Sin and All It Has To Offer In order to know and understand the Christ’s comfort in life and death, one must know sin (Baard, 2014). In order to understand this concept, one can use these comparisons: knowing light vs. darkness, good vs. bad, weak vs. strong, and finally, shalom vs. chaos. God’s creation was, for all tense and purpose, a state of utopia. Throughout Genesis’ creation story, the reader is reminded that” it was good.” A person’s mind’s eye takes them to a place that is foreign to their current existence. Plantinga’s explanation of how shalom is represented in the Bible is apropos: “universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight – a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights.” (1995, p.10) What happened to the utopia where humanity lived harmoniously with God, but also all other living things, and have the privilege to be caretakers of it, or to be able to walk alongside God and be with Him? The faithful Christian longs for that again; but as pointed out earlier, humankind must understand sin. The following discussion will strive to comprehend the complexities of sin; its origin, the implications it has on the human condition, and to see the masterful work of God as Creator and as Redeemer and His response to humanity’s actions. An understanding of sin and its
Human flourishing encompasses the uniqueness, dignity, diversity, freedom, happiness, and holistic well-being of the individual within the larger family, community, and population (PCC, 2012).
Once the nature of Adam’s sin is understood to be his refusal to suffer out of love
Throughout the course of humanity’s history many questions have risen that have posed a problem to us as a species. Questions such as the following: What is the proper relationship between individuals and society? What is beauty, and why is it important? Is there purpose in human existence?, and many others have caused enough trouble in humanity’s short existence on the earth to cause a near identity crisis. However, all of these questions fall under the shadow of the main question that has been asked since the creation of Adam- “What exactly is the real relationship and purpose of humanity towards the divine?”
This essay will compare Christianity and the Naturalism worldviews. Christianity is man’s desire to live according to the principles outlined in the Bible. Naturalism on the other hand is rooted in man’s will being the sole purpose of their existence. Both have had long term effects on the world in which we live. They both illustrate the way man treats one another. The question that is asked in both cases is what this relationship means; how it affects the believer, and does it change the way the world is viewed.
Book 3 of Mere Christianity contains 12 separate chapters, which has far too great a scope to address properly here, so a glimpse will have to suffice. In the first, Lewis examines three components of morality; the relations between men, the interior moral mechanics of a man, and the relationship between a man and the God who made him. Lewis makes the case that, since we are destined to live forever in one state or another, it is desperately important that we pay attention to the sort of Being we are becoming. Lewis points out that most of humanity can agree that keeping relations between men running smoothly are important, but varying world views and religions-or lack of religion, have produced some disagreements on the necessity of keeping one’s own ship in order, as it were, and it completely breaks down when the relationship between a man and his Maker are addressed, as there is virtually no agreement there.
Altogether, I have discussed the natural world, human identity, human relationship, and culture. All of these topics are touched on throughout Romans chapters 1-8. This essay has helped me better grasp that we are all on the same level and we all need to treat each other with the same love and respect that we show God because God created us in His image. As we all sin we all have God for our salvation just letting Him into our lives is what it takes to gain eternal life and not because we fear the bad things but because he deserves all of our
A proper assessment from a biblical-anthropological perspective needs to take into account the image of God as part of human nature. The three dimensions of the image of God (relational, structural and functional) form the core of human nature. Humans are relational beings with the structural capacity to relate to others and fulfill their purpose in this life. These three dimensions were damaged or affected after the Fall. As discussed previously, normality and pathology are connected with the sinful human condition.
An omnibenevolent God created a man with the capacity to sin; as Augustine has addressed, the evil in man resides from his will. Augustine, however, does not address how evil stems also from the human nature of temptation that was a consequence of the original fall from Eden. Augustine touches on this theme when accounting for the origins of his sin, but he never fully declares it. “I loved to excuse my soul,” Augustine begins, “and to accuse something else inside me (I knew not what) but which was not I. But, assuredly, it was I, and it was my impiety that had divided me against myself” (62). Here, Augustine admits to denying his own human nature to sin, and blames it on something beyond his will, such as a result of creation. Bonner,
(Diffey, 2014) Humanity was created to know and worship God. Being made in His likeness means that humans have been created with both spirit and body, also possessing many of God’s attributes. Some of these attributes are creativity, love, logic, reason, and a sense of right and wrong. God also gave humanity the privilege to care for and have dominion over earth, which gave humanity value and a higher purpose. (Herring, 2008) Soon after God’s perfect creation, sin entered the world, bringing about the Fall and introduced pain, suffering, and death to the world. (Gen. 3: 6, 14-19) The Fall is the root cause of human problems and caused humanity’s departure from God’s wisdom. (Diffey, 2014) Humanity has the capability to love because we are made in the image of Christ, however, humanity’s nature is flawed and sinful by nature. (Diffey, 2014) All of humanity has sinned, and fall short of God’s glory. (Romans 3:23 NIV) It is because this that we need a Savior.
When you look around and gaze at the beautiful creation before you, do you reflect on how amazing God is? God made the creation, man, and everything surrounding the two. There are many different worldviews. This paper will focus on the Christian worldview. The Christian worldview involves God, humanity, Jesus, and restoration.
The author also addresses four themes to help the reader gain an understanding of the Christian world view which include creation, fall, redemption and consummation. Creation addresses the understanding of who humans are and how it relates to the world that we live in. The fall deals rebellion against God in the garden. Redemption speaks about the forgiveness of our sins that came through the savior of Jesus Christ. Finally Consummation pulls all three previous topics together and is the start of the integration at its core.
Our worldview allows us to see into the world at such an angle that it coincides with our beliefs, therefore affecting how we think and live. Whether one falls under an atheistic, pantheistic, or theistic worldview, they are guided in their life choices depending on the beliefs of their worldview. Throughout this paper, I will summarize the elements of a Christian Worldview such as God, Humanity, Jesus, and Restoration; I will then analyze questions one might have about the Christian Worldview, and finally I will reflect on my worldview.
God does not hold Himself distant from His creation, but He embraces it; He walks with it. He engages with that which He created. The story of Creation shows that the author of it all is personal, intimate, and cares about what He created. Act one gives us a glimpse of how the world was supposed to be; a beautiful, intimate, God –in –the –midst life of perfect satisfaction with the absence of sin. However, this all crumbled in Act two when Adam and Eve decided to disobey God and take their lives into
Albert Wolters, in his article “Fall from Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview,” describes the whole curse of sin in the human existence by the sequence creation-fall-redemption and argues that only God can redeem this currently “worldly” creation corrupted by evil as an external “parasite” in the God´s perfectly-created earth. In the first part, Wolters explains that the original plan of God was to make earth to be very good, but then the original sin corrupted this holy world affecting “creation as a whole.” (53) This was way, sin corrupted human behavior. However, the consequences of fall extend further human behavior because sin also corrupted the non-human things like the arts, science,
Before sin fell, Earth was a place of paradise. Everyone could live in harmony and man could walk with God. Once Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, sin entered the world and man became disorderly. Today, people try to control their sins by going to therapy, taking some medication, meditating, etc. Thomas More wants to return to a perfect Utopian society similar to the land of Paradise. In order to fix a broken society, More uses the seven deadly sins (lust, greed, sloth, envy, gluttony, pride, and wrath) to set up a logical fix to man’s fall. His goal is to simplify and remove the temptation to commit sin. A society made to remove sin may seem logical in More’s eyes, but his philosophy for the use of gold and silver, the management of the slaves, the political system, and Utopian clothing are unattainable.