Introductory
Thoughts
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How is it that
we have come to know about God? (Romans 1)
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Where is God and
His kingdom?
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How do we come
to know God personally? (John 14)
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How does God know
us?
-
Why is the Bible
so important to us?
-
What are the different
parts of the Bible?
-
Why does the Bible
start off with the story contrasting God’s good creation—and Adam and
Eve’s
early fall into sin?
-
In what way did
Adam and Eve fail to meet God’s test?
-
Why is God’s
redemption
of all mankind central to the rest of the story?
-
Which of God’s
people does He love? (John 3:16)
-
Why has He chosen
only some to be “His People”? (Deuteronomy
7)
-
How does someone
become one of the “chosen”? (Romans 8 and
9)
-
How do people
know that they are among God’s chosen?
1.
Genesis: The Patriarchs
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What kind of covenant
did God make with Abraham? (Genesis 15)
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Why was Abraham
considered the “father of faith”? (Romans
4:13-25)
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How does God test
Abraham's faith? (Genesis 22:1-18)
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Why was Jacob
(or “Israel”) considered such a schemer?
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Was it his schemes
or was it Divine mercy that finally delivered Jacob?
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How did God prove
to be the author of Joseph’s dreams?
2.
Exodus: Moses and the Hebrews
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Why did Moses
fail to be a Hebrew leader as a young man?
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Why was Moses
called as an old man to deliver the Hebrews from slavery?
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What was the covenant
God made with the Hebrews in the wilderness?
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Why did that first
generation fail to enter the Promised Land?
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What later happened
to Moses?
3.
Judges and Kings
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What problems
faced the people of Israel as they finally entered the Promised
Land?
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What were the
instructions of the Lord God (Yahweh) to the Israelites as they began the
takeover of the Promised Land?
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The battles of
Jericho and Ai: why did they have such different
outcomes?
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Why do you think
God was so "tough"?
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What was the job
of the judges? (Judges 2:11-19 )
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Samuel:
Judge or Prophet? (1st Samuel 7:3-14 )
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Saul--the first
King (1st Samuel 8:1-9 and 1st Samuel 12:13-25)
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David is annointed
King (1st Samuel 16:1-13)
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David begins to
distinguish himself
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David's time of
testing
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David comes to
the throne
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Why do you think
David had to wait so long and go through so much turmoil in order
to be Israel's king?
4.
The Kings and Prophets of Israel and Judah
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King David and
the Prophet Nathan (2nd Samuel 7:1-29)
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David, Bathsheba
and Nathan (2 Samuel 12:1-2)
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Solomon:
Wise or confused?
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The Kingdom divided
into two new Kingdoms: Israel and Judah
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The northern Kingdom
of Israel defeated and the people carried off into captivity--never to
be heard of again
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Judah: The
remnant of Israel
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The Prophets as
the most powerful of the Spiritual guides of Israel during the rule of
the kings of Israel and Judah
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The Early
Prophets:
still a bit like the Judges or Samuel (1st Kings 18:1-46)
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The Later
Prophets:
more focused on declaring God's truth to a deaf people (Isaiah 40: 1-11
and 27-31).
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John the Baptist
in Jesus' time: The last of the prophets--in the tradition of Elijah?
(John 1:14-34)
5.
The Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ: I
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Why are the stories of Jesus' birth
so important to us?
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Why are the ministries
of John the Baptist and Jesus so closely connected? (John
1:14-34)
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Why was Jesus
led by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness to be tested? (Matthew
4:1-11)
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What was the central
theme of all his teaching? (Mark 1:14-15)
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Why did Jesus
often refer to himself as the “Son of Man”? (Mark
2:23-2)
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Why was the coming
of Jesus a fulfillment of all previous covenants?
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Why did Jesus
come “as one of us” rather than as a powerful
ruler?
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How was Jesus himself tested in the
wilderness just after his baptism?
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What was the central theme of all his
teaching?
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Why did Jesus often refer to himself
as the “Son of Man”?
6.
The Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ: II
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Why did Jesus refer to his miracles
as signs? (all of John, chapter 2)
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What was the relationship of the disciples
to Jesus? (John 6:53-71)
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What were his expectations of them?
(John 13:34-35 and John 14:12-17)
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Why did Jesus refer to himself as “the
Way, the Truth and the Life”—the only way to the heavenly Father? (John
14:6-11)
7.
Jesus’ Death and Resurrection
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Why did people want to put Jesus to
death?
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What/when was Jesus’ own understanding
of his coming death?
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What was the reaction of the disciples
to this news--and Jesus' reaction to their reaction?
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How was Jesus again tempted as death
approached?
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Why was Jesus’ forgiveness the power
that broke Satan?
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Why is Jesus’ crucifixion considered
the essential ingredient for God's new covenant with us?
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Why was Jesus raised from the dead on
the 3rd day?
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Why is Jesus’ resurrection considered
God’s sign of a new covenant with us?
8.
The Holy Spirit
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How was the end of Jesus' ministry connected
to the coming of the Holy Spirit? (John 14:15-17, 25-26 and 16:4-1)
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When and how did the disciples receive
the Holy Spirit? (John 20:19-2, Luke 24:49-53, Acts 1:1-5 and Acts
2)
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How is the Church the most important
work of the Holy Spirit?
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How are the people's spiritual gifts
vital to the unity of the Church? (1st Corinthians 12, 13 and 14)
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What, to Paul, are indeed the real signs
of the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in someone? (Galatians
5:13-26)
9.
The Apostle Paul
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What kind of person was Paul (Saul)
as a young man?
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What happened to change
him?
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How did that affect his understanding
of the Gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ?
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How did he come to serve the early
church?
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Why are his letters to the early churches
so important to us today?
10.
The Early Church (First 300 years)
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Where did the early Christian congregations
first meet?
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How was the early church
organized?
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What was the relationship of the early
church with the society around it?
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What kept the early church together
as a single faith?
11.
The Emergence of the Catholic (“Universal”) Church
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What terrible situation was facing Christianity
as it entered the 4th Century (300AD)?
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What did Roman Emperor Constantine do
in 312 AD that changed Christian history?
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How did his conversion to Christianity
change the position of Christianity within the Roman world?
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How did Unitarianism challenge
the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity?
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What was wrong with Arias'
Unitarianism?
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How did the church move from persecuted
to persecutor?
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In what ways did this reshape Christianity's
basic character?
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What did Augustine teach us about the
faith--that helped keep the faith alive during very trying times that were
arising quickly?
12.
The Medieval Church
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What happened to the church when German
tribes collapsed Rome in the West (400s / 500s)?
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Why was Celtic Christianity so important
to the Christian West?
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Why did the Muslim Arabs complete the
destruction job in the East (600s / 700s)?
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Why did the Crusades (1100s / 1200s)
begin to reverse the picture?
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How did a renewal of wealth and power
in the West challenge the moral purity of the church (1300s / 1400s)?
13.
A Late Medieval Christian Spiritual Awakening
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Who were the Cathars or
Albigensians?
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Why were Peter Waldo and the Waldensians
persecuted by the church?
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How did St. Francis avoid the same
fate?
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What was Christian
"mysticism"?
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What was Christian
scholasticism?
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Why were John Wycliff and John Huss
persecuted?
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Who was Savonarola?
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What was the mood like in the Church
as the 1500s loomed into view?
14.
The Protestant Reformation (early - mid 1500s)
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Why did Martin Luther post his 95 theses
on the Wittenberg chapel door?
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What efforts were made to silence him?
How did Luther respond?
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How did Ulrich Zwingli start the reformation
in Switzerland?
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How did the reform movement begin to
spread in and from Switzerland?
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How did Luther's movement and the Swiss
reform movement get along?
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Who were the radical reformers, or
Anabaptists?
15.
John Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: I
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Who was John Calvin?
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How was it that Calvin came to making
Geneva, Switzerland, the center of the Reformed Movement?
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How was Calvin's Reformed Movement closely
related to the mindset of the newly emerging European "middle class" of
townsmen?
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How did this cause a new "democratic"
spirit to grow up as part of Calvin's Reformed Movement?
16.
John Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: II
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How did Calvin's ideas on the Protestant
Reformation compare with Luther's and Zwingli's?
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What about the hotly debated issue of
Holy Communion / Lord's Supper? To Calvin was Christ's presence in
the bread and wine truly real or only symbolic?
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John Calvin is always closely connected
to the idea of predestination. What is predestination? Was
this an idea that Calvin thought up?
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Calvin is also closely connected to
the idea of the Covenant. Why?
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How is this idea of Covenant closely
related to Calvin's understanding of Baptism?
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What was Calvin's impact on the
Reformation?
17.
John Knox and Presbyterian Polity (mid 1500s)
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How was it that Protestantism first
came to Scotland?
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How did Knox become such a supporter
of Calvin's form of Protestantism?
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How did Knox and the Scottish Noblemen
finally bring Protestantism to Scotland?
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How did Knox reshape the Scottish Church
into a "Presbyterian" form?
18.
The Spread of Protestant Reform (1500s)
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Why was the Protestant
Reformation such a "political" event--and not just a matter of renewing
and strengthening the
people's personal faith in
God?
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Was the Protestant
Reformation limited just to Germany, Switzerland and
Scotland?
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How did Protestantism
come to England in the 1500s?
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What was the Catholic
church doing during this period to protect its position in
Europe?
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What happened
to Protestantism (Lutheranism) in Germany in the 1500s?
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What happened
to Protestantism (Calvinist Huguenots) in France in the
1500s?
19.
The Wars of Religion (1600s)
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Who were the English "Puritans"?
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How does this relate to the English establishment
of colonies in America (early 1600s)?
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What was happening in the meantime on
the European continent between the Catholics and Protestants (first half
of the1600s)?
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Why does the English civil war now take
up at this point (1640)?
20.
Modern Secularism and the Church: I
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Why by the 1600s
was the idea of "Truth" undergoing a profound change in European
culture?
-
Why by the end
of the 1600s can we speak of a Newtonian (or "modern") world-view (or cosmology)
that was beginning to replace the older Christian world-view?
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Where did the
Newtonian "revolution" leave us in our thinking about God?
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Where did such
"Deism" leave the church?
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Why was the Great
Awakening (1740s) so important to Christianity?
21.
Modern Secularism and the Church: II
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How was it that
by the early 1800s the secular spirit was able to seriously challenge the
Christian faith?
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Why were some
Western thinkers becoming even very disdaining or haughty in their attitude
towards Christianity?
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Why was the most
serious challenge to Christianity posed by the English naturalist, Charles
Darwin?
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How did secularism
continue to push Christianity off center stage--in order to take that position
for itself?
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What was happening
to Christianity during the rise of secular science to dominance over Western
culture?
22.
Modern Secularism and the Church: III
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Why have the writings
of Darwin, Marx and Freud had such an impact on us?
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How has material
success in this world become the “modern” hope for
life?
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How has the church
been put to the test by modern secular culture?
How well has
the church stood its ground in witness to God in Jesus
Christ?
23.
Rediscovering God in the Age of Science
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As a recap--what
were the steps up to the present situation in which religious Truth has
been chased out of our modern culture as being just so much
superstition?
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How did relativity
theory begun to “break the box” of scientific
"realism"?
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How did quantum
theory further shake loose the hold of the empirical mindset on modern
science?
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How has the “big
bang” theory reopened among scientists the debate on
God?
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How has “chaos
theory” demonstrated Divine design in creation?
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What other branches
of science have been adding to this post-Newtonian revolution in modern
science?
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Overall, what
are the "lessons" we can begin to draw from the "new" science or "post-modern"
(or "post-Newtonian") science as it is being called?
24. In Review
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How is it that
we have come to know about God?
-
Where is God and
His kingdom?
-
How do we come
to know God personally?
-
How does God know
us?
-
Why is the Bible
so important to us?
-
Why does the Bible
start off with the story contrasting God’s good creation—and Adam and
Eve’s
early fall into sin?
-
Why is God’s
redemption
of all mankind central to the rest of the story?
-
Which of God’s
people does He love?
-
Why has He chosen
only some to be “His People”?
-
How does someone
become one of the “chosen”?
-
How do people
know that they are among God’s chosen?
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Spiritual Pilgrim
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