Christian University? Christian Science? Oxymorons?

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Christian University? Christian
Science? Oxymorons?
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The answer my friend.depends on your Christian
worldview there is more than one.

1. Against
2. Paradox (dualist)
3. Transformation

1919-1962
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Christ against Culture

• For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with
  God. 1 Co. 319
• Because you do not belong to the world, but I
  have chosen you out of the world therefore the
  world hates you. Jn 1519
• My kingdom is not of this world. Jn 1836
• Do not love the world or anything in the world.
  The love of the Father is not in those who love
  the world. 1 Jn 215
• Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean
  not on your own insights. Pr 35

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Against leads to isolation
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or separation
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Quality education in a Christian setting
Spiritual
World
Dualist
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Christ and Culture in paradox

• You are the salt of the earth
• You are the light of the world. Mt. 513,14
• go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
  themMt. 28 19

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We hear this in chapel

• Work in the world so that our tithe may support
  the missionaries.
• Must do excellent work so that our colleagues
  will respect us when we offer our Christian
  witness.

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I hear it in my church

• Your work place is your mission field.
• Even the most tedious, lousy job, can have
  opportunity to witness during coffee breaks, etc.

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Take it to the limit..

• If all the world were reached with the Christian
  message would there be value to work?
• If Adam hadnt sinned, would we work, study
  engineering, economics, science, and have careers
  in these fields?

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R.G. LeTourneau says.
When He created the world and everything in it,
He didnt mean for us to stop there and say,
God, Youve done it all. Theres nothing left
for us to build. He wanted us to take off from
there and really build for His greater glory..
R.G. LeTourneau Mover of Men and Mountains,
p. 1
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Spiritual
World
Conversionist

• There is no sacred, no secular, but all is
  sacred.
• Both the spiritual and the physical, both your
  faith and your culture, all things were given to
  us by God.

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Christ transforms Culture

• For by him all things were created things in
  heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
  whether thrones or powers or rulers or
  authorities all things were created by him and
  for him. Col 116
• For God so loved the world that his one and only
  Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
  perish but have eternal life. For God did not
  send his son into the world to condemn the world
  but to save the world through him. John 3 16-17
• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
  with God, and the Word was God. He was with God
  in the beginning. Through him all things were
  made without him nothing was made that has been
  made. John 11-3
• For since the creation of the world gods
  invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine
  nature-have been clearly seen, being understood
  from what has been made, so that men are without
  excuse. Romans 1 20

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Educational Philosophy (LeTourneau University
College Catalog) LeTourneau University is
committed to educational studies within the
framework of a Christian theistic view of the
world, of man, and of man's culture in the light
of Biblical and natural revelation.  Such a view
sees no dichotomy in truth, affirms that Biblical
revelation and scientific inquiry are
complementary rather than contradictory, and
requires a recognition of a personal God revealed
both in nature and in the person of Jesus Christ,
His Son.  Thus, all truth is regarded as
God-given and is considered sacred.  It should be
pursued with diligence and received with humility.
http//www.letu.edu/academics/catalog/tu2003/persp
ective/philosophy.html
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Integrated worldviewor model of reality
Intuition aided by experience and reason
Reason, logic, systems of thought to reach
assurance of knowledge
Theories of natural science that explain the
observed behavior of matter and biological
systems
Theories of Philosophy/theology that
explain observations of the human condition
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R.G. agrees.
Now I ask you, whats the use of having a
religion that wont work? If I had a religion
that limped along during the week, and maybe
worked only on Sunday, or while youre in church,
I dont think Id be very sold on it. I think
Id turn it in on a new model that worked seven
days a week, that would work when I was at
church, at my home, or out at the plant. R.G.
LeTourneau Mover of Men and Mountains, p. 203
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Our worldviews influence our science, our
science influences our world views. Can we
understand how we are influenced?
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Ptolemaic Solar System Worldview Earth was
at the center of the universe. Planets went
around the earth in perfect circles. Stars were
motionless.
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Copernican Solar System
A sun centered solar system defied the worldview
of an earth centered system. But still held to a
worldview of perfect circles.
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Keplerian Solar System
A sun centered solar system defied the worldview
of an earth centered system. Elliptical orbitals
defied the worldview of perfect circles.
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So what you say?

• Well, this new model of the solar system implied
  that the earth was not the center of everything.
  That the earth was insignificant compared to the
  sun, and the sun just one insignificant star
  among billions and billions of stars.
• How could we be important to God, if God saw us
  as such insignificant layer of slime on an
  insignificant hunk of rock going about an
  insignificant star?

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Gaseous Pillars in M 16 Hubble Space Telescope

• When I consider the heavens,
• the work of your fingers,
• the moon and the stars
• that you have set in place,
• what is man that you are mindful of him?
• - David, King of Israel, Psalm 83

The size of the universe does not diminish our
significance to God, but adds wonder to the
knowledge that God is mindful of us. The point -
Our worldviews adjust, and may become more
accurate.
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Not only are we insignificant in space, we are
also insignificant in time.
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For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that
we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field the
wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place
remembers it no more. But from everlasting to
everlasting the Lords love is with those who
fear him Psalm 10314-17
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With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years are like a day. 2 Pe. 38
dot
top
inflated
side
unrolled
rectangle
line
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The Illusion of Time
3-D cube seen instantaneously in time
3-D cube seen in all time
What we see as a choice, from our perspective,
might be seen by God as having been. Maybe the
Armenians and the Calvinists were both right?
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• Does God allow persons choice?
• Might you have gone to a different college?
• Might your parents have never met?
• What if we choose something bad?
• Might there be multiple paths that a person may
  choose to take in life?
• And we know that in all things God works for the
  good of those who love him, who have been called
  according to His purpose.
• Romans 828

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Born Interpretation, (Y(x))2 gives the
probability of finding the particle at any
location, x.
If the Y(x) collapses to a single value, then we
know 100 the position, but nothing of the
momentum, as the wave is lost.
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
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What of the universe? Is ours the only universe
that might have been? Does God allow us and the
universe different choices? Might the universe
have chosen a different path leading to different
planets and different solar systems?
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What of life forms? Is ours the only soulful life
form that might have been? Would it matter if we
had six fingers on each hand? Are the natural
process involved in the evolution of stars,
planets, and galaxies mirrored in natural
processes involving the evolution of life
forms? Is the universe expressing itself through
natural processes that God enabled it with?