Leadership Personal Reflection
Lucyya
AChristianWorldview1.pptxA Christian Worldview
A Little History
&
Beliefs of the Christian faith
Copyright by Carol C. Molcar
God is the Creator of Nature and of all that is good.
He revealed Himself through His Creation.
The Bible
God revealed Himself through the written Scriptures which recorded His interactions with people. The writings were people writing guided by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible records information that God wants us to know.
The Scriptures (Bible) are authoritative for how we are to live.
History: Creation
Both Jews and Christians believe that the Old Testament are Scriptures that reveal truth.
They believe that God created the world—the natural world, animals, human beings.
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Genesis 1:31
Human Beings were made in God’s Image
People were created to be in fellowship (relationship) with God, other people, and the creation.
God made people with a choice because love is not coercion but freedom.
The Brokenness of the World
Therefore, when the first people had a choice, they chose to be free from God’s authority and rule and be autonomous or independent from Him.
Because God is the author of Life, to separate from Him causes death.
Death came about in the world, not just for people but for animals as well.
God is the Saviour
Redemption
But God did not leave things there.
He created a way back to be in fellowship with Him.
God wants us to know Him
Therefore, He has made Himself known through His Creation:
“Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” Romans 1:20.
God is the central reality in a Christian Worldview.
As Sire states, a Biblical understanding of God is that He is:
Infinite (beyond measure)
Personal, One God in Three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)
Transcendent (beyond us & the world; imminent & transcendent)
All Knowing
God is good (Righteous and Loving).
God Revealed Himself to a Group of People
God chose to reveal Himself, His moral character and love, through a group of people—the Hebrew people.
He loves all people and wanted all the peoples of the world to know Him and be in right relationship with Him.
God Revealed Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ (Christ means “Anointed One” in Greek) was sent into the world. He was born through a Virgin birth
He was fully God (being the second person of the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
He was also fully Human. Therefore, He could be the Bridge between God the Father and human beings.
Jesus’ Life on earth
Jesus’ life fulfilled OT prophecy about the Messiah.
Jesus was born of a virgin, in Bethlehem.
Lived for 30 years in Nazareth, worked as a carpenter.
For three years he went throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria preaching that the Kingdom of God had come.
He revealed that He was God’s Son (God Incarnate) through his miracles of healing, his authority over nature and the spiritual realm (casting out demons), his teaching, and his resurrection from the dead.
God’s Character
God is Loving and Righteous
Because God is righteous and holy, he cannot just ignore sin and evil.
In His love, He chose to deal with our sin (disobedience to Him) by Himself providing someone (His Son) to pay for our sins in our place.
His Son, who never sinned, died in our place so that His purity would be ours, so that God would forgive our sins.
Jesus Rose from the Dead
After three days, Jesus rose from the dead and after spending 40 days with His followers went to Heaven to be with God the Father.
We can be restored to fellowship with God through accepting Jesus’ sacrificial death for us and through giving Him our lives to lead us and live the way He wants us to.
Salvation and Eternal Life are based solely on Christ’s finished work on the Cross; Salvation is of Grace Alone.
The Holy Spirit
Jesus sent His Spirit (the Holy Spirit—the third person of the Godhead) to be with us when He went to Heaven, to guide us and comfort us and walk alongside us. When we accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us to help us.
The Message Spread
Jesus’ followers shared the message of salvation (eternal life) through accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord.
The message of God’s love and provision for us to be forgiven of our sins and return to fellowship with Him through Jesus, His Son, spread throughout the world.
Rome ruled much of the known world at this time.
Early History of Christianity
Although there was much persecution for early Christians, in 312 A.D. the Roman Emporer Constantine the Great (ruled AD 306-332) became a Christian believer. He gave legal rights to Christians and eventually in 330 declared Constantinople capital of a Christian empire.
Thus Christianity was legally the religion of the Empire.
“Constantine's decision to cease the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was a turning point for early Christianity, sometimes referred to as the Triumph of the Church, the Peace of the Church or the Constantinian shift. In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan decriminalizing Christian worship. The emperor became a great patron of the Church and set a precedent for the position of the Christian emperor within the Church and the notion of orthodoxy, Christendom, ecumenical councils, and the state church. “ Wikepedia
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Throughout the subsequent centuries the Roman Catholic Church developed.
Protestant Reformation
Corruption came into the Church, particularly in the 1400s and 1500s.
The authority of the Biblical scriptures (Old and New Testaments) was compromised.
People were taken advantage of for money by indulgences and additional teachings were added which were unbiblical.
German priest Martin Luther was one of those who led the way to bring the people back to the authority of the Bible and to accepting that Salvation (eternal life) came only through Faith in the work of Jesus Christ and not through working one’s way to Heaven.
There were many other leaders involved in the Protestant Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church also had a Counter Reformation.
Other Central Beliefs of the Christian Faith
Jesus is the Way to restored fellowship with God the Father.
God wants to give us Abundant Life now, eternal life for always, and restore our relationships with Him, ourselves, other people, and the rest of Creation.
Jesus is coming again to restore all things.
There will be a resurrection and restoration of those who accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord as well as restoration of the rest of Creation.
“The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one
who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:20-21
Summary
CREATION
FALL=BROKENNESS OF THE WORLD
REDEMPTION: GOD SAVES US
RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS
THE 2 MOST IMPORTANT COMMANDMENTS OF JESUS
LOVE GOD.
LOVE OTHERS.
