God talk

14th November 2020 The first paragraph gives us some wide brush strokes, then he will start looking at particular texts. Bavinck starts by saying: “In Holy Scripture there is no name for what we call religion.   After all we understand religion to encompass all human relations to God in their entirety and in all their connections . Piety, love, trust, adoration, hoping on God, all taken together, are therefore what we describe as religion, Holy Scripture always deals with some concrete element of religion. Thus, scripture uses various names because it is not furnishing scientific theology even though it provides the elements for such a science.” Reformed Ethics page 54 edited by John Bolt. At first, I thought that Bavinck was wrong but now I know he is right in this assumption.   Firstly;   ‘’The Greek word threskeia ( Θρεσκεια ), which was used by Greek writers such as Herodotus and Josephus, is found in the New Testament. Threskeia is sometimes translated as religion in today

   6 th November 2020 On page 53 Bavinck starts with saying; “Rationalists tear apart knowing from doing and simply place the one along the side of the other in disjointed fashion, as they also do with systematic theology and ethics.” Bavinck sums up each of the rationalists view, this is in the main paragraph of page 53.   What are Bavincks view on these rationalists? The statements in parentheses are my thoughts on this; ·         Kant; Religion becomes ethics (only doing).   ·         Fichte;   The moral world order is itself God   (Doesn’t work!). ·         Hegel; Religion is only a matter of knowing (No ethics!) ·         Scleiermacher: Religion is just a changing state of consciousness. (No ethics again!) This for Bavinck is simply not true as he says; Religion always rests upon the communion of God with humans as they are restored in Christ, established by God's revelation in word and deed. This is objective religion. We subjectively appropriate th

  4 th of November 2020 Introductory note to 1 Corinthians 14 As we said earlier, this world of the Corinthians seems very strange to the European mind.   Things are going on and as far as intellect is concerned, we can indeed say we only know in part.   It is so important to try to piece together the background to this letter without demeaning Holy Scripture because that is what it is.   Paul has given us the tools to walk through this maze.   The most important thing he has reminded us is the importance of love; a.      Here we have a bunch of Christians who couldn’t even agree on a lot of things.   b.      Paul reminds them of the importance of love. Love is the glue that holds the church together.   Love is something that can overlook wrongs. Love makes a friend stick to you closer that a brother or sister.   Love makes the other person more esteemed than yourself. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.    Every person has baggage from their old life, but the bag

  1st November 2020 The Collins dictionary says; ” 1. belief in, worship of, or obedience to a supernatural power or powers considered to be divine or to have control of human destiny 2.  any formal or institutionalized expression of such belief the world's major religions 3. the attitude and feeling of one who believes in a transcendent controlling power or powers 4.  mainly Roman Catholic Church the way of life determined by the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience entered upon by monks, friars, and nuns to enter religion 5. something of overwhelming importance to a person football is his religion 6.  archaic a. the practice of sacred ritual observances b. sacred rites and ceremonies Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers ” Taken from; https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/religion I’m sure that if I was to look at various dictionaries, I would find different takes on the word religion.   This would be a work in itself.     For Chris