In one of the Peanuts sequences Lucy is frightened because it has been raining and raining. She wonders if there may be a repetition of Noah’s flood. But Charlie Brown tells her about God’s promise and the meaning of the rainbow. Much relieved, Lucy says, “You’ve taken a load off my mind.” To which Charlie replies, “Good theology has a way of doing that.”
“Scientists Fear the End of the Human Race Within Thirty Years,” reads a recent headline. There’s not much comfort in reading a thing like that, is there? And how about air pollution, water pollution, race riots, war, overpopulation, drug addiction, corruption in government, starvation, depletion of natural resources? Our best brains do not know the answers to life’s greatest questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? The scene can be very depressing.
But Charlie Brown is right. Good theology, Biblical theology, has a way of taking off our minds the load of defeatism, fatalism, and pessimism which weigh down so much of our generation. Based on fixed and final truth, good theology gives a man a center of stability in the midst of perplexity.
And it doesn’t beat around the bush. It goes to the heart of things. Starting with Jesus Christ, it tells us that He is the mist dependable of realities. We can be sure of Him. He is not vague at all. He lived on earth; He lives now; and He draws us to the magnificent conclusion that God loves us and that His purposes can never be frustrated. Even death ceases to be a problem when considered in the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Concerning Him, Paul says that God “has given assurance to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
Good theology is honest enough to tell us the real truth about ourselves. Human wickedness is behind the unhappiness of man. Can man go against God and make sense out of life? Can life ever get on a sound basis without repentance and conversion? Only Christ can take the load of sin and give us peace.
The Christian bets his life that Jesus Christ is right. The prize is everlasting life.
Captured from Get With It, Man! By Michael Horban, CA 1974
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