God and Worldview Thinking:

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WHAT IS TO BE HUMAN?
Welcome Again!
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Overview of Lecture for Humanity Sin

• What is humanity?
• Made in the image of God?
• Humanity Sin.
• Summary of Mind-Body Views.
• History of Humanity in 6 summarizing words
• 6. Humanity Culture.
• 7. Concluding Thought.

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1. What is humanity?

• What a freak, what a monster, what a chaos,
  what a subject of contradiction, what a marvel!
  Judge of all things and imbecile earthworm
  possessor of the truth, and sink of uncertainty
  and error glory and rubbish of the universe.
• Blaise Pascal, Selections from the Thoughts,
  tran Arthur H. Beatte (New York
  Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1965), 68.

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1. What is Humanity?

• Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but
  he is a thinking reed. The whole universe need
  not arm itself to crush him a vapor, a drop of
  water is enough to kill him. But even though the
  universe should crush him, man would still be
  nobler than what kills him since he knows that he
  dies, and the advantage that the universe has
  over him, the universe knows nothing of it.
• Blaise Pascal, Selections from the Thoughts,
  tran Arthur H. Beatte (New York
  Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1965), 30.

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What is Humanity?

• The essential paradox here-the greatness and
  the misery of humankind-flows out of two
  important truths. God created humans as the apex
  of his creation our chief end, in the words of
  the Westminster Catechism, is to glorify God and
  enjoy him forever. But each human being is
  fallen, is in rebellion against the God who
  created him and loves him.
• Ronald Nash, Worldviews in Conflict, 48.

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2. What does it mean to be made in the image of
God?

• 1. Image content
• 2. Image dominion
• 3. Image community
• 4. Image representation
• 5. Image holism.

Personality
Responsibilities
Relationships
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Image includes Dignity to the Human Body

• Matter is good and reflects Gods glory (Gen.
  131 Psalm 191 1 Tim. 44)
• Both male and female (which entails bodies) are
  in Gods image (Gen. 127)
• Killing a body is wrong because it is included in
  Gods image (Gen. 96)
• Resurrection of the body reveals that it is part
  of the whole person made in Gods image (1 Thess.
  4).
• Geisler, Systematic Theology God Creation,
  2452.

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3. Humanity and Sin

• Christianity simply will not make sense to
  people who fail to understand and appreciate the
  Christian doctrine of sin. Every human being
  lives in a condition of sin and alien from his or
  her Creator. Each has sinned and fallen short of
  Gods standard (Rom. 323). As John Stott
  counsels, sin is not a convenient invention of
  parsons cleric to keep them in their job it is
  a fact of human experience.

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Consider the following

• The sin which separates us from God and
  enslaves us
• is more than an unfortunate outward act of
  habit is a deep-seated inward corruption. In
  fact, the sins we commit are merely outward and
  visible manifestations of this inward and
  invisible malady, the symptoms of a moral disease
  . Because sin is an inward corruption of human e
  we are in bondage. It is not so much certain
  acts or habits which enslave us, but rather the
  evil infection from which these spring.
• John Stott, Basic Christianity, 75-6 cf. Nash,
  Worldviews in Conflict, 48

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Original State
X
MAN IS CRUEL
ALWAYS CRUEL
BECAME CRUEL
X
CHANGED BY SOMEONE ELSE
CHANGED HIMSELF
CREATED CRUEL
GOD IS EVIL
GOD
SATAN
FREE WILL
GOD IS EVIL
MAN IS NOT RESPONSIBLE
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A 5-fold definition of Sin

• Sin is a transgression of the law of God
• The Greek word parabasis means overstepping,
  transgression.? God gave the Mosaic law to
  heighten mans understanding of His standard and
  the seriousness of transgressing that standard
  (Rom. 415). Thereafter, when God said, You
  shall not bear false witness, a lie was seen to
  be what it is an overstepping or transgression
  of the law of God (Rom. 223 514 Gal. 319).

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5-Fold Definition of Sin

• Sin is a failure to conform to the standard of
  God.
• The Greek word hamartia means miss the mark,
  every departure from the way of righteousness.?
  Thus, it means that all people have missed the
  mark of Gods standard and continue to fall short
  of that standard (Rom. 323). This involves both
  sins of commission as well as omission. Failure
  to do what is right is also sin (Rom. 1423).

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5-Fold Definition of Sin

• Sin is a principle within man.
• Sin is not only an act but also a principle that
  dwells in man.? Paul refers to the struggle with
  the sin principle within (Rom. 714, 1725) all
  people have this sin nature (Gal. 322). Hebrews
  313 refers to it as the power that deceives men
  and leads them to destruction.? Jesus also
  refers to sin as a condition or characteristic
  quality? (John 941 1524 1911).

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5-Fold Definition of Sin

• Sin is rebellion against God.
• Another Greek word for sin is anomia, which
  means lawlessness (1 John 34) and can be
  described as a frame of mind.? It denotes
  lawless deeds (Titus 214) and is a sign of the
  last days, meaning without law or restraint
  (Matt. 2412).

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5-Fold Definition of Sin

• Sin is wrongful acts toward God and man.
• Romans 118 refers to ungodliness and
  unrighteousness of men. Ungodliness refers to
  mans failure to obey God and keep the
  commandments related to Him (Exod. 20111)
  unrighteousness is seen in mans failure to live
  righteously toward his fellow man (Exod.
  201217).
• Paul Enns, Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago
  Moody Press, 1997), 310.

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SYNOPTIC CHART ON HARMARTIOLOGY
TERMSTOCONSIDER State at Birth Ability Guilt
In Adam Rom. 512
PELAGIANISM Innocent Can
obey God None Not At All (We sin
like Adam)
WESLEYAN/ ARMINIANISM Depraved Can
Cooperate With God Potential Propensity (Or
Seminally)
MODERATE/ PRINCETONIAN CALVINISM Totally
Depraved (Extensively) Can Cooperate with
God Legally and/or Naturally Legally and/or
Seminally
DUTCH CALVINISM Totally Depraved (Intensively) C
ant Cooperate with God Naturally and/or
Legally Seminally and/or Legally
Adapted from Norman Geislers Systematic
Theology Sin/Salvation (Minneapolis Bethany,
2004), 3145.
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Synoptic Chart on Hamartiology
TERMSTOCONSIDER What is inherited from
Adam Deaths Occurred What is Imputed Image of
God Effect of Grace
PELAGIANISM Bad Example
Spiritual Eternal (meant to physically die)
Ones own sin Retained None.
WESLEYAN/ ARMINIANISM Propensity to sin
physical death. Physical Eternal
Spiritual Ones own Sin Adams
Sin Effaced Two-Fold Prevenient Grace
Sufficient for All
MODERATE PRINCETONIANCALVINISM Propensity to
Sin Physical death Physical Eternal Spiritual
Ones Own Sin Adams Sin Image of God is
totally effaced Irresistible (some, but not
all M.C. say only on willing)
DUTCH CALVINISM Necessity to Sin Physical
Death. Physical Eternal Spiritual Ones Own
Sin Adams Sin Image of God in man is
Erased Irresistible on the unwilling.
Adapted from Norman Geislers
Systematic Theology Sin/Salvation (Minneapolis
Bethany, 2004), 3145.
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• 4. Mind-Body
• Problem
• I only want a brain!

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View Primary Proponent Soul/Body Illustration (Soul/body as. .) Explanation
Materialism Thomas Hobbes Body only As dream to brain Only body exists mind is nothing but a manifestation of matter.
Epiphenomenalism Pierre-Jean Georges Cabanis Soul is a by- product of body. As shadow to a tree Body causes mind mind is only a sign (not a cause) of matter.
Idealism George Berkeley Soul only As mind to mirage Only mind (soul) exists body is merely illusion.
Monism Double Aspect Benedict Spinoza Two aspects of the same thing As inner to outer Mind (soul) and body are two sides of the same substance.
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Dualism (Dichotomy) Plato Two different but parallel realities As railroad to tracks Soul and body never interact they only exist simultaneously.
Interactionism Rene Descartes Two substances mutually interacting As two boxers Mind and body interact with each other
Occasionalism/ Recollectionism Augustine Two substances coordinated by God As memory to reminder God causes ideas in the mind on the occasion of sensory perception
Pre-Established Harmony Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Two different, synchronized substances As two clocks Mind and body are synchronized by God.
Hylomorphism Thomas Aquinas Soul animates body As ideas to words Mind and body are a holistic unity.
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5. Historyof HumanitySummarized

• Creation
• Fall
• Redeemed
• Glorified
• Rejection
• Damnation

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6. 5 Shifts Humanity Contemporary Western
Culture

• Shift 1 From Knowledge to Faith.
• For example, after 9/11 Oprah urged people to
  seek God, whatever he, she, it, or they mean to
  you. What is important is that we all seek our
  own truth with renewed vigor.

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What does the following statement communicate?

• We ought to be believers who integrate faith and
  learning.
• Insights gained from physics to literary
  theory is related to learning while biblical
  assertions deal with faith.

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5 Shifts Humanity Contemporary Western Culture

• While biblical evangelicals reject pluralism,
  there is a tendency to view biblical Christianity
  as a matter of faith and not knowledge.
• Once again how do we define faith? If we
  denote faith as merely as a decision of the will
  to believe, not factual in nature nor subject to
  rational evaluation, then we may be suggesting
  that the content of salvation (and our worldview)
  is devoid of fact and knowledge. See, we are
  fostering a culture in which Christian ideas are
  not viewed even among us as factual items of
  knowledge.

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Consider the following quote

• Faith is the reliance upon that which you have
  reason to believe is true and trustworthy.
• J. P. Moreland

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2nd Shift From Human Flourishing to
Satisfaction of Desire

• How do you define happiness?
• One dictionary definition is that happiness is
  a sense of pleasurable satisfaction.

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2nd Shift From Human Flourishing to
Satisfaction of Desire

• Consider this statement by Moreland
• If happiness is having an internal feeling of
  fun or pleasurable satisfaction and if it is our
  main goal, where will people place their focus
  each day? It will be on them, and the result
  will be a culture of self-absorbed narcissists
  who cannot live for something bigger than they
  are. J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 95.

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2nd Shift From Human Flourishing to
Satisfaction of Desire

• Here is Morelands definition
• The good life is the life of ideal human
  functioning according to the nature that God
  himself gave us.
• J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 94.

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3rd Shift From Duty and Virtue to Minimalist
Ethics

• What do we mean by minimalist ethics?
• One may morally act in any way one chooses so
  long as one does not do harm to others.
• J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 96.

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3rd Shift From Duty and Virtue to Minimalist
Ethics

• Minimalist ethics is evident by upholding the
  following four values
• The transcendence of the individual over the
  community
• The importance of tolerating all moral
  viewpoints
• The independence, self-sufficiency of the
  individual as the highest human good
• 4. The voluntary, informed consent contract as
  the model of human relationships.
• J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 96.

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Consider the following quote

• If duty and virtue of are of central concern to
  the moral life, then there must be moral
  knowledge available to know what duties and
  virtues are correct and how one can become a
  righteous, virtuous person.
• Knowledge of duty and virtue is no longer seen
  as a possibility, and the impact of the shift to
  minimalist ethics is disastrous.
• J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 96.

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4th Shift From Classic Freedom to Contemporary
Freedom

• Classically, freedom meant the power to do what
  one ought to do. Thus, one is free to play the
  piano if one has the skills, training, and
  knowledge necessary to play it. Similarly, one
  is free in life if one has the power to live the
  way one ought to live. Sexual freedom in this
  context means the power to live a chaste, holy
  life and to engage skillfully in sexual activity
  in the way in which we were designed by God-in
  heterosexual marital union.
• J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 99.

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4th Shift From Classic Freedom to Contemporary
Freedom

• Classic freedom is liberating, indeed, but a
  necessary condition of such freedom is the
  availability of the relevant sort of knowledge.
  Absent such knowledge, freedom has come to be
  understood as the right to do what one wants to
  do. Sexual freedom in this context means the
  right to satisfy ones desire in any way one
  wishes, with the possible exception of not
  harming others.
• J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 99.

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5th Shift From Classic Tolerance to
Contemporary Tolerance

• Classical sense of tolerance While moral views
  are either true or false, right or wrong, one may
  still respect ones opponent as a person, give
  one the freedom to make a case for that view, and
  personally believe that view. In other words, we
  tolerate persons, not ideas.
• J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 103.

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5th Shift From Classic Tolerance to
Contemporary Tolerance

• Contemporary Tolerance One should not even
  judge ones views.
• Moral Relativism holds that everyone ought to
  act in accordance with the agents own societys
  code(or, perhaps, with the agents own personal
  code). What is right for one society is
  necessarily right for another society.
• J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 100.

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Whats wrong with Relativism?

• 1. It is irrational and false.
• 2. Suffers from the Reformers Dilemma (e.g.,
  Gandhi Martin Luther King Jesus Christ).
• 3. Some acts are wrong regardless of social
  conventions( e.g., torturing babies).
• 4. There is no way to morally blame one society
  in certain cases (e.g., Jewish Holocaust by Nazi
  Germany).
• It is unlivable.

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7. Concluding Thought

• Can an individual or a society live with a
  complete disregard for a moral and spiritual
  center not suffer from the wounds of
  wickedness?
• Ravi Zacharias, Deliver us from Evil.