wonderful thoughts from the Pope, intellectually coherent and practically relevant and doable IMO
Weekly lessons in theology and public life • Since 2011
-
Lesson 3: Resurrection and Salvation
Read MORE: Lesson 3: Resurrection and SalvationSome people are having difficulty with my description of salvation as “now and not yet.” Myron says the problem is being conditioned to think of resurrection and salvation as almost synonymous and happening after our deaths. The New Testament agrees…
-
Lesson 2: Salvation: Now and Not Yet
Read MORE: Lesson 2: Salvation: Now and Not YetThis should be fun! I got all sorts of responses to our first lesson. Perhaps the one to which I should respond first was the popular understanding of salvation as something that happens after death. My very intelligent class at…
-
Lesson 1: Are You Saved?
Read MORE: Lesson 1: Are You Saved?This will be an online version of a course on salvation I am teaching at two congregations this fall. It will be designed for those who find it difficult to attend a face-to-face class because of commuting or home responsibilities.…
-
Lesson 11: Community – Love
Read MORE: Lesson 11: Community – LoveLet me build on the very, very fine discussion taking place in “Comments”. Juan laid the foundation observing that our lifestyle gives witness to the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Bob suggested that lifestyle is necessarily divided into worship and…
-
Lesson 10: Tradition – Faith
Read MORE: Lesson 10: Tradition – FaithI failed in coaxing more readers to make comments. However, I received more rave reviews for the three that did than in any previous week. So I am going to proceed as planned, begin building a lifestyle with hopes that…
-
Lesson 9: A Christian Lifestyle
Read MORE: Lesson 9: A Christian LifestyleNow we are at the hard part. It is easy to criticize the Christian lifestyle of others. It is much harder to draw up one for ourselves. A lifestyle is the description of the way we live. Whether we are…
-
Lesson 8: The Power of Positive Thinking – Self Esteem
Read MORE: Lesson 8: The Power of Positive Thinking – Self EsteemThe fourth feature of a deficient modern lifestyle, the Power of Positive Thinking, also stands traditional Christianity on its head. Robert Schuller calls for a modern Reformation that updates Luther’s. However, he claims it should be based on the believer’s…
-
Lesson 7: Expect Your Miracle – Magic
Read MORE: Lesson 7: Expect Your Miracle – MagicPerhaps the most dangerous contemporary bad doctrine believes faith provides miracles, in the sense that faith makes miracles happen. The salvation of the individual sinner is the greatest one but this is followed by a lifetime of unending supernatural acts.…
-
Lesson 6: Laws of Creation – Insider Knowledge
Read MORE: Lesson 6: Laws of Creation – Insider KnowledgeIn the last lesson I suggested when “The Plan for Salvation” reduces salvation to a four-step technique, it becomes part of the Fundamentalism movement. Although we usually associate fundamentalism solely with the claim that the Bible is free from error,…
-
Lesson 5: The Plan for Salvation – Are You Saved?
Read MORE: Lesson 5: The Plan for Salvation – Are You Saved?The second unit looks at four characteristics of modern Christian lifestyles that are deficient and even perverted. The first is “The Plan for Salvation” usually presented in four simple steps: 1) God loves you. 2) Sin separates you from God,…
Recent Comments
I absolutely love these ideas, especially paying attention to beauty and reducing your needs.
Fritz a wonderful lesson – and esp. reading has a flow I found encompassing. If only …….. yes we can…