6 not a concession to sinful culture c two

6. Not a concession to sinful culture.
C. Two Conclusions
1. “Like a…” and Named…
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All the ways in which God describes himself as like a
husband or a mother, etc. We should embrace and celebrate that and we should use those
likenesses and descriptions to describe God.
2. Human Fathers and the Heavenly Father
CT I Lecture Notes
1.7 – Theology Proper & Humanity – The Work of God
© Rob Lister, Biola University
I. The Work of God: Decree, Creation, and Providence
a. Decrees God makes, the creative activity of God which brings the universe
into existence, providential activity of God which sustains and governs
that universe once its made.
a. The Decree
The Westminster Shorter Catechism
Q. 7. What are the decrees of God?
A. The decrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to the
counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath
foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.
b. Creation: God makes a universe
Reading/Viewing Recommendations: Philip Johnson, Darwin on Trial ;
Charles Thaxton and Nancy Pearcey, The Soul of Science ; The Privileged
Planet by Illustra Media
A. What must be affirmed?
1. Creation out of Nothing(Ex nihilo creation)
Gen 1:1-3
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Rom 4:17
Heb 11:3
Theological Requirement of God’s Self-sufficiency
- God’s Self-Sufficieny meaning that the universe
depends on God for its existence and not the other way around.
- Monotheism of God is at stake with this doctrine
- If God creates out of preexisting materials
that He Himself did not fashion, you’d have to ask the question,
where did those come from and who made those? And them
presumably who ever made those would be the greater and truer
and more powerful God. A lot @ stake actually with confirming
that before God began to create, nothing existed but God the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and that when He began to
create, He not only created the universe but he himself created the
materials as it were out of which the universe was created.
2. Goodness of creation
a. God completed his work and saw that it was good.
Sixth day of the creation week, when everything is
completed, His pronouncement is that everything that
He made was very good.
i. No moral flaws or no faults in the universe
ii. Doctrine of Evil that is in the world as a result
of the rebellion of the creature rather than the
design of the creator.
3. Imago Dei/Special Creation of humans
a. Notion that human beings are the special image bearing
pinnacle creation of God
i. Crown of God’s creative agency
B. Grudem’s Critique of Darwinian Evolution (esp. pgs 279-87)
1. Micro-evolution v. Macro-evolution
a. Microevolution involves changes within a species that
do not result in cross species mutation.
b. Macroevolution: Talking about Christians having
concern with and opposition to the theory of evolution
2. Failure of “Theistic Evolution” (pgs. 275-79)
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