THEME: The doctrine of creation is the foundation of Christianity and naturally links to the doctrine of redemption.
QUESTIONS:
How is the doctrine of creation important in Christianity?
· The doctrine of creation is the attempt of the Christian believer to come to terms with the relationship between God and the world. As such, it gives proper place to the work of God in creation, points to the nature and purpose of the created world, and distinguishes the Christian theistic worldview from all others.
How is God different from His creation?
· God is the centre of the universe.
· God acts as the divine Subject, creating a dynamic universe as the Object of his love and the theater of his glory.
What characteristics (attributes) of God can we learn from the doctrine of creation?
· God is self-sufficiency (not needful of anything outside himself).
· God is the Creator, creating out of nothing (no pre-existing matter).
· God is the loving Author and Finisher (creation as an exercise of His own glory, reconciliation with the creation).
· God is providential. The creation is good and is dependent upon the Creator for both preservation and value.
==============================
THEME: God is a providential God who continues to uphold the existence of the universe and who intervenes in human history.
QUESTIONS:
What is the meaning of God’s providence?
· “In God,” Paul declares, “all things hold together.” (Col 1:17) Nothing in creation itself is self-sufficient. God is responsible for both the origin and the preservation of all creation. Without God’s continuing preservation of creation the cosmos would cease to exist.
· God is not a divine clock maker as deism says.
What is the meaning of God’s divine government?
· God who acts within the history of His creation and who has ultimate control over the affairs of the nations, natural forces, and humanity.
· Human history is not a meaningless record of isolated events and movements. The future is not a matter of mere human responsibility or chance. God has sovereign rulership over all world occurrences—past history and future hope.
What is the meaning of God’s divine concurrence or cooperation?
· The human is not a static creature, but possesses a will and limited means to accomplish that will. The biblical worldview does not deny this human role in world events and the actions of the individuals. Nevertheless, the Christian recognizes the ultimacy of the divine will and ruling.
· Insofar as the creature exercises its will, it does so in the context, acknowledged or not, of the ultimate divine will. The sovereign divine will is effective, but not despotic. Human freedom and divine sovereignty are both affirmed.
What is the main problem that the doctrine of divine providence must encounter?
· It is the problem of evil (natural evil and human evil) and suffering in the world.
· Nevertheless, the knowledge and understanding of the creature is partial and fragmentary. The meaning of all suffering and evil is outside the creature’s limited reach. Even for the Christian, much suffering is beyond understanding.
·
The Christian community
must resist the tendency to evade these questions of suffering or to be satisfied
with commonly accepted responses which do not do justice to the issue or the
biblical witness.
==============================
THEME: The Christian worldview as expressed by President Bush after 9/11 is in conflict with the worldview of the west.
QUESTIONS:
What kind of worldview did Bush express in his U.N. speech?
· President Bush shocked the cultural elites by his forceful and deliberate use of the categories of good and evil.
· This view of the world is anathema to the international elites—especially in Europe and the United States. The worldview is force-fed to America’s young people through the educational system, and college professors report that students are reluctant to call anyone evil, even Adolf Hitler. This moral disarmament is as dangerous as the threat of terrorism, but it is part and parcel of a worldview determined to draw no moral distinctions between the agents of terror and their victims.
How does Kagan distinguish the viewpoints of Europe vs. America?
· On the all-important question of power—the efficacy of power, the morality of power, the desirability of power—American and European perspectives are diverging.
· Europe has bought into Immanuel Kant’s Enlightenment vision of “perpetual peace,” while Americans reflect Thomas Hobbes’ belief that violence can only be restrained by the use of force.
How does Mohler explain the difference between the two worldviews?
· The twentieth century witnessed the rapid secularization of European culture. Though the process began in the Enlightenment itself, the secular tide did not sweep over Western Europe until after the Second World War. The secular worldview cannot deal with the category of evil. According to this view, behavior may be socially unacceptable, or even pathological, but not evil. The very concept of evil requires a belief in moral absolutes, and moral absolutes depend on an objective morality. In the end, only a divine Creator can establish an objective morality. The formula is simple: No God, no moral absolutes, no evil.
· Americans are not [yet] as secular as the Europeans. Most Americans claim to believe in God, and the residue of the Christian worldview still informs the American conscience. Americans—along with their president—believe in the reality of good and evil. They also believe that evil must be confronted and, where necessary, confronted with force.
How is the Christian worldview contradict with the secular worldview?
· The Christian worldview imposes the concept of original sin on our understanding of what it means to be human. Christians understand the reality of evil and believe that evil must be restrained.
· There is little hope to overcome the contradiction between Christians and those who refuse to acknowledge the difference between good and evil.
==============================
THEME: Too many young adults in this generation do not want to grow up and to take up their natural responsibilities.
QUESTIONS:
What are the characteristics of those who won’t grow up?
· America now faces a generation of young people unwilling to grow up, assume adult responsibility, marry, and start raising families. The “twixters” are “not kids anymore, but they’re not adults either.” They live in a strange transitional never-never land between adolescence and adulthood.
· These unsettled young adults don’t own homes, change apartments almost as frequently as their wardrobe, and are, for all appearances, permanent adolescents. They are predominantly not married, and with no children.
In what way does Arnett explain that this phenomenon is not problematic?
· Arnett sees delayed adulthood as a new social phenomenon that allows self-centered Americans even more time to focus on themselves while “not responsible for anyone else or to anyone else.
How should we view this phenomenon from the biblical perspective?
· Looking at this from a biblical perspective, the most tragic aspect of this development is the fact that these young people are refusing to enter into the adult experience and adult responsibilities that is their Christian calling.
· The delay of marriage will exact an undeniable social toll in terms of delayed parenthood, even smaller families, and more self-centered parents. The experiences of marriage and raising children are important parts of learning the adult experience and finding one’s way into the deep responsibilities and incalculable rewards of genuine adulthood.
==============================