To look forward with wisdom, we ought to look backward with humility. Someone said that a leader is one step ahead of his people. That one step is crucial. As a leader, I want to think ahead of those who are surrounding me. I want to be able to foresee what is ahead of us so that we can make necessary adjustments and preparation here and now. For me, to look ahead of others is to first study with those who have gone before us. Whatever is happening here and now had already happened in the past. In the history of the church, those who have gone before us had already faced similar issues and dealt with them with the same Truth. We gain wisdom from the previous generations. In other words, the theological present is the continuation of the theological past. The theological past gives us a sense of direction in the present.
Richard Lints, Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, said:
“Part of the task of constructing a theological vision entails the exploration of times when a vital theological guided the heart and mind of the church. In saying this, I am not advocating a search for a golden past. I simply think we will do well to try to learn from those who have gone before us. To be successful, the attempt will have to be grounded in humility—humility to recognize and to learn from our own historical limitations and from the wisdom of the church in ages past.”[1]
Our theological vision is thin and weightless if we fail to look backward. The past offers us a theological framework to construct our theological vision in the present.
[1] The Fabric of Theology: A Prolegomenon to Evangelical Theology (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 1999), pp. 139-140.
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