Doctrine Week 3 : Creation : God Makes DISCUSSION

Hello! I finally had the opportunity to finish the 3rd Sermon in the Doctrine series from Mars Hill Church. If you would like to watch please refer to the links at the right and select 'mars hill church'. This will connect you to all videos and discussions we've had so far.

I hope some of you also took some time to watch the sermon and can discuss along with me. This particular sermon was on the Creation. Pastor Driscoll states that the Bible stories are more of a theological history and a guide to heaven rather than a scientific text. The Creation is not about who and what but God's work. I think this is a wonderful way to explain what the Bible does for us. Many people do want to pick it apart and contest the contents of the Bible with science without recalling that the Bible is a book of stories mean to teach us how to live as Christians in order to get to heaven. The Creation story tells us how we came to be here and the privilege we have been given to be here with God as our creator and savior. We can not begin to understand ourselves without acknowledging the existence of God, as he created us. When Pastor begins to discuss the various interpretations of the Creation by Christians (I didn't realize there was much much debate within the Christian community on the story!) he proposes a closed hand/open hand theory which he describes as a discussion without the division. I was overjoyed that he said this because I think this goes for all topics! I used to loathe discussing politics without a format like this. Often times, people get pleasure from not only arguing a point but pressing it on you without any relief! This would frustrate me and ultimately kept me away from what could have been wonderful discussions. Discussion without division is something everyone could gain from and no better format to discuss The Creation.

Something really grabbed me during this sermon and it was the statement that the creation reflects the creator. As an artist this held much meaning for me. I tend to do drawings and/or paintings that are personal for me and display beauty. We live in a truly remarkable world. Nature in itself can leave you speechless. With technology today we have been able to see television series like Planet Earth and Life that give us a glimpse of the beauty of nature that some of us with never have the pleasure of coming face to face with. People are beautiful and so unique. What does this tell us about our creator, God? Well, it certainly confirms everything I've read about why God made us. He loves us, He loves his creation, He loves beauty, He loves nature and put all us all together so that he could enjoy his creation and we could enjoy what he has created.

Who would have guessed that with all the beauty in God's creation there would be anything to discuss, right?! Hehe, well of course, there is the debate on how old the earth is and the belief that there is a young earth vs. old earth. The young earth is describes as being anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 years old in reference to the genealogies in the Bible. Some believe that the earth may just look old and was made mature as Adam was created mature, as opposed to him being created an infant. This does not coincide with the scientific explanation of the earth being roughly 4.5 billion years old. From my understanding of the Bible isn't it possible that He did create the Earth and then at a later date created everything else? I believe Pastor may have touched on this when discussing a gap in Genesis. What I found amazing was that even non Christians agree that homo sapiens show up within the last 10,000 years which completely agrees with James Usher's studies from the 1600's on the biblical genealogies. Since the Bible does not directly give the earth's age there is more freedom to debate there but as far as humans - it seems that the consensus of about 10,000 years is applicable whether your Christians or not. In the end, I agree with Pastor that no matter how old the earth is, there is great significance in the creation of human life being young and being accepted by all to have occurred around 10,000 years ago. There also seems to be a general consensus that a big bang, or big God occurred which I like to refer to as the BIGinning :) Pastor mentions that Christians don't reject science but naturalism. This was followed by a huge sigh of relief on my end because grade school kind of gave me the assumption of science vs. Christianity. When he said this and further explained I was relieved to know my thinking was wrong and that's something I can move forward with!

He ends with a discussion on atheistic evolution which was a shock to hear about. In my mind, Atheists don't believe in God and I've never put much more thought into atheism than that but he Pastor went on to describe how their belief is that we come from nothing, go to nothing, life is full of unyielding despair, random, chaos and no real purpose. And he concluded that these beliefs are basically biased and just bad science. That was enough information for me! I don't think there is an alternative to Creation. Where we come from determines our purpose here and where we will go. We come from God and we were here to fulfill His Word in order to one day go to heaven. Doesn't get any better than that! Who wouldn't want to live a life serving God? There is so much good to be done and joy and happiness to experience - it's no wonder God set this life up for us, he loves giving us joy through the obstacles he helps us overcome and the passion to love others and so on and so forth! As Pastor Driscoll states, the Creator entered His creation and made Jesus to identify with us. Jesus resisted sin, never exchanged the truth for the lie and he paid the penalty for our sins. In Oneism, all of these distinctions are erased. There is no savior, no one outside of the circle to believe in, have faith in. Distinctions are necessary, as stated above, to understand ourselves. If not for distinctions we would have no God, no creator, apart from which we would not understand ourselves.

How's that for food for thought?! I feel like I have so much more thought to put into all I've just written even! Whew :)

Doctrine Week 2 Revelation : God Speaks DISCUSSION (AL)

I have finally finished the Week 2 seminar from Mars Hill Church which you can click here to watch!

After watching two seminars I'm so grateful Susan shared this site with me. I truly believe I did not buckle down and become Christian sooner because I would get discouraged from my lack of knowledge - not knowing where to begin to become Christian, not knowing how to read the Bible, not enough understanding to commit. The clarity given in these seminars is everything I've been seeking. Although I have already become a Christian and feel I've gained a great deal of knowledge to make this decision there are still basics I do not understand and these seminars continue to clear everything right up!

Pastor Mark mentions that he was confused about the Bible before becoming Christian and I'm so glad he said that. Being such a knowledgeable person who is reliable and inspiring I'm comforted that he "started out" like me. I believe if you're a "beginning" Christian, you definitely need to watch!

This week Pastor Mark discusses revelation and how it is separate from speculation because we do not need to speculate or guess, God tells us everything, gives us all of the answers through the Bible. General revelation and special revelation are the two types of revelations that people experience. General revelation is referring to all circumstances and how they reveal much but don't go into details. Our functions, how we heal ourselves when sick, nature, the seasons are all goodness of God. These are examples of God showing himself to us. I love his mention of creation being an external witness to God as we, you and I, are representative of God, we are his proof. A great example of an internal witness is our conscience. We feel right and wrong, there's a conscience there, there is God. Special Revelation is information about God that is clearer and shown to a limited amount of people. The teaching of the scriptures is a perfect example of detailed information that speaks to us. When Pastor Mark says that special revelation is only shown to a limited amount of people, he is referring to those that have been through a supernatural occurrence, he is referring to Jesus Christ as he is God the son, eternally God and literally the word of God. He states that we were taught and spoken to through Jesus. He is the fully revealed image of the invisible God. Last is scripture. As Pastor Mark puts it, scripture is breathed out by God or God breath, the Bible as a whole is God breath.

He then went on to discuss scriptures and how they are a collection of written documents that were divinely inspired by God. I'm glad he clears this up because I never understood the separations in the Bible but Pastor Mark states that the Bible is a collection of 66 books in order of genre of literature - law, prophets, poetic/psalms, gospels/biography and letters. I really needed to know this. I had no idea what the order of the Bible was or why people read the Bible in different ways and now I know exactly why. He gives a great analogy that scriptures are a light on a dark path that guide us. This is very true as I often look back on certain passages to help me through different situations and emotions. He also details that the authors of different documents are divinely inspired by God to give faithful records and how the Holy Spirit enabled apostles to remember and record faithfully without error. I used to think that maybe, long ago, the information was passed down and recorded and Christians were just expected to believe what is in the Bible but now it is clear that God directly spoke to these authors and gave them the ability to record flawlessly and faithfully what he wanted them to document and as Christians we can trust this.

In closing he mentions that some things in the bible are difficult to understand not because people may find the information unclear but because many suppress the truth and are unwilling to repent - basically, some people don't like all or parts of the Bible and don't understand becoming Christian. It's ironic for anyone to feel this way since there are many aspects of life that some people do not enjoy - waking up early, doing the dishes, eating healthy foods - but must do and that is life. That's reality. You do things like shower each day because it is beneficial and crucial to your life. I believe the Bible should be seen in the same way. There will always be things in life we don't agree with but are mandatory and the Bible is the same, you have to be willing to accept all of what is said in scripture.

Pastor Mark gave a fantastic quote of Mark Twain's, "It's not the parts of the Bible that I read and don't understand which bother me, it's the parts of the Bible which I do read and do understand which bother me." As I said in my Week 1 discussion, it is hard accept beliefs that are new but the first step is knowing that the Bible is God's word, the truth. As soon as I put my faith in all of His teachings it was absolutely easy for me to accept any new beliefs because I can always trust God.

He said something that really struck me in the end while discussing how becoming a Christian changed him. Pastor Mark said that when you become Christian your sins are taken away and your relationships are restored. Just sounds beautiful, becoming Christian is a harmony in a way - everything just becomes good and right and just.

Doctrine Week 1 Trinity : God Is DISCUSSION (Suze)

Hello all! So, I have actually listed to this series once before, but it was quite a few years ago when my husband first discovered Mars Hill Church online. But I am SO happy to be listening to it once again. It is so important to "go back to the roots" if you will, when you are a Christian. There are so many wonderful books and studies out there for us to use as resources, but the foundation of our faith should be from the Word of God, which we find in the end all, be all of books: The Bible. That is what I love about this series. For me it solidifies the foundation on which I try to build my life, and my daughter's life on. For my wonderful new-Christian Al, it is going to clarify to many things about the Christian faith and help her build her family's foundation with Jesus as the building blocks. (I love you Al, and am so happy for you!) With that said, I think Pastor Driscoll underscores this point by citing Titus 2:1 at the beginning of the sermon: "You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine." A pastor who keeps pointing his congregation back to the Bible with specific verses is one who truly wants the people to grow from the Word of God, not the word of man.

In order to know and follow God, we must realize and submit to the fact that HE IS THE ONLY GOD! 1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people..." He- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit- is the only God there is. For me, us, as Christians that truth is so exciting and redeeming! We know the God of the universe and he chose us to worship Him here on earth. He chose us to believe in His son Jesus so that one day we will live with him forever in his kingdom. If that isn't exciting, I don't know what is!!

The Bible also speaks of another truth, one that is much more difficult to swallow: the truth of false gods, fallen angels, and demons. 1 John 4:3 "but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." Wow... chills. It is scary to know that major world religions look to these antichrists as their gods. But the good news is God died for all of us, even followers of His enemies. They too can be forgiven and redeemed if they would repent and turn thier hearts to Jesus. What a merciful God we serve!

I have more to say on this topic, but I have to finish up a paper for Pharmacology :(. I am going to post this and hopefully come back to it soon. Thanks all.

Doctrine Week 1 Trinity : God Is DISCUSSION (Al)

We have watched our first seminar this week (hooray!) which you can also view on this blog by clicking 'Mars Hill Church' to the right under 'find what you're looking for'. Here are our thoughts on this first week and if you have some to add we'd love to hear from you so please leave comments if you'd like!

AL : Since this is our first discussion let me set up what is happening. I have posted my overall thoughts on Doctrine Week 1 below. I also typed out notes while watching the video and have posted them as a comment to this post so if you'd like to read them while watching the video or just to read them check in comments. We set the deadline for January 30th so you'll see Sue's post between now and the 30th here as well!

Summary : I should add that Susan has been a Christian for the past 7 years and I have just become one and am still learning so much. This seminar opened my eyes to who God is and that there truly can be only one God, our God. I always used to say that I believe in God but I don't deny other religions and their beliefs. I never understood why some would be so adamant that there is only one God, our Savior and I took this as closemindedness but I now know that any other spirits, gods, etc that others worship are false as it is stated in the Bible that there was God first and no other before or after Him. There is no love without God and Christianity because God IS love. If you are not a Christian you do not understand or know love, God and the doctrine. I really enjoyed the end of this seminar because everything that you'd think someone would want out of life IS the trinitarian life. Who wouldn't want to be happy, full of love, submitting to God in times of need and transparent and open with nothing to hide. People should be jumping at the chance to become Christian and lead a trinitarian life! I believe that this is the life I've always tried to lead but have stumbled and been unsure at times if I was actually living in this way but by being a Christian I am given direction and have many resources (God, church, loved ones, other Christians) to always help guide me.