This course has challenged me beyond any of my expectations; more so spiritually than academically. Several of the questions that were asked required us to reflect on our beliefs and place ourselves on a scale caused me to doubt the lessons I learned from my church. I realized what we are taught at church is presented as the only option mainly because no other perspective is provided. For example, there is a range of beliefs on the inerrancy of the Bible, but it seems that children growing up in the church do not realize there is a range. More importantly, in terms of this debate, people need to realize the view the “the Bible comes from God,” fits both infallibility and inerrancy and so they need to further examine their beliefs to see where …show more content…
As stated before, evaluation of faith is a process, but I have also had a couple more insights. One of them is that the process of understanding my own faith is going to take place in day to day activities. Through my day different events will happen reminding me of the question I am debating and add to my knowledge. The important part then is to keep track of what I learn. Additionally, I truly develop my thoughts on any issue through conversation so I look forward to the conversations I will have in the coming semesters. For example, some of the conversations I have had with people that developed my faith were about the violence of God in the Old Testament and the inerrancy of the Bible specifically in relation to some translations. These discussions allow me to see other people’s perspective which in turn changes my own …show more content…
Now, when I think about the Bible, I think of how it was formed, possible errors and the different sections. These themes we studied have changed my definition of what the Bible is, and its character. However, those topics relate more to the history of the Bible so considering my trust in the Bible has not changed my goal to continue reading my Bible and studying it more is the same as the beginning of the semester. I may use some of the helpful guidelines we were given to read the Bible; probably more during academic study than recreational study. One reason I may not follow those guidelines often is once we learned them, we did not put them into practice. I would have liked to spend more time reading passages and practicing the steps. This would have allowed them to become a habit and would contribute to using them more. The more effort it takes and the more that it feels like following a list of steps the less likely I am to use them. Feeling like it is a series of steps is going to slow me down and is one of the reasons I might not use the guidelines, especially while reading the Bible for
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This section of a verse from the NRSV started the grand story of the bible. In the beginning the Bible brings two things to focus. The two things that are focused on is the setting and the main characters of the Bible (Professor Smallbones). The Bible opens in Genesis 1 with God creating. God creates light, the earth, the sun, living creatures, and many other things, but most importantly God creates humans. As God is the main character in the grand story he immediately forms a personal relationship with man and woman. God created Adam the first man and Eve the first woman. In the book, The Unfolding Drama of The Bible, Anderson says, “The
The most highly referenced and revered as sacred are The King James Version, considered a masterpiece of English literature, The Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, The Aprocrypha, the books believed left out of some bibles, The Vulgate, the Latin Bible used for centuries by the Roman Catholic religion, and The Septuagint, the first ancient Greek translation of the Tanakh (Geisler and Nix 15, McCallum 4). The Bible is considered a sacred text by three major world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many believers consider it to be the literal truth. Others treat it with great respect, but believe that it was written by human beings and, thus is often contradictory in its tenets.
In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000 is a great exhibit for people in their teenage years and anyone older. I really like the way the web page is set up. There is a video interview playing at the start of each informational page at the top of the page and there are pictures in the video and to the right of the text of the different discoveries of ancient biblical texts. I like all of the visual aids in this exhibit. In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000 is an exhibit I would recommend to anyone interested in the history of the bible; it is very informative and user friendly. I enjoyed reading about the ways that Christianity spread throughout the world and how the bible evolved from papyrus, parchment, and animal skins to leaf-books, manuscripts, and hard cover books. I admire that the creator of the exhibit has included a “resources” tab at the top of the page for people to view a chronological list of the events talked about in the exhibit. There was also a “who’s who” section in the “resources” tab explaining who each character in the exhibit was throughout history and their importance.
The Bible as a Historical Document MARK'S THEOLOGY REFLECTED IN WRITING Mark and the other evangelists used basically five ways to change, edit or enhance Jesus' sayings to reflect their own views of Christianity. According to the Five Gospels Book, plagiarism and changing of writing was not a crime, but actually very common Mark's time. Besides, Mark never knew Jesus first-hand, he somehow had to make a 'story' from basically Hearsay!
The Bible is a large and rather confusing book of laws, parables and true stories. The most important story in the Bible, in the story of Jesus ' birth. These two passages which tell of Jesus ' birth are, especially because Christians, at least the majority of them, base their beliefs on it, along with his death. Matthew and Luke are the only two books out of the sixty-six in the bible which give detailed descriptions of the monumental event. There is the main idea in American culture that the Birth story is clear, that there are not any issues between Matthew and Luke 's stories. However, there are many conflicting facts in the two books, although most of them are easily thought, though, there are some that are a little harder to explain,
Christian faith and Ethos is the class I am taking this term. The professor 's name is Reverend Leroy Leach Jr. The class is about God, the creation, and how to read the Holy Bible.
There are many aspects of the Christian worldview that determines one’s faith. It all begins with God and what he did and why he so great. Then how humanity was shape with its issues and main purpose. The way we see Jesus and what has he done to be apart of are faith and what as humans have found for a restoration. Through analysis the Christian faith and how each of these tie in together. While reflecting on my faith and if lives to the standards of a Christian worldview. Through explaining my understanding of the four aspects of a Christian worldview I will analysis and compare it to my faith.
I began this course thinking my worldview was that of a Christian Theist, as I had come to discover, as the course progressed, my worldview was a mixed bag of beliefs outside the elementary belief of Christian Theism. I was not disheartened by this finding, but surprised. The realization then set in that I was uneducated or did not know God like I thought. In fact my beliefs appeared to be more influenced by society than the deity of God. Fortunately, this is a learning experience intended to bring me closer to the truths of Christianity and an understanding of the beliefs of others.
The biblical narrative is one that is still going on to this day. The biblical narrative tells the story of God and how he reveals himself to us. Rhodes points out that “God comes to each through a historical event or series of events” (2). It is in this way that God reveals himself to us and this maintains the relevance of the biblical narrative in our lives. God reveals himself through formative stories in the bible such as Creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall of Man, The Flood, God’s Covenant with Noah, and the Tower of Babel. From the very beginning of the biblical narrative we see that God relates to us on a personal level. He created us, he formed us, he created the world in which we live, and he has been an active participant in the narrative since before it began.
In the following essay, I have chosen to use Emile Durkheim’s body of theory on the understanding rituals to make a sociological analysis of the social media marketing campaign, known as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, seen on the social media site Facebook. Both aspects will be compared throughout the essay, addressing both the question of the extent to which the challenge is a ritual, and whether its context alters this. Emile Durkheim’s original book the Division of Labour in Society (1893), states how two very different forms of solidarity, mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity, are the basis of how social order appears to be maintained within the different societies. Within Durkheim’s book he describes how he believed there was
One of the biggest issues for me was a lack of historicity of the Bible. This is true generally for the history of ancient Israel and specifically for events like the Creation Story, the Exodus, the conquests of the Promised Land, and the Kingdoms of David and Solomon. While I generally knew that the creation story was not factually true, prior to this course, I tended to overlook the details of the untruth, i.e., the implications of this inaccuracy. What the course made me confront was how I conveyed this information to those who believed every word. What is it truth that would emanate from the story of creation that I could convey those who held fast in that faith and belief in the accuracy of...
The desire to study God’s word to obtain a personal connection is a pursuit for many believers. Beginning a course to study and engage with the word at a collegiate level can be overwhelming and intimidating. Even though one may read the word countless times during their lifetime, understanding the reading material academically and historically is a different concept to master. Personally, I was apprehensive about my overall ability to retain the information and comprehend the context of the scientific and historical aspect of God’s word. However, Tarwater wrote in a manner that was engaging and invited me into the historical importance of the words and understanding God. From beginning to end, Tarwater
Starting classes at Vanguard was a terrifying experience for me, I didn’t really know anyone and I had been homeschooled most of my life, as soon as I walked into New Testament Survey I felt at peace. If there was any class that I was going to really enjoy and take things from and apply them to my every day life I knew it would be this one. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the bible, and gaining more and more insight each time I went to class. Every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:30 I was excited to be going to class. Each week when I did the reading for the quizzes I learned more and more and each day I developed a stronger knowledge of why I believe exactly what I believe.
As a child, I was raised to know there is a God. Any problems in your life can be solved by praying to "our father '. The Bible to me is a guide through life as a cheat sheet is helpful to a test. In life, you will overcome multiple obstacles and also tests. The only way I know how to get through the laborious times in life is to reach out to God. To me, the Bible is a hands on learning experience about how to get through life itself The Bible teaches you how to get through every season in your life. The Bible has an answer for every issue in your life such as depression, financial hardships, losing a loved one, relationships , and strength. In life, you always have to have faith the size of a mustard seed. When
However, after getting to know the lesson more in detail and better, I realized that my perception of the topic was wrong, as “Divine Revelation” is much broader and more meaningful than we realized. Furthermore, I was able to understand better how “Divine Revelation” or simply God’s revelation is still very much present in modern times today.