Lesson 2 | Searching Theology
Searches For Answers
Now that you have a well-formed theological question, it is time to search for an answer. To do so, do the following:
1. Choose which word(s) from your question to search.
Think through which particular words are likely to lead you to verses that may answer your question. Also, consider how common or unique each word is.
For example, consider this question from the previous step: Does God want me to use coworkers’ preferred pronouns or risk losing my job? After spending a bit of time reshaping this question for clarity and searchability, and based on my prior knowledge that “preferred pronouns” are an affirmation of what is untrue, my revised question is: Does God value providing for one’s family above telling the truth?
So which word(s) should I search to look for an answer? Searching provid* or truth may initially seem sensible, but both searches yield too many results to handle. On the other hand, searching provid* truth together gives us only one result—and that result is irrelevant. The solution is to search "provid* for" in quotation marks as a more unique phrase that is still likely to yield helpful results. Sure enough, scanning through the 57 results and looking for passages related to family provision, we get some help. The most obviously relevant verse is 1 Timothy 5:8 where we see that providing for one’s family is an absolute imperative. But reading the chapter context, we see that this imperative is conditioned upon something. After all, this verse is found within a section discussing certain folks (widows at least sixty years old) who were not to provide for their family, but rather be provided for by the church. Apparently, either their station in life or ability exempted them. Seeing this reminded me that multiple epistles also speak of a collection taken for the persecuted saints in Jerusalem. Why do they need money? Because they were not able to work as much on account of their faith! Finally, back in the context of 1 Timothy 5:8, I note verse 22: “Do not…take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.”
My conclusion is now clear: Providing for my family is not a justification for participating in a lie.
You will notice that the answer to this question began from a search, but required thoughtful consideration of context and recalling other passages I was familiar with. This will often be the case.
2. Think through synonyms and other ways to say it.
Should we keep stupid promises we have made to God? This was another question from the previous step. But to search this question well, I will need to figure out that the more precise Bible word for such promises is “vows.” Sure, promis* will yield results—but too many to handle. Searching vow* still gives a good number of results, but far fewer and many more that are relevant.
Or take this question: How can a loving God punish people in Hell? Searching for lov* hell is the obvious starting point. The problem is that it does not yield any results. Thinking through synonyms and other means of expression for Hell moves us in the right direction: lov* (hell / hades / fire / punish / "outer darkness" / condemn*) brings up 11 verses. But we are still not there as none of those results turn out to be relevant to our question. The problem seems to be that an answer to our question is likely to be expressed in an entire paragraph—not a single verse. So the fix to is to add on a same flag: lov* (hell / hades / fire / punish / "outer darkness" / condemn*) same:paragraph.
Do you understand what this complex search is looking for? It will find all paragraphs that have two things: (1) a word beginning with “lov,” and (2) one of the following: “hell,” “hades,” “fire,” “punish,” “outer darkness,” or a word beginning with “condemn.”
What do we find? In John 3:16-18, we see that those who do not believe in Jesus—who was given because of God’s love for the world—are condemned already. We see in John 15:6-9 that Jesus’ love is wonderful and welcomes us in to live fruitful lives as his disciples, but must be abided in. Non-abiders will be gathered and thrown into the fire. (See also Jude 21-23.)
So the answer to our question is: God’s love invites the world into Christ to escape Hell, but this does not negate his just condemnation of those who outright refuse or abandon this welcome.
3. Consider where in the Bible to look.
Do you remember how we did this with the devotional? There, we addressed the question, What is the essential requirement for forgiveness of sins? To do so, we focused our attention on search results starting from the book of Acts. This decision was made based on an understanding of salvation history and where we are likely to find the clearest answer to our question.
Other times, you do well to focus your search on a particular part of the Bible simply because you have an idea of where it is most likely to be addressed. This would be true of our question: Why does God order the destruction of countries and cultures in the Bible? Looking for answers in narrative books of the Old Testament makes the most sense.
Other Things To Remember
Don’t forget to revise your question as you search. God’s Word might not answer the question How many children should I have?, while it does address What should our attitudes be toward having children?
Still, other questions may have answers, but not answers that can easily be found through a search. For example, the Bible certainly has something to say about What ought a new Christian do who comes to faith while in a gay marriage? and What must a person understand to go to Heaven?, but we would be hard-pressed to form a search to arrive at those answers. Sometimes there is nothing to do but read your Bible more and weigh others’ answers to such questions against the Scriptures they base their answers upon.
Finally, let us remember to hold direct biblical answers with a high degree of certainty while recognizing that inferences we make from Scripture should be more open to correction.