Semester 1

Quote Matthew 5:18 and show how this statement by Jesus showed that He believed that the Bible was inerrant.

"For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not a single letter, nor the least stroke of a pen will disappear from the law until everything is accomplished." This proves that Jesus believed the Bible was completely inerrant because he mentions that it is true up the a single letter and stroke of a pen.

List 5 roles of God and describe their significance to you personally.

1. Father: God is a Father and I am his child and just like a father he loves me and protects me and wants to guide me in life. 2. Shepard: Just like a Shepard feeds, guides, and protects his sheep God will watch over me as well. 3. Master: I am God's servant I am here to serve him and live a life that pleases him, which means living according to his word. 4. Judge: God is the Judge of my actions and I know that what I do while I am on earth here will not go without consequence. He is love but he is also just. 5. King: God is my King and I am his subject, I am to worship him and glorify him with my life.

Discuss two pieces of evidence that demonstrate the anthropic principle.

1. Gravity is just the right amount weaker than electromagnetism for the starts to be the size they are and to burn for the length that they do. 2. We are just the right distance from the sun, any closer and we would burn and any further and we would freeze. 3. Protons and Neutrons are just the right mass for chemistry to exist (therefore life to exist).

What are three functions of the conscience?

1. It helps show you the right thing to do. 2. It makes you feel guilty when you have done something wrong. 3. It also helps you to judge your thoughts and to filter what you are thinking.

List the traditional doctrinal subjects in order, then explain why they are placed in this order.

1. Revelation 2. God 3. Man 4. Sin 5. Christ 6. Salvation 7. Holy Spirit 8. Church 9. Last Things The subjects are placed in this order because follow the story of salvation.

List four reasons for studying theology.

1. The more you know about God and His word the more things He can use you for. 2. It helps you to learn more about God thus helping you worship Him better. 3. It matters what you believe. Studying theology will help you recognise the flaws in your belief system. 4. It helps you to build your faith upon the rock and this makes it easier to share your faith and to stand firm when life tests you

Discuss two reasons to believe that the earth is young (several thousand years old and not billions).

1. The sea is getting more salt than it is putting out and if it were an old earth the sea would be much saltier. 2. Studies show that the Sun is getting brighter as the universe gets older, if this were an old earth we would have seen the affects of this when really there has not been a real noticeable difference.

What are the three great philosophical questions of life?

1. Where did I come from? 2. Why am I here? 3. Where am I going?

In order for an atheist to know that there is no God, what percentage of the knowledge of the universe does he need to possess?

100% because if he possessed 97% the knowledge of God could lie in that last 3%.

How many handwritten copies of the Greek New Testament do we have today? (copies made before the printing press was invented)

5,000 and counting.

Write out from memory 2 Peter 1:20-21.

Above all else, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came from the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had it's origin in human will. But prophets, though human, spoke from God while they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

What verse could be used to prove that the Holy Spirit is God?

Acts 5:3-4

Verbal plenary inspiration

All the very words of the Bible are inspired

Demonstrate logically that the Bible is inerrant.

All things that flow from God are considered to be inerrant. The Bible flows from God because every single word in it is from him (Matthew 5:18) and is God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). If they Bible flows from God then it too is considered to be inerrant.

What are two ways that sin has damaged the image of God in humans?

Another way sin has damaged God's image in us is that artistic expression can reveal a wicked heart and can be a tool of Satan, even though the basic gift itself comes from God.

If God is infinite, then how can we know anything about him?

Because God has revealed himself through special and general revelation. He has given us the word of God, creation, and conscience so that we can learn about who he is.

Why is the Bible "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness"?

Because it is God-breathed.

What is doctrine?

Doctrine is our set of beliefs in Christ.

Cosmological Argument

Everything that has a beginning needs a cause. The universe has a beginning. Therefore the universe has a cause. And the only adequate cause is God.

Three expressions of Special Revelation are Creation, Christ, and the Bible. T or F

False

What does it mean for God to be holy?

For God to be holy it means that he has never sinned. He is completely pure in everything that he does and thinks. All his attributes are pure and work together to form who he is.

Quote II Timothy 3:16 (from memory)

For all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.

What theology can we learn from creation and conscience?

From creation we can learn about God's existence, greatness, goodness, beauty, order, intelligence; we can learn about our finiteness, smallness. From conscience we can learn about God's holiness, justice; we can learn about our sinfulness and helplessness.

What is general revelation?

General revelation is God revealing himself to everyone through creation and conscience.

What is the importance of general revelation?

General revelation lays the groundwork for special revelation to take place.

The Bible is an incarnation. That means that it exhibits characteristics of both _____ and _____.

God and Man.

Omnipotent

God can do anything consistent with his holy, rational nature.

Give a brief explanation for the existence of evil and suffering in the world.

God created us to be sinless and with a choice to do good or evil so that we could also have a choice to love him. Adam and Eve made the choice to do evil and brought sin into the world. Because sin is very serious it also has serious consequences, we can see that the consequences of sin are very prominent in our world today. However, it would be a lot worse than it is but God is showing us mercy. He has shown us so much mercy that he sent his son to die on the cross so that he could save us from our sins. God can also use this sin and pain to bring us closer to him and I have experienced this on a personal level in my own life over the past year with my moving. No matter how much pain we go through it is a good reminder that God works all things for the good of those who love him, even if that means that we receive those rewards in Heaven. To sum it up the evil we see in the world today really is the pain that our sinful nature deserves and God has already shown us mercy.

Immutable

God does not change

What does it mean for God to have freedom?

God has the freedom to do what he pleases as long as it coincides with his morality which it always does. He has the freedom to give as much grace and mercy as he pleases.

What does it mean for God to have personality?

God having personality means He has rationality, volition, and feeling.

What does it mean for God to be spiritual?

God is Spirit (non-material). This Spirit is eternal. We also have a spirit which will never die, though it is not eternal in exactly the same sense that God is.

Omnipresence

God is everywhere-presence

Transcendent

God is far exalted above the created order

What does it mean for God to be loving?

God is loving because he sent his son to die for us and to over up salvation. Before our existence the trinity existed and they had an eternal self loving relationship.

Who is God?

God is the one, infinite, self-existent, Supreme Being who in personal holy love creates, sustains, and governs all things.

Self-existence

God is the uncaused Cause, underived, independent

Infinite

God is unlimited

Omniscience

God knows everything

Finish this statement from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, begotten of his Father before all worlds, _________________________."

God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being in one substance with the Father.

Describe in 25-50 words how the attributes of God relate to one another.

God's attributes do not contradict one another but are all eternal and are in harmony with one another. God is both love and justice at the same time. He is a God that cannot be involved sin because He could no longer look at Jesus when he had the sin of the world on him. God is so just that he was unable to have a relationship with us when we were sinful and because he is love as well he sent Jesus to die for us. God loves us so much yet he does not tolerate our sin. In the same way the other attributes of God support each other and strengthen each other instead of contradict each other.

How could one summarize God's moral nature?

God's moral nature is summed up when you speak of his holiness in love. Because he is absolutely holy he does not tolerate sin but because of His love he still desires a relationship with us which is why he sent Jesus to die for us.

Because the Bible is divine, it has authority over our lives, it is ______(it doesn't contradict), and is ___________ (we can trust what it says)

Harmonious, Trustworthy

What does it mean for God to be immanent?

He desires a personal relationship with you. He sent the Holy spirit to be in us.

Give an example of an Old Testament prophecy that was confirmed by historical evidence.

In the Old testament it was prophesied that a man named Jesus would come and be the saviour of the Jews. Whether or not people believe that he was actually a saviour does not interfere with the fact that it is historically proven (in secular history) that a man named Jesus did in fact come.

Teleological Argument

Intricate design in the world argues for Ultimate Intelligent Designer

What is the conscience?

It is the faculty, the power of the mind, by which we distinguish between right and wrong.

Why are Man and Sin before Christ and Salvation in the order of theological subjects?

It's because man was sinless until Adam and Eve ate the apples and brought sin into the world. They did not have a need for salvation until they became sinful. So after the fall Christ knew that we were sinful and he could not be in relationship with us, so we were in desperate need for salvation. It's because of this that Jesus came to die for our sins, so that we could be in relationship with God, and enter into his Kingdom.

What verse could be used to prove that Jesus is God?

John 1:1, 14

Moral Argument

Morals are absolute. Morals can be absolute only if God exists. Therefore God exists.

What does it mean for God to be sovereign?

Nothing happens on earth that God is not aware of. He has absolute control over everything that happens. Since God has given us freedom not everything that does happen is from God.

Give an example of a supposed contradiction in the Bible, and also give an adequate solution to the problem.

One of the supposed contradictions in the Bible is when it states that James the brother of John was killed as an infant but later it mentions James preaching to people. A solution to this contradiction would be saying that there was more then one person mentioned in the Bible called James. In the verse were it mentions James preaching to people it does not mention that he too was the brother of John, therefore it cannot be proven that they were the same person. If you wish to confirm this theory then you can research the second James' family history and confirm that he was not related to a John.

John 1:9

Place in Scripture which indicates that Jesus shows truth to everyone.

Inspiration

Process by which God makes Himself known

Romans 2:14-15

Revelation through conscience mentioned here.

Romans 1:19-20

Revelation through creation mentioned in this Scripture.

Why is special revelation necessary?

Special revelation is necessary for us to see how God came in and saved us from our sins offering us salvation.

Give an example of a principle of modern science that was recorded as a fact of nature in the Bible long before scientists confirmed it experimentally.

The Bible mentioned how the earth was round long before scientists were able to prove that it was.

How was the Bible inspired? How does Scripture support this view of inspiration?

The Bible was inspired through God. Scripture mentions how the word of God is "God breathed" in 2 Timothy 3:16 and talks about how the Prophets that wrote the bible did not write it from their own interpretation but were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21). These are two verses that very specifically state that the word of God came from him and not the men writing it.

What are two creeds that support the doctrine of the Trinity?

The Nicene Creed. The Athanasian Creed.

Use the universe to illustrate the Trinity.

The Trinity can be seen in the Universe because it is made up of three things: matter, space, and time. These three things themselves are made up of three essential things as well. Matter is made up of energy(1) in motion(2) causing phenomena(3). Space is made up of length, width, and height. Lastly, time is made up of past, present, and future. All of these things reflect the triune nature of God because space matter and time are different but they all come together to form one thing, the universe. The Holy Spirit, God, Jesus all have different roles like space time and matter but come together to form God.

Define the Trinity.

The Trinity is the One God who has revealed Himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Explain how the living cell demonstrates that there must be an Intelligent Designer.

The cell is an example of a irreducibly complex structure in which hundreds of parts would have to function simultaneously in order for the cell to function at all. So if the cell evolved, many, many parts evolved simultaneously, which would be a miracle—if you are going to believe in miracles, you might as well believe in creation!

Anthropic Principle

The earth has precisely the right conditions for human life.

According to Psalm 19, what do the heavens declare?

The glory of God

What is the problem with saying that the world has always existed as it is now?

The law of thermodynamics proves otherwise. It states that there are no new natural resources being created and we are slowly but surely running out of what we do have. Since this is proven to be true we can conclude that if the universe is eternal we would have been out of resources a long time ago. Therefore, the universe cannot be eternal without contradicting this law.

The Problem of Evil

The number one objection to belief in God

Why do we make the qualification that only the original manuscripts are inerrant?

The original manuscripts are the manuscripts that came straight from God to the writers and onto the paper. As the manuscripts are passed down and translated their inerrancy is less concrete and small textual and translational errors can be made. Non of which will actually effect the Bible and it's message. However since what flows from God is perfect then the original manuscript of the Bible that came from him is also perfect.

What is theology?

Theology is the study of God and his word. In other words the study of God through his word.

From what two Greek words does 'theology' come?

Theos and Logos

What do theos and logos mean?

Theos means God and logos means word.

How does the trinitarian nature of God reflect churches and families?

There is both unity and diversity in families and the church (or should be). This is a reflection of the unity in diversity among the members of the Trinity.

Secular historians such as Tacitus confirm the reliability of the Bible in what ways?

They confirm events described in the Bible by mentioning those same events in their records of their secular history. Which means that while they openly state that they don't believe in the Bible they are proving it correct by proving biblical events to be true in their record of history.

Verbal

This has to do with words

What is the problem with saying that the world came from nothing?

This in itself is a contradiction. Something cannot be nothing and create something because it would have to be something to create something. Therefore it is impossible to say that something came from nothing.

The Mormons believe that God is one of many Gods who reign over their own planets. What is wrong with this view of God?

This takes away the supreme aspect of God. He is the one and only God and there is no other. When he becomes one of many it can rebuke our argument for the trinity because there would have been other God's for the Father to love. However, there wasn't which is why there is a Trinity so that God can be a loving God who has eternally loved the members of the Trinity.

Plenary

This term means 'complete' or 'all'

The Bible does not contain any proven, real contradictions. T or F

True

To understand a passage of Scripture, you should read what comes before it and what follows. T or F

True

When we say that the Bible is inerrant, we are only referring to the original manuscripts. T or F

True

Revelation

Truth God makes known to us

Why do we call each of the members of the Trinity persons?

We call each member of the Trinity a person because each can have a personal relationship with the others. They can talk to each other, love one another, give themselves to one another, etc.

Defend the doctrine of the Trinity, using scripture and logic. Make sure you use three premises and a conclusion.

We can conclude that God is one being when we look at Deuteronomy 6:4. It states that the Lord is one and he is the only One. We can conclude that God is the father when we look at Galatians 1:1, that Jesus is the son when we look at John 1:1, 14, and that the Holy spirit is part of God when we look at Acts 5:3-4. Now that we understand that God is one being and that the Father, Jesus, and the Holy spirit are all part of that being we can confirm that they are different parts and play different roles when we look at Mark 1:9-11. This verse is Jesus getting baptised and the father saying this is my son with whom I am well pleased as the Holy spirit descends like a dove upon him. Here we see all three parts of God acting in different roles while still being one.

How is our free will different from the choices animals make?

We have the ability to think, reason, reflect, and discern our actions before we do things. We have a conscience and respond to internal battles and external battles using the ability to judge and discern between right and wrong. Animals act on instinct and impulse responding only to external conflict.

What is the problem with saying that the world came from a 'blob" or "speck" of impersonal matter/energy?

We live in a personal world, and it is impossible that something personal came from something impersonal. Therefore we need a personal creator which leads us to believe in an intelligent designer.

How should each of us reflect the relational nature of the Trinity?

We should be in loving relationships helping each other grow in grace.

Infallible

Will not fail

Inerrant

Without error

Do the N.T. books claim to be based on reliable eyewitness testimony?

Yes

Do the early creeds support the doctrine of the Trinity, and the deity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? Why is it important to believe in the Trinity?

Yes the Nicene creed and the Athanasian creed support the doctrine of the Trinity and the deity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It is important to believe in the Trinity because if Jesus was not God than he is not capable of giving us salvation. If the trinity did not exist it is impossible for God to be loving since all his attributes are eternal and if there wasn't a Holy Spirit and Jesus there would be no one for him to love before he made us.

What Greek word is translated 'revelation'?

apocalypsis

Personal attributes

attributes that are essential to personhood

Because the Bible is divine, it is our______to do God's will.

authority

Finish this statement from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed:"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, ______________________________..."

maker of Heaven and Earth.

Primary attributes

non-transferable attributes that are not relative to the created order

Relative attributes

non-transferable attributes that show God in his relationship to creation.

Because the Bible is a human book (a book written by humans), then we ought to try to determine what the ______ authors were trying to say to the _____ readers.

original

Finish this statement from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: "I believe in the Holy Spirit..., who ________________________, __________________________________."

proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified.

The ability to have _______________ with another person is essential to personhood.

relationship

Moral attributes

transferable attributes that relate to the rightness of God's character and actions.