Chapter 3
Answer Key Drill
Systematic theology Q&A — short, exam-ready answers
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Study Notes
Concise, passable written-exam answers, expandable orally.
A. Systematic Theology
- Systematic Theology
- The topical study of Scripture, organizing biblical doctrine by subjects.
- Divisions
- Scripture, God, man, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, ecclesiology, eschatology.
- Reformed Faith
- A biblical system articulated in the Reformation: solas, covenant theology, doctrines of grace (TULIP).
- Covenant Theology
- The unfolding of God's covenantal plan to save his elect through Christ — creation, fall, promise, redemption, consummation.
- Five Points (TULIP)
- Total depravity, unconditional election, limited/particular atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints.
- General & special revelation
- General: God's witness through nature and conscience, leaving all without excuse. Special: God's saving revelation in Scripture and supremely in Christ.
- Inspiration
- All Scripture is God-breathed; men spoke from God as carried along by the Holy Spirit.
- Canon
- Closed; 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired rule of faith and life.
- Sufficiency
- The whole counsel of God necessary for his glory, salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in Scripture or deduced by good and necessary consequence.
- Inerrancy
- Because Scripture is God-breathed and God cannot lie, Scripture is without error in all it teaches.
- What is God?
- God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
- Trinity
- One living and true God in three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit — same substance, equal in power and glory.
- Decrees
- God's eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby for his own glory he foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.
- Providence
- God's most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.
- Is God responsible for sin?
- God decreed whatsoever comes to pass and permits sin, yet he is not the author of sin and creatures remain responsible.
- Predestination / election / reprobation
- Predestination is God's eternal decree concerning final destiny; election is his gracious choice of some to salvation in Christ; reprobation is his righteous passing by and ordaining others to judgment for sin.
- Chief end of man
- Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
- Image of God
- Man reflects God in knowledge, righteousness, holiness, relational capacity, moral responsibility, and dominion.
- Sin
- Any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.
- Original sin
- The guilt of Adam's first sin, want of original righteousness, and corruption of our whole nature, with all actual sins proceeding from it.
- Covenant of Works
- God's covenant of life with Adam upon condition of perfect obedience, with death threatened for disobedience.
- Covenant of Redemption
- The eternal agreement within the Trinity: Father gives a people to the Son, Son undertakes redemption, Spirit applies it.
- Covenant of Grace
- God's gracious covenant to deliver his elect from sin and misery and bring them to salvation by a Redeemer, received by faith.
- Person of Christ
- The eternal Son of God, one person in two distinct natures, fully God and fully man, forever.
- Natures of Christ
- Divine and human, without confusion, change, division, or separation.
- Early heresies
- Docetism denies humanity; Nestorianism divides person; Eutychianism confuses natures; Arianism denies full deity; Apollinarianism denies full human soul/mind.
- Christ's offices
- Prophet, Priest, and King, in humiliation and exaltation.
- Expiation / Propitiation / Reconciliation / Redemption
- Expiation = removal of guilt. Propitiation = satisfaction of God's wrath. Reconciliation = restoration of peace with God. Redemption = deliverance by ransom, Christ's blood.
- Imputation
- God's crediting: Adam's guilt to us, our sin to Christ, Christ's righteousness to believers.
- Penal substitutionary atonement
- Christ bore the penalty of sin in the place of his people, satisfying God's justice and securing salvation.
B. Salvation Accomplished
- Ordo salutis (Rom. 8)
- Foreknown/predestined, called, justified, glorified. Fuller: effectual calling, regeneration, faith/repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, glorification.
- Plan of salvation to an unbeliever
- God made us for himself; we sinned and deserve judgment; Christ, the Son of God, lived, died, and rose as the substitute for sinners; repent and believe in Christ alone for forgiveness and eternal life.
- Effectual call
- The Spirit's work convincing us of sin and misery, enlightening our minds in Christ, renewing our wills, and persuading and enabling us to embrace Christ.
- Justification
- An act of God's free grace, pardoning all our sins and accepting us as righteous only for Christ's righteousness imputed to us and received by faith alone.
- Faith alone / never alone
- We are justified by faith alone, but true faith always bears fruit in repentance, love, and good works.
- Adoption
- An act of God's free grace whereby we are received into the number and have right to all the privileges of the sons of God.
- Sanctification
- A work of God's free grace renewing us in the whole man after God's image and enabling us more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness.
C. Salvation Applied
- Saving faith
- A saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation as he is offered in the gospel.
- Repentance
- A saving grace whereby a sinner, with grief and hatred of sin and apprehension of God's mercy in Christ, turns from sin to God with full purpose of new obedience.
- Good works & salvation
- Necessary as fruit and evidence, not as the ground or merit of justification.
- Perseverance
- Those accepted in Christ, effectually called, and sanctified by the Spirit can neither totally nor finally fall away but shall persevere to the end.
- Assurance
- By God's promises, inward evidence of grace, and the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit.
D. Christian Life
- Moral law
- God's perfect rule of righteousness, summarized in the Ten Commandments.
- Believers & the law
- Not as a covenant of works for justification, but the moral law remains a rule of life.
- Means of grace
- The Word, sacraments, and prayer; with fellowship and discipline serving the church's nurture.
- Regulative principle
- God may be worshiped only as he commands in Scripture, expressly or by good and necessary consequence.
- Christian Sabbath
- The Lord's Day, the first day of the week. Kept by preparing the heart, resting from ordinary works and recreations, and spending the day in public and private worship, except works of necessity and mercy.
- Marriage
- Ordained by God for mutual help, legitimate offspring, the increase of the church, and prevention of uncleanness — one man, one woman.
- Divorce
- Permissible for adultery or willful desertion that cannot be remedied by church or civil magistrate.
E. The Church
- Visible church
- All throughout the world who profess the true religion, together with their children.
- Marks of the church
- True preaching of the Word, right administration of the sacraments, and faithful exercise of discipline.
- Head of the church
- The Lord Jesus Christ alone.
- Three forms of government
- Congregational (independent congregation), Episcopal (bishops rule), Presbyterian (elders rule in graded courts).
- Women in office (PCA)
- Women are equal heirs of grace and vital in kingdom service, but not ordained to elder/deacon office in the PCA.
F. Last Things
- Believers at death
- Bodies return to dust; souls immediately pass into glory with Christ.
- Unbelievers at death
- Bodies return to dust; souls cast into hell, reserved for judgment.
- Judge on the last day
- Jesus Christ.
- Heaven
- Perfect communion with God in the new heavens and new earth, free from sin, death, sorrow, and pain.
- Hell
- Eternal conscious punishment away from the favorable presence of God.
- Millennium (Amillennialism)
- Revelation 20 describes Christ's present reign and the church age, with one final return, resurrection, judgment, and new creation.
G. Other
- Holy Spirit today
- He gives life, regenerates, unites to Christ, indwells, sanctifies, assures, gifts, and empowers the church — with new covenant fullness.
- Sign gifts today
- Revelatory/apostolic sign gifts (prophecy, tongues, miracles) ceased with the apostolic foundation and completed canon (LAMP position).
- Mormonism
- Reject: adds false scripture, teaches another god/gospel, denies historic biblical monotheism and grace.
- Jehovah's Witnesses
- Reject: denies the Trinity and full deity of Christ (John 1; Col. 1; Heb. 1; Matt. 28:19).