Replacing Relationship with Morality

What Really Happened in the Garden

Ian Johnson April 16, 2024 0 Comments

God created the first human, male and female, as a being like himself with whom he could share his life and his creation. But the disobedience of the first humans introduced shame, which drove them away from God and hindered them from agreeing with God about their sin and returning to him. This is always the effect of shame, which comes from us, not from God.

Complex unity, Confession and Repentance, Conversation with God, Desire to have our own way, Forgetting God, Free will, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, Guilt versus Shame, Knowing good and evil, Language and Speech, Male and female, Marriage, Marriage, Marriage and Reproduction, Meaning of Unity, Repentance, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Sin, To be in his image, To bear fruit, To fill and govern the Earth, Trinity, Unity, What is sin?

Adam, cloting, denial, disobedience, Eve, excuses, exposure, forbidden fruit, Genesis, guilt, hide, hioing, naked, nakedness, repent, repentance, shame, sin, tree of knowledge, tree of the knowledge of good and evil, vulnerability

Sin, Offense, Guilt and Shame–Definitions, God’s Work and the Social Order.

Ian Johnson April 6, 2024 0 Comments

Defines the common sets of terms pertaining to sin, offense, guilt, shame and honor, with a discussion of God’s work and initial comments on the importance of their confusion in maintaining the social order.

Desire to have our own way, Merit, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Purpose of the Church, Rejecting God, Repentance, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Salvation, Sins versus sin, Social control and statecraft, What is sin?

barcode Christianity, confusion, guilt, honor, merit, offended, offense, Oz, punishment, rebellion, shame, sin, sins, social expectations, social order, society

Foundational Repentance and Falling Away, Hebrews 6:1-6

Ian Johnson September 10, 2022 3 Comments

Hebrews 6:1-6 has nothing to do with losing our salvation through sinful acts. Instead, it teaches that we must repent from our rebellion and from our own dead works as a way of becoming acceptable to God. Further, when we do sometimes fall back into relying on our own works, we cannot repent of this in our own power. God must provide both the initiative and the power.

Confession and Repentance, forgiveness and mercy, Free will, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, Losing salvation, Pride in accomplishments as our own, refusal to repent, Repentance, Repentance versus Remorse, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Salvation, self-serving worship, Sin, Sins versus sin, What is sin?

character flaws, dead works, failure, faith, falling away, God's initiative, losing salvation, not of faith, our works, repentance, sin, sins, weakness, works

Joy in Heaven Over One Sinner Repenting: The Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son

Ian Johnson September 11, 2021 3 Comments

The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coins and the two lost sons, one of them the “Prodigal son,” in Luke 15 show our value to God, God’s search for us, and our returning to him, or not, in repentance, and teach why we should not be judgmental toward those who appear great “sinners.”

Changed treatment of each other, Divisions in the Church, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Free will, God's purpose for us, His Children, Leaving Our First Love, Merit, Repentance, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Salvation

acceptance, judgmental, lost coin, Lost sheep, lost sons, our value to God, prodigal son, repent, repentance, sons

Brief Introduction to the Politicization of Christianity and its Consequences–From Jesus to 312 CE

Ian Johnson April 3, 2021 2 Comments

A brief summary of the course and causes of the transformation of Christianity from a faith that offered individual friendship with God into a politicized tool of social control up to 312 CE.

A God who Speaks, Background Information, Church purpose versus church growth, Compulsory Christianity, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, Historical Background, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Purpose of the Church, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Social control and statecraft, Transcendence

allegorical interpretation, Apostles, Christianity, Crisis of the Third Century, Dualism, Errors, Greek philosophy, Impassivity, Jesus, Middle Platonism, Montaism, moralism, Neoplatonism, Origen, Platonism, Politicization, Politicization of Christianity, Politics, Relationship, Roman Religion, social order, Syncretism, Transcendence

The Effect of Organized Christianity’s Early Departures from its Roots Upon the Rise of Islam

Ian Johnson December 26, 2020 1 Comment

This is an outline of the third part of my attempt to link early errors of organized Christianity to the state of the modern world–specifically, in this part, by showing how they influenced Islam. Links will be added as future posts are written.

Background Information, Church History, Islamic History and Secular History Interaction, Church purpose versus church growth, Divisions in the Church, Historical Background, Islam and Christianity, Islam as a Consequence, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Social control and statecraft, Topic Index, What Islam borrowed from Christianity

antifeminism, Christian division, Christian errors, Divine Simplicity, Influence of Christian Errors on Islam, Islam, Jihad, Judgment, Monotheism, moralism

The Departure of Organized Christianity from its Roots, Second through Sixth Centuries CE

Ian Johnson December 25, 2020 1 Comment

This is an outline of the second part of my attempt to link early errors of organized Christianity to the state of the modern world–specifically, in this part, by showing the origins and entrance of specific errors before Muhammad which profoundly affected subsequent history. Links will be added as future posts are written.

A God who Speaks, Adoption, Authority Contests, Background Information, Church History, Islamic History and Secular History Interaction, Church purpose versus church growth, Complex unity, Compulsory Christianity, Discipline or Correction, Disputes about words, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Free will, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's sovereignty, God's Voice, Greed, Heresy, Historical Background, Index, Injustice and Lawsuits, Jesus the Son, Leaving Our First Love, Male and female, Marriage, Marriage and Reproduction, Merit, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Prophecy, Purpose of the Church, Quarrels, Regeneration, Religious violence and persecution, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Salvation, Sin, Sins versus sin, Site Index Page, Social control and statecraft, Son of Man, The Bible, Through the church, To be in his image, Trinity, Unity, Wars as consequences, What is God's Word, What is sin?

Christian Divisions, Fifth Century Christianity, Fourth Century Christianity, Hellenistic Phiolosophy, heresy, Heresy hunting, Index, Just War Theory, Monotheism, Roman Law, Roman Law and Jurisprudence, Roman Religion, Rome, Second Century Christianity, Sixth Century Christianity, Syncretism, Third Century Christianity

What About Church Discipline?

Ian Johnson November 1, 2020 4 Comments

The purpose of church discipline is restoration, a process that is to be initiated by a person injured or offended by a wrong behavior. The disciplinary process has no valid application to erroneous beliefs, as such. The New Testament never suggests that worldly penalties should be attached to the process.

A God who Speaks, Church purpose versus church growth, Compulsory Christianity, Divisions in the Church, God Speaks to Us, Greed, Heresy, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Power, Religious violence and persecution, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Through the church

behavior, Christendom, church discipline, Church unity, criminal, offended, offense, penalties, restoration

On the Other Extreme—1 Timothy 4 and Colossians 2

Ian Johnson October 29, 2020 2 Comments

Divisions in the church have been started not only by leaders who taught license to attract followers, but also by leaders who taught extreme asceticism– that God is only pleased by those who keep the strict rules they prescribe.

Authority Contests, Divisions in the Church, Heresy, Leaving Our First Love, Peril of Seeking Power, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Social control and statecraft

asceticism, Divisions, extreme ascetic, heresy, heretic, morality, rules, strictness

The Real Issue with False Teachers is their Hidden Motivations

Ian Johnson August 12, 2020 4 Comments

Like Balaam, false teachers do their work stealthily motivated by greed. They do not openly deny the Lordship of Christ, but deceptively proclaim teachings that permit us to retain our own independence, greed or lust, to seek first our own pleasure, and still, they say, please God. They teach these things not necessarily because they believe them, but to obtain our following and our money.

Desire to have our own way, Disputes about words, Greed, Heresy, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Power, Replacing Relationship with Morality, To live in unity

2 Peter 2, Divisions in the Church, divisive teachers, divisiveness, false teachers, false teachings, freedom, Heresies, Jesis is Lord, Lordship, slavery

What Really Happened in the Garden

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Foundational Repentance and Falling Away, Hebrews 6:1-6

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Joy in Heaven Over One Sinner Repenting: The Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son

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The Effect of Organized Christianity’s Early Departures from its Roots Upon the Rise of Islam

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The Departure of Organized Christianity from its Roots, Second through Sixth Centuries CE

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What About Church Discipline?

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On the Other Extreme—1 Timothy 4 and Colossians 2

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The Real Issue with False Teachers is their Hidden Motivations

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Replacing Relationship with Morality

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