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.