In all honesty I do not see the confusion.
Confusion comes in when people use the Bible "only" to discuss doctrines.
I have stressed the importance of Systematic and other theologies based on the Bible in the past.
Also hermeneutics play the biggest part in interpreation if you ask me.
The word hermeneutic is not found in the Bible. Is that considered non biblical to you?
Check this out.......
What Are the Various Major Kinds of Theology?
1.
Biblical theology: The organization of Scripture thematically by biblical chronology or by biblical author with respect to the progressive revelation of the Bible (properly a component of systematic theology)
2.
Dogmatic theology: The organization of Scripture with an emphasis on favored or selected church creeds
3.
Exegetical theology: The methodical organization of Scripture by dealing exegetically with individual texts of the Bible (properly a component of both biblical and systematic theology)
4.
Historical theology: The historical study of doctrinal developments after the apostolic era to the present time
5.
Natural theology: The study of what can be known about God by human reason alone through the empirical study of the natural world
6.
Pastoral/practical theology: The organization of Scripture with an emphasis on the personal application of doctrinal truth in the lives of the church and individual Christians
7.
Systematic theology: The organization of Scripture by a synthesis of scriptural teaching, summarized using major categories that encompass the entirety of God’s written revelation (developed from exegetical and biblical theology)
What Is Systematic Theology?
The term
systematic comes from the compound Greek word made up of
syn, “together,” and
histanai, “to set up,” meaning “to set up together” or “to systematize.” As noted above,
theology comes from the Greek word
theologia, “a word about god,” meaning “theology.” Etymologically,
systematic theology involves the orderly bringing together of words about God or a bringing together of theology in an organized fashion. Consider Charles Spurgeon’s response to those who object to a systematic approach to theology:
Systematic theology is to the Bible what science is to nature. To suppose that all the other works of God are orderly and systematic, and the greater the work the more perfect the system: and that the greatest of all His works, in which all His perfections are transcendently displayed, should have no plan or system, is altogether absurd.4
Systematic theology answers the question, what does the completed canon of Scripture teach about any one theme or topic? For example, what does the Bible teach from Genesis to Revelation about the deity of Jesus Christ? A basic definition of systematic theology, then, would be “the ordered exposition of Christian doctrines.”5
A systematic theology must display (1) hermeneutical integrity, (2) doctrinal coherence, (3) ethical relevance, (4) worldview explicability, and (5) traditional continuity. Where these are present and operative, one will find a good systematizing that will be of value to the expositor. As he carefully examines every detail of the text in preparation to expound it, systematic theology allows him to also view the whole theological picture—one that has taken into account not only the studied conclusions from church history but also the progress of revelation culminating in the complete revelation of God.6 (For a chronological overview of the progress of revelation, see the appendix).
4 Charles Spurgeon, as quoted in Iain H. Murray,
The Forgotten Spurgeon (London: Banner of Truth, 1973), 9.
5 James L. Garrett,
Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990), 1:8.
6 This insight came from our colleague Trevor Craigen, retired Master’s Seminary professor of theology.
<sup>[1]</sup> John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds.,
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 35–36.
