Questions to Clarify our Personal Christian Faith

Determining Truth

A.  Wesley described 4 approaches.   Do you use these in any particular order?  Do you have a hierarchy of importance?  Do you emphasize or largely ignore one or more?

1. Scripture (Old Testament, New Testament, Apocrypha, others sacred scriptures or inspired writings?)
2. Tradition
3. Doctrine
4. Experience

B.  This side of Oneness/Unity, where duality of good/evil still exists, is Absolute Truth available or are we forever stuck debating truths from a point of view relative to our life experiences, cultural context, genetic disposition and personality predilections?

Nature of God

A.  Is God One, Whole, Indivisible or Limited?

1. In Space:
   • Is God here yet not there (e.g. In Heaven, not Hell)?
   • Present in our hearts or outside knocking on the door?
   • With us in times of trouble or off somewhere while we are being tested?
   • In humanity yet not in lower forms of life or stars or rocks?
   • In the “least of these” or only in the “saved” or “reconciled?”
   • Unattainable or unavoidable?
2. In Time:

• See ya now or see ya later?
• In a Kingdom “at hand” or in the future?
• Evolving into a kinder, gentler God over time?
• Currently separated into pieces of Devil, Allah, Yahweh, etc. – one day whole again.
• Still communicating with us via written, inspired word or using other means after Biblical Canon was set?

B.  Is God Love?

1. Unconditional or conditioned based on need for judgment, evil, our behavior, sin, God’s Holiness?
2. Applied to all or just to selected few with varying criteria?
3. Personal and intimate or cosmic and nameless?

Nature of Creation

A.  God said “It was good” and then “Oops. What a mess!”?  Now in fight with Satan?

B.  Creation from God IS perfect.  We usually only perceive glimpses of this reality.

C.  Can our free will really counter GOD’s WILL?  Is God’s Will a flow or process into which all things are swept?  We remain free to choose where we place our attention  & what beliefs shape our perceptions and with what we identify (false idols).

Nature of Sin

A.  Broadest definition of sin is “separation from God.”

1. We ARE separated from God:  Caused by whom?   Our quest for independence and/or God’s unwillingness to forgive?  God’s role in the re-union?  Our role in the come-union?
2. We have NEVER been separated from God:  Why does it seem so at times?

B.  Suffering and Evil

1. Source?  Actual reality, created by God as test (Job) or amusement or character building?  Transient, illusory, appearance due to attachment and identity with our bodies as separate from God?
2. If real, how can an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving God allow situation without appearing to be unable, clueless and uncaring?  Many agnostics and atheists come from this dilemma.

Nature of Humanity

A.  Children of God?

1. Essential nature is holy, perfect and sinless.
2. Forever in God’s presence.
3. Nothing to forgive.
4. Co-creators with God.

B.  Fallen sinners seeking redemption – apart from God?

1. Essential nature is flawed since Eden.
2. Forever seeking God’s presence – ultimately in Heaven.
3. Repeated sins to forgive.

Nature of Redemption

A.  If we are sinless, holy children of of an unconditionally loving God, we have always been reconciled with God.

B.  If we are sinful, unholy and apart from God, we need to be “redeemed” from that condition or from Satan who holds us captive – so we can be reconciled to God.

1. For God so loved the world…that He didn’t need to sacrifice His only son?  He stayed the hand of Abraham when sacrificing his son…?
2. Christ’s death and resurrection atoned for our sins and allowed for the resumption of a condition of at-one-ment with God?
3. Was the ransom paid once and for all?   Or are we still in sin and separate from God?
4. Did this personal act of sacrificial love depend for its significance and power on each of us to believe?  So nothing real had occurred until the number of believers began to grow?
5. Has this cosmic act and lamb slain “before the foundation of the world” been an event radiating through space/time at the speed of light since the universe began?  Hitting earth 2000 years ago and moving omni-directionally outward.
6. If we are truly forgiven and washed clean by the blood, why do we continue to wallow in the cycle of sin, guilt, confession and forgiveness?  If we truly believed, would we not “get over it” and treat our missteps as mistakes to be corrected – rather than another serious barrier to our relationship and presence with God?

C.  Does seeing Christ in each of our neighbors, in the present, without their history enable us to love them as sinless children of God and experience our own healing?