Welcome to our first online course. We are going to be going over basic Lutheran doctrine. We will cover one section each week. It will consist of some basic teaching from Scripture and from Luther's Small Catechism. There will be questions that you can answer every week and periodically there will be a test. You can either answer these questions and take these tests for yourself and keep them to yourself, or feel free to send the answers in either through this blog or my e-mail address at fredrickhearn7@hotmail.com. You can also mail them into the church if you would like. If you are not a member of this church and desire to be, you can take this course and then meet with me to go over the tests and what you have learned. If you are going to be a member we would also like to see you in church of course.
So where do we start? Well how about at the beginning? In other words let's start with God himself.
How do we know that God even exists? Anyone out there ever see Him? If you have there are treatment facilities available for you. No I don't think any of us have seen God walking down the street lately. So how do we know that there really is such an entity?
Here is a good way to find out. Assuming you are in Phoenix, get in your car and drive a couple of hours north to the Grand Canyon. Walk out on one of those observation points and look out. Yes there is a God!. No it's not the old guy with a white beard and a backpack hiking to the bottoom. Think broader picture here! Look at the vastness and intricate wonder of it all. Did this happen by chance? Now step back from the ledge and feel your heart beating and try to remember all those images of the inside of the human body that you have seen on the Discovery Channel. Do you remember that your body is made up of more than just skin and bones, but also all kinds of veins, and chemicals and plumbing? Your brain is an intricate mass of stuff that would slide through your fingers like mush and yet controls your emotions, your bodily functions and a million other things. Do you also remember that if certain things in your body were off by just a little bit that you would die? Do you think you happened by chance? Now look up at the stars and universe above you. Isn't it interesting that the planet earth just happens to be located at a perfect distance from the sun to sustain life? Isn't it interesting that even in places like Arizona the tempature stays at a point that we don't all burst into flames? Isn't it interesting that the chemicals in our air and in our water are perfect to sustain life and if they there altered just a little bit life would come to an end? Did this happen by chance? Or was there a grand designer who put it all together?
Okay you can stop looking at the stars. Now I want you to look within yourself. Have you ever felt guilt because you knew you did something wrong? If there is no God and everything is random and by chance, why would you feel that? How would you even know if something was wrong? You say because I have a conscience. But where did you get that conscience from? Did it just happen by chance? Or is there a God who created you to know the difference between right and wrong?
The point here is that all people have a natural knowledg of God whether they are a Christian or not. It is impossible to honestly look at the created world around us and not see a designer. It is impossible to look at the complexities of the human body and not see God's hand in it. It is impossible to look at our conscience or the in born knowledge of right and wrong and not see God. The fact of the matter is there are very few Atheists. The ones that are, are living in a delusion.
Here are some Scripture verses you might want to look up: Genesis1:1; Psalm 14:1; Hebrews 3:4; Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:19-20; 2:15; Acts 14:17; Romans 1:32; Acts 17:26-27
Some questions:
According to Acts 17:26-27 what is the reason that God has given this natural knowledge of himself to people?
According to Psalm 14:1 what is an Atheist?
The last question is: Is this natural knowledge of God enough for our salvation?
Next week we will talk more about our knowledge of God and also about the Bible.
Pastor Fred
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6 comments:
It really hit me about God's existence when contemplating the human conscience. It is inconceivable to me to think all this happened by accident. Sandy Cornelius once quoted a statistic about the "chances" of our human bodies coming together in the correct DNA sequence. Sandy - if you read this, do you remember that "1 in a..." statistic. I just remember it being unfathomable.
It's not just enough to believe in God. We must also acknowledge His righteousnes and His requirement of righteouness in us - which is only available through God's Son, Jesus - who is both God and Man. He sent Jesus to be our righteouness - living perfection. Through our belief in Jesus, his death and ressurection for our sins, comes our salvation.
In response to your question, "Is this natural knowledge of God enough for our salvation?", I would tend to think not. Belief in God the Father does not save you. Only belief in Jesus Christ (by the Father and through the Holy Spirit) saves an individual.
Ugh! I just spent an hour typing in my comments and lost it all!!! I hate that!
In response to question one. "God did this so that 'Men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him.'
Like a parent, God wants to connect with his children. How sad it must be to have children that do not acknowledge you...and thus this leads into the next question about the atheist. An atheist "There is no God." Yikes it sounds blasphemous. The word brings out visions of a black hole a void an endless black vaccuum of hate.
Question number 3
In acts 2:21 and everyone that calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. NIV
Is forgiveness of sin our salvation? Or is salvation Eternal life? Are (even the non believers) forgiven of sin?
I thought I had this figured out...
I have this book called "The Cross of Christ" By John R.W. Stott great book...I believe I may have just answered my own question about Sin and salvation. There is no salvation with sin. Jesus died upon the cross to rid us of sin and thus giving us eternal life spiritually and physically. The bible seems to portray sin as a penal system that states if you sin (which we all have) then you are not perfect and are not worthy of eternal life.
It's all coming together now :)
Jesus died our death on the cross.
Christ died for us that he might bring us to God.
Christ died for our sins. "the wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23
Christ died for us. seems all very logical.
So...to answer the question...if I can remember it now. Does having knowledge of God mean you are saved?
...the saga continues...
Everyone receives the gift that Jesus gave when he died upon the cross... yet this is two fold there are also laws that one must live by. So here is another question. If one has knowledge of God and let us say that this knowledge encompasses everything that Jesus' gift entails plus the commandments then that person knows the laws (what God expects from us ten commandments yada yada yada...) and the salvation of the cross. Yet, they chose not to follow those laws and they chose not repent from their sin... (ouch) Does this person with "There knowledge of God" are they saved?
MMMMMMM
That would be up to God...
The probability of DNA forming randomly is less than 1 divided by 10 to the 80th power. Mathematicians agree that any requisite number less than 1 divided by 10 to the 50th power has, statistically, a zero probability of occurrence (and even that gives it the benefit of the doubt). And that's just one DNA molecule, and our body is made up of millions of different DNA molecules, most of which had to come together simultaneously for things to work. The odds against random evolutionary factors creating us are unfathomable. This is all backed up by supercomputer computations that were not available in Darwins day. Darwinism is a philosophy, not a valid scientific theory.
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