...compass. — S. D.]THE NECESSITY OF REVELATION. — The absolute necessity of a divine revelation is sufficiently established. If God be the sole Fountain of light and truth, all knowledge must be derived from him. "The spirit of a man may know the things of a man; but the Spirit of God can alone know and teach the things of God." That is, the human intellect, in its ordinary power and operation, is sufficient to comprehend the various earthly things that concern man's sustenance and welfare in social life; but this intellect cannot fathom the things of God; it cannot find out the mind of the Most High; it knows not his will; it has no just idea of the end for which man was made; of that in which his best interests lie; of its own nature; of the nature of moral good and evil; how to avoid the latter, and how to attain the former, in which true happiness, or the supreme good, consists: and these things it is the province of divine revelation to teach, for they have never been taught or conceived by man.How unspeakably we are indebted to God for giving us a revelation of his WILL and of his WORKS! Is it possible to know the mind of God but from himself? It is impossible. Can those things and services which are worthy of, and pleasing to, an infinitely pure, perfect, and holy Spirit, be ever found out by reasoning and conjecture? Never; for the Spirit of God alone can know the mind of God; and by this Spirit he has revealed himself to man, and in this revelation has taught him, not only to...
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...Part 1 ISAIAH Grace Marshall Year 10 1. Who was this prophet? Is the son of Amoz, was a member of the royal family. A prophet in Jerusalem; 40 years 740-701 B.C. He had great religious and political influence during the reign of Hezekiah. Isaiah is the most quoted of all prophets. 2. What were they concerned about? Faithfulness to god, justice for the poor, hope for the future, messianic prophesies, god as lord of all nations. 3. Where did they preach their message? Isaiah 1: Israel, in a time of war and strife. They knew that they were going to have to go to battle but were unsure that God would defend them as they were not obeying his rules. that if they return to God their homeland will be returned too. Isaiah 3: Israel , Having turned back to God they have their homeland back but Isaiah is warning against becoming complacent again. 4. When did the prophet live? 742-500 B.C. Isaiah 1: 6th century Isaiah 2: 8th century Isaiah 3: a short while after the return from exile 5. How did the prophet communicate god’s message to the people? Poetry, narrative, and example. 1. Warning the people 2. Redemption 3. Redeemed them – keeping the good up. 6. Quotes. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners * He was...
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...I am going to describe the outbreak of revival during the Great Awakening. First of all the Great Awakening was a Christian revitalization movement that swept Protestant Europe and British America and especially the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American religion. It resulted from powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of personal revelation of their need of salvation by Jesus Christ. Some historians have speculated that the shift from rural and agricultural to urban and commercial styles of life may have engendered guilt in those leaving "the old ways" behind. In a few towns the rapid spread of revival followed closely upon the heels of serious illness, especially the "throat distemper" (diphtheria) which carried away large numbers of New Englanders in the 1730s. In other awakened localities, economic problems had been a troubling source of tensions. Some merchants worried about the effects of conflict following Britain's declaration of war on Spain in 1739. Many others joined the merchants in concern about the absence of an adequate currency. It deemphasized the importance of church doctrine and instead put a greater importance on the individual and their spiritual experience. The Great Awakening arose at a time when man in Europe and the American colonies were questioning the role of the individual in religion and society. It began at the same time as the Enlightenment which emphasized logic and reason and stressed the...
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...What are five presuppositions for the task of theologizing? ➢ 1) there is a God and He has revealed Himself, 2) there are laws that are self-evident, 3) man has the ability to know things to the degree to which he directly observes them, 4) truth does not contradict itself, but is consistent and corresponds to reality, & 5) the mind accepts that which is logical and rejects that which is illogical. What are the tests used to verify theological truths? Explain. ➢ 1) test of consistency, 2) test of correspondence, 3) test of priority of data (what’s essential or irrelevant?), 4) test of cohesiveness, & 5) test of thoroughness (examine beliefs) pg. 12 What is the aim of Biblical theology? ➢ To arrange and classify the facts of revelation, confining itself to the scriptures for its material, and treating of doctrine only so far as it was developed at the close of the apostolic age. Where does Biblical theology get its material? ➢ Apostolic age What does historical theology study? ➢ The expression of theology in each age with an examination of its expressed aim, emphasis, omissions and forces that change its expression from generation to generation since the closing of the canon. What does dogmatic theology study? ➢ Study of varied beliefs and creeds of different religious sects and orders throughout church...
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...Islam and Judaism Islam and Judaism share a common origin in the Middle East and share many cultural and philosophic aspects between themselves. The similarities in the two religions derive largely from the influence of Muslim culture and philosophy on the practitioners of Judaism and Islam. In the Middle East Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are the three great religions. They all share similarities, especially in their origin, but also hold their differences. Judaism is a monotheistic religion, as is with Islam. It originated from the Hebrews, who believed that God was their special protector and was everything, the most powerful, and is present everywhere. Like Islam, Judaism has a holy book called the Torah, a sacred recording of laws and events in the Jewish history. The Jewish faith believes that God gave them the Ten Commandments through Moses, “the Lawgiver”. According to the Jewish tradition, God made a covenant, or agreement with Abraham, the founder of Judaism. Islam was strongly influenced by Judaism. Islam was founded by Mohammad and also holds a monotheistic approach to religion. Just like Judaism it has a holy book similar to Judaism’s Torah, called the Koran. The Koran contains the sacred text as spoken to Muhammad from God. The Koran not only teaches about God, but about how to lead a good, faithful life. Muslims believe in one all-powerful, compassionate God, known in Arabic as Allah. Similar to the Ten Commandments given by Moses in Judaism...
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...DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON DIVINE REVELATION Dei Verbum Solemnly Promulgated by His Holiness, Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965 The full text is available at http://www.cin.org/v2revel.html Numbers in square brackets [x] are footnotes which are found at the end of the document. PREFACE 1. Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod takes its direction from these words of St. John: "We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love. CHAPTER I REVELATION ITSELF 2. In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature (see Eph. 2:1S; 2 Peter 1:4). Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as...
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...Bibliology: Is the Bible credible? By Matt Massey Professor Ted Marvin Theology 3305 – Lectures in Systematic theology Outline I. Definition of Bibliology II. Importance of the Bible III. Reasons to trust the Bible A. The “A Priori Argument” B. The revelation of Jesus Christ C. Fulfilled prophecy of Scripture D. The suffering of the apostles E. The power of the message of the Bible F. The inexhaustible infinity of revelation G. Unity of the Bible H. Transcultural Appeal I. The honesty of the Scriptures J. The superiority and influence of the Bible K. The test of personal experience and the inward witness of the Spirit L. The indestructibility of the Bible M. History and archaeology gives credibility to the Bible N. The completeness and timelessness of the Bible O. The claims of the Scriptures themselves IV. Closing Bibliology is simply “the study of the Bible.” For Christians, the Bible is the most sacred of books and on it hinges the entire religion of Christianity. Were the Bible to ever collapse, Christianity would have no foundation on which to rest and it too would follow suit shortly thereafter. For the skeptic, the Bible is a book in which good ideas, morality, fables, myths, and oftentimes blatant lies are contained. It is the express purpose of this paper to examine the evidences which give rise to the credibility of the Biblical text. There are a great many different aspects of...
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...ASSIGNMENT UNGS 2030 ASSIGNMENT UNGS 2030 TITLE WORLDVIEW : MEANING, NECESSITY AND ELEMENT ACCORDING TO MUSLIM SCHOLARS TITLE WORLDVIEW : MEANING, NECESSITY AND ELEMENT ACCORDING TO MUSLIM SCHOLARS LECTURER : MD. YOUSUF ALI SECTION: 2 LECTURER : MD. YOUSUF ALI SECTION: 2 NAME : MUNA AMANI BINTI FISAL MATRIC NO : 1218352 THE DEFINITION AND CONCEPT OF WORLDVIEWS From the perspective of Islam, a 'worldview' is not merely the mind's view of the physical world and of man's historical, social, political, and cultural involvement in it. According to Prof. Naquib Al-Attas, the worldview of Islam is not based upon philosophical speculation formulated mainly from observation of the data sensible experience, of what is visible to the eye nor it is restricted to the world of sensible experience, the world of created things. Islam does not concede to the dichotomy of the sacred and the profane. He says that the worldview of Islam encompasses both al-dunya and al-akhirah, in which the dunya-aspect must be related in profound and inseparable way to the akhirah-aspect, in which the akhirah-aspect has the ultimate and final significance. The dunya-aspect is seen as preparation for the akhirah-aspect without thereby implying any attitude of neglect or being unmindful of the dunya-aspect. What is meant by 'worldview' according to the perspective of Islam, is then the vision of reality and truth that appears before the mind's eye revealing what existence is all about;...
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...just released a new book entitled “Dream Encounters,” in which she claims Christians can have access to a secret dream language that God uses to reveal “hidden knowledge” to believers. In this book Breathitt tells believers they will be enabled to use the “revelation” obtained from God through their dreams in order to unlock their “destinies” and live lives in which they are “productive, responsible, successful, prosperous, loved and fulfilled” (p. 138).i According to Breathitt, this is done by decoding information that God has “embedded” into our dreams and through which he continues to communicate with us in personal, ongoing revelation. But there are three significant problems with what Breathitt teaches, and I will attempt to develop why these issues are unsupported by Scripture. The three problems are as follows: 1. Breathitt’s teaching is more in alignment with a pagan and superstitious—even New Age— worldview than Christian 2. Breathitt puts forth the idea that each believer has a “destiny” waiting to be unlocked, accessed, known and lived out, an idea that is contrary to the teaching of Scripture—that, as Christians, we have no “rights” to our lives. And finally, 3. Breathitt's teaching about ongoing, personal revelation from God goes against the clear teaching of sola scriptura, which is that God speaks to us through scripture alone. Dream Interpretation is New Age To help explain how I can make the assertion that Breathitt's teaching on “dream interpretation” is much closer...
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...God’s incomprehensibility and the need of communication between God and Man are the main reasons for the necessity of the Scriptures. The inmate behavior of the fallen man to distort an oral comprehension of the divine truth required a written revelation to teach the human generations about the complexities of the sacred Word of God. The Holy Bible is the way God made a Statement to Man about his fallen state and the Way of Redemption from that. This statement by God was a necessary, sufficient, rational and authoritative mode of Communication to generation after generation of human kind. The topic of necessity of the inscribed Word of God is unfortunately, a topic which is discussed rarely. Some theologians do talk about the necessity of the divine revelation, but that is different from the topic of the necessity of Scriptures because not all revelations are inscribed. The scribed word of God does not comprise the totality of divine revelations (John. 20:30). It is important, however for a theology student to understand the necessity behind the scriptural form of the Word of God. In order to evaluate if it was necessary that God gave the Scriptures to the man, one should understand the meaning of necessity as well as what the Scriptures itself tells about the necessity of the Scriptures. DEFINITION OF NECESSITY Dictionary defines Necessity as “the fact of being required or indispensable” which means that it is the situation that is bound by some constrained circumstances...
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...Job Principal: A Christian leader must never question his faith in God or God’s decisions. Key Verse: Job 42: 5-6 "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." Explanation: The book of Job describes a man who had his faith in God put through numerous test. In the story of Job Satan questions Job’s faith in God . He believes that Job’s faith in God is only strong because God protected him from evils in life. Satan wanted to be allowed to test Job’s faith. God did allow for Satan to test Job’s faith but only within reason. When Job began to lose the things that he had once cherished so much in his life he began to question his faith in God. One of Job’s friends tells Job that he needed to remain strong in his faith especially at this time in his life. Job’s story provides a great lesson to Christian leaders about remaining strong in their faith. God may allow Satan to put his people through certain test in life but staying strong and remaining faithful to God is the key to surviving them. Christian leaders may encounter many obstacles during their leadership but they must never stray from God’s faith. Isaiah Principal: Key Verse: Isaiah 6:8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Explanation: The book of Isaiah is also referred to as The Book of Salvation. Isaiah served as a powerful prophet sent by God to warn his...
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...So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas,Master! For it was borrowed".(2 Kings 6 vs 4,5). While the Sons of the Prophets were mowing down wood for their proposed new building, one of them suffered the indignity of his borrowed axe head falling into the river. They were in the process that would produce the raw materials for their new house, and suddenly, one of them faced that embarrassing moment of losing his borrowed axe head. The Person who borrowed the axe head may have concealed this issue of borrowing; but when the axe head fell, the concealed issue was revealed. The embarrassment of the axe head falling into the water revealed a hidden embarrassment of someone who had no axe head of his own! Nevertheless, notice that when the axe head fell, the Prophet was on hand to save the day. The one who lost the axe head may have seemed vulnerable in public, but the Prophet was standing by to help. Prophets were God's representatives in Old Testament times; so, when it seemed that embarrassment was brewing, God was on time to save the day. Isn't it true that Life has a way of revealing the same things we try to cover up? We try to conceal embarrassing issues in our life and life reveals it in embarrassing manners. Beloved, hear God's Word: When life makes you seem vulnerable, God is standing by to save you from the shame. You may be close to...
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...‘God is most clearly revealed to us through scripture’ Revelation is the communication of knowledge from a divine agency. There are two types of revelation, which lead to the writing of scripture. These are general and special revelation. General revelation is information God that is available to all people at all times, such as awe inspired by nature. Special revelation is religious truth delivered to someone directly from God. I will argue that the traditional notion of god is most clearly revealed through scripture. Propositional revelation comes under the category of special revelation. It consists of God directly revealing truths about his nature to a human. These are often then relayed through scripture. The important thing about them is that they are facts about God, and thus the bible is absolute truth. Faith in this case, is a ‘belief that’, so in order for us to believe some propositions to be true, faith is require. This is a view supported by Aquinas, who thought that faith was based on something factual, unlike opinion, but not as certain as science. An example of propositional revelation is the 10 commandments. If one is to take the bible literally, then they were given to Moses on the stone tablets direct from God during a theophany. However, this contradicts many ideas about god. It is often argued that God does not reveal himself to us directly as it would compromise our freewill, but in this account it suggests that he directly revealed himself to Moses...
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...Religious Knowledge system is defined as a specific system of belief or worship that focuses on knowledge claims about spirituality and the metaphysical nature of the world (Alchin & Henly, 2014). Memory of the past plays a pivotal role in these systems as beliefs about a religion are often communicated through cultural (shared) memory. These beliefs can be demonstrated through tales and anecdotes told to each generation. However, the usage of memory to depict how a religion functions can lead to a disagreement between faith and reason; yet through memory these diametrically opposite WOKs can to great extent play an important role in our understanding of a religion. Therefore, Ways of knowing (WOK) such as memory through cultural knowledge form the fundamental premise of religious knowledge systems. Cultural memory is a memory that is recalled by more than one person. This is also quite an effective way of knowing, as sharing a memory among people makes it more likely for the memory to be accurate. The problem with this type of memory is that it is not always true. Details of experiences are often distorted over time, often influenced by personal view and bias, showing that a memory is not always the truth. For example, in Christianity, the myth of a white Jesus is ingrained throughout Christian history. As early as the Middle Ages and predominantly during the Renaissance era, Western artists portrayed Jesus as white man- often with blue eyes and blondish hair. Perhaps these...
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...The Power of the Word 1 of 4 https://www.lds.org/general-conference/print/1986/04/the-power-of-the-... April 1986 General Conference Ezra Taft Benson President of the Church This address, prepared for delivery at the Friday, 4 April 1986, Priesthood Leadership Meeting, was delivered in part by President Benson. The complete text is printed here at his request. My dear brethren, what a thrilling sight it is to look out over this body of priesthood leadership and to know how many thousands of Saints you serve and how much dedication and faithfulness you collectively represent! There is no other body anywhere in the world today that meets for the same righteous purpose as does this group, nor is there any other group— political, religious or military—that holds the power that you do here tonight. We live in a day of great challenge. We live in that time of which the Lord spoke when he said, “Peace shall be taken from the earth, and the devil shall have power over his own dominion.” (D&C 1:35.) We live in that day which John the Revelator foresaw when “the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 12:17.) The dragon is Satan; the woman represents the Church of Jesus Christ. Satan is waging war against the members of the Church who have testimonies and are trying to keep the commandments. And while many of our members are remaining...
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