Postmodernism, with its rejection of valid metanarratives, is an external threat to the clarity of the gospel, but there is also an internal threat. This one is less intentional and more by default. It exists by virtue of the way we read and teach our Bibles.
How We Read the Bible
- A devotional diary. In this method, we look for an inspirational thought to help us live out our daily lives. We can either read a verse of Scripture or read a devotional from someone else’s reflections. In this case, context is less important than inspiration. Left unchecked, this trains us to expect the Bible to speak in fragments rather than as a whole.
- A repair manual. In this approach, we read the Bible like backyard auto mechanics read a Chilton’s auto manual. Something is broken and needs fixing. We search the Bible for clues on how to fix our hurts, habits, and hang-ups. This approach often leads us to read only the passages that solve today’s problem, instead of asking how today’s problem fits within God’s larger story.
- Spiritual merit badge. This method stems from the challenge to read through the Bible in a year (more or less). Most Bible reading plans require reading multiple chapters each day, with the promise that, since all Scripture is inspired, a reader will benefit even if they don’t understand or reflect on what they read. The goal quietly becomes finishing the reading rather than entering the story.
- Illustration resource. This approach uses the Bible as a source of examples and illustrations of the values and traits we want to emphasize. David slaying Goliath illustrates courage, faith, and the life lesson that victory doesn’t always go to the strong.
- A doctrinal encyclopedia. This approach is most commonly associated with systematic theology. This method searches the Bible to find everything that develops our critical and favorite doctrines: sin, salvation, justification, etc. In this method, the parts are emphasized rather than the whole. Verses are gathered from various books to prove doctrinal points. This is the most theologically serious of the list so far — and, as we’ll see, the one most capable of quietly replacing the story it was meant to serve.
- The progressive revelation of God and His mission (Biblical Theology). This method of reading Scripture views the Bible as progressively clarifying major themes, such as the nature of God and His purposes. Reading progressively or historically traces how these themes develop throughout the biblical narrative.
The problem is not these approaches themselves but allowing any of them to become the primary lens through which we read the Bible, because how we read the Bible determines what gospel we naturally proclaim.
A Familiar Scene
Postmodernism erodes the metanarrative from the outside; a diet of doctrinal categories, absorbed without their narrative home, can erode it from the inside — producing orthodox Christians who are functionally as narratively homeless as the postmoderns they’re trying to reach. Without the story, the gospel can gradually be presented more as a doctrinal transaction than as an invitation into the story of the Risen King.
I once taught an adult education class on the Old Testament to a group of seasoned Christians at my church. I began by giving them a list of major Old Testament characters in random order and asked them to list them in chronological order. None of them could. They knew the names, but not the story that connected them. That’s the internal threat.
Biblical and Systematic Theology
To understand this internal threat, we need to describe two complementary approaches to studying the Bible: Systematic and Biblical Theology.
Biblical Theology traces the progressive unfolding of God’s revelation throughout the story of Scripture. It asks, How does God reveal Himself and His purposes from Genesis to Revelation? It follows the flow of redemptive history, showing how themes such as kingdom, covenant, and Messiah develop and culminate in Jesus Christ.
Systematic Theology collects everything the Bible teaches about a particular topic into a coherent framework. It asks, What does the whole Bible teach about God, salvation, sin, the church, or the end times? Rather than following the Bible’s storyline, it gathers all relevant passages to formulate a comprehensive doctrine. Its clarity helps protect against heresies.
A simple way to remember the difference:
- Biblical Theology tells the Story of God’s revelation.
- Systematic Theology explains the Truths revealed in that story.
The two disciplines are complementary, and neither is dispensable. Biblical theology without systematic theology tends toward narrative without doctrinal precision — you can tell the story but struggle to define what it means. Systematic theology without biblical theology tends toward abstraction without narrative grounding — you can define the doctrine but lose the living drama from which it emerges.
Imagine dumping a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle onto a table. Systematic theology is excellent at sorting the pieces by color, shape, and edge. Biblical theology keeps reminding us to look at the picture on the box. Without that picture, even perfectly sorted pieces never become the masterpiece they were meant to reveal.
Ideally, sound systematic theology grows out of sound biblical theology, ensuring that doctrine remains rooted in Scripture’s unfolding narrative rather than detached from it. This isn’t an argument against systematic theology — it’s an argument against letting it become the dominant lens rather than the disciplined servant of the story.
Knowing the Parts, Missing the Story
Imagine studying The Lord of the Rings. You carefully catalog every reference to hobbits, rings, elves, wizards, kings, swords, and evil. You could become an expert on every category while never understanding Frodo’s journey, Aragorn’s return, or why the Ring had to be destroyed. You would know the parts but miss the story.
In Scripture, instead of seeing:
Creation → Fall → Israel → Messiah → Kingdom → New Creation
we learn about:
God, Man, Sin, Salvation, Church, Heaven.
Those are not the same thing. The first is a story. The second is a set of categories.
What Happens to the Gospel
Perhaps the greatest consequence is seen in how the gospel is presented. When systematic theology dominates, the gospel is often reduced to doctrines rather than announcements.
| The Gospel is about… | The Gospel Announces… |
| Personal sin | God’s kingdom has arrived |
| Forgiveness | The powers of darkness have been defeated |
| Justification | Jesus is the risen King, and reconciliation with God is now possible through the cross |
| Going to heaven | Creation itself will be renewed and humanity restored to its original calling |
All four items on the left are important, but laid next to the right-hand column, notice what is missing. Many of the things the gospel actually announces barely survive the transition into doctrinal shorthand. Many Christians know how to answer, “How do I get saved?” but struggle to answer, “What is God doing in the world?” The latter question only makes sense inside the larger biblical narrative.
When the dominant organizing principle of Scripture shifts from kingdom story to salvation doctrine, the results follow predictably:
- Jesus becomes primarily Savior — the King is obscured.
- Discipleship becomes preparation for heaven rather than participation in God’s mission.
The Historical Problem
In Western theological education, the emphasis on systematic theology — particularly in evangelical seminary curricula over the past century and a half — flourished partly in response to liberalism and higher criticism, which tended to undermine historical biblical truths such as biblical authority, salvation, and justification. But the modern defensive posture toward systematics has often had the unintended consequence of pushing the Bible’s overarching narrative into the background. The result can be graduates who know doctrine well but struggle to tell the Bible’s unified story, knowing the pieces of the puzzle but struggling to see the picture on the box.
The Bible was not given to us first as a collection of doctrines, promises, moral examples, or devotional thoughts. It was given to us first as the true story of God’s saving work in history. Doctrine, promise, command, and application all find their proper meaning within that story.
Why it’s important
If we are to reach an audience that is biblically ignorant, we need to read Scripture first as a unified story — the Story in which every doctrine finds its proper place. We need to rediscover the metanarrative that is the framework for the gospel.
In the next blog, we will consider how God’s nature unfolds progressively, gaining clarity as the narrative moves from creation in Genesis to the New Jerusalem in Revelation.
For Reflection
1. Which of the six approaches to reading the Bible best describes your own habits? Why?
2. Why is it important that systematic theology grows out of the biblical narrative rather than replacing it?
3. In what ways can reducing the gospel to “personal salvation” unintentionally obscure God’s larger purposes for His kingdom and creation?
4. How might presenting the gospel as the story of the risen King connect more effectively with people who have little or no biblical background?
5. Why do you think many Christians can explain how a person is saved but struggle to answer the question, “What is God doing in the world?”
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