Understanding and Owning Christian Theology

Week 4 (Aug 28): Creation – Why It Matters

The Sunday School Class was recorded and can be heard here: Creation – Why It Matters

Genesis: The Book of Beginnings – Most of the foundational beliefs are found in Genesis

RCC Confessional Statement: Sovereignty of God

2.  We believe that God has declared Himself to be and is the absolute Sovereign over all His creation.  We believe that He has decreed whatsoever comes to pass, and that He, in His providence, upholds and sustains all things, and effects His decree.

Ps. 100: God is our Lord (ruler) and takes care of us (we are His & He is ours):

“Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” (Psalm 100:1–3, NKJV)

Christ is the preeminent creator of all things – and controls all things

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:15–17, NKJV)

The Christian worldview begins and end with the doctrine of creation. It defines not only where we have come from, but also how creation will progress through history, and the goal of history: All by His will and for Him.

Creation ex nihilo – Out of nothing

Creation and Science: Genesis does not give us science – but it can in no way contradict science.

The Bible and Creation – Why does it matter? Is God good for His word? Adam? Salvation?

RCC Confessional Statement: Creator – Creature distinction

6.  We affirm the Creator-creature distinction.  We believe that man is absolutely different in essence from God, that he is a creature, though the highest of all God’s creatures, being created in the image of God.

Everything was created by God and depends upon Him entirely. He is wholly different and above (transcendent) all of creation, but He near (eminent) all of creation (not just spatially, but most importantly relationally). There is no chain of being that connects us directly to Him through nature. He is not so transcendent that He is remote (Deism). Nor is He so close to all of creation that He can be associated in His nature with creation (Pantheism). All of these are important  in the Christian worldview.

Made in the image of God – Greatest of Creation.

Gen. 1:26-28.

Created man in the image of God – male (king) and female (queen). What do you think it means to be created in the image and likeness of God? It means that Adam and Eve were created to be like God – an image or copy. Not an exact copy, because God is greater than (transcends) all of His creation, including man. But throughout biblical revelation, man is a picture of who God is. What does Genesis 1 tell us about God that men also are like?

As we have seen, God exists in three equal persons. Man was made male and female, equal but different.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q. 10. How did God create man?
A. God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

God speaks – thus, he is able to think and communicate His thoughts. We too are able to communicate, but we are to think and communicate in obedience to His Word.

God is relational (“Let US make man in OUR image…”)

When God said the creation is “good,” we learn that God has the ability to morally discern between good and bad. We too have the ability to discern between good and evil, and must think and act according to His Word.

God is creative – He created everything out of nothing. We too have a creative ability, but man must take the stuff of creation and creatively use them.

God works. Man too was created to work.

God is the ruler of His creation. God made man to rule over the creation for Him. Adam is to be the king over the animals and birds, and Eve was made His queen to help him fulfill the commandment to fill, subdue and have dominion over the earth. Part of this includes having children who are faithful to God. The word to “subdue” is used in the Old Testament to describe victory in war, subduing your enemies. It is also means subduing someone to slavery (Jer. 34:11, 16; 2 Chron. 28:10). Adam was to work hard to subdue the creation to the will of God and to develop its various possibilities to their fullest. He was to make creation his slave, finding new ways to use what God had made. Guard and Keep = serve as priest.

Male& Female – Equal/Different & Marriage

RCC Confessional Statement: Dominion

7.  We believe that man was originally given a cultural mandate, and commanded to exercise dominion and to subdue the earth.  With the fall of man, the mandate was not removed, but made more difficult.  So that by regeneration man is able to walk in obedience to this recalling, as empowered by the Holy Ghost.

Tags: Bible Classes, Creation, Creator-creature distinction, Image of God in man, RCC, Reformation Covenant Church, Sunday School

Understanding and Owning Christian Theology

Week 3 (Aug 21): The Authority of the Bible – Why It Matters

The Sunday School Class was recorded and can be heard here: The Authority of the Bible – Why It Matters

God is relational, fully known to each of the members of the God-head, and He always acts consistently within His nature (always holy, good, loving, etc). We can only know God because of creation (He made us and all the creation), and His self-revelation (apart from which He would be completely inaccessible to us). By the fall – man is in rebellion to God and his revelation. Only in Jesus Christ are we restored to fellowship with God and able to think His thoughts about Him, ourselves and our world.

 General Revelation in Creation

Genesis 1 & John 1 & Colossians 1: In the beginning, God said… and it was so. In the beginning was the Word (Jesus the Son, God) all things were made through Him. Col. 1:15-17. Jesus is the Word that was spoken that brought forth all of Creation.

 “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard.” (Psalm 19:1–3, NKJV)

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:18–21, NKJV)

“and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”” (Acts 14:15–17, NKJV)

“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.” (Acts 17:26–29, NKJV)

The problem for men is not that God is utterly unknown – but that He is rebelled against and unloved and unworshpiped. Creation reveals God truly – but not exhaustively.

Creational vs. Natural: Men want to absolutize nature, to the exclusion of God. Nature is only truly understood as the creation of God. It points us to God. When it does not, when men use it to only point to nature – it is idolatry.

Creation is not an exhaustive revelation. It is only understood in terms of special revelation. It cannot stand alone. What are some of the things it cannot reveal? There are limits to what we can know about God, ourselves, and how to relate to the world and other men. It cannot give us ethics. We need special revelation. Men must have an absolute authority, which cannot be nature – no natural law. Natural Philosophy and materialist/natural science cannot give us true revelation and absolute authority. It assumes the primacy of man’s reason, innate goodness, “might makes right” totalitarianism, or mob rule (democracy?).

There is no error or miscommunication in nature/creation – but it is not sufficient as an absolute standard of knowledge or how to live in the world.

Special Revelation

 RCC Confessional Statement:

“1. We hold the Scriptures, contained in the 66 books commonly referred to as the Old and New Testaments, to be God’s infallible commanding Word to His creatures. Accordingly, it is our sole basis of absolute authority. We believe the Scriptures to be inerrant in original manuscripts.”

How shall we then live? By what standard? If/since God is the Creator – He is absolutely sovereign over all His creation. His revelation is the absolute standard for all of life and thought.

After God made man He spoke to him about His purposes for man, and gave him His commands. History is the record of God’s works and Word to man.

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:1–3, NKJV)

God revealed Himself in theophanies (divine appearances, e.g. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses), dreams & visions (e.g. Jacob, Solomon, Daniel, Joseph-“husband” of Mary), miracles and signs (e.g. Noah, Lot, Moses & Israel, wilderness) the prophets – a forth-teller.

 Writers of the Old Testament were inspired by God to put in permanent form what He wants the scriptures to be.

“All Scripture [the OT] is given by inspiration of God [lit. “God-breathed” by the Spirit], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16–17, NKJV)

“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:19–21, NKJV)

But in the middle of history – God sent his Son, Jesus. Jesus came to reveal God the Father. John 1:18; 14:9; Colossians 2:9

“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” (John 1:18, NKJV)

“Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” (John 14:9–10, NKJV)

“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;” (Colossians 2:9, NKJV)

Scripture – The Bible

Now we have the New Testament also as our guide (all 66 books).

“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:19–21, NKJV)

2 Peter 3:15-16 “and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” (2 Peter 3:15–16, NKJV)

To have any authority above scripture (i.e. man’s reason, natural law, science, government) is to be without God in this world. If/since God created all things and He has absolute authority over all things – to refuse to believe and submit to His Word to us leaves us without true knowledge in the world. We cannot know things truly – and we cannot know how to live in the world. We will have no basis for ethics and no ability to prosper in this world.

 Do people generally think we need to have an absolute standard, like the Bible?

What are some of the problems we have in this world that result from rejecting the Bible?

RCC Confessional Statement:

“9. We believe that we are to proclaim the whole counsel of God’s Word at every opportunity, whereupon God, in His providence, may impart faith by the Word to the hearer, and that he may thereby be converted.”

Tags: Bible Classes, RCC, Reformation Covenant Church, Sunday School

Psalm 67

God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us,

That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.

Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.

Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, And govern the nations on earth.

Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.

Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us.

God shall bless us, And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.

How is it that songs of joyful praise from all the nations to our God will come about?  This question presupposes that the nations will want to do such a thing. We are assured by the scriptures that indeed the command to disciples the nations will be brought to completion and that the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. Thus, the gospel will indeed bring the nations to want to sing of the blessedness of our own God! Further, the question presupposes that the nations will be able to sing His praises.

I recently came across the work of Eric Whitacre and his virtual choir. The video below is his own explanation of what he has accomplished.

Toward the end of his clip he talked about two things that struck him as a result of this project:

1) Human beings will go to any lengths necessary to find and connect with each other…

2) People seem to be experiencing an actual connection…not just a virtual connection…

These two things don’t surprise me because indeed we are created as image-bearers of the Truine God – who has an infinite capacity and desire to connect socially. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have loved each other perfectly throughout eternity, and have made us to yearn for connection with Him and one another. This social connectivity in manifested in so many ways over the last six thousand years that we could not possibly imagine them all. Chief among the ways that the Bible tells us that we are to be connected to other people, by the Spirit of God, is to speak to one another in song (Eph. 5:18-21). In so doing we learn to lay down our lives for one another in mutual submission and love.

Fascinating to me is the phenomenon of social media and how people actually feel some connection with people, virtually, that they wouldn’t feel without it. While I neither understand it, nor do I think all of it is edifying, it is without doubt very important to our world today.

In some way, when seeing the work of Whitacre and his virtual choirs, it occurs to me that this is indeed an expression of the human race united together in song and beauty. It puts me in mind of what it is like for God, each Lord’s Day, when He hears the songs of His beloved children singing to Him in worship.  It puts into perspective precisely what is happening when we sing together each week, along with millions of other believers around the world. If only we could see and hear what God Himself experiences – it seems to me that we would have a much larger and more healthy view of the world – and the goal of the kingdom of God. It would cause us to long and labor all the more to see the nations be glad and sing for joy along with us!

Tags: Eric Whitacre, NT - Ephesians, Psalm 67, social media, Virtual choir

Christ the Conqueror - Christ the Savior

As a follow up to my post on The Gospel In All Its Forms, I wanted to make all seven of my blog followers aware of a great post by Peter Leithart Good news in which he show how the Greek word for “gospel” is use in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament). The Gospel takes on new dimensions when the word is studied in its wider Jewish context, dimensions that are helpful to us as we consider what good news we are to announce in our modern world.  I quote it in full:

” The Septuagint uses the word-group euaggel- primarily in military and political contexts to describe the proclamation of victory.    This is not invariable (cf. Jeremiah 20:15).

The Philistines cut off Saul’s head and strip his gear so that they can carry the “good news” to idols and people (1 Samuel 31:9).  In his lament over Saul and Jonathan, David warns Israel not to evangelize Philistia with the news of the fall of Israel’s heroes (2 Samuel 1:20).  When David later describes what he did to the Amalekite who thought that the death of Saul would be “good news” to David, he uses the same term (2 Samuel 4:10).  2 Samuel 18, where David awaits news of the battle with Absalom, is studded with the word (vv. 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 31).

Adonijah expects Jonathan the son of Abiathar to bring him good news (1 Kings 1:42), but he doesn’t.  The lepers who find the Aramean camp abandoned realize after eating their fill that they shouldn’t keep the “good news” from the rest of the people in the city (2 Kings 7:9).

This meaning is in the background of the more “theological” uses elsewhere in the LXX.  The “new song” of Psalm 96 is the “good news” (v. 2) of Yahweh’s s salvation, which comes when He judges the world in righteousness (v. 13).  Good news comes because Yahweh the Divine Warrior gains His victory.  The same goes for the good news of Yahweh’s reign announced in Isaiah 40:9, 52:7.  The good news that the Spirit-anointed servant brings to the afflicted is good news of rescue and deliverance, liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners (Isaiah 61:1).  The good news is good news of peace (cf. Nahum 1:15; 2:1 in LXX), a peace gained by righteous victory.”

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 4:21 am  http://www.leithart.com/2011/03/29/good-news-2/

What most people conceive of as “the gospel” seldom contains an image of the Lord as Divine Warrior. And yet, the New Testament does (Rev. 19). To truncate the good news to ‘Jesus died to save sinners’ is to so compartmentalize and minimize what God has and will do in the world to make it almost no news at all to the hearts and minds of moderns.

How small has become our view of what Jesus came to do, what He accomplished, and what He has promised to do in our world. Do we have the faith to believe, let alone to announce, that our God, Jesus, is progressively judging the world in righteousness? Is our confidence in God’s word sufficient that we can take for granted as true, and declare openly, that the reign of King Jesus does in fact bring “rescue and deliverance, liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners?” Do we true believe that the only hope and good news for a world in turmoil (you name the turmoil: international finacial meltdown, terrorism, the impact of the collapse of middle-eastern governments, etc) is Jesus?  Or is that just a little too simplistic to say outloud? Isn’t it possible that all of these culamities are in fact part of the work of God to gain the victory on behalf of His people? Is that too much to believe? Is it a bit too religiously edgy to actually tell someone that the good news is that God is using all of these things to bring salvation to the world?

Anything short of this kind of conception of the gospel does an injustice to what God has done through our Lord Jesus.

Tags: evangelism, gospel, LXX, Old Testament, Peter Leithart, Septuagint

The Veritas Concert choir performs “Masters In This Hall” a French Carol arranged by William Averitt

The Veritas School concert choir performs “The 23rd Psalm” a composition by Bobby McFerrrin

See if you can find Adam!

For those of you that viewed their performance of Psalm 23 you’ll have noticed that it is not the same as the one found in your Bibles. When talking with Adam about it yesterday he told me that the Veritas choir modified the words considerably – For The Better (believe it or not)! Here are the lyrics written by  Bobby McFerrin:

The Lord is my Shepard, I have all I need,
She makes me lie down in green meadows,
Beside the still waters, She will lead.

She restores my soul, She rights my wrongs,
She leads me in a path of good things,
And fills my heart with songs.

Even though I walk, through a dark and dreary land,
There is nothing that can shake me,
She has said She won’t forsake me,
I’m in her hand.

She sets a table before me, in the presence of my foes,
She anoints my head with oil,
And my cup overflows.

Surely, surely goodness and kindness will follow me,
All the days of my life,
And I will live in her house,
Forever, forever and ever.

Glory be to our Mother, and Daughter,
And to the Holy of Holies,
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
World, without end. Amen

The Christian, biblical, Trinitarian God will not be mocked. He has revealed Himself to us perfectly. We have no need to change, mangle and distort His Word to fit our vision of what we want Him to be.  Fidelity to Him requires submission or our minds and wills to His Word. May God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit be our one true God: As it was in the beginning, in now and ever shall be, world without end!  Amen

Tags: Bobby McFerrin, Masters in this Hall, Psalm 23, Veritas, Veritas Choir