In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Paul specified that “believers are engaged in a spiritual battle against forces which stand against the knowledge of God (Anderson, 2000). Anderson also believed that before people received Christ into their lives, they were slaves to their sin, and because Christ hung on the cross and paid the price for our sin, sin no longer have dominion over them. He also believed that maturity and freedom are essential to a Christian’s life. Anderson stated that Satan has no right or ownership or authority over God’s children (Anderson, 2000, p. 11). Anderson also stated that “the Western world has experienced a massive paradigm shift in its worldview and voiced his concern about the influence of the “kingdom of darkness” (pp.
The Catholic Church went through a change to its very core when Martin Luther voiced what was wrong, mainly how far the church had moved from the actual words in the Bible. The Christians in the Lutheran faith believed that the decline of the church is related directly to the word of God shared through man. With this relationship, the word of God can be misconstrued to feed the egos and desires of man, rather than God’s will. Martin Luther was interested in reforming the church, and in particular, man’s belief of what is true about God’s word. During this same time, the Catholic Church was moving further from the theology of the Protestants.
Wells states; “This book [No Place for Truth] produced only half the picture I wanted to present, however. It offers an explanation of the cultural factors that have diminished the place and importance of theology in the church, but it offers no suggestions for a remedy of the problem.” He attempts to provide solutions, from a theological perspective, to the problem presented in his first book where modernism, technology, culture, and pastors bear a significant part of the blame in the changes the modern believers are facing in our churches today. Dr. Wells premise that Christianity has experienced,
Walsh calls this Christian+university=A bit of both. Students rethink their faith and begin to modify their beliefs. Walsh finds this concept dangerous though, because he feels when it comes to studying the impact of god can be lost in translation. Walsh believes this approach could be the first step to the third possibility which is, Christian+ university= Non-Christian. The
“Will to Power” is a section that is parallel to “Thoughts on Life” because is discusses an individuals will to become powerful and make a personal stand for themselves. In “On Interpretation” he shares his view that there is no fact in the world because everything is an interpretation. As you can see all of these sections have a possible relation to Christianity and their set of beliefs. A particular problem I notice with Nietzsche’s aphorisms is that it creates an image for the reader to portray a Christian to be a weak mined helpless being. He basically degrades the entire Bible by saying that there is no fact in the world and everything is an interpretation.
According to Elmer Towns, “The Bible is unique in its call to repentance, in its convicting power to unsettle those who sin, and in its power to convert and transform those who accept its message. (p. 6) The transformation in the life of those who receive the message of the Bible is another proof that it is a message of God.” Without this ability, the Bible would be just another book that sits on a dusty bookshelf; and like all others, there would be the absence of a redemptive message. Towns states that, “There is the changed life that proves to the person whose life is changed, and to those outside who see the transformed life, that what the Bible promises it delivers.” (p.7) A truly converted and changed life can only come from the power of Christ. Paul’s message in Romans gives a reminder that the Jews have the form of knowledge and truth in the law, yet are blind and in darkness (Rom. 2:19-20).
Believers practicing loving God with all their mind would be a witness to this world and even a way of reaching out in compassion and gentleness we have left behind by burying our arguments in our Bibles and not engaging the questions raised by the lost. Understanding where Evangelicals have fallen intellectually will help foster obedience to Christ’s command to love God with all of our mind. The major arguments held by critics Richard Hofstadter, George M. Marsden, and Alister McGrath, declare modern Evangelicalism anti-intellectual. Some of the main reasons for this are the average Evangelicals fear of defending their faith, the separation of the spiritual and secular, and the slothfulness Evangelicals have to
For the last century, philosophers have focused on problems concerning religious language. After understanding that language is the way that we communicate concept, trying to describe concepts that no one physically sees and hears, such as God became a massive dilemma. Religious believers have to use language to make statements about God and his being and aspects known to be able to express human understanding. How do the meanings of words change when applied to God? To use univocal or universal language for God raises the problem being that if we argue God is ‘all loving,’ we would also be able to describe a loved one as such, thus demining his almighty status as a supreme being, so how can we use words to accurately describe God?
Tocqueville argues that the only thing which will keep Americans away from these dangers, which would undoubtedly lead to despotism is religion as source of moral education. He says that all decisions by man are a result of the values which man has received from god and without these values we would be left to a life full of disorder. Religion indirectly affects the state through mores which are described as “the whole moral and intellectual state of a people.”(287) These mores are what prevents democracies from being engulfed by the dangers which are products of tyranny and despotism. In a state without religion “each man gets into the way of having nothing but confused and changing notions about the matters of greatest importance to himself and his fellows”(444) and when combating materialism, the presence of religion “places the
McMinn (2011) suggests that Christian counselors should challenge the majority worldview and reinforce the Christian doctrine. However, the Christian counselor should not be quick to dismiss the secular worldview that stands on the basis of scientific evidence, but find a way to successfully integrate the two. McMinn (2011) indicates that there are also new challenges in defining Christian counseling. Many clients are confused as what Christian counseling really entails (McMinn, 2011). This confusion only further magnified because a majority of religious interventions are not widely accepted by the American Psychological Association due to their lack of scientific foundation (McMinn, 2011).