Is Philosophy Necessary in Christian Theology?

 

Reading the recent American philosophy was a bit overwhelming and at certain point and degree releases a tingling sensation to the ear because of the twisted understanding of truth. But I must admit, most of their arguments are quite convincing. Nonetheless, the truth evidenced in the Word of God can impossibly be overcome by any secular philosophy at all.

Philosophy may be overwhelming at times indeed that is why I used to stay away from it even back in my early years of being a Christian. But over time I realized that philosophy can be very useful for our theology for as long as it furthers a pursuit of truth.

As the writer of Ecclesiastes said in Ecclesiastes 12:13 that the whole duty of man is to obey God, we are to deal with the many different worldly philosophies without losing our connection to the Divine wisdom of God. I believe that all necessary questions or existential inquiries pertaining to God, eternity, and the godly life are addressed in the Word of God, the Bible. Paul in his accounts implied that he has knowledge of the Greek writings and other philosophies as he was able to deal with arguments with the stoics and epicureans in the book of Acts. Hence it should be normal for Christians to study and use philosophy for apologetic and evangelistic purposes. And as for me, it would also be part of that helmet of salvation in Ephesians 6, which will protect us from being gullible to the worldly philosophies that will draw us away from the truth of God.

Although we can say that faith and reason are in conflict most of the time and that faith is implicitly irrational or anti-intellectual, it does not mean that we are to devalue philosophy at all. The Bible presents us the truth about faith and God and further the Gospel as being grounded in reality and founded upon the history of God's people as recorded by eyewitnesses of extraordinary and divine events.  

We always need to balance things whether in our understanding of the divine realm and matters about it along with the physical. We can never understand the things of the Spirit of God without His special revelation, which is His Word. His wisdom does not come from our natural state of mind for our human reason is fallen. We need God who gives wisdom as a gift to us. Reason that does not come from God is deadly. Hence we need God’s wisdom and not the pride of human reason. As Proverbs 9:10 says, the beginning of all wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Holy Fear- rooted in love- not the idea of fear that this world teaches).

God is the ultimate source of wisdom and we are to ask this gift from Him so that we can think rationally. That way, we are able to say that we have the "mind of Christ".

Philosophy is neutral. It can be used to argue, boast, and be prideful about wisdom. But on the other hand, it can be a beautiful tool that can lead us to enlightening, mature, and healthy arguments that lead all to the knowledge of God. So us, Christian theists, should take philosophy positively and Biblically in accordance to the will of God.

 

 

Who Will Go To Heaven

Looking at these beliefts, we can see five major categories regarding how to get to heaven. 1- Most believe that hard work and wisdom will lead to ultimate fulfillment, whether that is unity with god (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Baha’i) or freedom and independence (Scientology, Jainism). 2- Others, like Unitarianism and Wicca, teach the afterlife is whatever you want it to be, and salvation is a non-issue because the sin nature doesn’t exist. 3- A few believe either the afterlife doesn’t exist or it’s too unknowable to consider. 4- Derivatives of the worship of the Christian-Judeo God generally hold that faith in God and/or Jesus and the accomplishment of various deeds, including baptism or door-to-door evangelism, will ensure the worshiper will go to heaven. 5- Only Christianity teaches that salvation is a free gift of God through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9), and no amount of work or effort is necessary or possible to get to heaven. based on the article by gotquestions.org

https://www.gotquestions.org/how-to-get-to-heaven.html

For us Christians, we believe there is heaven but we are not sure of how it looks like but we have this blessed hope and assurance that it exists. And heaven for us is a realm or Kingdom of God, and since it is His Kingdom, He owns it. If He owns it, He will get to decide who will enter right? we are not the ones to decide. Now God who is a holy God in His holy place will always maintain holiness in His Kingdom. That is the reality of God and we cannot change. He is immutable. If he adjusts to be unholy like us then He is not God anymore.. And all of us humans are unholy and not good enough to enter heaven. none of us.. even the level of Mother Theresa will not enter heaven, because no person in this world has that truly clean slate. Maybe a small sin will not justify us, all of us have records be it a very small sin or big sin. That is why throughout history especially recorded in the Old Testament, no one has ever perfected the law except when Jesus came. God Himself went down on earth to save us because we cannot save ourselves. We cannot give ourselves the ticket to heaven. It is only by the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we can get accepted in heaven. Not by our own good works but by Jesus Himself alone. We are hidden in the glory of Jesus when we enter heaven. This is the mystery of what #joycepring was actually asserting in her interview and we as Christians should humbly present this to the world. That Jesus is the only way to heaven not in an arrogant way but in way that they will understand the love of Christ for them no matter what they have done in their lives. Because if we accept Christ in our lives, it means we are resigning to His will and so we will no longer live according to the flesh but in Spirit. Yes we will still have struggles, we will still sin, but we will have conviction, we will not remain in sin but rather we will repent and turn back to God and ask for guidance so we will be taken away from that path to sin.. and yes, if we don't have Jesus, we will go to hell. There is no other way but Him. Heaven is owned by God. He gets to decide who will enter. And His decision relies on the condition of Holiness that we can only find in Jesus.

No copyright infringement intended for the photos from this post as these are just intended to educate our students in the World Religions Class. Blog: http://www.lanilaneocbina.online/ FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChibiLanilane youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LanilaneOcbina Instagram & Tiktok: lanilaneocbina

Do We Worship The Same God?

 

The Idea of God in the Church

The account about Paul at Athens makes me think about the worshippers in the Christian context where there is always a strong possibility of being  in a church and congregation that worships different versions of Jesus Christ. I once asked my brothers and sisters in the church: “are we worshipping the same Jesus when we sing, pray, and hear the Word during Sunday services? Do we have the same Christ in mind?” And the realizations were surprising. The worshippers of the God if the Bible really need to grow in the knowledge of God or else, many will end up worshipping a different “god”, leading to idolatry, which God Himself condemns. Some of them unknowingly see Jesus as a genie who grants wishes. Some see Jesus as a Santa Claus who rewards nice boys and girls. Some see Jesus as their ATM who would release cash whenever they need and want it. All these  can be really dangerous as these reflect superficial knowledge of God that leads to worship of material things and not God at all.

God is the Creator of all good things, the High Priest who sacrificed Himself as the Lamb to cover all sings once and for all, He is the Messiah and Judge who will come again to judge the living and the dead, He is the God who commissioned us to do a task until His Parousia.

Being a Christian is much more than asking presents and rewards daily from the Lord.

Paul’s Encounter with the Critical Thinkers

Paul’s encounter with the Epicureans and Stoics in Athens makes me think also about the circumstance where we meet unbelievers or even God-seekers or God-fearers. Paul’s strategy was reckoning with homophily conditions as the entry point. The critical thinkers have their own “gods” in mind and Paul saw that there was an “unknown god” and made it as his entry point to introduce the true Gospel of Christ.

People worship the unknown god even though they do not know him and thought it was fine. But God wants us to know Him and so Paul used it to teach about the one true God. Paul tried to reconcile the mystery and he did it with authority and boldness because he knows for sure that what he is preaching is the truth of God.

In our ministry context, we also need to look for the homophilous patterns to relate to the non-Christians and then later redirect them to the one true God. There is always an entry point as the “unknown god” used by Paul. We need the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit as what Paul experienced all throughout his missionary journeys.

Week 7

Digest, Oct. 5-Oct 12, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

 

How Important is Theology for Every Believer?

Some years ago, when I found myself passionate so much for Jesus, I just got extreme in my philosophies. I believed and thought to myself, “I do not want to be a theologian, I want to be a person of God..” This perhaps was not just because of my heart burning for Jesus but because of some arrogant theologians that I met along the way. Nonetheless, as time went by, the Lord taught me that as His follower, as His child, I have to grow in His knowledge. And that a person of God is also a sound theologian.

With sound theology, our faith will not be easily shaken. With the Biblical understanding of God, we are sure that we will also not feed the flock with poisonous philosophies. Hence, as a commissioner of God, we are to be ready to defend our faith because there is a flock under our care to be protected.

Jesus asked Peter three times if he truly loves Him, and everytime Peter says yes, Jesus would tell him to feed and take care of the flock. Thus, if we truly love the Lord, we are to make sure that we know God and His Word well. Apologetics and our grasp of Christian history and facts should be sturdy then.

Apologetics is important and we can only be effective in it if our philosophy about God is truly Biblical. Christian History and facts are important also especially when we go to places where there are many “stoics” and “epicureans” who will shaken our faith or the faith of those who are under our care.

Both apologetics and evidences (history) are God’s tools to save us from false teaching and actually, to save us from ourselves as well. On my end, I still find myself in crisis of some sort at times. I have questions about God and His mysterious dealings in the world from time to time. But the Word of God tells us so much that all these crises do not take so long to linger and that God remains to be God as the absolute authority and Creator designer of all things.

God is eternal, infinite, unchanging holy and so forth. He is not created by anything / anyone but He is the Creator Himself. He is not bond by anything that any of our language could speak, not any third party at all. He exists outside all of these, be it time, language and so forth.

God is absolute. He is God. He cannot be explained fully because if He can be, He is not God anymore. No one is capable of knowing it all about Him but we are called to know Him anyway. We are to understand all that we can about Him and not all that there is because the infinite God forever have the mystery that only Him can decide whether it shall be revealed fully to us or not.

Week 6

Digest, Sept.28-Oct.4, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program