Understanding and Owning Christian Theology

Week 1 (Aug 7): Right, Biblical Thinking – Why it matters

 Intro:

I grew up in a Christian home and was taught the Christian faith all my life. When I went to college I was confronted with really smart people that believed things I had never thought of and I didn’t know what to think. I thought evolution was just something to laugh at and only unthinking people believed in – I was wrong and became somewhat disoriented. I talked to people that believed that there is no God to depend on, and there is literally nothing that, given time, man could not accomplish (e.g. unaided flying). I talked to other Christians that didn’t believe the same things I did, and didn’t know how to answer them.  This may have been your own experience. In my case it was the beginning of a period of significant rebellion – not because I didn’t know things about the faith, but because I allowed my confusion to sidetrack my fundamental belief and trust.

My purpose in this class is not to provide full instruction on any of the subjects we will talk about. Rather, my goal is to provide some simple tools for knowing what it is that we teach here at RCC, and then have open discussions about the various topics so that together we can know why it matters what we believe. You are encouraged to ask questions, make assertions, and help each other both believe and understand the Christian faith.

Credo ut intelligam vs cotito ergo sum

Credo ut intelligam (alternatively spelled Credo ut intellegam) is Latin for “I believe so that I may understand” and is a maxim of Anselm of Canterbury, which is based on a saying of Augustine of Hippo (crede, ut intelligas, “believe so that you may understand”) to relate faith and reason. It is often accompanied by its corollary, intellego ut credam (“I think so that I may believe”), and by Anselm’s other famous phrase fides quaerens intellectum (“faith seeking understanding”).

The modern world had an auspicious beginning with the words of Rene Descartes (1596-1650): cotito ergo sum “I think, therefore I am.” With these words man’s scientific conquest of nature apart from God began. From it sprang incredible scientific progress, but also the most profound apostasy from God. For over 1000 years the church in the west had developed a Christian worldview, which in fairly short order was rejected in favor of a man-centered worldview.

The tool I want to provide today for thinking rightly is the ability to see the Christian world view in opposition to every other way of viewing the world. This tool is the use of the three great questions in philosophy: Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics

Ideas Have Legs and they walk – sometimes they run away from you: Presuppositionalism 

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

This year at our annual Reformation Covenant Church Family Camp we have the privilege of having both James B. Jordan teaching us about worship music and Rich Bledsoe as our keynote speaker.  I will post some thoughts throughout the week about some of his comments.

06/14 Rich Bledsoe – #1

Rich Bledsoe

Two Great Enemies of the Christian faith are Islam and Euro-Socialism (which thankfully is collapsing in on itself). Rich considers his calling to be learning to speak the gospel into the Euro-Socialist contexts where it is manifested.

Rich referenced 1 Cor. 14:18 (&19):

“I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.”

The point he made is that Paul traveled from culture to culture throughout the Roman world and was able to speak with a tongue that could be understood – He was probably one of the most cosmopolitan man at that time, with experience crossing cultural barriers that was empowered by the Holy Spirit to accomplish the mission Jesus gave him. The tongues could very well have referred to actual spoken languages, which Paul spoke more than anyone by the Spirit. Rich Bledsoe indicated that, at least by implication, it could also refer to having the ability to  speak into a foreign or strange culture. It is the ability to understand the way people think sufficiently communicate meaningfully.

Not everyone can be like Paul, with the ability to move from one culture to another with equal ability to effectively present the gospel. But God does want all of us to cross boundaries and to speak into people’s lives (tongues) in ways that we are not necessarily used to. These boundaries or cultural and relational barriers can be as foreign as China, or as near as across the street. Piercing through the boundaries and barriers can  be as simple as developing relationships with people in a church across the street in another denomination, getting to know a public official or some foreign students or immigrants. As we come to successfully learn to speak the tongue of those on the other side of the boundary – we will see God’s Spirit stir up faith in them. And when that happens – all kinds of things can change, even riots can be started (as with Paul 13 times in the book of Acts).

Tags: Family Camp, mission-missions, RCC, Rich Bledsoe, tongues