On a damp winter’s evening many years ago in London a colleague of mine and I were discussing the subject of predestination and he gave me his take on the subject. He said to me that he was convinced that predestination meant that because God had chosen him as one of the elect then no matter what he did he would not be lost. He told me that if he was stealing his neighbour 's cow, he was actually leading it by a rope towards his house and the trumpet sounded and time was no more he would go to be with God just as all the Christians everywhere. My response was simple; so what are you God 's elect doing stealing your neighbour 's cow, does that not make you a thief?
This is part of the dilemma we face because some people do not seek to know God 's word fully being satisfied with cherry-picking through the Bible as if the bits they don 't like can be randomly discarded. When we are dealing with the Bible it is essential to remember that the Bible is truly one book in sixty six sections and nowhere does it contain contradictions because God cannot contradict himself. It is therefore crucial that when we engage the Bible to seek its truths we remember the words of Jesus, "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4) We seek truth by looking at and accommodating every word in the Bible that throws light on the subject for to do otherwise is to be partially informed and we open
Have you ever had a problem carry your life? The key that unlocks the door in this verse is interesting and simple it is to obey what the Lord tells you. Whether it makes sense or not — you are to obey! The moment we begin to obey we enter into a new life to gain momentum and strength. We no longer view things from what once previously paralyzed us.
In fact, a bible verse begins each chapter. Yet the message that I walked away with was that God is okay with whatever you do, right or wrong. I have no problems with the fact that God uses our mistakes and sins for His purposes, but I don’t use that to continue doing the wrong thing. Let me provide a quote from the book that exemplifies what I am talking about. “Learning to walk on eggshells back then must have been God’s way of toughening my nerves to enable me to keep my cool in the drug business.”
In this book, the main point Gonzalez wants the reader to understand first and foremost is just being able to see the Bible through the eyes of a person of Hispanic decent. This forces the reader to see the Bible in a whole new perspective. It’s vital that each person should be able to understand biblical concepts and be able to identify with them. It’s part of what makes the Word so powerful for many. The author feels an importance to point out that it is critical that every person be able to have this type of connection to the Scripture, understanding that backgrounds and life views play a role in this type of comprehension.
When talking about the bible it is not important to reach the conclusion on the conversation it is important to start the conversation.
Interpretation of the bible needs to be an open mind. Some people are going to think differently of the bible than you; but you have to keep an open mind because there is no right or wrong answer. You also have to forget what everyone else is telling you about the bible to be able to have your view and interpret what you think of it with the opinion of other people. The bible does not only have one view and as Brueggemann states, “The Bible requires human interpretation which is inescapably subjective.”
This ties back to the opening quote I reference from “Rescuing Jesus”. Justin Lee a gay student at Boila University, comes from a fundamentalist understanding that the Bible is the inherent word of God. Yet, just as Rob Bell began to discern, when upon further study, Justin discovers that if we are to take the new covenant that Jesus Christ provides to heart, than we are by no means to be judge and jury on someone’s existence let alone sexual orientation. “With these standards in mind, it became much easier to interpret Scripture’s difficult passages consistently”.
His obedience to God was honored after it was noted Daniel’s choices of food and drink made him stronger. The king spoke with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Nebuchadnezzar found them to be ten times better than all other magicians. All four men received knowledge and understanding, while Daniel received the ability to understand visions and dreams (Daniel 1: 8-19). Daniel’s character was determined because he resolved in his heart to follow after Jehovah God regardless of the cost.
Vanhoozer, Kevin, Charles Ansderson, Michael Sleasman, eds. Ordinary Theology: How to
Perused Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends. Terrific Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2007.
Ordinary Theology offers the conversation starter, "How would we decipher society?" Seminary understudies and ministers work to see how to peruse Biblical writings.
This being the case, Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy is a book on the doctrine of inerrancy where five Christian scholars, R. Albert Mohler Jr., Peter Enns, Michael F. Bird, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, and John R. Franke discuss their various perspectives on biblical inerrancy, narrowing the focus on four significant issues – (1) God and his relationship to his creatures, (2) the doctrine of inspiration, (3) the nature of scripture, and (4) the nature of truth (Merrick & Garrett, 2013, p. 22).
SUMMARY
For the interest of this paper, I chose the first chapter titled “When the Bible speaks, God speaks: The Classic Doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy” (Mohler, 2013, p. 29) by R. Albert Mohler Jr. who asserts that the evangelical faith would become indistinct without the doctrine of inerrancy and thus crucial. Mohler is basically quite straightforward and outspoken about his position that “there is little basis for any hope that evangelicals will remain
Our worldview is the lens that we make sense of life and should be intentional as we adopt a philosophy of life that is informed by something greater than ourselves as Christ should be our example, according to 1 Peter 2:21 “for [as a believer] you have been called for this purpose, since Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you may follow in His footsteps” (Amplified Version). For this reason, our moral compass when based on a biblical worldview should influence how we approach making decisions as it pertains to business ethics (Porter,2013).
To what extent do your personal religious (or non-religious) beliefs about life impact your sense of business ethics and personal decision-making?
Every decision that I reach
However, Boethius’s views on God’s knowledge more strongly illustrate this point because they place a greater distinction between God’s knowledge and our will, by placing God outside of the temporal world, changing the conception of foreknowledge. Both theories are successful in accounting for human free will and the excellence of God, blending the two idea to allow human beings to determine their own live within the space provided by the all powerful
Though Mark 16:16 states this, there are also other passages in the Bible that may be considered contradictory. Such as Luke 18:16: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Both sides have evidence to believe that one may be truer than the other. In my eyes neither is really wrong. All religious believer
The bible is what helps keeps our faith alive as it contains a rich amount of history that tells us of God’s revelation and the ways how our faith works. Although the bible contains numerous works of different people, it is still a work of God that helps our faith remain constant and grow, as everything written was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In some way, I was able to understand the value also of the other books, as before I did not really take interest of the other books included bible, aside from the likes of the Gospels, Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, and Proverbs. Nevertheless, I realized that the books are all part of the bible as each has a purpose to serve and stands as a testament to the infidelity of mankind, and of God’s unfailing love for
