By Rev. Dr. Timothy W. Ehrlich

What is Theology?

Theology is the study of the nature of God and religious beliefs. The central task and role of the Christian theologian is to gain the clearest understanding of the nature of God and by extension to understand what God wants from us and will do for us; and to transmit that knowledge clearly for the benefit of all interested parties.

However, occasionally, the task of theology is to defend the faith; and on rare occasions, such as in the present day, theology is tasked with explaining the relevancy and role of the faith in light of dramatic shifts in culture and society.

What is Undermining the Church?

Christianity is facing unprecedented virulent attacks from outside the church, and it is being torn by an internal schism between liberal and conservative. At the same time, it is being buffeted by four overlapping tsunami waves of dramatic shifts in culture and society.

The four overlapping tsunami waves of change are:

• the rising tide of AI and robots; (see AI, a Warning: What Churches Need to Know) 
• a large-scale change in the moral codes related to sexuality and gender;
• the impact of social media;
• and a drastic reduction in the status and role of God and church in society.

The virulent attacks are sophisticated and come primarily through social media, from those who hate and/or who reject the religion and the faith it expresses and represents.

The internal schism between liberal and conservative over whether the Bible should be taken as entirely dictated by God and thus perfect and infallible, or given to us by God through inspiration of fallible human authors, who on occasion injected their human experience and beliefs into their writing of the bible.

The apostle Paul makes it clear that all who believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him as their Lord are Christians and belong to the body of Christ which is represented by the church. The Christian Church is all people of all denominations who believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him as their Lord.

Christians’ church, the body of Christ in the world, has been so badly beaten up by the attacks and the waves of change, and so torn by schism that it is figuratively laying in the street bleeding like the man beaten by robbers in Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan. The church is bleeding members: according to a Gallop poll reported in March 2024 56% of Americans rarely or never go to church. Gallop’s statistics show church attendance has declined by 28.5% over the last twenty years, 53% in my lifetime.

The Florida United Methodist Church is a good example; it has closed over 90 of its churches in the last 10 years; it is losing members at a rate of about 11% per year; on top of that loss, this year the conference was torn by schism and lost 25% of its existing churches! The church is not reproducing; young people, specifically 18- to 29-year-olds, are the ones most buffeted by the four tsunamis of change, and they are the ones most easily reached by the daily attacks on Christianity in social media. The result is they are staying away in droves. If the current rate of decline continues for another ten years a few healthy churches may remain but the United Methodist denomination in Florida will no longer be viable.

 Why is the church in such trouble? There are a number of reasons, but the primary reason comes back to theology. Unfortunately, Christianity’s current majority accepts traditional orthodox theology and that has left the church vulnerable to attacks at one of the worst times in history for that to happen.

The Christian church is like a beautiful house built on stilts over the water. The water is the turmoil and struggle of daily life. The waves of turmoil and strife have frequently broken over the church and for nearly 2000 years the church has stood strong, touched by the turmoil and struggle of daily life yet always in the past rising above it, shining its light down on the troubled waters and giving rest and hope and peace to those who come to it battered by the waves and seeking help. But many of the pilings on which it stands (its theologies, doctrines, and dogma) have not been repaired or updated in over 1000 years. Several of the pilings are strong but others are weak and rotted to the point of uselessness, to the point where the church is in danger.

One of the surprising discoveries for me in seminary was the number of the church doctrines and dogma that are weakly supported in scripture, ignore inconvenient scripture passages that contradict their beliefs, and contradict known scientific facts. Atheists love to point out contradictions and scientific inaccuracies in the Bible. Followers of the traditional orthodoxy respond to these attacks by ignoring them as if they don’t matter. While they don’t matter in light of the fact that God is real and Jesus really was and is His son, to people brought up in the computer age these contradictions do matter.

Many younger people I know personally, aged 25 to 40, can’t get to the reality of God because they are blocked by the contradictions and inaccuracies for which orthodoxy offers no explanation other than you must take it on faith. The ‘take it on faith’ approach only works for a small minority. Gallop reports only 22% of young adults attend church. The majority of the younger adults that I know personally, view Christianity as nonsensical and outdated, and condemn the whole beautiful house. They have been sold a false bill of goods because no one has demonstrated to them that the central beliefs of Christianity are sound. Let me put it a different way using a different analogy.

A Weakness in the Foundation of the Christian Pyramid

Think of Christianity as being like a human pyramid but the kids in the second row aren’t strong enough to hold the weight on their backs.

The base of our pyramid is solid: we as a church have rock solid faith in the reality of God, and that Jesus was/is His son. We are rock solid in our belief in the resurrection of Jesus and eternal life for us, and that God loves us and wants an interactive relationship with us in which we get to know Him as our Father.

So, our foundational core beliefs are solid, but the next level of the pyramid is where we are having problems, our theology, doctrines, and dogma cannot in their current form hold up under the weight and volume of the attacks they are being hit with. The church, which is the next level up in the pyramid is slipping and falling as a result.

This weakness in the doctrines and theologies is not a new problem, I learned about it in seminary at Duke which I attended in 1984-87. I can still hear my New Testament professor’s voice as he told our class that the information we were learning would be so challenging to the faith of the average believer in the pews on Sunday mornings that we should never preach it from the pulpit. “Trust me, if you do you will be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail!”

So, we pastors are set up to be keepers of this secret knowledge but are not to share it with our congregations. How long has that been going on? Well, I believe Dr. Efird was passing on to seminarians what he was taught 30 years before that, so at least 60 years, and I believe for longer than that.

But now the cat is out of the bag, and it has become common knowledge that there are some big holes and areas of weakness in our doctrines and theologies.

The Task of Theology

So, the task of theology today is to reestablish the authenticity of our faith, to break down the barriers that the very valid criticisms have raised. Yes, it is true that there are many minor contradictions between books of the Bible, and yes, a book written 2000 – 3000 years ago has some scientific inaccuracies, but none of that diminishes the reality of God.

Theology can address and answer every challenge and make Christianity relevant for present day because its fundamentals are solid. We theologians must bring to the current generation a refreshed understanding of the nature of God and what God wants from us and will do for us! The last thing we should do is be content to hide behind the just take it on faith approach.

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