Bad Blogspot! No biscuit!

For some reason, Blogspot insists on posting the table in the creation section with a boatload of newlines before it, so it is way WAY below the heading title. Sorry about that - it's not my HTML, it's something weirdo that Blogspot is doing.

Also, I just looked at the blog in Internet Explorer 6, and it looks way different (as in "not pretty") than it does under either Firefox or Safari (Mac). So, my recommendation is using Firefox on any platform, or perhaps Safari on the Mac. Bad IE!

Seriously, if someone already has IE 7 installed, let me know how it looks.

Update! I did some more hand-crafted HTML and got Blogger to behave a bit better. The table isn't perfect, but at least there's not a zillion <br>'s embedded in it.

Lesson 4: Creation

Statement of Faith - Creation 1
We believe that the Triune God, according to His sovereign Will and for His own glory, created the heavens and the earth without the use of pre-existent material.

• Transcendent, non-contingent being
• Creation ex nihilo (out of/from nothing)
• God is the ultimate creator of all that exists
• All creation has a purpose
• (Gen. 2:4; Prov. 16:4; Acts 17:24; Col. 1:16-17)

Statement of Faith - Creation 2
All living things, we believe, came into being by a direct creative act of God and not by an evolutionary or random process, and thus have an existence distinct from Him and yet always dependent on Him.

• Take-Away's Regardless of View
• Creation ex nihilo
• God is the first cause
• All occurrences of emergence or creation due to God's command or ordinance
• Everything is sustained by Him
• Design (teleology) as one of his witnesses in creation

What is a Day?
Hebrew:

ימ- Yom

Meanings:

1. Daylight hours ("daytime")
2. Solar day (24-hours)
3. Era (indefinite period of time)

Examples:

1. "During the day, the sun is hot."
2. "Two days from now, I'll be in Dallas."
3. "In George Washington's day…"

Two Views on Age of Earth Young Earth

• Days of Creation essentially 24-hour days
• Age of earth no more than 10,000 years old.
• No death of any kind before fall of man.

Old Earth

• Days of Creation as Eras or other mechanism to allow for older earth/universe.
• Gap theories; non-consecutive 24-hour days; (Einsteinian) relativistic days; progressive creationism; theistic evolution.

Views on Creation

Features	YEC	Prog	NC	Rel	Gap	Frame	TE	ID
24-hour Days?	Y	N	Y	Y/N	Y	N	N	N
Earth Age (years)	6-10K	4.5 Billion	Billions	Billions	?	Billions	Billions	Billions
Sequential Days?	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	N	?	?
Death before Fall?	N	Y	Y	Y	?	Y	Y	Y
Scientifically Testable?	N	Y	?	?	N	?	Y?	Y?
Macro-Evolution?	N	N	N	Y	N	?	Y	Y

Notes:

• YEC = Young Earth Creationism
• Prog = Progressive Creationism
• NC = Non-Contiguous (Creation days are solar days, book-ended by long age spans)
• Rel = Relativistic (invokes Relativistic time dilation for both solar day and era time-frames)
• Frame = Framework (creation narrative is about the "what" and not "when")
  
• TE = Theistic Evolution
• ID = Intelligent Design

Strengths of Young Earth View

• Arguably the best prima facie reading of the text.
• Deals with all death in one tight package.
• Reinforces the view that unregenerate man cannot understand the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:4)
• Seen as a bulwark against chaotic evolutionary theory.

Strengths of Old Earth View

• Addresses textual issues dealing with plant fruition (day 3), POV in purpose of observable celestial objects (day 4), etc.
• Coherently deals with design of predatory animals, their behavior, and ecological balance requiring life cycle.
• Separates primary judgment of spiritual death of mankind in Adam from secondary effect of physical death (Genesis 3:22).
• More aligned with testable scientific viewpoints.

"Decision Tree" for Young Earth

• If Earth actually appears young (but critics claim otherwise...), then either:
  
• Scientists are in a conspiracy to deny the truth

• Implication: We should only trust Christian doctors, scientists, engineers, etc. as secular schools cannot be trusted to tell the truth in any dependable sense.

• Scientists have their eyes blinded (Satanic conspiracy)

• Implication: The Noetic effects of the fall are so profound, we cannot trust the minds God gave us. God has only (partially?) shielded the minds of the elect.

• if Earth Actually Appears Old, then either:
  
• God purposed to deceive the unregenerate

• Implication: What are the purposes of deception allowed/commanded by God in scripture?

• We must receive special revelation (Bible) to understand the truth of nature

• Implication: How does this cohere with Paul's argument of the witness of nature in Romans 1:20

"Ponderables" for Old Earth

• To what extent are you varying from standard exegesis?
• Must interpretations of Genesis account involve "special pleading"?

• What have the "fathers" of the faith believed?

• Is the appeal more to natural reasoning or revealed truth?

• Is "Death" over-compartmentalized?

• What dangers lie in separating physical & spiritual death?

• Is physical death an inevitable or contingent effect of the fall?

November 19th Class Notes

Lesson 3: God

Review of Last Week’s Study: The Bible

1. General vs. Special Revelation
2. Inspiration
3. The Role of the Holy Spirit
4. Perspicacity (Faithfulness of the Text)
5. Inerrancy

Overview of this Week’s Study: God

1. The Trinity
2. Jesus Christ
3. Holy Spirit
4. Angelic Beings

The Trinity

We believe that there is one and only one true and living God, an infinite Spirit who is the Maker and Supreme Ruler of the universe. We believe the Scriptures reveal Him to be holy, sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, immutable, and full of love, justice, goodness, mercy, and truth. Although there is only one God, we believe that in the unity of the Godhead there are three eternal and coequal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe these members of the Trinity are the same in substance, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections; but distinct in subsistence, and executing different but harmonious functions. (Mark 12:29; John 4:24; Matt. 3:16-17 and 28:19; II Cor. 13:14)

Unity

• “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deut. 6:4
• “You believe that there is one God. “Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder.” James 2:19

Diversity

• Jesus is God (John 1; Col. 2:9; Titus 2:13, etc.)
• Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4)
• All three said to possess divine attributes of enternality, omnipresence, holiness, love, and omnipotence
• All three invoked in the Great Commission, as source of spiritual gifts, in prayers and benedictions, & at Jesus’ baptism

Unity in Relationship

• Old Testament hints (Gen. 1:26; Is. 6:8)
• “I and the Father are one.” John 10:30 (cf. 17:22)

Statement of the Mystery:
One substance (homoousios); three subsistences (hypostaseis)

Avoids errors of the extremes:

1. Modalism (sequential modes of God’s actualization)
2. Tri-theism (three gods)

Functional Differentiation:

	Father	Son	Holy Spirit
	(Source)	(Means)	(Continuing effect)
Creation	Spoke	Made	Sustains
Redemption	Plans	Provides	Applies
Relationship	Grace	Love	Fellowship

Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ is the pre-existent and eternal Son of God who became man in order to reveal God and redeem man. We believe He was supernaturally conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. In His person, we believe the Lord Jesus combined full and undiminished deity with true and perfect humanity to become the God-man. We believe Christ died on the cross as a substitute for sinful man, was buried, arose bodily from the tomb, ascended into heaven where He ministers on the behalf of saints, and someday will come again for His own. (John 1:18 and 8:58; Matt. 1:23; Col. 1:15-17; I Tim. 1:15 and 3:16)

Deity

• Explicit Scriptural attestations (John 1; Col. 2:9; Titus 2:13, etc.)
• Jesus’ theistic claims – Angels (Mat. 13:41); Forgiveness (Mark 2:5); Judgement (Mat. 25:31-46); Pre-Existence (John 8:58)
• Jesus accepts Thomas’ declaration (John 20:28)
• Jews saw His actions as claiming equality with God (e.g., John 5:18)

Scriptural problems with Deity

• “Firstborn of creation” (Col. 1:15)
• “Now this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3)
• “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28(b))
• “’Why do you call Me good?’ Jesus answered, “No one is good – except God alone.” (Mark 10:18)
• “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32)

Importance of Deity

1. Redemption
2. Reconciliation
3. We can know the Father

Importance of Humanity

1. Redemption
2. Understands humanity from the inside
3. Shows us true humanity
4. Model

• If salvation is to apply to man, then humanity
• If salvation is to apply to all men, then deity

Early Attempts to Reconcile

1. Adoptionism
2. Dynamic Incarnation (power of God in a human)
3. Kenoticism
4. Anhypostatic Christology (humanity as general)

[note: 1-3 emphasize humanity; 4 emphasizes deity]

Statement of the Mystery:
Fully God, fully man – without confusion, without division

Impeccability
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.”
Hebrews 4:15

Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, fully equal with God the Father and God the Son. Although He is of the exact same essence, we believe He is a personality distinct from the other members of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit, we believe, has an active ministry to the world in general which includes the restraining of evil, convicting of the unsaved, and bestowing of God's goodness on all mankind. We also believe He has a ministry to every Christian that consists of regenerating, sealing, indwelling, baptizing into the Body of Christ, and the giving of spiritual gifts. We believe some of these gifts such as apostleships and prophesying new revelation have completed their function and thus are not for the Body of Christ today. Nor do we believe that speaking in tongues or healing services are a part of Corporate worship. Other ministries to obedient Christians include filling, assuring, teaching, guiding, and comforting.

Gifts of the Spirit
Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, ability to distinguish spirits, various tongues, interpretation of tongues

Principles concerning Spiritual Gifts
A. 1 Cor 12:7; 14:5, 12 [For the edification of the body]
B. 1 Cor. 12:21-26 [All gifts are important]
C. 1 Cor. 12:11 [Spirit gives as He wills]

Angelic Beings
We believe that God created an order of spirit beings known as angels before the formation of the world for the purpose of worshipping and serving Him. We believe angels possess individual personalities and are intelligent, powerful, and inferior to God but superior to man. Lucifer, we believe, was one of the highest in rank of all the angelic beings in eternity past, but he sinned through pride and rebelled against God, thereby becoming Satan. We believe the Devil's proclaimed purpose is to oppose the plan of God and to promote his own evil program by deceiving and attacking men. In carrying out his work, we believe Satan is aided by other fallen angels known as demons or evil spirits. We believe these demons can influence, tempt, and control all men and even "possess" unbelievers. We believe there are unfallen angels, known as elect or holy angels, who carry out the Will of God by ministering to men.

November 12th Class Notes

Sorry this has taken so long to post. I'm going to be posting versions that aren't highly formatted in order to reduce some of the strangeness I've encountered in the past with Blogger.

Lesson 2: The Bible

The Bible
We believe that the books of the Old and New Testament, comprising the Holy Bible, are the inspired Word of God. We believe that the Holy Spirit supervised the writers of the Scriptures in what they wrote so that, using their own peculiar personalities, the very words recorded in the original manuscripts are the true revelation of God. We believe the Bible not only contains the Word of God but actually is God's Word and, therefore, is the complete and final authority for belief and behavior. We believe that this inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts of Scripture: historically, poetically, doctrinally, and prophetically. (II Tim. 3:16; II Peter 1:21; I Cor. 2:13; John 17:17)

General vs. Special Revelation
General Revelation – Primary texts Rom. 1:18-21; 2:12-15
The “Roman Road” of need:
Rom. 1:18-21, 2:12-15 -> Rom. 3:10-12 -> Rom. 10:12-15
Special Revelation provides the foundation for saving faith:

• Knowledge (notitia)
• Assent (assensus)
• Trust (fiducia)

Inspiration
We believe that the books of the Old and New Testament, comprising the Holy Bible, are the inspired Word of God.
Primary texts 2 Tim. 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20-21
Reasons (besides Scripture itself) for believing in inspiration

1. Prophetic fulfillment
2. Historical accuracy
3. Internally consistent
4. Influential

Holy Spirit
We believe that the books of the Old and New Testament, comprising the Holy Bible, are the inspired Word of God. We believe that the Holy Spirit supervised the writers of the Scriptures in what they wrote.

• John 14:26 - Teach all things and bring to remembrance the teachings of Jesus
• John 15:26-27 - Testifies of Jesus
• John 16:8 - Convinces of sin, righteousness, and judgment
• John 16:13 - Guide into all truth

Perspicacity
We believe that the books of the Old and New Testament, comprising the Holy Bible, are the inspired Word of God. We believe that the Holy Spirit supervised the writers of the Scriptures in what they wrote so that, using their own peculiar personalities, the very words recorded in the original manuscripts are the true revelation of God.

• 5,000 ancient manuscript fragments
• None agree in every detail but no discrepancy touches on an area of doctrinal importance and all substantial variants would only fill ½ a page of printed text

Criteria for Evaluating Variants

1. External Evidence: Date of manuscript, geographical distribution of variant
2. Internal Evidence: More difficult reading preferred, shorter preferred, verbal dissidence to near texts preferred
3. Intrinsic Evidence: Author style, Aramaic basis (in Jesus’ sayings), priority of Mark (for Gospel evaluations)

Inerrancy 1
We believe that the books of the Old and New Testament, comprising the Holy Bible, are the inspired Word of God. We believe that the Holy Spirit supervised the writers of the Scriptures in what they wrote so that, using their own peculiar personalities, the very words recorded in the original manuscripts are the true revelation of God. We believe the Bible not only contains the Word of God but actually is God's Word and, therefore, is the complete and final authority for belief and behavior. We believe that this inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts of Scripture: historically, poetically, doctrinally, and prophetically. (II Tim. 3:16; II Peter 1:21; I Cor. 2:13; John 17:17)

Inerrancy 2

1. Absolute
2. Full
3. Partial (Doctrine & Practice)
4. Infallibility
5. Accomodated
6. Neo-Orthodox

(these are ordered by decreasing strength/view of reliability)

No class November 26th

We just got word from Erica Haug that there will be only one service on November 26th (it's Thanksgiving weekend). As a result, we will not be meeting in our class that week.

What that means is our remaining three classes will all move back one week. I'll revise the Course Outline schedule to reflect that.

Questions from 11/12/2006

Here are the questions that emerged from the November 12th session. We'll flesh out these points as we either have more to write here or links to recommend the class.

Questions

• What of the "Q" source? There is a theory that a source outside of the Gospel of Mark supplied some of the information found in Matthew and Luke. Read the article linked above, and let us know if you have any other questions.
  
• Per Richard, a good reference on the canon of scripture is a book by Bruce Metzger. However, I missed the title (my bad - I'll ask Richard).
  
• Richard is going to flesh out what he talked about the Canon (wasn't in PowerPoint). Watch for another post and we'll work that in.
  
• Book of Enoch referenced in Jude. Why does Jude refer to a book (The Book of Enoch) we now considered not rising to the level of inspiration required for canonization? We had some discussion of this in class, and we'll probably continue this again in a later class.
  
• Fate of the Unevangelized - how much do we have to know? I believe Richard said we would touch on this more later.
  
• What do we mean by Evangelical? I'm again going to defer to Richard on the definition he gave after class.
  

Questions from 11/05/2006

Here are the questions from the first session. I had meant to post this earlier, but I had wanted to provide some direct links. We have talked about some of these questions in class, but I will re-edit this post as we come up with some good links.

Questions

• Canonization - how did we get the books we have; why were some books accepted, while others were rejected, etc. Richard answered some of this in the 11/12 session, however we can cover this some more if there is interest. Richard mentioned a book that he recommended for this, but I only got the author (Bruce Metzger). I'll ping Richard for the complete title and any other resources we can locate.
  
• Bible versions - why are there so many translations/versions, and what are the style types? I think we touched on this in class last week, and a bit this week. However, we'll try to post some resources here.
  
• Extraneous/controversial passages - why are some passages still included if it is believed they were not part of the original manuscripts; are there sections that might assume could be canonical but which might be controversial? Again, Richard touched on some of this today. However, I think we could do with some expansion on this.
  
• Justification - why not John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9 vs. Romans 10:9? This was a basic question about why "we" at HCBC UT seem fixated on this verse instead of others that more clearly show justification. The short answer is, this encapsulates the gospel as to how one enters into a saving relationship with God. However, we like all the scriptures! ;-)
  
• Child death & justification (per everyone's death in Adam). What does the Bible say in regard to children who die before they could possibly "make a choice" to turn toward God. Richard talked to someone about this after class. The short answer is that the Bible is ultimately silent on this point, although there are some scriptures which may be used to demonstrate God might bring some, if not all, young children to be with him under these circumstances (I'll post some scripture references later).
  

Course Outline

I'm posting the course overview document that we used in class. A few of you got the printout before you left today. I was finally was able to print to the printer/copier in the student room, so hopefully this won't be an issue again. If you'd prefer, you can download the Word document. I'll post a PDF version if anyone would care for that instead.

Discover the Faith Course

Location

Sunday mornings, 9:30 AM in the chapel at HCBC UT.

Course Facilitators

• Richard Lawson
• Greg Meece

Course Outline

Date	Topics
November 5th	Role of “Theology” in the Life of the Believer The Gospel message
November 12th	Statement of Faith 1: Revelation
November 19th	Statement of Faith 2: Trinity, Creation
November 26th	(no class - one service only!)
December 3rd	Statement of Faith 3: Fallen Humanity, Salvation, the Church, Eschatology
December 10th	Apologetics
December 17th	Tying it all together: Personal Evangelism

Class Format

• Administrative issues
• Opening prayer
• Topic coverage
• Discussion
• Closing prayer

Website

http://discoverthefaith.blogspot.com/

Contact Info

• Greg Meece - glmeece@gmail.com
• Richard Lawson - richard.lawson@verizon.com

Questions & Comments

1. Ask in class or after class.
2. Check the blog site. Friendly discussion threads are encouraged!
3. E-mail Greg or Richard.
4. If any confusion arises from statements in class and you have followed the above chain, please talk to Denny or one of the elders. If there are disputable matters, we are in submission to the eldership of this church; we will defer to them in all non-essential matters (and are already in agreement for the essentials!).

Class notes for November 5th, 2006

Here are the notes for our first class. I'll be creating a posting for questions brought up in class in a separate thread.

“Discover the Faith”

“Christianity is a way of life founded on a message”
J. Gresham Machen

Theology

1. What is “Theology” ?
A. Literally, “God-Study”
2. Where is it from and where does it lead?
A. St. Thomas Aquinas:
Theology is taught by God, teaches God, and leads unto God
Revelation -> Theology -> Knowledge of God
3. How does it fit in the “faith equation” ?
Faith = Knowledge + Assent + Trust
A. Louis Berkhof:
“Belief is sanctified human reason”

Knowledge – understanding information.
Assent – agreement with a perspective after thoughtful consideration.
Trust – assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something; dependence on something future or contingent.

Uses and Abuses of Theology

1. Abuses of Theology – Theology done badly
A. Barren intellectualism
B. Confuses
C. Divides

2. Necessity of Theology – Theology done well
A. Rom. 10:9-10 <- Belief required for salvation
B. Titus 1:1 <- Knowledge leads to godliness
C. Titus 1:9 <- Sound doctrine needed to identify falsity

The “Golden Rule” of Theology

In Essentials, unity
In Nonessentials, liberty
In All Things, love

Examples
1. Hymns vs. Praise music in church
2. Consumption of alcohol
3. Infant baptism
4. Literal hell of unending torment
5. Belief in salvation by faith alone
6. Deity of Christ
7. Christ’s atonement for our sins

What is the Gospel?

In General:
All that Jesus and the Apostles taught
Specifically:
God’s answer to our sentence of death
1 Corinthians 15:1-8
1 Timothy 1:15-16

Components of Gospel Message

In Adam, all died to God
All* have actualized that sin
The Penalty of Sin is Death
We have no ability to redeem ourselves
Jesus the Christ lived a sinless life, and paid the penalty for our sin in full
Salvation is by Grace along, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Administrivia

Website:
http://discoverthefaith.blogspot.com/
E-mails:
glmeece@gmail.com
richard.lawson@verizon.com

What's this all about, then?

Richard and I will be posting class notes, links, and other files on this blog. Let us know what you want to see here!