Theology 6320 Systematic Theology 2 (Online)
Examination Study Guide
Instructions: You may use a Bible, a concordance, or a Greek text, but no theology notes or theology books during the exam. PICK FIVE QUESTIONS TO ANSWER. Answer each question as thoroughly as possible with Biblical support.
1. According to Grudem what different factors or truths are involved in man=s being created in the image of God?
Man are being created in the image of God means man are like God and represent God (Gen. 1:26-28). God gave men great responsibilities and honor when created them. His creation, including men are good in his eyes (Gen. 1:31). They are created to glorify God (Isa. 43:7).
1) The image of God was distorted but not lost at the Fall. At the Fall,
…show more content…
Adam and Eve disobeyed God. As the result, sin and death entered the world (Gen. 3:19). The image of God was still in men, but distorted (Gen. 3:22). 2) The image of God are progressively restored in Christ. According to the plan of God, man are pursued by God. Jesus Christ came to the world to save the elected. They are new creatures in Christ (Eph. 2:15). They will be more and more like Jesus (Rom. 8:29) 3) The image of God will be fully restored at the return of Christ. 4) Specific aspects of God’s image in man: a) Moral: Men have moral consciousness (Eccles. 2:19-20). Even the most uneducated will know what is good and what is not. God put his moral characters into humans. b) Relational: God enjoys the relationship between the Trinity. Likewise, human are created relational beings. We cannot survive if not supported by a community. c) Physical: The senses like seeing, smelling, and touching are like part of God’s omnipotence. d) Intellectual: Knowledge comes from above. Human has the intellectual abilities because God created us with His intellect. e) Emotional: God is a God with personalities. He has emotions. He created us to have emotions. 5) Man are created with great honor because of God’s image (Ps.
8:3-8).
2. According to Grudem in what ways is man affected by sin?
Humans are deeply affected by sin. We have inherited guilt and inherited corruption from Adam.
1) Inherited guilt: Adam brought sin into us. He was a representative for all human race. Therefore, his sin spread to all men (Rom. 5:12). Because of his sin, we inherited the legal status of sin and death. Legally we are God’s enemy and are condemned. But if we believe in Jesus Christ, God reckons us as righteous.
2) Inherited corruption: sin does not affected our legal status before God. It also enters into the minds and hearts and even bodies. Our minds are polluted by sin.
a) We are unable to please God in God’s eyes. Because of the pollution of sin, we cannot do any good. The biggest sin is we don’t believe in God (Rom. 14:23). Even when we are conceived, we are in sin (Ps. 51:5).
b) We cannot have actions pleasing God. As sinners, we are dead in our transgressions. On the one hand, we do not do the things are pleasing to Him. On the other hand, we cannot stop doing the things are displeasing to Him.
3. What is a covenant, and what are the 3 different covenants mentioned by
Grudem? Grudem defined a covenant as an unchangeable, divinely initiated legal agreement between God and men that stipulates their relationships. 1) Covenant of Works God started the covenant of works with Adam and Eve in the Garden. The terms are if they obey the covenant, God will provide them and make them managing the land (Gen. 2:15). The condition is that they should not eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). If they do not obey, the punishment is death. 2) Covenant of Salvation The covenant of salvation is between the Trinity. God the Father initiated the plan of salvation (Gen. 3:15; Eph. 3:11). He elected the men to be saved. God the Son took the task of incarnation, crucification, and resurrection. He obeyed and accomplished the plan (Phil. 2:5-11). God the Holy Spirit empowered God the Son to accomplish the plan (Luke 4:1; Matt. 3:16). 3) Covenant of Grace This covenant is between God and the elected people of God. The condition is to have faith in Christ (Rom. 5:1). If not, then they will be condemned. This grace is to the unmerited sinners. It is not because of what they have done, but because of their faith in Christ. The sign is the baptism and the Lord’s supper. 4. What is Grudem=s ordo salutis, that is, what specific movements of grace are involved in the salvation of each individual sinner? 5. What does Grudem teach about both the baptism and the filling of the Spirit? 6. What purposes does Grudem set forth for the church? God designed the church to accomplish several purposes. 1) Ministry to God: we ought to worship God. Our ultimate purpose on the earth is to worship God. As a church, believers are to worship corporately and individually (Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19-21). 2) Ministry to believers: God’s people need the nurture of the church. They need edification, teaching, preaching, discipleship, and prayers. 3) Ministry to the world: God shows His love to the world by the church doing evangelism and mercy. We have to look after the believers, as well as the nonbelievers (John 13:35). God’s love is manifested through the work of the church (Matt. 32:37-40). 4) Balance of the three: It is always easier to go to extremes. The churches have different emphasis on their ministries. However, we should have a balance of the previous three categories. 7. What different forms of church government does Grudem discuss? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? 8. What different views does Grudem discuss concerning the presence of Christ in the Lord=s Table? There are different views of the Lord’s presence in the Lord’s Table. 1) Transubstantiation: This view is by the Roman Catholic Church. They believe at the Lord’s Table, the bread and the vine mysteriously become the body and blood of Christ. Usually, only the priests can take the vine. The believers can take the bread. This view has the problem of Christ has made the sacrifice (Heb. 10:12-14). By this method, Christ is being sacrificed many times. It is not the teaching of the Bible. 2) Consubstantiation: The Lutheran church holds this view. Martin Luther believes although Christ has made the sacrifice, the physical body of Christ is with the bread and the vine. This view is mysterious. They believe the literal interpretation of 1 Cor. 11:29 and believe it is indeed Christ’s body. 3) Symbol of Christ’s death: Most of the protestant churches hold this view. The Lord’s Supper is in remembrance of Christ (1 Cor. 11:24). Christ’s body is not physically present. However, Christ is spiritually present with us, when taking communion. By taking the communion. We affirm our belief in Christ. We are nurtured by Christ. We affirm the unity in Christ.
“What is sin?”(1), Dr. Hoenikker asks in the book “Cat’s Cradle.”(2) The Christian Bible describes sin as, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.” (3) Sin has become the creator of fear throughout history. The fear that God will punish those who sin but, that fear is a false threat to control people. Sin creates the illusion that the universe is based on morals, when in fact it is completely amoral.
He didn’t want us to sin, as we were to be perfect in his eyes. But that all went away after Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and this is when sin was introduced into the world (the Fall). Sin is now just a human nature thing in us and now we keep making poor choices as we have the “sin” blood in us and we need to make the right choices daily to keep us sin free.
consequences of sin. Paul confirms this in Romans 3:10, “There is none righteous, no not one.”
lead a good life. He wants us to know that we can sin, its completely
perspective of man is that he was created by a divine Creator with a specific
We are all sinners. Although one may try hard not to sin, all humans eventually succumb at some time or another to sin. While people may not able to avoid the fate which awaits them, the power of free will allows people to decide how they will respond to sin. While some may respond with guilt and regret, others may react with a sense of redemption and a renewed sense of responsibility.
One might ask, What exactly are sins and where did they come from? According to Oxford Dictionary, a sin is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. Sin is what started the fall of humanity that is still manifested in today’s time. Adam was the first of God’s human creation. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:16–17). Sin entered the world when Adam disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. “God gave to man the power of contrary choice. Man of his own will, by no external compulsion or determination, used that power in the commission of sin… ” (Reddit 10). The effects of Adam’s sin are profound and and they affect everyone. A few things that stand out in Reddit’s explanation of it is that “sin is lawless, universal and results in satanic bond”. Sin is lawless because its is breaking God’s divine law. “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness” (1John 3:4). Sin is universal because, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” and the evil one who is Satan. An objection could be that
The result of sin, then, would be considered a blurring of the image of God and a barrier between God and man. In addition, salvation is a process not of justification, but of reestablishing man's communion with God (Ware 155-161).
Often we are told that our wrongdoings will prevent us from going to heaven. In the world of religion, the people who act as saints are the ones who achieve a celestial life. However, that does not put a halt to people’s sinful acts. Sins often make us feel a sort of pleasure and happiness in the moment, yet our guilt overshadows those thoughts afterwards. It is the thought of doing something outrageous that excites us, not the action of doing it. In spite of this, one cannot expect a person to be fully virtuous for that is not how nature molded us. Achieving happiness from a corrupted act becomes a problem, once it is done constantly, but I see no wrongdoing in gaining some contentment once in awhile from our vices. Consequently, I believe there is no way to solve the problem completely, only ways to diminish it by reminding ourselves that guilt may haunt us sometimes.
Although the concept of original sin is derived from the story of Adam and Eve's disobedience recorded in Genesis, the term "original sin" and the concept of a hereditary sin passed on to the entire human race are totally absent from the Old Testament and the gospels. Jesus is not recorded as ever having mentioned original sin, and Genesis relates only that the sin of the first parents brought consequences upon them. The theology of original sin developed out of questions that arose in the third century concerning the custom of infant baptism. “St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) is credited with developing the traditional doctrine in response to Pelagius, who denied original sin.”# Augustine appealed to Scripture to blame Adam for original sin and to the existing practice of infant baptism to defend the idea that the sin is passed on to all Adam's descendants, an idea subsequently endorsed by St. Thomas Aquinas. Original sin was taught by the Council of Carthage in 418 A.D. and the Second Council of Orange in 529 A.D. “The doctrine was formally defined by the Council of Trent in its Decree on Original Sin (1546 A.D.)”# The basis of ...
“By one man 's disobedience, many were made sinners” (Rom. V. 5:19). First articulated by Augustine (A.D. 354–430), the doctrine of original sin holds that all of Adam’s descendants inherit the guilt of Adam’s sin and thus incur the punishment for Adam’s sin. To understand sin entirely you must first know the background of the first ever sin. Original sin can differ in the different branches of Christianity like Catholicism and Protestantism. Questions are raised more and more about original sin through the writings of theologians. Questioning sin is something that is raised throughout culture and time. A thought could be brought up years earlier and then could be proven right or right in our culture and time. This paper is to not only teach
I have a very pessimistic outlook on human nature. I genuinely believe in the statement made by St. Augustine, in his writing of the “City of God”, that the “man is marked by the original sin” and has “fallen after disobeying God”. All this, of course is in reference to the sin
Humans have a sinful nature and have to be filled with the Holy Spirit to be changed.
One may ask what exactly does it mean to be made in God’s image. For someone not familiar with the Christian religion may find this as confusing. Living in God’s image does not exactly mean living as if you are God, which would blasphemy, but instead use our attributes that God has given us that are similar to His own. Christians are aware that God’s image is holy, merciful, benevolent, just, independent, and also rational since he has the ability to reason. Thus since humans were created in God’s image, we all encompass these characteristics.
The first man created on earth was Adam and since he sinned, it was passed down to his descendants. Psalms 51:5 states, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” It is natural to sin because we are sinners by nature. If we are willing to participate in sin all of our lives and choose not to give it up, we will push ourselves further away from God. Since we are born is sin we ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” to avoid taking action of sin. Willard claims that “it is not sufficient to see us boldly and confidently through a crisis, and can find ourselves driven to despair over powerless tension it will put us through (Willard 9). Our actions are what makes us further or closer to the lord and many of us choose “to withhold our bodies from religion and that can exclude religion from our lives” (Willard 31). God is a forgiving God when we ask for forgiveness of things that we do wrong in sin. People want to transform their life over to God, will be considered to be a different kind of person in which 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, “Old things that have passed away and, behold all things have become new” (Willard 20). God loves us no matter what we do but it is best to give ourselves to