Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

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• So many look at God as one who wants to meet their needs, and not as the triune and sovereign God of the universe. How do you make the switch from seeing God as one who lives for me to the God for which all things exist ? • What are practical ways to help growing believers desire and learn the “deeper truths” of the Word of God regarding God’s attributes, character, and name? • The attributes of God’s greatness (i.e., his spirituality, life, person, infinitude, and constancy) speak of a being far beyond our comprehension. • How does our faith in Jesus Christ make the Father more accessible to us (cf. John 1.18; John 14.7-9)? “It Don’t Seem Relevant” During a series on the attributes of God in the Pastor’s mid-week Bible study, a young, hungry new believer raises her hand and makes a comment about the study. “Pastor,” she says nearly apologetically, “I know that this may be important in a seminary kind of setting, but honestly, I am struggling to see why we ought to be studying all of these funny words and things about God. Why do we have to understand what Christians believed long ago about the nature of God, or use any other words like ousios or homousia or any of the fifty dollar terms. I just want to know about Jesus, really I don’t care much for doctrine anyway. Can you tell me why on earth I, as a new Christian, should be interested in all of this stuff – to me, it just don’t seem to matter much, it just don’t seem relevant to anything I do.” As pastor, how would you respond to the genuine question being raised by this dear sister in Christ? One God, in Three Modes A popular televangelist/preacher has recently come out with a view of the Trinity that has many eyebrows raising in the Christian community. Rather than affirm the traditional Christian view of the Trinity as one God who manifests himself in three distinct persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), this popular teacher believes that there is one God who actually displays himself in three modes depending on the situation. In other words, while he affirms that God is one, he denies that the persons

CASE STUDIES

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T heology and E th i c s

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