Divine Command Theory Divine Command Theory can be described as what are right are whatever God commands, and whatever God forbids is wrong. Being truthful is what some believe that God says is right, but being truthful is the moral think to do (Rachel’s and 50-53). Not, because God says so but, because society says that people must be truthful to be successful and the reach their goals. The advantages to this Theory is that it gives motive to people to be moral which means people are listening to the sayings of God. God faring people accept the teachings of God and the best way to live.
Anyone can have it. God is the forgiver of all sins. John chapter three says “For God so loved the world, he gave his only son; that whoever believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” This scripture is basically saying that God loves us so much, He sent his son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die for our sins. Another example of this in scripture is Romans chapter five. It says “For God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This verse basically says the same thing as John chapter three.
This doctrine was rejected by orthodox Christians. Arianism is the belief that Jesus is superior to the rest of creation but is less divine than God, this making Jesus not actually God. The death and resurrection of Jesus has key beliefs within it. These include that Jesus died for our sins, the reflections on the death of Jesus, the belief of the resurrection is a fundamental tenet of Christianity and the nature of risen Jesus. The belief that Jesus died on the cross for our sins was initiated as Jesus promoted he was sent to Earth by God to save humankind.
This may also be a problem for Christian thinkers as, if the conscience is not the voice of God it gives moral authority to something outside of God. The existence of a conscience outside of God also strongly contradicts God’s omnipotence, although a Christian thinker may argue against this criticism with the idea that God’s omnipotence may have created a moral guide within ourselves which is no longer ‘God’s voice’ but leads us into making moral decisions. An argument may also be had about the existence of a ‘conscience’, however for the purpose of this essay, the conscience exists as a moral guide. Several philosophers have discussed conscience at great length, including; Newman, Butler and Aquinas. These men all have very different views about the origin of the conscience, however they also have some prominent similarities, for example Newman’s illative sense and Aquinas’ ideas on Synderesis, Conscientia and Phronesis.
Faith without reason is impossible but with knowledge faith can be possible and know God and what all he has done. With faith you have to use your mind. “Conversely, Christian faith needs reason in order to communicate its beliefs clearly, to arrange those beliefs in a more systematic form, to guard it from straying into fanaticism, or error, and to provide answering to reasonable objections to those beliefs” (Albl 1). To understand faith you have to be able to reason with your beliefs. “Rationalism and materialism understand faith as, at best, a harmless opinion about matters that are not real” (Albl 30).
Things that should guide people towards repentance could potentially keep their focus looking inside themselves. Once a person can truthfully see how sinful their thoughts and lives are, it can and will hopefully lead them to depend on God. While Crabb is relying on God for answers, Rogerian theory states that “no other human being can possibly determine what the correct or incorrect behavior is for any other individual. Because of this, Kensit says that therapists must keep this in mind and use non-directive but yet supportive therapy. (Kensit, 2000).
The statement asks us to explore different opinions on the validity of religious experiences; an important issue for Christians, or anyone of faith, because most people’s faith is built on either a personal experience of God or a belief in the capacity of God to communicate through such experiences, as in the Bible. Once you start to question the existence of religious experiences, it fundamentally leads you to question the existence of God, clearly something of importance to Christians. Some Christians might reply to this quote by saying that religious experience is unquestionably real and tangible; they may point to Bible references as proof of their reality. For Christians, Mary had a profound religious experience when visited by Angel Gabriel. To call such an experience illusory would be close to blasphemy for some.
God even said to us that Jesus was the priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. It is said that Jesus deserves the role of this high standing because he was human made perfect because of His reverent submission and not giving into temptation and sin. He was made perfect by God to be the sacrifice for all of man’s sins for eternal salvation. Compared to Jesus, we are only infants. Jesus is teaching us long before we even understand what God’s grace is.
Scriptures to look up in the Bible: John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him, shall not perish but have everlasting life. (2.) Man is sinful and separated from God. Scriptures: Rom. 3:23: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
“Right and wrong cannot be defined in terms of God’s will” Examine and comment on this view. I agree with the statement that ‘right and wrong cannot be defined in terms of God’s will’ – it does not make sense to turn to God to find out what is right or wrong. The Divine Command Theory states that religion should be the basis of morality. However, I believe that religion does not necessarily lead people to be moral. Plato’s Euthyphro dilemma shows that the Divine Command Theory has several problems.