TBC Doctrinal Class (Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO DOCTRINAL CLASS What and Why What Is the Plan? • Begin teaching through the church’s doctrinal statement • Other kinds of classes in Term 4 • Take 3 years to cover all 20 paragraphs Why teach through the church’s doctrinal statement? Everyone is a theologian. theologian a person who engages or is an expert in theology Oxford Languages via Google Everyone is a theologian because we all believe something about God. What do you believe about God? Agree? Or Disagree? 1. God is a perfect being and cannot make a mistake. Agree? Or Disagree? 2. There is one true God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Agree? Or Disagree? 3. God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Agree? Or Disagree? 4. God learns and adapts to different circumstances. Agree? Or Disagree? 29. God is unconcerned with my day-today decisions. Agree? Or Disagree? 5. Biblical accounts of the physical (bodily) resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate. This event actually occurred. Agree? Or Disagree? 6. Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. Agree? Or Disagree? 7. Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God. Agree? Or Disagree? 8. God created male and female. Agree? Or Disagree? 9. The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being. Agree? Or Disagree? 10. The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual new birth or new life before a person has faith in Jesus Christ. Agree? Or Disagree? 11. The Holy Spirit can tell me to do something which is forbidden in the Bible. Agree? Or Disagree? 12. Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. Agree? Or Disagree? 13. Even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation. Agree? Or Disagree? 15. Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God. Agree? Or Disagree? 16. The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true. Agree? Or Disagree? 30. The Bible has the authority to tell us what we must do. Agree? Or Disagree? 17. The Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches. Agree? Or Disagree? 18. Modern science disproves the Bible. Agree? Or Disagree? 32. The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe. Agree? Or Disagree? 19. God chose the people he would save before he created the world. Agree? Or Disagree? 21. There will be a time when Jesus Christ returns to judge all the people who have lived. What is the basis of your theology? How well do you know the Bible? Hikers on Cobham Common, Surrey | The Sphere | 6 September 1930 https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2021/06/01/hiking-in-the-1930s/ Photo: Florian Jesse in Public Domain Schauinsland mountain in the Black Forest. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian Photo: Brücke-Osteuropa Public Domain English: Probable route of the students group through the 1936 blizzard, according to local research and witness reports. • S = Meeting postman Otto Steiert, then ascent up the Kappler Wand • 1 = Arrival on ridge, drawn eastward by the storm • 2 = Probably first overhearing of bells, might explain for the change of direction • 3 = place where Jack Eaton was found with two survivors • 4 = place where Francis Bourdillon and Roy Witham were found, together with Keast and another survivor • 5 = place where Peter Ellercamp was found, with one survivor • 6 = place where Stanley Lyons was found, just above Dobelhof • D = Dobelhof farmhouse • B = Mountain station of cable car (where nearest shelter could have been found) Photo: Kreuzschnabel/Wikimedia Commons, Licence: Cc-by-sa-3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode) Photo: Kreuzschnabel/Wikimedia Commons, Licence: Cc-by-sa-3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode) The memorial to one of the schoolboys Jack Alexander Eaton, commissioned by his father and paid for by local villagers. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian The Engländerdenkmal memorial to the dead schoolboys built by the Hitler Youth. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian The Daily Sketch picture of Kenneth Keast (in a cloth cap) in a car with a Gestapo officer and the leader of the local Hitler Youth. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian Where did Kenneth Keast go wrong? •not dressed appropriately •underestimated the difficulty of the hike in good weather •not local •disregarded signs •disregarded multiple warnings •unfamiliar with area •misread map •too proud to turn back •overconfident Why might Mr. Keast have been overconfident? •cold and rain in England •mountains in Scotland •young and healthy •day started off sunny •believed he understood the map •capable leader Would it be possible for any of us to start off on a trek through the Bible and end up in disaster? Do any of us understand the Bible intuitively? Is the Bible our native language, spiritually speaking? 1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV) The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Only 1 Person Intuitively Understands God’s Word. John 1:1–2 (ESV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. John 1:18 (ESV)No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. Questions Is it possible that we all start our Christian journey more like Kenneth Keast than we might be aware of ? • not native to the area • ignorant of the topography of scripture • assuming that all scripture is equally easy to interpret (not all days are sunny on the mountain) • dismissive of people who are more familiar with the Bible than we are It is possible to read and to study our Bibles but to be ignorant and twisted in our understanding of it. The NT cautions about the dangers of ignorance. 2 Peter 3:15–16 (ESV)And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. The NT cautions about the dangers of ignorance of doctrine. Some things are hard to understand Some people are ignorant and unstable. Ignorant people twist the hard-to-understand parts of Scripture. Ignorant people also twist the rest of scripture. 2 Peter 3:15–16 (ESV) There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. Can you be ignorant and have nothing to do with scriptures? Explanation: 3 words for ignorant ἀγνοέω to be uninformed about, not to know, be ignorant (of) Heb 5:2 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 12. ἀπαίδευτος, ον uninstructed, uneducated 2 Ti 2:23 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 96. ἀμαθής, ές ignorant (w. ἀστήρικτος) of incompetent interpreters 2 Pt 3:16 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 49. 2 Peter 3:15–16 (ESV) There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. Can you be ignorant and be interacting scripture? 2 Peter 3:15–16 (ESV) There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. In 2 Peter 3:16, the ignorant can’t refer to • people who don’t know about the Bible • people who aren’t interacting with the Bible 2 Peter 3:15–16 (ESV) There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. In 2 Peter 3:16, the ignorant interact with the Bible but do so wrongly by “twisting” it. 2 Peter 3:15–16 (ESV) There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. In 2 Peter 3:16, why do the ignorant twist the scripture? 2 Peter 3:15–16 (ESV) There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. Because they are “unstable.” Photo: W. Carter What is God’s solution? 2 Peter 3:17–18 (ESV) 17You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. What is God’s solution? 1. Take care about error and your loss of stability. 2 Peter 3:17–18 (ESV) 17You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. What is God’s solution? 2. Listen to the people God sends to stabilise your faith. 1 Thessalonians 3:2 (ESV)and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 2 Peter 1:16 (ESV) For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. What is God’s solution? 3. Grow in Christological knowledge (i.e., Christcentered theology). 2 Peter 3:17–18 (ESV) But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. What is God’s solution? 4. Don’t DYI your theology. Humbly accept the teaching about Christ. Colossians 2:6–7 (ESV) Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. What is God’s solution? 4. Grow in Christological knowledge (i.e., Christcentered theology) by humbly accepting the teaching about Christ. Ephesians 4:20–21 (ESV) But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,