Decisions in a World Driven by Technology
Tim Keller - The Reason for God"Nonbelievers are not people without beliefs. They are people whose beliefs vary from Orthodox Christianity."
Are we becoming less Christian?By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans. Fewer young adults belong to any particular faith than older people do today. They also are less likely to be affiliated than their parents' and grandparents' generations were when they were young. Fully one-in-four members of the Millennial generation - so called because they were born after 1980 and began to come of age around the year 2000 - are unaffiliated with any particular faith. Indeed, Millennials are significantly more unaffiliated than members of Generation X were at a comparable point in their life cycle (20% in the late 1990s) and twice as unaffiliated as Baby Boomers were as young adults (13% in the late 1970s). Young adults also attend religious services less often than older Americans today. And compared with their elders today, fewer young people say that religion is very important in their lives.
Yet in other ways, Millennials remain fairly traditional in their religious beliefs and practices. Pew Research Center surveys show, for instance, that young adults' beliefs about life after death and the existence of heaven, hell and miracles closely resemble the beliefs of older people today. Though young adults pray less often than their elders do today, the number of young adults who say they pray every day rivals the portion of young people who said the same in prior decades. And though belief in God is lower among young adults than among older adults, Millennials say they believe in God with absolute certainty at rates similar to those seen among Gen Xers a decade ago. This suggests that some of the religious differences between younger and older Americans today are not entirely generational but result in part from people's tendency to place greater emphasis on religion as they age. The Pew Forum on Religion and Society 2010 |
The FocusThis Bible study will focus on the application of our faith as Christians in a world driven by scientific discoveries and the development of new technology. In this rapidly changing world - does our faith makes a difference in the choices we make? Those who choose to attend this study will be challenged by provocative articles and videos that will cause them to search the scriptures to look for guidance for these real world problems.
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The Reason For God - A series of interviews with a group of those who do not believe in Christianity.
Session 1 - Myth and Science |
What is the Kingdom of the Left Hand?
"Lutherans believe in the doctrine of the two kingdoms. God reigns in His spiritual kingdom, which He establishes by His Word and Sacraments, consisting of everyone who has faith in Jesus Christ. This kingdom, often called the kingdom of God’s right hand, indicating its special favor with God, will last forever in the eternal life that He has prepared for His children.
But God has another kingdom. He also reigns in the world He created and in the human societies that He has ordained. God rules this kingdom by His laws, both the natural lawsthat He built into the universe and the moral laws that He inscribed onto the human heart."
Lutheran Witness, January 2011
But God has another kingdom. He also reigns in the world He created and in the human societies that He has ordained. God rules this kingdom by His laws, both the natural lawsthat He built into the universe and the moral laws that He inscribed onto the human heart."
Lutheran Witness, January 2011
What is a Christian World View?
While Christians have diverse viewpoints on social issues. LCMS Christians view the Bible is different than most main line denominations. The following is a good explanation of the differences in viewpoint between the LCMS and the ELCA.
What is the Bible?
On the surface the explanations of what the Bible is sound very similar between the two churches.
ELCA: This church accepts the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life. Art. 2.03 of the Constitution of the ELCA
LCMS:
The Synod, and every member of the Synod, accepts without reservation: 1. The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament as the written Word of God and the only rule and norm of faith and of practice; Art. II of the Constitution of the LCMS
Comparing the two statements above shows little difference between them. The real difference comes behind the outward public statements. The way pastors are taught to read, understand, and interpret the Bible is very different between the two. ELCA seminaries promote the use of numerous critical approaches to holy Scripture. Pastors are taught to question whether the various parts of the Bible are in fact God’s Word or whether they are statements conditioned by the prejudices, opinions and biases of the authors. The authors of the various books of the Bible are themselves held suspect and credit for the text of Holy Scripture is given to the “community of faith” which was trying to explain and understand Christ many years after he died. The miracles of Jesus and other supernatural events recorded in Scripture are held to be myths, not historical facts.
In contrast, LCMS seminaries, while teaching its pastors about critical approaches, reject those approaches as valid ways to interpret Scripture. While God did use the unique styles of individual writers of the texts, he did not allow their biases, prejudices or sinful opinions to corrupt His Words. The LCMS does not believe that the various books of Scripture were written by various “communities of believers” who wrote under the pseudonyms of the apostles and prophets. It believes that those books of the Bible which claim apostolic or prophet authorship were written by author they claim. So the apostle Matthew wrote Matthew. Luke wrote Luke. St. Paul wrote the epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians Corinthians and so on.
Critical approaches to Biblical understanding diminish the Bible to nothing more than a human book about God. The historic teachings of the Christian Church themselves fall suspect and nothing can be known for certain.
What is the Bible?
On the surface the explanations of what the Bible is sound very similar between the two churches.
ELCA: This church accepts the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life. Art. 2.03 of the Constitution of the ELCA
LCMS:
The Synod, and every member of the Synod, accepts without reservation: 1. The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament as the written Word of God and the only rule and norm of faith and of practice; Art. II of the Constitution of the LCMS
Comparing the two statements above shows little difference between them. The real difference comes behind the outward public statements. The way pastors are taught to read, understand, and interpret the Bible is very different between the two. ELCA seminaries promote the use of numerous critical approaches to holy Scripture. Pastors are taught to question whether the various parts of the Bible are in fact God’s Word or whether they are statements conditioned by the prejudices, opinions and biases of the authors. The authors of the various books of the Bible are themselves held suspect and credit for the text of Holy Scripture is given to the “community of faith” which was trying to explain and understand Christ many years after he died. The miracles of Jesus and other supernatural events recorded in Scripture are held to be myths, not historical facts.
In contrast, LCMS seminaries, while teaching its pastors about critical approaches, reject those approaches as valid ways to interpret Scripture. While God did use the unique styles of individual writers of the texts, he did not allow their biases, prejudices or sinful opinions to corrupt His Words. The LCMS does not believe that the various books of Scripture were written by various “communities of believers” who wrote under the pseudonyms of the apostles and prophets. It believes that those books of the Bible which claim apostolic or prophet authorship were written by author they claim. So the apostle Matthew wrote Matthew. Luke wrote Luke. St. Paul wrote the epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians Corinthians and so on.
Critical approaches to Biblical understanding diminish the Bible to nothing more than a human book about God. The historic teachings of the Christian Church themselves fall suspect and nothing can be known for certain.