Review

Our purpose for this time is that at the end of the series you will see and savior God by increasing our

understanding an of who He is and what He has done for us.

3 Levels of Belief

• Convictions-matters of belief in which the Gospel is at stake. Gal 2 Examples are: Trinity, Deity of Christ, and Salvation by grace through faith.

• Persuasions-matters not central to the Gospel but we are certain but can still disagree on. Rom 14 Examples are: role of tongues, age of the earth, millennial views.

• Opinions-Beliefs which may not be clearly taught in scripture and differ for various believers. Ex 1 Cor 7 Examples are: How long until Christ’s return or best Bible translation.

God

• Evidence of God in Nature: Acts 14:16-17, Psalm 19:1-2

• Evidence of God in Scripture: Genesis 1• Traditional Proofs:• 1. Cosmological• 2. Teleological• 3. Ontological• 4. Moral• Trinity-There are three distinct persons, and

the being of each person is equal to the whole being of God.

God is Infinite and Personal

• Some of His infinite attributes:• Self existence-uncreated, Exodus 3:14• Omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability,

and eternality. • Genesis 17:1, Exodus 6:3, 2 Corinthians 6:18, Revelation

1:8, James 1:7, Malachi 3:6• God’s Character never changes but that His actions, and

even His feelings, change in response to the action of His creatures.

• His personal attributes:• Wisdom-God know everything and understands the

context and implications of all that He knows• Mercy-He kindly chooses to be more than fair-Eph 2:4 • Goodness-He is free from all evil• Loving- 1 John 4:8 and John 3:16• Righteous-God always does what is right-Psalm 145:17

The Bible

A. The writers claimed inerrancy: Inspiration

B. The Bible contains no proven contradictions:

Reliability

C. We have all the right books: Canonicity

D. We have an accurately preserved text: Transmission

Which Books are to be included?

A.Authority of the writer. Was the writer of the book in a position of recognized authority as a legitimate carrier of God’s message. In the NT, was he an Apostle or a close associate of an Apostle?

B.Edifying content. Was there an awareness of blessing and guidance when the book was read?

C.Test of widespread acceptance: Did the early church as a whole accept it? Many of the rejected books were written by Gnostics or other heretical teachers promoting their own agendas.

Important Perspective

1. The church councils did not create the Canon, rather they simply recognized the canon established by God. Church leaders were faced with many Gnostic and other false gospels and needed a firm and authoritative basis to exclude the heretical works and thereby protect their flock.

2. The Spirit’s illumination helps us understand what God has revealed.A. Illumination: The Holy Spirit's helping those in a right relationship with him to understand the meaning of and gain applicational insight to the inspired writing. B. A brilliant non-Christian might be able to answer the question, “What did it mean to the original reader?”C. Only a spirit-filled believer can hope to appropriately discern, “What is God trying to say to us today?” I Cor 2:9-3:2

Our Bible is inspired by God

A. Four strands of Biblical evidence that the writers believed the Bible to be without error:1. The Bible makes direct claims to its own divine origin. 2 Tim 3:162. Jesus viewed the scriptures as unbreakable and authoritative. John 10:358

3. The NT writers believed that what they were writing was “Scripture”. 1 Cor 14:374. The NT writers viewed each other’s writings to be at the same level as the OT. 2 Pete 3:16

Enjoying through Knowing

• When asked, “Which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus answered, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOU HEART, AND WITH ALL YOU SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.”

• The purpose of the next couple of weeks: to help you discover what God has said concerning the wide variety of subjects He has told us about in the Bible, and as a result, to experience a deeper relationship with Him.

Recognizing The Levels of Belief

• LEVEL 1: CONVICTIONS

• LEVEL 2: PERSUASIONS

• LEVEL 3: OPINIONS

• One of the best ways to understand and appreciate the kinds of distinctions we need to make is to look at the writings of the apostle Paul.

Why Three Levels of Belief

• Is this kind of distinction unbiblical? • Isn’t everything in Scripture equally essential?• The answer is no. • The New Testament writers themselves held

more than one category of belief. • Be careful of two opposite errors• Two of our objectives is:• 1) Secure in you own convictions• 2) Tolerant of those who disagree with you at

the persuasions or opinion level.

Convictions

• Let us look at a conflict between Peter and Paul

• Galatians 2• Peter was denying the doctrine of salvation by

grace through faith alone. • Paul was willing to take a strong, public stand

because the issue was essential to salvation. • Central beliefs, crucial to salvation, over

which we should be willing to denounce someone in serious disagreement and if there is no change, then eventually divide fellowship.

• Trinity, the deity of Christ, and salvation by grace through faith.

Persuasions

• Romans 14• Not insisting on uniformity of view among fully

persuaded believers. • Each person can have his or her own belief yet

remain in unity with believers who disagree. • Persuasion level of beliefs should not be used

as a basis for dividing personal fellowship with other believers or even for thinking badly of them.

• Romans 14:10 and Romans 14:13• The dividing line: that which is not essential

for salvation. • Millennial views, role of “tongues”, and the

age of the earth.

Opinions

• 1 Corinthians 7-Paul treatment of marriage.• The word wish in this context expresses

desire or design. • Are beliefs, desires or even wishes that may

not be clearly taught in Scripture or that may legitimately differ for various believers.

• Examples of views that should be kept as opinions might be: How long until Christ returns? Which is the best Bible translation? Does every believer had an guardian Angel?

Distinguishing The Levels

• What separates these levels of belief is not the psychological or subjective “strength” with which we hold a belief.

• While convictions, persuasions, and opinions are not all in evidence in the same passage, the presence of these three levels of belief given us a strong biblical basis for not holding all view at a conviction level.

• What Christianity Is All About by Alan Scholes• This book was used a the basis for all our

talks.