Does Theology Matter?

Does the study of God, who He is and what He wants, matter in how we live our day-to-day lives? It does.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

American conservative icon Charlie Kirk was slain by an assassin on 10 September 2025. Within hours, flaming rhetoric from both sides flooded the airwaves and social media. Many called Kirk a faithful Christian, husband, father, and rebuilder of America. Some called him a bigot and a sexist. Real harm results. Conservatives lost jobs for speech that the left considered unacceptable under Biden, and liberals are losing jobs for speech that the right considers unacceptable under Trump.

Our local Republican party wanted to honor Charlie’s legacy with a vigil for him at the local baseball stadium. The idea, in the minds of some, was to hold a vigil to pray for him, though he was dead. One woman mentioned that honoring Kirk for his life and work was appropriate, but praying for him, that is, praying for the dead, was not. A middle-aged politician replied, “Let’s not debate theology. We just want to get together and say a few prayers.”

The issue is not “should we pray for the dead?” The issue is “should we debate theology?” A related question is “does true theology, the opinion of God, matter?” God has an opinion on prayer for the dead, and is it worth our time to learn what that opinion is? It seems that our politician friend did not care to discover what is scripturally true, at least at that moment. We need to ask ourselves, “Does theology matter?”

Theology is defined as the study of God. This article discusses Christian theology in distinction from Islamic, Jewish, and other theologies.

The Study – American Theology in 2025

Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research partnered to discover what Americans who claim to follow Jesus in 2025 believe about God. The result is The State of Theology report.[1] The results, noted in the table below, demonstrate that American Christians have widely varying opinions, and often non-Biblical ones, on many key issues

Question	Agree	Disagree	Bible
1.      God is a perfect being and cannot make a mistake.	66	26	Agree
2.      There is one true God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.	71	19	Agree
3.      God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.	65	23	Disagree
4.      God is unchanging.	68	19	Agree
5.      Biblical accounts of the physical (bodily) resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate. This event actually occurred.	65	24	Agree
6.      God loves all people the same way.	83	11	Disagree
7.      Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.	49	40	Disagree
8.      God created marriage to be between one man and one woman.	65	29	Agree
9.      The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being.	58	26	Disagree
10. The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual new birth or new life before a person has faith in Jesus Christ.	49	28	Disagree
11. The Holy Spirit can tell me to do something that is forbidden in the Bible.	16	66	Disagree
12. Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature	66	29	Disagree
13. Even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation	23	71	Agree
14. God counts a person as righteous not because of one’s works but only because of one’s faith in Jesus Christ.	56	32	Agree
15. Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God	74	18	Disagree
16. The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true	48	44	Disagree
17. The Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches	49	44	Agree
18. Modern science disproves the Bible	36	51	Disagree
19. God chose the people he would save before he created the world	27	53	Disagree
20. Hell is a real place where certain people will be punished forever	58	29	Agree
21. There will be a time when Jesus Christ returns to judge all the people who have lived	52	26	Agree
22. Worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending church	63	27	Disagree
23. Christians should not allow their religious beliefs to influence their political decisions	54	39	Disagree
24. Every Christian has an obligation to join a local church	33	59	Agree
25. Sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin	52	43	Agree
26. Abortion is a sin	49	42	Agree
27. People should be able to choose their gender regardless of their biological sex	38	54	Disagree
28. The Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today	41	46	Disagree
29. God is unconcerned with my day-to-day decisions	30	61	Disagree
30. The Bible has the authority to tell us what we must do	50	44	Agree
31. Religious belief is not about objective truth	45	32	Disagree
32. The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe	60	40	Agree
33. It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior	53	47	Agree
34. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin	63	37	Agree
35. Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation	57	43	Agree

 

These are not esoteric or trivial questions. Rather, they capture the fundamentals of the Christian faith and key social issues of our time. In 18 of the questions asked, a majority of respondents gave a Biblical answer. In 17, they did not. Possible explanations for the poor showing of theological knowledge in American Christians include:

1. Respondents did not read or understand the whole question.
2. Respondents intentionally answered incorrectly for some unknown reason.
3. Respondents really do have a poor understanding of the person of God, which is what the study of theology aims to improve.

Assuming possibility #3 is accurate, the theological knowledge of this set of American Christians is poor. If this sample of US Christians is representative of the population of all US Christians, these findings are as unwelcome as they are baffling. If parishioners in my church or students in my theology class performed this poorly on a theology exam, I would find a new line of work.

Do Christians believe that knowing God impacts every part of their thoughts, words, and actions? Do they realize that by aligning themselves with the character of the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, they will be, on average, happier and healthier?

Why does theology matter in day-to-day life?

1. God made and knows the universe and all things in it. To learn His way and do them His way is to be more in line with objective reality and therefore more successful.
2. God will punish people who do not follow His plan for their lives. Punishments are often the logical consequences of their actions.
3. People who line up with God’s will and practices as noted in the Bible will be aligned with the Biblical standard rather than with their own whims and wishes. They will enjoy fundamental unity with others who follow the Bible, rather than hoping that everyone else would adopt their standards for living.
4. God is the source of all things good in the universe. He is the embodiment of beauty, love, and truth. Those who reject or ignore beauty, love, and truth in Him will eventually find themselves without beauty, love, and truth at all.

How can we know God?

If the reader agrees that the most important thing in life is to know God, personally and eternally, the next question is “how?” The Almighty makes Himself known to man in a variety of ways.

1. The Bible – read it, study it, memorize it, and do what it says.
2. Prayer – a mechanism for God’s people to come into fellowship with Him.
3. Creation – all the universe reveals the glory of the One who created it.
4. Giving of yourself and your other resources.
5. Fellowship with other Christians.
6. Other spiritual disciplines – fasting, silence, solitude, corporate prayer and worship, and others.

Conclusion

In the interest of charity, I hope that the statement from the middle-aged politician noted above was a misspeak. We are all flawed, and on occasion, my tongue has sallied out on its own. To know God is to know the most amazing Being in existence, one who loves His creation and His children. Every person on earth should know Jesus, the perfect image of God the Father. We should study theology with the intensity and love that we study our favorite people. As individuals and as the world, we will be richly blessed by the pursuit.

[1] https://thestateoftheology.com/. 3001 US respondents who claim to follow Jesus.