Some have criticized James in that they thought he was teaching that salvation was by works alone, but in reality he is complementing Paul’s teaching of salvation by faith. The two go hand in hand. Salvation by faith results in holy living (Harper, 1967). The book is included to help believers put their faith into action. It is not enough to talk the talk but to also live it (James 2:14, New Living Translation).
The difference may seem insignificant at first. Nevertheless, our obsession with the Scripture's applicability reflects a fundamen- tal weakness. We have adopted practicality as the ultimate judge of the worth of God's Word. We bury ourselves in passages that overtly relate to daily living, and ignore those that don't. Early in my ministry, I made a conscious commitment to biblical preaching.
But also Absolutism does not take other situation into consideration, things change and people change, so should the rules change as well? Personally, I think that they need to be amended; this could cause even worse conflicts than they are in this day and age, although it might be necessary, Common sense isn’t that common. An example of the Absolute theory is the Divine law theory; this is all stated in the bible, it dictates what’s good and what’s bad, according to the will of God. Everything we do, has the question behind it: Does it follow the will of God? This is the question absolutes ask before making any decisions.
He is half correct in his statement as a theist does not believe in the proofs individually, but finds enough evidence in them to form the belief that God does exist; He is the creator of the universe, and He is morally perfect. McCloskey touches on faith in his article. It is defined by Tillich: as the state of being ultimately concerned as claiming truth for concern, and is involving commitment, courage, and the taking of risk. Theists have faith in God, and treat Him as the most important person in their lives. To have faith in someone on past knowledge, according to McCloskey, is reasonable however; it is unreasonable to have faith in God as we have no past knowledge of God.
He believes that people need to be taught the word “of God”, conviction can take place so the counselee can repent of his sins, be set free, and change will take place. With the theory that Adams developed God’s word is the only way to receive the truth of God, psychology is an outside source and has nothing to offer when trying to help a person to change based on truth. According to Adams changing people or sinners from the inside out is not done by education alone, but by prayer, reproof, and encouragement (p. 65). Scripture is the way to obtain quick results where true
17/09/14 - homework Explain the view that the conscience is the voice of God. In order to fully explain the view that the conscience is the voice of God one must first define what is meant by ‘voice of God’. It has been defined as the ‘heavenly or divine voice which proclaims God’s will or judgement’, however, in my opinion the ‘voice of God’ definition should also include divine guidance as the original definition leaves out the idea of God as a guide without his actual voice telling a person the idea. The argument of ‘is the conscience the voice of God?’ often runs into difficulties; this is due to the fact that if the conscience is not the voice of God then what is it? 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.
Religious language discusses religious and spiritual concepts. It is cognitive and conveys knowledge of what is really there. Religious language offers a correspondence theory of truth if it is thought of as being able to point to the reality that it is trying to convey. It is the language of worship – it is performative and prescriptive. Some philosophers such as Aquinas believe that it is possible to talk meaningfully, truthfully and factually about God whereas others like Ayer believe this to be impossible.
God also has standards for man regarding morality and/or ethics. He gave us the ability to choose, even knowing that we could choose to disregard His guidelines or Commandments. In Exodus 20:6 we are told how to please God. Though we may please God, in Ephesians 2:8-10, we see what we must ultimately do to atone for man’s fall from God. “How a Christian lives their life reveals their spiritual condition” (Weider & Gutierrez, 2011, p.65).
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.
However it ma not always be best o use our conscience as our moral guide. As if we do use our conscience, the how can people be committed for crimes, as they believed it was right Butler was a christian theologian and philosopher who believed that the conscience was a God given ability to reason. Due to the fact that they were both christians St Paul and Butler agreed on many of their ideas. Butler thought that the conscience should be seen as a judge within everybody, a judge that makes moral decisions for us, he suggests that as it is within all of us and appears to have a higher authority we therefore must listen to it, and take on board the decision in which our conscience makes. One of the main weaknesses is the idea that not everyone can have the