The Orthotometist: June 2026

Thursday, 18 June 2026

Every Christian Should Be a Theologian

When they hear the word ‘theology’, the reactions of Christians tend to vary enormously.

For some, this word suggests something positive, an attempt to deeply understand God and His purposes, which will benefit the person who succeeds in gaining insight.

For others, this word suggests something negative, wasting time on discussing things that have little value or connection to everyday life.

And, of course, others will take a view that is somewhere between these other views.

I am firmly in the first camp on this issue. When I hear the words ‘theology’, ‘theological’ and ‘theologian’, I hear something positive.

What is theology all about?

In essence, theology is the study of God, things that are true about Him. And a large part of this has to do with true things about Jesus Christ, including how His death and resurrection bring forgiveness to guilty human beings.

Of course, it is important to understand that as Christians we don’t just know true things about God. We actually know God Himself (e.g., John 17:3; Phil 3:10). We are in relationship with Him.

Nevertheless, it is certainly right to say that the more true things about Him we know, the more we will know Him. It makes no sense to think that learning more about what God is like and what He has done won’t affect our relationship with Him.

The same is true of human to human relationships. The better we know what someone is like and what they have done, the more we will know that person and the more closely we will be able to relate to him or her.

So theology is really a positive thing. It is a form of study that should lead to us knowing God better.

How it all fits together

There is a vast number of things that are true about God and His actions. However, it isn’t the case that these are just separate items on a long list. In reality they all fit together to make one big tapestry. And some parts of Scripture do a great job of joining the dots.

For example, take the book of Romans. In this book Paul doesn’t just say, ‘Jesus died for you, and you will be saved if you believe in Him’. Instead he goes into detail explaining how the nature of God fits with His plan to save human beings from their sins.

Or take the book of Hebrews. Here the author shows at length how the Old Covenant sacrificial system foreshadowed what Christ accomplished on the cross. In other words, he explains how much of what God did in Old Testament times fits together with what He did in the first century.

To some extent, then, theology has to do with figuring out how parts of the tapestry fit together. And the more we can join things up in our minds, the more anchored our faith should become.

Difficult to understand

I think one reason why so many Christians dislike theology is because they find it difficult to understand.

Of course, Christians have different levels of ability to engage in academic-style learning. Some are more academically inclined than others.

But here’s the thing. We all find theology difficult to understand. No matter where we are on the spectrum of ability to understand this subject matter, there will be things that we struggle with and that, in some cases, are too difficult for us.

We even find the apostle Peter, in 2 Peter 3:15-16, saying explicitly that his fellow-apostle Paul’s letters contain things that are hard to understand!

It simply isn’t the case that any Christian just sits down and reads the Bible and everything falls easily into place. We have to fight to understand, and we will have some successes and some failures as we do this.

But we have to try. It’s not OK for Christians just to skip parts of the Bible because they think these parts are too difficult for them. There are sections of Scripture that are too difficult for each of us at our present level of understanding. But if we fight, we can expect to make progress.

If we want to grow in our knowledge of God, then, we each need to be a theologian, striving to grow in our understanding of what He is like and what He has done. This is for every Christian.

Not the most important thing, but still important

I am not saying that growing in theological understanding is the most important thing in the Christian life. Nor am I saying that the best theologians are always the strongest Christians.

In my years as a Christian I have met many believers who are fairly weak theologically but who are full of love. And if there was a choice to be made between strong theological understanding and strong love, I would choose love every time.

But this isn’t a real choice. Obviously, it is possible to be full of love and strong in theology.

How to grow in theological understanding

So how do we go about growing in theological understanding?

Well, the most important thing is to spend lots of quality time reading the Bible. And it is often helpful to read at a very slow pace. If we read something we don’t understand, it is usually worth pausing to think deeply about the point in question to see if we can resolve things.

Something else that will be a great help is to read commentaries by Christians on parts of the Bible. There are many of these to choose from. Some are very detailed books that will be not be suitable for beginners, but others are much easier to follow.

There are even English translations of the Bible that come with helpful explanatory notes on the same page as the text itself. For an absolute beginner, this may be the place to start.

When all is said and done, I am sure that many Christians will continue to dislike the word ‘theology’ and similar words, but that is really a minor point. Regardless of whether we use this word or not, we must all strive to grow in our understanding of what God is like and what He has done. This is not optional for a follower of Jesus Christ.

Thursday, 4 June 2026

Is the Gift of Distinguishing between Spirits Still Useful Today?

In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 the apostle Paul gives a list of gifts that are given and empowered by the Holy Spirit. One of these is the gift of distinguishing between spirits (v. 10).

This gift is first and foremost about the ability to distinguish between whether something has been caused by an evil spirit or by the Holy Spirit. Often this will apply to messages that people claim to be from God. The gift is relevant for determining whether the message really is from God or whether it has a demonic origin.

However, the ability to distinguish between whether something is from an evil spirit or from the Holy Spirit is very similar to the ability to distinguish between whether something is caused by an evil spirit or has a purely natural cause. So I think we can reasonably say that this gift would at times involve the ability simply to tell if an evil spirit is the causer of something, whether a message or an illness or a situation or whatever.

Cessationism

There are some Christians today, who claim that the Spirit no longer gives the gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 because they are not needed now that we have the completed New Testament. These Christians are known as ‘cessationists’, because they think that the Spirit ceased giving these gifts long ago.

I am convinced that cessationism is a big mistake and that God continues to give all the gifts mentioned on this list, including the gift of distinguishing between spirits. It was never God’s plan for the Bible to provide us with all useful pieces of information for us to live our lives, and the gift of distinguishing between spirits is one way in which He sometimes imparts useful pieces of information to His children.

Luke 13:10-16

One passage that it will be helpful for us to consider for this topic is Luke 13:10-16, which reads as follows:

‘10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.

14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”

15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”’ (ESV)

This passage tells us about a woman who had a severe spinal problem. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight, and she had had this problem for 18 years.

In v. 11 Luke says that her condition was caused by a ‘spirit’, which has to mean an evil spirit. This is confirmed by Jesus’s words in v. 16, where He says that this woman was bound by Satan.

Luke says that Jesus laid His hands on her and she was immediately healed. There is no mention in the passage of the evil spirit speaking through her, as sometimes happens in other biblical examples of people being freed from evil spirits. Nor is there any suggestion that this evil spirit was able to do anything else to the woman other than give her this physical disability.

So it doesn’t seem that Jesus simply deduced from certain visible signs that it was an evil spirit that was causing the woman’s disability. Instead, it seems that He was able to supernaturally discern that the woman’s condition was caused by an evil spirit. In other words, Jesus apparently did the same sort of thing that is found in the gift of distinguishing between spirits.

Imagining a similar situation today

This is the only biblical example of someone who has the medical condition of being bent over. And the passage is clear that it was caused by an evil spirit. So it makes sense to think that some examples today of people suffering from this condition will also be caused by evil spirits.

I am not saying that everyone suffering in this way today has an evil spirit causing it. But it surely means that some do. To think that the only biblical example of someone bent over was caused by an evil spirit, but that no one who is bent over today is being affected by an evil spirit, makes absolutely no sense. Such a conclusion would not be faithful to learning from what Scripture has to say.

So imagine for a moment that you are a Christian doctor, and someone comes to see you who is bent over.

The first thing you would want to know is whether an evil spirit is causing their disability, isn’t it? The way that you would go about helping this person would depend in very large part on whether or not an evil spirit is causing the problem. So you would want to start by learning, if possible, whether or not an evil spirit is responsible.

It may be that if you became aware that an evil spirit was causing the disability you would want to refer the patient to someone else. I am not saying that every Christian doctor should be skilled in freeing people from evil spirits.

But I am saying that it makes absolutely zero sense to approach helping this patient in any other way. The first thing to do, if possible, would obviously be to try to determine if this patient’s disability is caused by an evil spirit or not.

And how would a Christian do this? Well, one way would surely be by using the gift of distinguishing between spirits.

It is unwarranted to think that there would have to be obvious visible signs if an evil spirit was involved. No such signs are mentioned in Luke 13. Instead, as I have noted, Jesus seems to have supernaturally discerned that an evil spirit was causing the disability. So it makes sense to think that the same kind of method would sometimes be used today, i.e., through the gift of distinguishing between spirits.

I have given this example, mirroring what we find in Scripture, as what I think is a very good example of the usefulness of the gift of distinguishing between spirits today. The idea of cessationists that this gift is no longer useful now that we have the New Testament is completely wrong.

A biblical command to desire spiritual gifts

In 1 Corinthians 14:1 Paul instructs his readers to desire spiritual gifts from God, and these gifts certainly include those mentioned in the list of 1 Corinthians 12:8-10.

Importantly, there is no good reason for thinking that Christians today are not under obligation to obey Paul’s command. Let all of us, then, who want to live out a biblical Christian faith, do what we are told to do in this verse.