THE ANSWER SERIES
Lesson 1
DOES IT REALLY MATTER WHAT I THINK?
I Jn 5:21Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
ASSUMPTIONS
I heard about a traveler who, between flights at an airport,
bought a small package of cookies.
She then sat down in the busy snack shop to glance over
the newspaper. As she read her paper, she became
aware of a rustling noise. Peeking above the newsprint
she was shocked to see a well-dressed gentleman sitting
across from her, helping himself to her cookies.
Half-angry and half-embarrassed, she reached over and
gently slid the package closer to her as she took one out
and began to munch on it.
A minute or so passed before she heard more rustling. The
man had gotten another cookie! By now there was only one
left in the package. Though flabbergasted, she didn’t want
to make a scene so she said nothing.
Finally, as if to add insult to injury, the man broke the
remaining cookie into two pieces, pushed one piece across
the table toward her with a frown, gulped down his half, and
left without even saying thank you. She sat their
dumbfounded.
Some time later when her flight was announced, the woman
opened her handbag to get her ticket. To her shock, there
in her purse was her package of unopened cookies. And
somewhere in that same airport was another traveler still
trying to figure out how that strange woman could have
been so forward and insensitive.
Assumptions make for funny stories ...but in much of life
assumptions can cost you your soul.
If we make the assumption that all people think like we do
we not only deceive ourselves, set ourselves up to be led
astray but we also short circuit our ability to clearly and
effectively communicate the gospel.
If we assume all people think alike we will be vulnerable to
the lies that so invade our every day lives...
****************
If terrorists were to secretly infiltrate our places of
business, our church and even our homes and we
discovered it we would be terrified and outraged....but there
is something much more dangerous than terrorists
infecting our homes, churches and lives...it is a secular
world view.
It is a way of thinking about life that is opposed to
scripture....but does it really matter what I think?
YES!!!!
One of Gods biggest beefs with his people throughout
scripture was that of idiolatry.
Exod. 20:1-6 1And God spoke all these words: 2"I
am the LORD your God, who brought you out of
Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3"You shall have
no other gods before me. 4"You shall not make for
yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven
above or on the earth beneath or in the waters
below. 5You shall not bow down to them or
worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a
jealous God...
The whole bible is peppered with stories of God
reminding, rebuking and even punishing Israel for their
continual flirting with other Gods or better know as idols.
Now we know that an idol is nothing ....only a piece of wood
or stone.
Why is it than that Israel would turn from their loving God
and give their allegiance to a piece of stone?
Does that make sense to you?
Did they walk down the road one day and see this really
neat looking piece of granite and say...oh my rock ....just
what I always longed for a stone to be my God...
Oh I love you rock....you are so beautiful...I shall forsake all
others and you and I will be with each other for ever....from
now on I will be know as a rockett.
No ....the Israelis were not attracted to the piece of wood or
stone...but rather to the thinking that was behind it.
It was a world view they ran after. It was a world view that
was idolatry.
**************
For example:... many Jews divorced God and ran after the
heathen God, Moloch.
Now Moloch was just a Metal statue..however behind
Moloch was a world view that the Israelis loved and God
hated.
This religion believed that pleasure was the ultimate good
and therefore not only was all the desires of man permitted
to be fulfilled...but, encouraged as a form of
worship...subsequently...all over the country side were
temples where the most beautiful young girls in the country
were brought and there they served in the temple as
prostitutes....
When a man wanted to worship his God Moloch he would
pay a few dollars to the temple and then go have sex with
as many of these young girls as he choose.
No wonder Israel forsook god and ran after Moloch.
There was another attraction....behind the graven image
was a world view..but behind the world view was a demon
who influenced and controlled this religion...and as an
individuals got more and more involved in this, they tasted
more and more of the power that the demon had....don’t;
fool yourself there is power in the demonic.....
However ....there was a payday...Satan always requires you
to pay up....
**************************
Here’s a typical scene that the Israelites participated in each
year...the price of their pleasure.
They would come once a year to their metal God MOLOCH.
He was made -- half man, half beast.
Moloch had permanently outstretched arms to receive
babies and children being sacrificed.
If you, happened to be a first born child and were taken to
temple that night, it was better that you were too small to
know the order of the service.
It was better that you did not realize that the intensely loud
music and the frantically sung songs were there to drown
out your screams.
You would not cry long during the awful music.
You would be too small to care how long the sermon was.
For when the invitation was given, ready or not, you were
going to the front. After that nothing mattered.
The huge figure was hollow. Beneath its reaching arms of
death was strategically placed either a deadly hollow lap
glowing red in the darkness by a fire kindled inside it, or
sometimes a sacrificial bowl heated nearly white-hot by an
external fire underneath.
At the prescribed moment Newborn babies, or small
children, were laid in the arms of this creature, to roll off
into the fiery lap below.
And all the while, their parents sang hymns to their idol and
prayed to demons.
This horrible devotion took place regularly on a fixed day as
an atonement for sins committed, before some great
enterprise or after some great misfortune.
They believed that the more bitter the sorrow for the loss of
an only child, the more pleasing the sacrifice to the god and
the greater the benefit.
Huge drums were beaten wildly so that the shrieks of the
children might not be heard.
Parents calmed their soon to be sacrificed children by
hugging and kissing them.
Mothers stood by restraining all signs of grief -- to weep or
show sorrow would make the sacrifice without effect.
It was not uncommon for two or three hundred children to
be sacrificed in one night.
*************
The point I want you to see from this story is that it matters
a great deal what we think.
I want you to understand that in our world there are many
world views..many ways in which people think about life.
What I don’t want you to say or think is that one world view
is as good as another...
I want you to believe that there is only 1 appropriate and
right world view...that is the Christian world view.
Pastor you are being arrogant. No..I am stating a fact.
say 2 + 2 =7...Is that right? Get answer...
Now is _____ arrogant because they didn’t agree with me.
Are they bigots because they disagree.
Are they offense or intolerant?
No..but why????
Because they are right and I am wrong...2+2=4 is an
absolute. It cannot change...
When you have an absolute truth all other options are false.
Make sense?
Jesus said there is only one truth and he was it.
Only one way to God...through him....all others are lies and
birthed from hell.
The reason we can say that the Christian world view is the
only right one is because it is absolute truth...and the
nature of truth is that it makes everything that contradicts
lies.
If a world view is not biblical or God based..what then is it’s
origin?.........Hell...the demonic.
*********************************
Now think with me..... when God was saying no other Gods
before me...was he concerned about the piece of rock or
stone, metal ..no...he was disturbed about the demonically
influenced world view that the idol represented....
Idolatry is buying into a world view other than that the bible
puts forth.
Idol worship is alive and well in Orangeville....so my little
children as John warned...keep yourself from idols...beware
of world views that are not centered in the God of the bible.
Listen to your words, examine your attitudes, and your
actions..are you getting squeezed into the world views that
are not biblically based?
It can happen real easy.....you we are bombarded by it every
single day..at work, ...you can’t sing Christmas carols about
Jesus at the Christmas party.
Why because it is not consistent with other world views.
What does that imply?
That the other people world views are just as valid as yours.
Now I would argue for their right to have them...but not that
they are valid.
You are hit with it on TV.
Homosexuality is not only portrayed as an acceptable
lifestyle, but those who disagree with it are painted as
bigots and a menace to society.
Your children are really being snowed with it through their
cartoons.
In fact I would suggest that cartoons more than any other
medium is working to indoctrinate your children away from
a Christian world view.
IE: the one you all feel is so excellent..Magic school
bus...what does it teach your kids about the origins of
life...That God created...no...but that man evolved.
**********************
It matters a great deal what you think.
Over the next weeks I want first of all to establish in your
mind a clear picture of the biblical world view...and then
give you some comparisons to demonic world views that
are controlling our society.
For any of us to be fully conscience intellectually, we
should not only be able to detect the world view of others,
but be aware of our own.
We should be able to articulate ...Why is it ours, and why in
the light of so many options, we think its true.
A World view is a set of presuppositions,
assumptions which may be true, partially true or
entirely false which we hold. Consciously or
subconsciously; and consistently about the basic
makeup of our world.
The first thing that every one of us recognizes before we
even begin to think at all, is that something exists.
In other words, all world views assume that something is
there, rather than nothing is there.
So lets jump right in with this foundational truth.....
“Everybody has a world view.”
Everybody has some thoughts about what is good and bad,
what is right and wrong.
Where he came from and where he is going, is there a god
or not.
We have a Christian or as philosophers call it a theistic
world view. And I will elaborate on that later.
But there are other world views.
For example.:
• MORAL RELATIVISM.
The philosophy of life that states there are no absolutes of
right or wrong, you just do what ever you think is right.
In this vacuum of moral relativism people are debased to
levels of animals who drift through life seeking nothing
more than the fulfilment of their biological urges.
• EXISTENTIALISM.
It’s a big word that simply means live for the day.
Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.
The only thing that is important in life is whether or not we
are enjoying the moment.
• SECULAR HUMANISM:
Man is his own savior. There is nothing more than man.
There is no solution to the woes of man but form man
himself...and of course such a thinking certainly paves the
way for the ultimate man of sin...antichrist.
• FALSE RELIGIONS
Then of course there are the many false religions that
perennate our land today. We will talk about some of them
at another time.
Now understand the difference between religion and
denominations. Christianity is a religion made up of many
denominations: IE: Pent, Baptist, Catholic, ECT
Other religions would be: Hinduism, Islam, Bahia, ECT
/**********************
We could go on for hours talking about various world
views. I will in the next weeks come back to some of them
that most effect us.
Just let me add this to the definition of world view:
A world view is composed of a number of basic
presuppositions more or less consistent with each
other, more or less consciously held, more or less
true. They are generally unquestioned by each of
us, rarely, if ever, mentioned by our friends and
only brought to mind when challenged by a
foreigner from another world view.
***********************
THE 7 BASIC QUESTIONS OF LIFE
People are born with questions.
For fun this week at lunch break why not ask some of these
deep questions, that everyone has a position on but hardly
anyone ever talks about. For example:
• Who is in charge of this world? God, humans or no
one at all. Is it just hurling through space and hoping
it doesn’t collide with something? Or is God in
control?
• Are we as human beings determined or are we free?
Are we stuck in a rut or do we have free choice?
• Is there right and wrong and who decides.
• Is God really good?
• Does God exist at all?
• Is God personal or Impersonal?
When stated in such a sequence, these questions boggle
the mind.
Either the answers are obvious to us and we wonder why
anyone would bother to ask such questions, or else we
wonder how any of them can be answered with any
certainty.
If we feel the answers are too obvious to consider, then we
have a world view, but we have no idea that many others do
not share it.
We should realize that we live in pluralistic world.
What is obvious to us maybe a lie from hell to our neighbor
next door.
As the scripture teaches us..
”be not unwise about the tactics of the devil.”
Up until the 17th century, the theistic or Christian world view
was dominate.
There might be some squabbles amongst thinkers...but
there were family squabbles.
Dominicans might disagree with Jesuits, Jesuits with
Anglicans, Anglicans with Presbyterians.
But all these parties subscribe to the same set of basic
ideas.
• The triune personal God of the bible existed.
• He had revealed himself to us and could be known.
• The universe was his creation, human beings were his
special creation
During the period from the early middle ages to the end of
the 17th century, very few challenged the existence of God
or held that ultimate reality was impersonal, or that death
meant individual extinction.
The reason is obvious, Christianity had so penetrated the
western world that whether people believed in Christ or
acted as Christians should, they all lived in the context of
ideas influenced and informed by the Christian faith.
Even those who rejected the faith often lived in the fear of
hellfire.
Bad people may have rejected Christian goodness, but they
knew at least they were bad.
The theistic or Christian presuppositions, which lay behind
their values, came with their mother’s milk.
This of course is no longer true; being born in the western
world now guarantees nothing.
Today everybodys world view is fine. But if my values are
as good as yours than nobody values are worth squat.
There has to be some higher reference point.
Walk on the street of any major city in Canada and the next
person that you meet could adhere to any one of a dozen
distinctly different patterns of understanding.
So with these things in mind lets jump into what I call big
questions of life.
In all cultures there are 7 basic questions that people ask..
The answers they place in the blanks becomes their world
view.
So what I want to do today is to begin to give you those
basis 7 questions and show you how the Christian world
view answers each of those and how those answers shape
how we live.
1. IS THERE A GOD AND IF SO WHAT IS GOD LIKE
Yes we believe there is a God. And here’s what He is like.
God is infinite and personal, triune, transcendent,
omniscient, sovereign and good.
Now lets break down the proposition into parts.
1.God first of all is infinite.
That means he is beyond scope, beyond measure.
As far as we are concerned, no other being in the universe
can challenge him in his nature. All else is secondary.
He is the be all and end all of existence.
He is in fact, the only self existent being.
People ask where did God come from..the answer is simple
to say and impossible to understand..God always was..no
beginning and no end.
This is significant especially when we discuss evolution.
Because if God had a beginning than we would have to ask
the question who or what began God....because it is
illogical to say something came from nothing. Which by the
way is what evolutions believe.
So believing that God is infinite or always was is very
important.
The fact that you can’t understand it is meaningless...lots
of things you cannot understand.
Apparently many can’t understand how they get the Carmel
into the caramilk bars.
But really there are many things we don’t understand.
Why does a brown cow eat green grass and give white
milk?
How does a dog know what to do when it gives Brith?
I watched our dog fluffy give birth and care for those babies
like a pro..
We never put her into any prenatal classes for puppies...
My wife and I needed them ..but fluffy figured it out on her
own.
How did she know to do the things she did?
They say instinct..well who put the instinct in the dog.
There is much we don’t understand because we are
finite(limited)
The God we serve however is infinite unlimited.
Think about it.... who would want a God not smarter or
greater than man...then he wouldn’t be God.
So we believe that God is infinite, with no beginning or
end..and the fact that we cannot explain it only makes is
more comforting to believe, because each day it reminds us
that his ways are so much greater than our. I like that.
2.God is personal
Not only is God infinite.....God is personal.
This means that God is not mere force or energy like in Star
Wars...”May the force be with you.”
God is not just good Karma.
God is. God has personality.
Personality requires two basic characteristics.
Self Reflection
Self Determination
In other words God is personal in that he knows himself to
be.
He is conscience of his own awareness and he possesses
the characteristics of self- determination.
He thinks and he acts and he has a will.
God is not only there, an actual existent being.
He is a personal God and we can relate to him in a personal
way.
To know God therefore means knowing more than that he
exists.
To believe in God means much more than just saying Oh
yeah I believe that he exists.
To know God means knowing him as we would know our
brother or better, our own father.
3.TRANSCENDENT
The third part of the nature of God is that God is
transcendent.
This means that God is beyond us and our world.
He is “otherly”
4. IMMANENT.
God is immanent. This means that he is with us.
Look at the mountains, God is present, look at a person,
God is present.
But God is not the mountain... God is not “matter” as you
and I are but God is spirit.
And we cannot go where is spirit is not.
5. OMNISCIENT.
That means God is all knowing. Nothing surprises him.
He knows everything from beginning to end.
He is the ultimate source of all knowledge and all
intelligence.
6. GOD IS SOVEREIGN.
This is really a further ramification of God’s infiniteness but
it expresses more fully his concern to rule, to pay attention
to all the actions of his universe.
It expresses the fact that nothing is beyond God’s ultimate
interest control and authority.
No our universe is not floating through space with no
rhyme or reason...God watches over it with care.
7. GOD IS GOOD.
This is the prime statement about God’s character. From it
flow all others.
To be good means to BE GOOD. God is not only good in
the sense of a verb..by doing... But God is good in the
sense of a NOUN..that which he is.
God is goodness ..that is what he is.
There is no sense in which goodness surpasses God or
God surpasses goodness.
God’s goodness is expressed in two ways:
Through holiness and through love.
Holiness emphasizes absolute righteousness
As the apostle John says:
“God is light and in him there is no darkness at
all.” 1 John 1:5
God’s holiness is his separateness from all that is evil.
God and evil cannot co-exist together because the very
nature of God destroys evil, in the same way that light
destroys darkness.
So then, God’s goodness means first of all that there is an
absolute standard of righteousness.
It is found in God’s character.
It is where we get our ethics.
It is where we determine what is right and what is wrong.
It is why we can make absolute statements about right and
wrong.
You cannot argue that something is wrong unless you have
a standard of what is right to measure it by.
Nobody would know if Gretzey was the best hockey player
in the world if there were no other hockey players to
measure him by.
God creates the standard of ethics by which we live.
Of course our world now wants to say there is no absolute
right and wrong and something is only right or wrong if you
believe it to be so..
Of course this is totally illogical and leads to anarchy...
The people who promote this would argue with you if you
took their seat on a bus...arguing that it would be wrong to
do so..yet philosophically they argue that there is no
standard of right and wrong.
It’s called situational ethics and it’s foolishness.
I’ll say more about it in the weeks to come.
***************
So Gods goodness is first of all demonstrated though
holiness, secondly, his goodness is demonstrated through
his love.
God is love and will not abandon his creation.
Jesus said it well when he said why do you worry...do you
not know that your heavenly father knows you have needs
of things.
CONCLUSION
Time is gone we will pick it up next week...
Let me leave you with this to ponder on for the week.
This week you will again be bombarded with ideas that are
wrong.
World views that are anti God..and many who will tell you
it doesn’t really matter what you think and the Christian
world view is no better than any other.
The well known social critic Dennis Prager debating the
oxford atheist philosopher Jonathon Glover raised this
issue.
Glover argued that the Christian world view made no
difference to life...in other words..It doesn’t’ matter what
you think.
So he was asked this question... “If you professor, were
stranded at midnight in a desolate Los Angeles street, and
if as you stepped out of your car with fear and trembling,
you were suddenly to hear the weight of pounding footsteps
behind you, and you saw 10 burley young men who had just
stepped out of a dwelling coming towards you.
Would it or would it not make a difference to you to know
that they were coming from a bible study?”
His answer was obvious.
It matters a great deal what you think.
CREED:
APOSTLES CREED
I believe in God Almighty
And in Christ Jesus, his only son, our Lord
Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary
Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried
And the third day rose from the dead
Who ascended into heaven
And sitteth on the right hand of the father
Whence he commeth to judge the living and the dead.
And in the Holy Ghost
The Holy Church
The remission of sins
The resurrection of the flesh
The life everlasting
