In the past, I have talked about two prominent views in Christianity concerning the restorative effect of the cross and resurrection.
One of these views claim that the world is fallen and only mankind is being restored. People with this view of the gospel tend to look at the world, culture and this life as a thing to escape because it is beyond hope. This makes heaven the place we are escaping to. This approach is called Dualistic Christianity.
The other outlook states that everything is being restored and that God is indeed at work here in our world, culture and life to bring about a vision of “Eden” on the earth now. In this view, earth isn’t something to escape, it’s something to be involved in and bring about the reality of heaven in the here and now. This is called Wholistic Christianity.
The key to understanding the Christian story lies in viewing the Biblical narrative in its “cosmic-ness.” We need to see just what original Creation consisted of in order to understand the Fall and Redemption properly. When someone says “Cosmic Creation” he/she is emphasizing the grandness and large-scale interrelatedness of all that Creation “IS.” It is cosmic; it is more than just “two people in a Garden.” Imagine for one moment that the Fall had never occurred, it is easy to see this multi-faceted interrelatedness. It is obvious that we would still be doing much of what we are doing now. We would be building streets, laying pipelines, doing science experiments, practicing our various trades, reading, learning, growing, working, etc. The only difference is that we would do these things without sin/fallenness being a factor.
Everything would have been done to the glory of God and always in a sense of worship. The doctrine to ...
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...ed yet, is being redeemed presently. “By grace through faith in Christ”, all of the man is being redeemed. All of the places of Creation are being redeemed. All of the things of Creation are being redeemed. All of the inherent institutions and great ideas of Creation, that is, the very intangible infrastructure that is built into Creation are being redeemed. And lastly, all of the activities carried out in Creation are being redeemed. The redemption is “cosmic” because it is proportional to the Fall and affects all of Creation. Christ’s redemption/restoration is something much bigger than “God saving humans.”
What about you? Our very creative God has given you numerous talents and creative ways of bringing about “good” things in this life. Do you view this life as a place to escape from, or as a place redeemed that you can bring about the realities of “Eden” to?
Christian Beliefs in the Origins of the World “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. ” A Description of Christian Beliefs About the Origins of The World Christians believe that God created the universe. In Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, we are told that God creates both the universe and everything that is in it.
Christianity falls under the category of Theism, which is the belief in only one personal god. Christian worldview believes that God sent humanity His only son so that we can learn about God and how He wants us to act. Jesus is crucified later in His life on a cross, which relieved us from losing a relationship with God due to our sins. When analyzing the Christian worldview, we learn that God came to earth in human form as Jesus Christ to experience life with humanity and restore earth back to harmony. In this paper I will discuss God, Jesus, and humanity individually, how restoration will occur, and finally, analyze and reflect on the Christian worldview.
of children, rising up and teaching them. He says that salvation will come from the people
... defines the scriptural meaning of the word “day” and explores its usage throughout the Scriptures to provide evidence for a literal six day creation. MacArthur dispels the notion that each day was a long period of time, an idea held by old-earth creationist, through scriptural insight that “whenever the word [day] is modified by a number the clear reference is to a normal solar day” (40). To MacArthur the word day marks “clearly defined boundaries” instead of indeterminate span of time (39). MacArthur beautifully challenges his readers to see that the purpose of Scriptural account of creation is to reveal an infinitely powerful God, who created everything perfectly in a short period of time (41).
Jewish mystics explain that before manifest creation, everything that ever would be was contained within the Creator as pure potentiality. This field without end created vessels through which its divine energy could pass and differentiate, each representing a specific attribute, such as wisdom, compassion, kindness and strength. The energy being transmitted was so powerful that the vessels shattered. It is said that some of these shattered pieces of divine energy fell to earth as sparks where they have remained all these eons.
For nothing is self-sufficient, neither in us ourselves nor in things; and if our soul has trembled with happiness and sounded like a harp string just once, all eternity was needed to produce this one event—and in this single moment of affirmation all eternity was called good, redeemed, justified, and affirmed."
In the garden, a seemingly perfect being, Adam, is aligned within the sphere of God, joined by their dualistic and shared image. Yet as Frye Northrop points out, “In the soul of man, as God originally created there is a hierarchy…the reason… the will, and the appetite” (Northrop, 458). It is with little surprise that such a perfect body does not remain whole, as Adam takes not...
All people have a worldview based on personal beliefs that form their reality and what they feel is meaningful in life. I am a Christian with a biblical worldview, which is based on the word of God. My faith in Jesus as my savior is what drives the meaning of who I am and the importance of life. The Book of Romans 1-8 provides the word of God and answers questions about how Christians can live a righteous life for our savior Jesus Christ.
A worldview according to R. Albert Mohler Jr. “…recognizes that the only way cognizant, aware human beings can operate is in a complex of thought that does not require us to rethink everything all at once, all the time.” (Piper and Mathis 59). In other words, human beings hold to a set of assumptions which determine the decisions that they make. In a Christian worldview, these assumptions are, “…Christ centered and Biblically based” (Power Point 6) and may thus differ from a secular world view.
Starting back at the very beginning of this process is the most dangerous aspect of this entire process we follow to gain a worldview. In today’s society there is a variety of versions of “God.” Depending on which God you believe in, your community and culture could be very far fetched from what the truth is. The overlying theme behind every formation that coincides with any worldview can be asked in one question. What is the purpose of my life? As Christians, we should be involved in society’s version of “popular culture.” We are called in the Bible to be the salt of the world, as the salt we shouldn’t be merely consuming the culture in which we live in, we should be part of it, adding everything we can.
All people have a worldview that is based on personal beliefs forming their reality and what they feel is meaningful in life. I am a Christian of faith that has a biblical worldview, which is based on the word of God. The Book of Romans 1-8 provides the word of God and answers for how Christians can live a righteous life for our savior Jesus Christ.
creation into existence, and at the very moment God speaks the Son and happiness into
The doctrine of salvation contains various aspects. The intent of this research paper is to provide a general overview of salvation from the angle of justification, propitiation, grace, redemption, and sanctification.
Every day God created something new and blesses it. God created nothing irrelevant or unworthy. Entirely everything he created served a purpose. Also all he had created came from nothing. The fish were undeniably produced out of the waters, and the beasts and man out of the earth; but that earth and those waters were made out of nothing. God created what is known as the world today and everything that exists on the earth. Reading Genesis 1 gives all mankind an idea of how life started and how the earth was formed to be this magnificent place. The earth is very complicated yet God could solve all of the problems and create blessings. He gave us light and darkness, day and night, water and land. He created all living creature including mankind.
I am a human being created in the image of God. My purpose on Earth is to spread the word of God to the world. The world that he has blessed us with is beautiful, but is often tainted by the endless sins that we commit. It’s our job to take care of the earth, but sometimes it’s easier to just ignore our tasks. The problem with the world today is that we do whatever we can to take the easy way out; the world ignores Scripture and relies on a worldview based by our culture. The Naturalist world believes that God doesn’t exist; they believe humans just happened through the evolutionary process by chance. The problem with this is the ignorance that arises toward God’s beautiful creation. We get caught up with our society and don’t take the time to realize all of the thought and time that God has put into making it.