Philosophy and Ethics: Says Who?

We studied Lesson 2 - Philosophy and Ethics: Says Who? - of The Truth Project a couple of weeks ago. Dr. Tackett helped us to see the differences between the worldview and God's view on these issues.

Philosophy is a scientific quest to discover the ultimate reality. Remember from Lesson 1 that the ultimate reality is truth - particularly God's truth. The world searches for this ultimate reality inside the cosmic cube, the concept that the cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be. They will continue searching forever under this false assumption since God does not exist inside their box. God created the box and He moves and works inside of it. Ethics is our understanding of right and wrong behavior. We learned that ultimately there is no way to define right and wrong without God.

We are reminded again that we should not let ourselves be conformed to the world views. The mind and the heart are linked and we need to be continually allowing God to transform us by renewing our minds. (Romans 12:2)

Our next lesson, Anthropology: Who is Man?, will be on Wednesday evening. Check out a preview below!

The Truth Project

We have begun our new study, The Truth Project. For those unfamiliar with this study, check out the following trailer:



We had our first lesson Veritology: What is Truth? and it was packed full of some really valuable teachings, challenging us to really think about elements of our faith in a different light. We learned that this study is going to be both comprehensive (we will cover a breadth of topics - left) and systematic (topics will build on each other - right).

This first lesson focused on Truth. We learned about the cosmic battle - the battle between truth and lies. At the beginning of the lesson, we were asked the question, "Why did Jesus come into the world?", and we learned that, though there are many reasons, the answer we are focusing on in this study is: to testify the truth. "...for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." -John 18:37

We were left to ponder this final question:


Our next lesson, Philosophy and Ethics: Says Who?, will be tomorrow evening. Check out a preview below!

Pain and Suffering

Why does God allow pain and suffering?? We had a great discussion on this topic last Wednesday... perhaps a better discussion than the video! Here's a quick clip summarizing the topic:

Kyle's sermon from Sunday also hit on some similar points. If you missed it, click on the sermon from June 7th in the podcast below:

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There's one more thing that I came across since our discussion on Thursday that I'd like to share. It's a quote from one of John Eldredge's books. He argues a good point:

"God... takes immense risks. No doubt the biggest risk of all was when he gave angels and men free will, including the freedom to reject him--not just once, but every single day. Does God cause a person to sin? 'Absolutely not!' says Paul (Gal. 2:17)... Does God stop every bullet fired at an innocent victim? Does he prevent teenage liaisons from producing teenage pregnancies? There is something much more risky going on here than we're often willing to admit.

...God seems to fly in the face of all caution. Even though he knew what would happen, what heartbreak and suffering and devastation would follow upon our disobedience, God chose to have children. And unlike some hyper-controlling parents, who take away every element of choice they can from their children, God gave us a remarkable choice. He did not make Adam and Eve obey him. He took a risk. A staggering risk, with staggering consequences. He let others into his story, and he lets their choices shape it profoundly.

This is the world he has made. This is the world that is still going on. And he doesn't walk away from the mess we've made of it. Now he lives, almost cheerfully, certainly heroically, in a dynamic relationship with us and with our world. 'Then the Lord intervened' is perhaps the single most common phrase about him in Scripture, in one form or another. Look at the stories he writes. There's the one where the children of Israel are pinned against the Red Sea, no way out, with Pharaoh and his army barreling down on them in murderous fury. Then God shows up. There's Sadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who get rescued only after they're thrown into the fiery furnace. Then God shows up. He lets the mob kill Jesus, bury him... then he shows up. Do you know why God loves writing such incredible stories? Because he loves to come through. He loves to show us that he has what it takes."