How to evaluate theology

There are some interpretations of theology that can be tolerated, or even seem great,  when life is going well (complementarianism can be one of them). But we should not evaluate our theology on the basis of “does this work when life is great?” We have to instead ask “does this work when life is everything we did not want it to be?”

-What does our belief about God’s goodness and provision mean in war? 
-What do gender roles give us in marriage crisis and dissolution? In singleness, divorce, widowhood?
-What do our beliefs about sexual ethics offer in assault and trauma? In the realities of daily life?
-What does it mean to follow Jesus when church leaders disappoint us or break apart in front of everyone?

Those are the questions we have to ask as we study and teach the Bible. Otherwise our faith will be worthless, or at best need to be rebuilt, when the difficulties of life come and what we were believing crumbles. 

I said it in Thursday’s paid Substack post and I’ll say it again here: how we handle Scripture matters.