This semester our theme for our Thursday night gatherings is "Seeking Answers to Tough Questions". Each week we look at a different question, or set of questions, that people have about the Christian faith. The first week we discussed questions relating to God, seeking to understand how Christians can believe in one God who exists as three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). We saw that rather then being an academic doctrine only for theologians, this is a very practical truth as it shows us that God has always existed at base in loving relationship and we are invited into this relationship.
Last week we talked about where the Bible, specifically the New Testament, came from. We looked at things like the process in which the New Testament was put together and why certain books, such as the Gospel of Thomas, were never included. Tonight we are going to discuss the transmission of the Bible, asking whether we can trust that copies of copies of copies have preserved accurately what the original writers intended. In both of these the goal is not just an intellectual understanding but also to see how these questions, and our answers to them, play out in real life on a practical level.
Planning ahead, I am wondering what some good questions would be. I have a few that I have asked myself, and been asked by others, over the years and that I would love to talk about. But I want to make sure I am talking about questions people are asking. So I am open for suggestions.
Here are some I am thinking of:
*Relationship of Jesus to other religions?
*How can a good God send people to hell?
*How can the wrathful God of the Old Testament be the loving God of Jesus?
*How do you explain Christianity's support of slavery and oppression of women through the centuries?
*Why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?
Any other ideas?
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5 comments:
Jesus said that a house divided among itself will fall. How do we explain that in the context of having so many churches in the body of Christ?
Greetings Dave
On the subject of "one God who existing as three persons"
I recommend this video:
The Human Jesus
Take a couple of hours to watch it; and prayerfully it will aid you in your quest for truth.
Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor
For the less faithful who are seeking God... "What if God knows that you will never truly find him in your lifetime, but you, of course, may never know this. How do you know whether all that time of prayer and effort isn't going to waste? And if God knows that yes, you will one day find Him, and have a relationship with Him, why go through all the trouble anyway? If it's going to happen, then it's going to happen, right?" I suppose "trouble" isn't the right word to describe the effort, but you know what I mean. I'm also sure that you can find a better way to express what I'm saying.
Rather than a question such as the differences between Yahweh of the OT and Jesus in the NT, I personally would love to get more information on the NT's USE of the OT, specifically in Matthew and Hebrews. A common, though profoundly mistaken, assertion, is that the NT authors just used the OT texts a proof decks for their theology. This seems to me to be becoming more common of a view, and Matthew and Hebrews seem to be picked on more than other texts. Whatdaya think?
-Dillon
Thanks for the posts folks!
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