WHAT IS TO BE HUMAN?. 1.What is humanity? 2.Made in the image of God? 3.Humanity & Sin. 4.Summary of Mind-Body Views. 5.History of Humanity in 6 summarizing

WHAT IS TO BE HUMAN?

1. What is humanity?

2. Made in the image of God?

3. Humanity & Sin.

4. Summary of Mind-Body Views.

5. History of Humanity in 6 summarizing words

6. Humanity & Culture.

7. Concluding Thought.

Overview of Lecture for Humanity & Sin:

1. What is humanity?

“What a freak, what a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a marvel! Judge of all things and imbecile earthworm; possessor of the truth, and sink of uncertainty and error; glory and rubbish of the universe.”

~ Blaise Pascal, Selections from the Thoughts, tran Arthur H. Beatte (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1965), 68.

1. What is Humanity?

“Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed. The whole universe need not arm itself to crush him; a vapor, a drop of water is enough to kill him. But even though the universe should crush him, man would still be nobler than what kills him since he knows that he dies, and the advantage that the universe has over him, the universe knows nothing of it.”

~ Blaise Pascal, Selections from the Thoughts, tran Arthur H. Beatte (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1965), 30.

What is Humanity?

“The essential paradox here-the greatness and the misery of humankind-flows out of two important truths. God created humans as the apex of his creation; our chief end, in the words of the Westminster Catechism, is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. But each human being is fallen, is in rebellion against the God who created him and loves him.”~ Ronald Nash, Worldviews in Conflict, 48.

2. What does it mean to be made in the image of God?

1. Image = content

2. Image = dominion;

3. Image = community;

4. Image = representation;

5. Image = holism.

Personality

Responsibilities

Relationships

Image includes Dignity to the Human Body:

• Matter is good and reflects God’s glory (Gen. 1:31; Psalm 19:1; 1 Tim. 4:4)

• Both male and female (which entails bodies) are in God’s image (Gen. 1:27)

• Killing a body is wrong because it is included in God’s image (Gen. 9:6)

• Resurrection of the body reveals that it is part of the whole person made in God’s image (1 Thess. 4).

~ Geisler, Systematic Theology: God & Creation, 2:452.

3. Humanity and Sin:

“Christianity simply will not make sense to people who fail to understand and appreciate the Christian doctrine of sin. Every human being lives in a condition of sin and alien from his or her Creator. Each has sinned and fallen short of God’s standard (Rom. 3:23). As John Stott counsels, sin ‘is not a convenient invention of parsons [cleric] to keep them in their job; it is a fact of human experience.’

Consider the following:

“The sin which separates us from God and enslaves us ‘is more than an unfortunate outward act of habit is a deep-seated inward corruption. In fact, the sins we commit are merely outward and visible manifestations of this inward and invisible malady, the symptoms of a moral disease …. Because sin is an inward corruption of human e we are in bondage. It is not so much certain acts or habits which enslave us, but rather the evil infection from which these spring.’”

John Stott, Basic Christianity, 75-6 cf. Nash, Worldviews in Conflict, 48

Original StateMAN IS CRUEL

ALWAYS CRUEL BECAME CRUEL

CREATED CRUEL CHANGED BY SOMEONE ELSE

CHANGED HIMSELF

GOD IS EVIL

GOD SATAN FREE FREE WILLWILL

GOD IS EVIL MAN IS NOT RESPONSIBLE

XX

A 5-fold definition of Sin:

• Sin is a transgression of the law of God:

The Greek word parabasis means “overstepping, transgression.” God gave the Mosaic law to heighten man’s understanding of His standard and the seriousness of transgressing that standard (Rom. 4:15). Thereafter, when God said, “You shall not bear false witness,” a lie was seen to be what it is: an overstepping or transgression of the law of God (Rom. 2:23; 5:14; Gal. 3:19).

5-Fold Definition of Sin:

Sin is a failure to conform to the standard of God.

The Greek word hamartia means “miss the mark,” “every departure from the way of righteousness.” Thus, it means that all people have missed the mark of God’s standard and continue to fall short of that standard (Rom. 3:23). This involves both sins of commission as well as omission. Failure to do what is right is also sin (Rom. 14:23).


• Sin is a principle within man.

Sin is not only an act but also a principle that dwells in man. Paul refers to the struggle with the sin principle within (Rom. 7:14, 17–25); all people have this sin nature (Gal. 3:22). Hebrews 3:13 refers to it “as the power that deceives men and leads them to destruction.” Jesus also refers to sin as a “condition or characteristic quality” (John 9:41; 15:24; 19:11).


• Sin is rebellion against God.

Another Greek word for sin is anomia, which means “lawlessness” (1 John 3:4) and can be described as a “frame of mind.” It denotes lawless deeds (Titus 2:14) and is a sign of the last days, meaning “without law or restraint” (Matt. 24:12).


• Sin is wrongful acts toward God and man.

Romans 1:18 refers to “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” Ungodliness refers to man’s failure to obey God and keep the commandments related to Him (Exod. 20:1–11); unrighteousness is seen in man’s failure to live righteously toward his fellow man (Exod. 20:12–17).

• ~ Paul Enns, Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997), 310.

SYNOPTIC CHART ON HARMARTIOLOGY:

TERMSTO

CONSIDER

State at Birth

Ability

Guilt

“In Adam” Rom. 5:12

PELAGIANISM

Innocent

Can obey God

None

Not At All (We sin

like Adam)

WESLEYAN/ ARMINIANISM

Depraved

Can CooperateWith God

Potential

Propensity (Or Seminally)

MODERATE/ PRINCETONIAN

CALVINISM

Totally Depraved(Extensively)

Can Cooperate with God

Legally and/or

Naturally

Legally and/or Seminally

Adapted from Norman Geisler’s Systematic Theology: Sin/Salvation (Minneapolis: Bethany, 2004), 3:145.

DUTCH CALVINISM

Totally Depraved

(Intensively)

Can’t Cooperate with God

Naturally and/or Legally

Seminally and/or Legally

TERMSTO

CONSIDER

What is inherited

from Adam

Deaths Occurred

What is Imputed

Image of God

Effect of Grace

PELAGIANISM

Bad Example

Spiritual & Eternal (meant to physically die)

One’s own sin

Retained

None.

WESLEYAN/ ARMINIANISM

Propensity to sin; physical death.

Physical; Eternal; Spiritual

One’s own Sin & Adam’s Sin

Effaced

Two-Fold:Prevenient Grace; Sufficient for All

MODERATE & PRINCETONIAN

CALVINISM

Propensity to Sin; Physical

death

Physical;Eternal;Spiritual

One’s Own Sin & Adam’s Sin

Image of God is totally effaced

Irresistible (some, but not all M.C. say only on

willing)

~ Adapted from Norman Geisler’s Systematic Theology: Sin/Salvation (Minneapolis: Bethany, 2004), 3:145.

DUTCH CALVINISM

Necessity to Sin; Physical Death.

Physical;Eternal;Spiritual

One’s Own Sin & Adam’s Sin

Image of God in man is Erased

Irresistible on the unwilling.

Synoptic Chart on Hamartiology

4. Mind-Body

Problem…

“I only want a brain!”

View Primary Proponent

Soul/Body Illustration

(Soul/body as. .)

Explanation

Materialism Thomas Hobbes

Body only As dream to brain

Only body exists; mind is nothing but a

manifestation of matter.

Epiphenomenalism

Pierre-Jean

Georges Cabanis

Soul is a by- product of

body.

As shadow to a tree

Body causes mind; mind is only a sign

(not a cause) of matter.

Idealism George Berkeley

Soul only As mind to mirage

Only mind (soul) exists; body is merely

illusion.

Monism:

Double –Aspect

Benedict Spinoza

Two aspects of the same

thing

As inner to outer

Mind (soul) and body are two sides of the

same substance.

Dualism (Dichotomy)

Plato Two different but parallel

realities

As railroad to tracks

Soul and body never interact; they only exist

simultaneously.

Interactionism Rene Descartes

Two substances mutually

interacting

As two boxers

Mind and body interact with each

other

Occasionalism/ Recollectionism

Augustine Two substances coordinated

by God

As memory to reminder

God causes ideas in the mind on the occasion of

sensory perception

Pre-Established Harmony

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Two different, synchronized

substances

As two clocks

Mind and body are synchronized by God.

Hylomorphism Thomas Aquinas

Soul animates body

As ideas to words

Mind and body are a holistic unity.

5. Historyof

Humanity:Summarized

Creation

Fall

Redeemed

Glorified

Rejection

Damnation

6. 5 Shifts: Humanity & Contemporary Western Culture

• Shift 1: From Knowledge to Faith.

– For example, after 9/11 Oprah urged people to seek God, “whatever he, she, it, or they mean to you.” What is important is that “we all seek our own truth with renewed vigor.”

What does the following statement communicate?

“We ought to be believers who integrate faith and learning.”

Insights gained from physics to literary theory is related to learning while biblical assertions deal with “faith.”

5 Shifts: Humanity & Contemporary Western Culture

While biblical evangelicals reject pluralism, there is a tendency to view biblical Christianity as a matter of faith and not knowledge.

Once again … how do we define faith? If we denote faith as merely as a decision of the will to believe, not factual in nature nor subject to rational evaluation, then we may be suggesting that the content of salvation (and our worldview) is devoid of fact and knowledge. See, we are fostering a culture in which Christian ideas are not viewed even among us as factual items of knowledge.

Consider the following quote:

“Faith is the reliance upon that which you have reason to believe

is true and trustworthy.”

~ J. P. Moreland

2nd Shift: From Human Flourishing to Satisfaction of Desire:

How do you define happiness?

One dictionary definition is that happiness is “a sense of pleasurable satisfaction.”


Consider this statement by Moreland:

“If happiness is having an internal feeling of fun or pleasurable satisfaction and if it is our main goal, where will people place their focus each day? It will be on them, and the result will be a culture of self-absorbed narcissists who cannot live for something bigger than they are.” ~ J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 95.


Here is Moreland’s definition:

“The good life is the life of ideal human functioning according to the nature that

God himself gave us.”

J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 94.

3rd Shift: From Duty and Virtue to Minimalist Ethics:

What do we mean by minimalist ethics?

“One may morally act in any way one chooses so long as one does not do harm to

others.”


3rd Shift: From Duty and Virtue to Minimalist Ethics:

Minimalist ethics is evident by upholding the following four values:

1. The transcendence of the individual over the community;

2. The importance of tolerating all moral viewpoints;

3. The independence, self-sufficiency of the individual as the highest human good;

4. The voluntary, informed consent contract as the model of human relationships.


Consider the following quote:

“If duty and virtue of are of central concern to the moral life, then there must be moral knowledge available to know what duties and virtues are correct and how one can become a righteous, virtuous person….Knowledge of duty and virtue is no longer seen as a possibility, and the impact of the shift to minimalist ethics is disastrous.”

~ J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle, 96.

4th Shift: From Classic Freedom to Contemporary Freedom:

“Classically, freedom meant the power to do what one ought to do. Thus, one is free to play the piano if one has the skills, training, and knowledge necessary to play it. Similarly, one is free in life if one has the power to live the way one ought to live. Sexual freedom in this context means the power to live a chaste, holy life and to engage skillfully in sexual activity in the way in which we were designed by God-in heterosexual marital union.”


4th Shift: From Classic Freedom to Contemporary Freedom:

“Classic freedom is liberating, indeed, but a necessary condition of such freedom is the availability of the relevant sort of knowledge. Absent such knowledge, freedom has come to be understood as the right to do what one wants to do. Sexual freedom in this context means the right to satisfy one’s desire in any way one wishes, with the possible exception of not harming others.”


5th Shift: From Classic Tolerance to Contemporary Tolerance:

Classical sense of tolerance: While moral views are either true or false, right or wrong, one may still respect one’s opponent as a person, give one the freedom to make a case for that view, and personally believe that view. In other words, we tolerate persons, not ideas.


5th Shift: From Classic Tolerance to Contemporary Tolerance:

Contemporary Tolerance: One should not even judge one’s views.

Moral Relativism “holds that everyone ought to act in accordance with the agent’s own society’s code(or, perhaps, with the agent’s own personal code). What is right for one society is necessarily right for another society.”


What’s wrong with Relativism?

1. It is irrational and false.

2. Suffers from the Reformer’s Dilemma (e.g., Gandhi; Martin Luther King; Jesus Christ).

3. Some acts are wrong regardless of social conventions( e.g., torturing babies).

4. There is no way to morally blame one society in certain cases (e.g., Jewish Holocaust by Nazi Germany).

5. It is unlivable.

7. Concluding Thought:

“Can an individual or a society live with a complete disregard for a moral and spiritual center & not suffer from the wounds of wickedness?”

~ Ravi Zacharias, Deliver us from Evil.

Documents

WHAT IS TO BE HUMAN?. 1.What is humanity? 2.Made in the image of God? 3.Humanity & Sin. 4.Summary of Mind-Body Views. 5.History of Humanity in 6 summarizing