God’s Existence and Nature

From Early Christianity to Islam and Back — 1. The Earliest Christianity

Ian Johnson July 13, 2020 6 Comments

This post is the first in a series of six outlining a broad view of how things in the Church and the world got to be as they are now, including contributions early Christianity and Islam made to each other. This post attempts to outline the basic positions of early Christianity. Comments are invited!

A God who Speaks, Adoption, Background Information, Church purpose versus church growth, Complex unity, Conversation with God, Desire to have our own way, Emotions, Eternity Present, Free will, God Acts by Speaking, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God was never our enemy, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, God's sovereignty, God's Voice, His Children, His Friends, Historical Background, Human Rationality, Is forgiveness of sins the focus of salvation?, Jesus the Son, Knowing good and evil, Language and Speech, Logical thinking, Male and female, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Prophecy, Reconciliation, Regeneration, Rejecting God, Restoration of God's Image, Salvation, Sin, Sins versus sin, Son of Man, The Bible, The Invisible God's Self-Existence, Through the church, To be his ambassadors, To be in his image, To live in unity, Trinity, Unity, What is God's Word, What is sin?

Christian history, Christianity, Christianity and Islam, doctrine, Early Christianity, History of Christianity, New Testament, New Testament Christianity

About Racism

Ian Johnson June 15, 2020 4 Comments

The ultimate solution to our national racisms lies in the Church, in who we are in Christ. We are not called to uncritically support the current social order, no matter how unjust. We are called to show how social divisions are overcome by the Holy Spirit among us.

An abuse of God's image, Christianity and Social Evils, Church purpose versus church growth, Complex unity, Compulsory Christianity, Divisions in the Church, Emotions, God's sovereignty, Human Rationality, Injustice and Lawsuits, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Racism, Rejecting God, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Restoration of God's Image, Show us the Way of Truth, Social control and statecraft, The Bible, Through the church, To be his ambassadors, To be in his image, To live in unity, Uncategorized, What is sin?

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Our Oneness in the Body of Christ and the Consequences of Ignoring It

Ian Johnson June 8, 2020 2 Comments

What happens to you affects me. If we choose to work together, the Body of Christ is healthy and effective. If we choose not to recognize each other, we are still one, but the Body of Christ os diseased.

Complex unity, In the Church, Meaning of Unity, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Purpose of the Church, Regeneration, Restoration of God's Image, To live in unity, Unity

Body analogy, Body metaphor, Body of Christ, Church, disease, disease in the Body of Christ, disunity, division, peace, Solovyov, Unity

We Are Called to Live Out the Truth of Our Oneness

Ian Johnson June 8, 2020 2 Comments

We are called to live out the unity of the Body of Christ. The Body is already one, but we have a role in making that oneness effective in the world.

In the Church, Meaning of Unity, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Purpose of the Church, The universal Church and local churches, To live in unity, Unity

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Humans “Male and Female” and Marriage as Pictures of God’s Unity in Diversity

Ian Johnson June 4, 2020 6 Comments

The creation of humans as male and female, marriage and reproduction are all a part of the image of God in human beings, and are all an intelligible picture of God’s unity in diversity. They also point to our unity iwith each other and God n the Church.

Complex unity, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, Male and female, Marriage, Marriage, Marriage and Reproduction, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Purpose of the Church, To be in his image, To live in unity, Trinity, Unity

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The Human Being as a Picture of God’s Complex Unity

Ian Johnson June 2, 2020 4 Comments

Human beings are made in God’s image, a picture of his complex unity. Body and spirit must be united to form a soul. Each of the faculties of the soul and parts of the body together form a single, unified person.

Complex unity, Emotions, Free will, God's Existence and Nature, Human Rationality, Language and Speech, Logical thinking, Meaning of Unity, To be in his image, Unity

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Unity in Diversity as an Attribute of God

Ian Johnson June 1, 2020 6 Comments

God is a complex unity–Three in One by nature–and is also one with us who believe, by adoption. He is not an absolutely simple unity, as is often taught. This false teaching comes from early efforts to make the Gospel more acceptable to the upper classes of Roman society by introducing Neoplatonist philosophy into it. But it instead destroys the Gospel by making God incapable of having any real unity with his children.

Heresy, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Social control and statecraft, To be in his image, Trinity, Unity

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The Trinity in Which We Share

Ian Johnson May 31, 2020 6 Comments

The three persons who eternally and inseparably comprise the One God are God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God. In John 6:31, Jesus called him “God the Father.” In John 4:21-23, Jesus identified “the Father” as the God the Jews and Samaritans both worshipped. Jesus also prays to his “Father” in numerous places1–2,…
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Adoption, God's Existence and Nature, Jesus the Son, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Reconciliation, Show us the Way of Truth, To live in unity, Trinity, Unity

complex unity, Father, God, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, Holy Spirit, sharing, Trinity, Unity

Jesus’ Words about Dependence on God in the Sermon on the Mount

Ian Johnson May 30, 2020 5 Comments

The Sermon on the Mount taught complete dependence on the Father, which Jesus’ life on earth also exemplified.

Is forgiveness of sins the focus of salvation?, Jesus the Son, Show us the Way of Truth, Son of Man, To be his ambassadors, Trinity

Beatitudes, dependence, dependence on God, humanity, Jesus, prayer, Sermon on the Mount, Son of Man

Memorial Day: The Case for Mourning

Ian Johnson May 25, 2020 4 Comments

There are those who say that a good Christian should always rejoice because of anything that happens, and must never grieve. These people are wrong. Our instructions are to grieve physical death, and to grieve the sinful condition of our world that leads to it, as God himself does, but to do so in a way that expresses our hope in the resurrection. Do not deny grief, but show hope in grief. Groaning is not a sin.

Emotions, Eternity Present, Human Rationality, Jesus the Son, Restoration of God's Image, Son of Man, To be his ambassadors, To be in his image, Trinity, Uncategorized, Victory

Death, denial, Eternity, faith, Grief, hope, Jesus, mourning, resurrection, witness

From Early Christianity to Islam and Back — 1. The Earliest Christianity

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Our Oneness in the Body of Christ and the Consequences of Ignoring It

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We Are Called to Live Out the Truth of Our Oneness

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Humans “Male and Female” and Marriage as Pictures of God’s Unity in Diversity

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The Human Being as a Picture of God’s Complex Unity

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Unity in Diversity as an Attribute of God

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Jesus’ Words about Dependence on God in the Sermon on the Mount

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Memorial Day: The Case for Mourning

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God’s Existence and Nature

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