Primary Authors & Sources
SYST-101 builds its reading list from required primary and classical sources in doctrines of grace from creation to consummation. The authors below are read as teachers across the centuries, not as entries in a bibliography. John Calvin stands among the great exegetes of the Reformation, modeling careful attention to the text, covenant structure, and pastoral aim of Scripture, notably in Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Taken together, these readings form a coherent conversation across centuries — students encounter real arguments, not flattened summaries. John Owen writes with Puritan depth on Christ, the Spirit, and the life of faith, combining doctrinal precision with devotional warmth, notably in The Doctrine of Justification by Faith. Charles Hodge represents American Reformed scholarship at its most rigorous, integrating exegesis with confessional systematic theology, notably in Systematic Theology and Systematic Theology.
What You Will Study
Students survey Reformed systematic theology from prolegomena through eschatology, studying doctrine of Scripture, Trinity, creation, providence, anthropology, Christology, salvation, church, and consummation in confessional order. The course follows Westminster Confession and catechisms as primary structural guides supplemented by Calvin, Berkhof, and contemporary Reformed systematics. Each doctrine is traced to biblical proof texts and historical formulation with attention to contemporary challenges from liberalism, cults, and popular evangelical errors. Students write doctrinal summaries demonstrating ability to teach systematic theology in catechetical and preaching contexts. The course treats systematics as organized exposition of Scripture's own teaching for worship, confession, and discipleship rather than speculative philosophy detached from the church.
Course Objectives
Objectives include stating major Reformed doctrines with biblical and confessional support, comparing Reformed positions with Roman Catholic, Arminian, and liberal alternatives on key loci, applying systematic theology to pastoral questions on suffering, sacraments, and church membership, and producing catechetical lessons suitable for house church instruction. Students will defend inerrancy, penal substitution, and regulative principle of worship from systematic framework. The course cultivates comprehensive theological vision preventing fragmentary Bible knowledge. Students will integrate systematic loci with biblical theology's redemptive story. Assessments include doctrinal exams, essays, and oral catechesis demonstrations.
Ministry & Life Application
Systematic theology equips elders to teach the whole counsel of God with coherence that protects against hobby-horse preaching and doctrinal imbalance. House church leaders in the Florida Keys gain vocabulary and structure for membership classes, children's catechesis, and elder training. Pastoral ministry rests on firm foundation when shepherds know how Trinity, covenant, and eschatology connect in one gospel tapestry. This course anchors the entire BCFK theological curriculum. Congregations mature when members can articulate what they believe and why across the full range of Christian doctrine from creation to glory.