Cults

I find cults rather interesting as many people do but its a very fine line to determine whether some religions are cults or not. I found the cult mathematics section very interesting and found it very helpful. Cult mathematics makes it very easy to determine whether a group is a cult or not by asking four very simple questions to answer it can be determined whether a group is a cult or not. These questions can be answered by practically anyone and a ton of knowledge of the group is not necessary to answer the questions which makes it a great tool for identifying cults.

Another topic i found interesting when discussing cults was the four cults of the early church. I had no idea that there were cults in the early church. I find it interesting no matter the time period there has always been cults counter of the Bible. Once there was absolute Truth found in the Bible there has been cults that have developed because there teaching are counter of the Bible and those groups just add there words to Gods Word and call it superior to the Bible.

Worldviews in Theology

When I think to myself on the amount of different religions in the world it is mind boggling to me. The neat thing is that all those hundreds of thousands of different religions all fall into seven different categories. Ive never thought that we could reduce the number so drastically and that those seven categories would be inclusive to include all world religions. Another interesting point I found was in the same lecture that there is only six different options for the church. Six different ways to view Christ in relation to the surrounding culture. I though these two pieces of information were very important and interesting because when talking about all the religions of the world people very easily stress out but once they find out that there is only seven different categories and six different options to view Christ. This will allow an individual to be able to understand all religions just by these two option choices.

Then there is 5 choices for religions that do not believe which makes it easy to take a world religion and place it into one of the five categories of non belief. These lists of categories making analyzing other religions very easy and gives Christians a basis for understanding the other religions so good witnessing can take place because knowledge is had before interacting.

Mature Fiat

The idea of a mature fiat creation was discussed today in class and I found the argument very compelling. God created Adam and Eve in a mature state along with the animals why couldn't He create the earth in a mature state. This would explain how evolutionist date the earth to being so old because God created the earth in a mature state. I would have considered my self a young earth creationist before today's class but the mature fiat idea has become very interesting to me and it makes logical sense as an explanation for all the dating of the earth by the evolutionists. I plan to consider this theory as a reasonable answer to the evolutionists in the future and will consider to ponder the concept.

Bibliology

I've grown up in the Church my whole life and an interesting topic came up today that I never knew about. The idea that all the gospels were all taken from a Q and elaborated on to make the Gospels what we know today. Ive never even have heard of this idea of a Q before today and I found the idea very interesting. I don't believe that the Gospels are taken from a Q but it was eye opening that there are people that do believe this very thing. I have never seen the Da Vinci Code but apparently that movie and book are about this very idea that there is a Q and the Gospels are all elaborate interpretations on the Q.

Another topic I found very interesting was the idea of over 80 gospels found that are not in the Bible that we all know today. I knew there has been other gospels that have been discovered that are not in the Bible today but I never new the number was so high before. I just thought it was very interesting of the amount of people in the first couple of centuries after Christ that wrote about Him.

The last interesting point of the day was the chart of the New Testament canon during the first four centuries. It was amazing how all the books that are included in the new testament as we know today were quoted on a regular basis by these historic early church teachers. The last five on the list have quoted each and every book in the New Testament which means that the New Testament was settled upon before the Roman Emperor Constantine. This chart was very interesting and though provoking for sure.

Forgiveness.....Make it right......luggage nooma rob bell

True forgiveness is hard to come by these days...and revenge is more prominetely considered then forgiveness. What is revenge? When the act that was commited against me happened God was right there when it happened right? So God knows....so revenge is telling God that I can handle the situation better than he can...which is truly an act of no faith...I know God forgave me and seperated my sins as far as the east is from the west (incase your wondering they never intercross). What a truly great burdon God lifts of his children. God says he does not keey any of my past sins against me. So God truly did forgive me of ALL my sins...and yet I cant forgive a friend or a stranger of one sin commited against me. True forgiveness is letting it go pardoning the sin but a part often left is wishing the person well...because we can very easily let it go but in our heart we still want them to pay for what they did...Im so thankful God isnt keeping tally in Heaven because if He was we all be very miserable people. Forgiveness all comes down to me. After many people have wronged me and after a while it starts effecting me more then the other person when I dont forgive. God created us to be free not to have to carry around the burdens. God wants us to stop carrying the luggage around because if we dont stop today we might not have tommorow to let the past go.

Dedication.......Rob bell nooma YOU 15

The early Church was an extremely dangerous to be associated with because in the Romans minds Caesar was god. He proclaimed to be God. That is why when Paul tells us to believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord is so significant. Back in the first century into the second century Caesar would throw party's and invite Christians and before the guest could come into the party they have to declare Caesar god. Caesar did this on purpose because he wanted the Christians to proclaim him as God. If the Christian did not identify that Caesar was God they would have been beheaded immediately. So the Christians would: we asked to confess Caesar as God, they would turn their backs to Caesar and raise there hands and shout "Jesus is LORD" by the time they finished there sentence that were already lying dead on the floor as a show of the power of Caesar. Do I have that dedication to the cause of Christ? Am I willing to give it all for Him? The early church was evidence of the resurrection themselves because would they die for something that they did not totally believe in? Do I have that same dedication.

In tune with God.....rob bell nooma rhythm

God gives each person different talents, whether is be teaching, athletics, communicating, musical abilities or any other talents God has given you. God gives each of us different talents. Think of these talents or abilities as different instruments God has given us. Jesus' life is a song playing and our job as Christians is to follow the song and play in tune with Jesus' life. God gives each of us instruments to follow along with Him. God does not ask us to know every detail about the song , key, pitch, harmony, but God gives us the tune to play. Our relationship with God is this song. Sometimes we look to much into the unnecessary details that we forget the purpose of the song is enjoyment. God wants us to enjoy following and living the life Jesus gave as an example to us. The whole goal is to play the song with God. A little sin takes us of tune with the song but God gives us a chance to confess our sin and get back in tune with the song. No matter how lost we get God will give us the notes to continue to play along. All we have to do is ask...