The Importance of Origins (Part 2)
8 Pages - 120K

Understanding the importance of origins in developing a DVP was the topic of our last lesson. We discovered how the following foundational questions will be answered through our study of Genesis:

• Who is God and what is He like?
• Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?
• Is truth absolute and where does it come from?
• Where did evil come from? Is there any escape from it?

The answers to these questions form what we would call our ultimate assumptions or beliefs needed to know anything. Without answers to these questions you would never attempt to gain knowledge on anything.

So much of what we need to make sense of this world is found in God’s first book of the Bible. Also, we looked at several passages in Revelation to see the symmetry of the Bible. The Creation event was such a monumental event that we will still be praising God for it in heaven. This event will be remembered and recalled eternally!

We also looked at how origins is really at the heart of all men. It’s very important to realize that whenever you discuss origins you’re really discussing a person’s ultimate belief, and that ultimate belief is part and parcel with their view of God. A person’s view of origins will always reveal a persons view of God (or god) - they are that closely related.

Our last lesson also covered the importance of origins for meaning. All communication requires a certain set of basic truths. We looked at three:

1. Meaning Requires Classification - What are the necessary conditions of the world needed to classify things?
2. Meaning Requires Stability - Is the universe stable so that I can depend on my classifications remaining the same.
3. Meaning Requires Context - Does my classification fit in the immediate context of what I see and ultimately to the entire context of the universe?

As we learn more about the doctrine of Creation we are going to see how God created man in His image so that man comes with the needed abilities to understand his environment. Because man is made in God’s image he can classify things with language that is meaningful. Because the universe is stable we can be sure that what we learn about our classifications isn’t going to transmute into something else later. And because God created the entire universe, our classifications can be meaningful within their contexts. This context only makes sense in light of ones view of origins.

Let me briefly expand this idea of how meaning is found in context. We always classify things with the context in mind, this is the only way to get the meaning. If I’m going to get meaning in life I’ve got to push the boundaries of context out all the way to eternity. However, the problem for the unbeliever is that when you push as far as you can go there’s nothing there. According to their worldview there is only mystery and chaos and you don’t get meaning from mystery and chaos.

We summed up our thoughts on the importance of origins for meaning when we said: you can't say anything about anything without saying (by implication) something about everything. The term "everything" points unmistakably to origins our ultimate context. If this is true, then is it possible for anyone to be neutral on the origins issue?

In this lesson we want better understand the idea of neutrality so that we can avoid buying into its agenda. This will greatly help us to make sense of the controversy surrounding origins and how it robs us of real meaning.

Finally we will turn to what God has said in His Word concerning all of mankind’s heart desire to understand the issue of origins and their place in it. Download the full lesson

The Importance of Origins
8 Pages - 104K

Our objective up to this point has been to prepare our minds for continual change. We want to be transformed in our way of looking at the world so that it agrees with God’s view. As we saw in our last lesson God’s viewpoint does not coincide with man’s. Man may harden his heart to God, but this does not change the truth of God and His final authority.

Remember how God confronted Adam and Even in the garden? He came to them in hiding and approached them with the question, “where are you?” God used a question to help Adam and Eve think through their own HVP. He then took them back to the historical command that He had given them, specifically not eating from the tree of good and evil.

Adam and Eve had considered themselves as the final authority of what was right and wrong. They wanted to weigh out what they thought best; to believe God (the Creator) or to believe Satan (a creature). In the end they made the decision and they followed Satan’s direction. We will talk more about this in future lessons, but we need to realize that God did not accept their attempt to be a final authority. Nor did he accept that they could appeal to some neutral ground in which there was no responsibility. Rather God held them responsible and judged them according to their sin. In the end, Adam and Eve changed their HVP to reflect God’s DVP.

We want to change our HVP as well. Our desire is to see our HVP overcome by a deep trust in DVP. By studying God’s Word in the present we can prepare ourselves for the stressful situations that are sure to come in the future. Rather than waiting for a difficult circumstance to come and take us off guard, we want to think through our DVP strategy now. Establishing what God has said on the major areas of life is where we will start; remembering to apply what we learn through the ReConnecT drill.

Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

We also discussed the importance of being prepared with a DVP strategy in order to respond to the questioning unbeliever. When you apply the ReConnecT Drill in your life, there will be a time when others notice how you respond to difficult circumstances. This will bring questions from the unbeliever about how you are able to deal with this or that. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to be ready to respond to these questions giving a reason for the hope that we have with gentleness and respect.

In this lesson we want to begin to look at the importance of studying origins and how these truths effect the foundations for making sense of the world around us. Download the full lesson

Divine Viewpoint Strategy (Part 2)
8 Pages - 132K

In our last lesson we discussed the importance of developing a Divine Viewpoint (DVP) Strategy to deal with the difficult circumstances we face in life. Looking at the person of Joseph as an example, we learned that he interpreted his situation of dying through the viewpoint of his biblical worldview.

In the midst of his death, Joseph didn't loose control of his thoughts. He refused to see things they way an unbelieving Egyptian would. Rather, as a follower of God, he used God's word to direct his actions and calm his heart. We called this thinking strategy the RCT (ReConnecT) Drill. We want to reconnect our thoughts with the God's Word when things get difficult. There are three components that Joseph used in order to maintain his Divine Viewpoint (DVP). These included:

• Recall - when a stressful situation arises you recall a Scriptural text, fragment, promise, or story to quite down and focus on the Lord.
• Connect - once you have the appropriate Scripture in your mind you have to connect it to your situation. This often happens as you talk to God in prayer about your choice. Thinking through the Human Viewpoint (HVP) and Divine Viewpoint (DVP) choice you have before you.
• Trust - we keep God's Word circulating in our mind, encircling our situation, until we can trust the Lord and move forward.

Developing this strategy takes focus and time. We can't apply this approach to thinking when we are in the middle of an emotional situation or under high stress. We must train our minds with this strategy before we get caught in a jam.

In working through this strategy in my own thinking, I find that each step in the ReConnecT Drill can present its own set of challenges. The first two steps require that you understand what God has said concerning your situation. This of course takes time and commitment to learn and remember.

The third step of trusting is often the most difficult. This is because we cannot make ourselves trust God's Word without first being convinced.

Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

Being convinced of God’s Word is essential because we have to deal with so many hang-ups in our mind. We have thoughts bouncing around in our heads like, “why are you doing this to me God...I can’t see the purpose for this terrible thing...if God really loved me He wouldn’t have let this happen.” These kind of thoughts are so familiar to us because we spend the majority of our time feeding the Human Viewpoint (HVP).

Trying to combat this in our mind is very difficult because our bible training is so little that when we get in a jam and we recall a fragment of Scripture the HVP, being so much stronger, just swallows it up and destroys it. The end result is our inability to walk by faith.

The strategy to overcome this problem is to reverse the trend. We want to develop a DVP that outweighs our HVP. We want to be convinced of God’s truth when we are not in the thick of life’s stressful circumstances. We need to transform our minds and swallow up temptations with truth in order to maintain our walk of faith.

This lesson builds on a few biblical confrontations of DVP vs. HVP and then further develops the need for training in the Christian worldview in order to be ready to give an answer to the curious unbeliever.

Divine Viewpoint Strategy (Part 1)
8 Pages - 208K

Have you ever noticed that with every area of life there is a type of training designed to help you get the most out of your work? For example, if you want to build houses you have got to start with an apprenticeship and work your way up to being a contractor. Or if you wanted to be a farmer, you would begin as a hired hand and slowly learn the ropes. With military personnel there are years of training and ranks that must be climbed before you can command any leadership. Finally, if you desired to be an athlete, you must train your body to perform a certain way so that in the thick of competition you can respond without having to constantly refer back to the very basics.

So if training is so crucial to every other area of life, how is that when we get to our Christian walk there seems to be an exception to the norm. Often when it comes to spiritual things the general feeling is that no focused training is needed. Everyone just approaches it from his or her own direction. More often than not this approach leads to little or NO spiritual training and preparation. It's like a soldier who is thrown into battle without any training except what was given at the recruiter's desk, they just have to figure it out from there.

In other cases there is training provided, but the focus ends up in the wrong place. It starts with our actions and begins to identify the things you "should" and "shouldn't" do as a Christian. This is like teaching a soldier how to use a weapon but not helping him understand the strategy of battle. He operates in one dimension not having the skills to see his situation and adapt to it. To be sure there are going to be changes in our behavior, but is that where it starts?

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom. 12:2)

The Bible offers us a strategy for walking by faith that starts in our minds. A training that challenges us to begin seeing the world through the eyes of the Lord (DVP) rather than looking at things from our own perspective (HVP). A way of continually shaping our minds to prepare for the battle of life. A way of starting with the correct thinking strategy and ending up with a proper behavioral response.

As we study through the Bible, you will notice that we are constantly looking at each teaching through two different perspectives. We first and foremost want to train our minds to understand how the Lord sees a situation (DVP), but in order to sharpen our vision we will also look at how man alters and manipulates God's word to meet his own needs (HVP).

This lesson offers you a strategy for dealing with the situations you face in life. A mental approach to thinking through a circumstance in life from a Divine Viewpoint (DVP). As your understanding of God's word expands and as you learn how it better fits together, you will become stronger in your ability to perform this strategy. However, I want you to see how you can apply your biblical worldview to your real life issues. This isn't pie in the sky stuff. It has real implications, and it must be applied.