Final_Essay_Exam

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Philosophy

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Feb 20, 2024

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THEO 626 What would you consider the top three issues relating to the doctrine of God that evangelical Christians need to address in the church and in the academy? The three most important issues relating to the doctrine of God are His sovereignty, holiness, and wrath. All of these aspects of the doctrine of God are interrelated and I suppose they should since we are talking about God. Because they are interrelated when we degrade one aspect of God we tend to degrade others, until God is no longer God, he is just a higher, more achievable image of man. The sovereignty of God is God’s exercise of His rule over His creation. 1 Open theists characterize God’s sovereignty as one that has God limiting his power in order to share His divine creativity in order to invite mankind to share in the control of what the future may be. 2 The Holiness of God has a relational and moral quality to it meaning that He is separated from sin and devoted to seeking His own glory. 3 As I mentioned these are interrelated and so it would make sense that if we deny God’s holiness we would also deny His wrath. Our culture tends to over emphasize the love of God without truly understanding the love of God, and we tend to ignore or minimize God’s wrath. The wrath of God means that He intensely hates all sin. 4 The reason(s) why you are of this opinion The problem with God’s sovereignty is not that God rules, but somehow impedes our freedom. In the American culture and even more so in the military context submitting to God’s sovereignty means to give up some perceived freedom. We can see this in a woman’s right to choose what she will with her body in the form of birth control. We see this in the increase children being born into homes without a married mother and father, and the popularity of homosexuality as a normal and healthy sexual orientation instead of an aberrant one. We want to do what we will and not have anyone tell us otherwise. Bruce McCormack writes that if sovereignty means control then people tend to reject this notion of God. 5 If one is to look at scripture like Colossians 1:16, Psalm 103:19, 1 Timothy 6:15, and 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 then a picture of God is painted as king who not only executes His 1 Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: an Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1994), page 217. 2 David F. Wells, Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World (Leicester: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005), page 243. 3 Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology , page 201. 4 Ibid, page 205. 5 Bruce L. McCormack, ed., Engaging the Doctrine of God: Contemporary Protestant Perspectives (Edinburgh: Baker Academic, 2008), page 178.

THEO 626 dominion, but is also worthy of having dominion. The rejection of God’s sovereirnty is the rejection that we must answer to someone other than ourselves either today or in the future. The church in America is looking increasingly like Europe. We are shifting from a culture built worldview that God controls all things to a humanist culture that desires to expel Christianity from the public square and is mocked and ridiculed. 6 All we have to do is see Tim Teebow giving praise to God on the football field or Rick Santorum using his faith as a guide for social issues to see the ridicule in play. Part of the reason people reject the sovereignty of God is a linkage to evil. Since God is holy then how can He permit evil to exist? This linkage has people either rejecting God’s sovereignty or His holiness. Either God does not control all things or He is not morally perfect and so evil exists. Another linage to holiness is God’s love. If God loves His creation then why does he allow evil to exist? Because many people over emphasize the love of God without truly know what the love of God is, they tend to under emphasize or to totally ignore God’s wrath. Vanhoozer writes that those who deny God’s wrath attempt to reduce God to purely of Love. 7 Evil does exist, but since some are inclined to think of God as the God of love and not the God of wrath, they fail to see God’s exercise of wrath towards evil in the world. God’s wrath is looked upon as a personal attach upon mankind instead of judgment of a holy God upon mankind for sin perpetrated by mankind. 8 The emergent church ignores the fact the Bible speaks of God’s wrath as it does of God’s love. 9 What two or three books or articles you plan to read in the near future addressing these issues (include a brief annotation detailing the significance of each) I have purchased and skimmed the book Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications by D.A. Carson. I feel this book will give me insight into the emergent church and as the title suggests conversant as well. The American religious landscape is changing. How will we react to the challenges facing this nation as the country moves away from claims of being a Christian nation to one that has evolved into a humanist one? Another book that helps to engage the emergent church is Evangelicals Engaging Emergent. These two books will help me engage people in my military context that are largely unchurched, and with broadly defined ideas of God. 6 Lillian Kwon, “Apologist: Christianity Losing Out to Secular Humanism?” Church & Ministries, http://www.christianpost.com/news/apologist-christianity-losing-out-to-secular-humanism-43802/ (acces sed March 4, 2012). 7 Kevin J. Vanhoozer, ed., Nothing Greater, Nothing Better: Theological Essays On the Love of God (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001), page 161. 8 D. A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2005), page 181. 9 Ibid, 169.

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