303 Final Flashcards
(32 cards)
Rule of Faith
Purposes of Creeds and Confessions. Guardrails for proper theology. Defined by scripture and tradition. Plenty of room for theological differences within the rule of faith. Passed down and keeps church (relatively) free from heresy. Something to unite around.
God’s Essence
BC 8. That which God ontologically is. Three persons of the Trinity united in their sharing in the divine essence. Partly defined by attributes found in Scrirpture. BC 1: attributes of God. We can describe it by what it isn’t: via negativa or what it is: via eminentiae
Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit
Context? True faith cannot take root w/o the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. Faith is always primarily a unilateral act of God through the HS.
Original Sin
Canons of Dort #1: All humans have been corrupted by A&E and have lost our free will.
BC 16: Election is God’s response to original sin (display of mercy and justice).
BC 14: Corruption and guilt (perversion, pollution, disintegration)
BC 12, 14-16. Original sin includes both corruptions, turning to other ends God’s good gifts, and guilt. People are born into matrices of evil, their slate has been written on for years by their ancestors.
Worldview
CT Preamble & Wolters. From German Weltanschauung. “The comprehensive framework of one’s basic beliefs about things.” A lens through which we see the world. Comprehensive, basic beliefs about ultimate reality, the world, and their relationship. An attempt to explain what is wrong. A Christian worldview must be shaped and tested by scripture.
Grace
Context? Justified by grace, through faith, in Christ. God treats us as if we had never sinned. Requires radical dependence (counter-cultural). It is a unilateral move and gift from God. “Undeserved favor”. Double grace= just. & sanct.
- Always aims to redeem
- Doesn’t just redeem, but overcomes sin
- Free, but not cheap
- Lavish; profuse
- Surprising; unexpected
the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity
BC 8. There is one divine essence in (displayed by) three persons. All three persons have all of the divine essence. Cappadocian Trin./Social Trinitarianism: Persons are distinct, but united in their shared divinity. Incommunicable properties: Unique to the person (Father=Begetter, Son=Begotten, Spirit=One who proceeds). Father seems to be original in a way the Son & Spirit are not (offsetting features=Col. 1:15-20 & Spirit as begetting and sender of the Son in Gospels). Evidence: 1) Scripture, 2) Endorsed by 3 ecumenical creeds, 3) All Church Fathers wrote in agreement with the doctrine (tradition)
Incarnation
BC 18. At a particular point in history, the eternal second person of the holy Trinity assumed the essence of humanity. Must begin with a person that is human and divine, and adjust our understandings accordingly (to avoid Christ. heresy). Kenosis: Perhaps part of it was giving up knowledge that he couldn’t sin (temptation was psychologically real).
Atonement
BC 21. Appeasing of God’s wrath. According to Anselm, Jesus made satisfaction for the wrath of God regarding our sins, which was poured out via Jesus’ death and resurrection. God’s requirement that sin be dealt with justly is satisfied. This runs the danger of pitting good Jesus vs. wrathful God. God may have simultaneous love and wrath. God’s proper wrath against sin was poured out on earth via Christ’s death…the grace is that it is not on the sinner.
Justification
BC 23. A foreshadowing of (cosmic) shalom. A unilateral act of God that is prerequisite to faith. God treats us as if we had never sinned. A free gift of God that is firm forever. A necessary partner with sanctification.
- Forgiveness of sins
- Crediting of Christ’s righteousness
- Reconciliation with God
Sanctification
BC 24. The following through on right religious affections. The outworking of justification in our lives. The development of virtues from thought/cation to habit into dispositions and character through practice. Liberation from the trap of sin. Faith is the root (true faith –> sanctification and good works. Virtues are God’s gift and our calling. Dying to the old, bringing new life.
The Power Required for Regeneration
CD III/IV Art. 10-17: The Holy Spirit, by a unilateral act of sovereign divine grace, in the heart of the elect by turning the will and heart of the believer toward God. Occurs after justification and paves the way for sanctification. Once regenerated, one can never return back to the slavery of sin again (perseverance of the saints).
BC 24: True faith, through the hearing of the Word and the power of the HS, regenerates us.
Sin
CT 13-17. Rebellion & fleeing (we are either rebels or runaways). Though it is familiar, it is not normal. A caraicature of human life (not the way it is supposed to be). Futile, doomed, and self-defeating (folly). It has infected every aspect of human activity. Remarkably reproductive (fatal and fertile).
BC 14: Corruption and guilt—perversion, pollution, and disintegration.
HC #3: Alienation—the cycle of sin (sin-misery-sin-misery)
Corruption
BC 14: One of the 2 key components of Original Sin (corruption and guilt). The perversion, pollution, and disintegration of humanity and the created order. Adulteration.
Election
BC 16: God’s response to Original Sin—a display of God’s mercy and justice. Primarily a comfort for sinners, but also a source of despair (why must there be reprobate?). We must be missing a significant piece of the puzzle.
CD 7: God chose in Christ a particular # of those to be saved in order to demonstrate God’s mercy. Not a double election, a single choice of God’s not based on his foreknowledge of who would choose him. Those elected receive supernatural regeneration.
Plantinga: Primarily an expression of God’s grace—God chose us, we did not choose him. We got grace, Christ got the penalty.
CT 26: Purpose is to become like Christ.
Reprobation
CD 1:15: Those who are not chosen to receive justification and supernatural regeneration. An expression of God’s justice (why do we need more justice? Wasn’t Christ’s work on the cross enough?). God is perfectly good and perfectly just.
The “Powers”
CT 3: The “spirits of the age” that seek to claim ultimate allegiance and authority instead of God (rationalism, humanism, militarism, nationalism, consumerism/materialism, tolerance, entertainment, success/achievement, the value we assign based on these).
Perseverance of the Saints
CD 5: Once regenerated, one can never return back to the slavery of sin. The regenerate, however, are not free from sin, but God empowers us to persevere toward more sanctified living. This assurance leads us into ever more godly living.
Christians actually believe in three gods but are too timid and conventional to say so.
False Statement: Tritheism has always been a temptation of Trinitarian theism. Modalism (Barth) has sought to protect the oneness of God, but has been denounced as a heresy. Basil and the Cap. Fathers articulated a social trinitarianism that emphasizes the three-ness and the distinct personhood of the persons of the Godhead. The church has always rejected heresies that tend toward tritheism (partialism, subordinationism, Arianism, Marcionism). BC 8 & 9 affirm the church’s articulation of one divine essence shared equally by three distinct persons. This is affirmed by scripture, ecumenical creeds, and church tradition.
God’s Mercy and Justice Appear to be in Tension
True Statement: BC 16 and CD 1:7: Doctrine of election is a display of God’s mercy, but reprobation is a display of God’s justice. Why does God choose some to show his mercy and others to show his justice? Is more than the justice and mercy displayed on the cross needed? We are missing part of the puzzle, but we accept the paradoxes of Trinity, Incarnation, etc.
There are good reasons for the theologian to work in the interrogative mode
True Statement: Plantinga (Theology’s task—Anselm): Theology must have a progressive, reformist dimension. Theology is the fruit of faith. The theologian must always be asking new questions, while still being guided by the rule of faith. A good theologian will be a restlessly conservative seeker of sheer truth. He or she will cherish the traditional interpretations of doctrine, but view them with a critical eye, always asking questions, such that theology has a progressive, reformist dimension.
Sin is not a form of self-abuse
False Statement: Plantinga (Workshop on Sin): The cycle of sin and misery found in HC 3 would suggest otherwise. Sin leads to misery, which leads to more sin and more misery. Sin is exhibit A of folly. It harms us and those around us—why wouldn’t we choose a different way of living if it is available to us? Though sin is more than just a form of self-abuse. They are not synonyms. Self-abuse is a sub-set of sin.
“We believe that God, in a world full of injustice and enmity, is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor and the wronged.”
True Statement: Belhar: Out of a context of great suffering and oppression on behalf of the writers at the hands of those it is written to (immense Christian grace!). This can sound like liberation theology, but isn’t liberation one of the central motifs of scripture and the Gospels? Every theological pursuit has distortions, but the basic assertion that God is concerned with freedom and flourishing is incontrovertible. Does not have to lead to God’s preferential option for the poor, but to say that God has a special concern for the oppressed is inescapably biblical.
The church’s “struggle with the spirits of this age” is generally successful.
Ambiguous? CT 3: While individual believers may fail in their struggles with the spirits of this age, the success of the invisible, universal church against these spirits is assured. By resisting them in the power of the Spirit and testing them by God’s sure Word, the church is assured to be ultimately victorious, though there might be failures along the way.
