theologian are from Karl Barth. He said: "In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians."

Our topic for today is titled "The History of Old Testament Theology, Part 2" from "The Moody Handbook of Theology" by Dr. Paul Enns.

The history of religions school followed the temper of the nineteenth century. It built upon Darwin's evolutionary theory, applying the theory to religion. The Hebrew faith was not seen as a unique religion but as having a relationship with other religions, because they all evolved from a common source. Similarities between Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism could readily be seen. Thus, the Old Testament was evaluated, not as divine revelation, but in its historical development. Old Testament theology, according to the history of religions school, accepted the theories of Wellhausen, which denied the unity of the Old Testament by relegating the writings of individual books to several authors over a period of time. Thus, the Old Testament "was reduced to a collection of materials from detached periods and consisted simply of Israelite reflections of as many different pagan religions.

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Our second topic for today is titled "How To Do Theology" from the book, Understanding Theology in 15 Minutes a Day" by Dr. Daryl Aaron, a professor of biblical and theological studies at Northwestern College.

First, one truth that Christians have long understood may initially seem counterintuitive: We must do theology in faith. Normally we would assume that after we thoroughly understand something, we decide whether or not we should believe it. But the Bible teaches another order. The apostle Paul says: "But the natural man [the unbeliever] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God [such as God’s Word, the Bible]: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

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