The other day, someone said that the person who had been preaching was a theologian. My immediate thought was, “No, he’s not.” And then I had to think why I had thought such a thing – after all, I don’t really know the preacher well enough to be able to tell if he’s a theologian or not.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the preacher wasn’t a theologian – he has a revelatory gifting. In other words, he is excellent at discovering new facets of God and then communicating them in a way others can understand and receive the same freedom. But that doesn’t make him a theologian.
You see, theology is based on truth. A theologian will take ideas, revelations, truths, etc., and test them against truth we already know is true to make a clearer and fuller understanding of truth. Revelatory gifts are based on relationship with Jesus. A person with a revelatory gifting will, as I said above, hear or understand something about God that those who don’t have that level of relationship don’t understand yet, and they will make the revelation clear to the listener for the purpose of helping them grow to maturity. (For example, a theologian sees God say, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), and they will take that truth and fit it with the rest of the truth found in the Scriptures and in their theology to figure out what it means and how it impacts theology and our understanding of God and Jesus. Someone with a revelatory gifting will see the same verse, but instead of looking at it only in the context of Scripture/theology, they will also look for what God is saying through that verse as God speaking to us today and how that impacts growth into maturity. This is the truly wonderful thing about the Bible – it meant something a long time ago, and it still means amazing things to us today.)
Both theologians and those with a revelatory gift need each other. Without the relationship that leads to revelation, theology is just facts without power. Without the truth that undergirds theology, it’s very easy for the revelation to go off the rails into heresy.
Don’t think I’m saying that theologians are stuck somewhere in their heads while those with revelatory giftings are much more useful because they actually help people. That’s not true. Theologians also help people because they remind us of truth – and it’s the truth that sets us free (John 8:32).
Here’s the truth: Theologians are great, and their contributions to our faith are very necessary. Without them, we are tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Revelatory gifts are also extremely necessary for our faith. Without them, everything in the Bible happened in the past, and we have no one to express what God is doing now. Both must be solidly based on Scripture, and together they can build up the body of Christ to maturity.
