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The Apostolic Paradigm
- Life FROM the Father
- Death IN the Son
- Resurrection BY the Holy Spirit
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Vital Christianity
- the truth
- draws from Christian sources like scripture, tradition, worship, etc.
- dying in America
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Cultural Christianity
- folk religion: false beliefs carrying on from prior generations (i.e. Heaven being a bodiless place)
- Constantinianism: fusion of church and state (US no longer looks like this)
- how our culture embraces Christianity (i.e. Christmas, superstition of 13)
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Therapeutic Moralistic Deism
- if being a Christian "works" for us, we do it; if not, we stop
- God wants us to do what is 'right' and 'good'
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Views of Secularism
- Freud/Nietzsche: belief in god destroys human freedom
- Marx: belief in god allows exploitation of the weak
- Feuerbach: god is an ideological projection of our personal values
- Durkheim: God is a symbol for our groups
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Doctrine Of Hiddenness
- God is hidden/unknown unless He chooses to reveal Himself to us because He is so different from us
- we can only see God on the cross--the one place we can see God is the one place we need eyes of faith to notice Him
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Revelation
- Definition: self-disclosure, revealing; a gift
- special revelation: what God has shown to particular people at particular times
- tradition: Knowledge of God is to be mediated therefore there is evangelism
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Via Negativa
all of our definitions of God fall short, so we describe Him in terms of what He isn't
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Via Positiva
- every word for God is an analogy
- we speak of Him but only a way that brings Him down (he is more than notions from our world)
- ex: God is love, God is Big
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Creation
names a set of relationships that show the universe to be the work of our trustworthy God
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Polytheism and Dualism
- polytheism: the universe has many causes and powers
- dualism: two opposing powers created and control the universe (light like and darkness)
- both have a violent view of creation
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Pantheism and Atheism
- Pantheism: the world is all god therefore the universe is self-caused (we are Gods), no external force
- Atheism: no god
- believe that good and evil must be two opposites instead of a lack of one
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Platonism and Process Theology
- Platonism: God forms a pre-existing universe and respects its limits (not involved), he came after and tried to mold it but has limits
- Process Theology: both god and the universe are imperfect and as time progresses they are constructing one another to become more perfect
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Creatio Prima/Inmediata
God caused the universe from nothing "formless and void". He spoke it into being "let it be"
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Creatio Mediata/Segunda
- What comes from the creation of the universe. God ordered, formed, and detailed the unformed (tohu a bohu).
- i.e. we are made from something but God still made us?
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Gnosticism
God who was evil created something evil and Jesus came to repair it. Creator God is inferior to a higher God (Jesus, the savior)
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Renaissance/Ciceronian
- God made the overall rules of the universe but just kind of let it play out
- god wrote the laws of physics that made species. God is a designer/legislator instead of executive.
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Creatio Continuata
- Providence; God's continuing renewal, maintenance and care for creation
- God isn't just creator--He is redeemer, completor, sustainer, and perfector of the universe
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Fatalism
- creation is unfree--God is simply the puppeteer
- this is not the same as predestination.
- - God completely controls our lives.
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Deism
God has no sustaining relationship with creation--he merely created (like a watchmaker)
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Goodness of Creation
name's the purposefulness of the work of God's willed and shared creation
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Creatio Nova
- creation points us towards a new future.
- If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation
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Affirmations of Jesus/ Doctrine of Incarnation
- Jesus is fully human
- Jesus is fully divine
- Jesus is one person
- heresies are compromises to any of these three affirmations
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jesus' humanity
- not much in the NT about Jesus as an actual human
- jesus is the last adam: sin leaving humanity through one human. redeemer
- people at first rejected bodily resurrection because they believed bodies were evil
- Jesus is STILL human--this is how He intercedes
- Jesus' resurrection is a model for humanity's eternity- first fruit
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Jesus' Divinity
- Surface Indicators: one line "proof texts"
- Deeper Indicators: narrative roles and acts of Jesus (walking on water, calming storm, etc)
- Deepest Indicators: Pervasive worship practices (using OT scripture in NT worship songs)
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Jesus' Unity
- Hypostatic Union: the word becoming flesh
- In Christ, Divinity and Humanity are: without confusion, change, division, or separation (Chalcedon's uncompromising compromise)
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Personal Faculties of Imago Dei
- metaphysical dualism: the body is two parts, soul+body and who we are is the soul.
- reductive physicalism: we are just chemicals
- nonreductive physicalism: we are chemicals but our whole processes are what make us different from other creation (not reduced to chemical reactions)
- We have the power for reasoning and speaking
- We have bodies
- We can contemplate God and ourselves
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Social Faculties of Imago Dei
- does society as a whole image God?
- collectivism/individualism is not how the bible says it
- we exist in relational circles: church, families, etc.
- you are who you are because of other people
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Official Faculties of Imago Dei
- vocation: cultivators of creation
- Appointed representatives of God (shown in Israel's covenantal fellowship with God)
- Humanity enjoys unique relationships with: God, each other, creation, and ourselves
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Jesus as Imago Dei
- official faculties: royal authority over creation, loves God and neighbor with all his strength
- social faculties: justice, humility, appointment of apostles, loves God and neighbor with whole heart
- Personal faculties: character (integrity, peace, insight), loving God and neighbor with all his mind
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What is theology?
"Systematic reflection on and articulation of, the fundamental beliefs we share as followers of Jesus Christ." -Stan Grenz
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Was Death Intended?
- Hellenistic: Souls are inherently immortal
- Traditional Position: humanity was created as able not to die
- Recent Revision: death was original to God's good plan
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Historical Jesus
- what really happened in Jesus' life because His followers who wrote about Him are biased
- but, this biased way is how Jesus wanted His followers to know Him
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3 Stages of Lent
- Stage I: up to three years, sponsorship by more experienced believers, exorcism, process of proving yourself
- Stage II: 40 days before Easter, instruction, prayer, exorcism, scrutiny
- Stage III: Holy week, triple immersion, apotaxis: turning away from false, syntaxis: turning towards good
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Discipleship from an Apostolic Paradigm Perspective
- Life from the Father: we serve the father, not just call Him lord, praying lords prayer, keeping ten commandments and other rules for His glory
- Death in the Son: we follow the son for sake of Father, through worship, contemplation, mission, discipleship
- Resurrection By the spirit: we abide in the Spirit, spiritual disciplines, cardinal v. theological virtues, etc., draw life from remaining in the spirit
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Adoptionistic Heresies
- Antiochian
- compromise divinity
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Doceitic Heresies
- Alexandrian
- compromise humanity
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Ebionism
- Jesus is just another special prophet, chosen by God to benefit from his Grace.
- Other practices: Islam, Unitariaism
- Functional: Churches which over emphasize Jesus as teacher
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Adoptionism
- Jesus becomes divine at baptism
- Mormons
- sonship is reduced to obedience
- Functional: churches who are overly legalistic bc like adoptionism it shows you have to gain divinity/salvation
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Nestorianism
- Mary only mothered the human part of Jesus
- If Mary didn't bear God then neither did the cross
- Eastern Churches are Nestorianists
- no division just distinction in two natures
- consequences: we only have a relationship with jesus as a human. can lead to adoptionism.
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Docetism
- (Docetism=disguise)
- the body of Christ wasn't real but merely an appearance (poser)
- Gnosticsm, Jesus is like Clark Kent
- Functional: churches who refuse to talk about the awkward parts of Jesus' humanity (aka He had a sex drive), only focus on divinity.
- consequence: excludes Jesus' commonality with us
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Monophystism
- Jesus is fused together as divine and human and becomes a new creation (competitive natures) (less humanity than divinity)
- This doesn't work because infinity plus finity is one and divinity would compromise humanity
- Sufism or Buddhism
- People who are 'spiritualistic' can be monophystists
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Apollonarianism
- Divine mind planted in a human body
- did Jesus die or just his body? what does our resurrection look like?
- churches where Jesus couldn't have had any unsinful flaws are apollonarianists (aka people who think Jesus must be able to run a .1 minute mile)
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Arianism
- Jesus is the first creation
- Jesus mediates as a "third party"- not a member of either
- God the father was uncreated and God the son was created and then adopted.
- That makes jesus lower than the father
- Jehovah's Witnesses
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John's Baptism as Jesus' Overture
- Jesus before 30: obscure life should give us faith that it is ok to not have crazy things happen right away, the ocean changes but people don't notice right away
- Jesus' baptism is the remission of everyone's sins
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How Holy Spirit play in at Baptism?
- Adoptionism: this is where jesus becomes divine
- classical christology: baptism is simply revelation and nothing more
- spirit christology: a new human relationship with the holy spirit begins here
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What does baptism explain
- empower of Jesus' baptized followers
- The father is God who sends, receives, guides
- The Son is God's heir
- The Spirit is the fire of God
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Is Trinity Biblical
- Father: Jesus calls God the father, Jesus does His will
- The Son: Jesus calls Himself the only son, the heir, believers confess Jesus is Lord
- Holy Spirit: proceed from father, conceives Jesus,
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Trinity Vocab
- God is one: being, substance, essence
- God is three: persons, subsistence, way of being
- God is NOT: one person, form, part, beings, members, people, entities, forms
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Modalistic Monarchianism
- Modalists have God as one source with three roles (creator, redeemer, sanctifier)
- personhood describes a role
- roles are only a response to sin which negates the trinity
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Eastern Orthodoxy Trinity
- three mirrors turned in on one another
- you see the others in terms of each other
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Latin Orthodoxy Trinity
- filoque: double procession
- the spirit is from the father and the son
- persons' distinction is relational
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Tritheism
God is not triune it is just how he chose to act
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Dynamic Monarchianism
God is not involved on the cross
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Spirit in the NT
Israel already understood the spirit that is why it isn't talked about as much
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5 Aspects of Spirit's Work
- Giver of Life: Spirit before us (gives us life in conception,new creation, baptism)
- Lord: stands over us (allows us to bless people, perform miracles, heal)
- Spoke through the prophets: rests upon us (anoints certain people for certain tasks)
- Proceeds from the Father: dwells in us (gives us contemplation, discernment)
- From the son: spirit flows into and through us (we receive the spirit for new life but also pass it along)
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