Obedience is essential because, “all right knowledge of God is born of obedience” and obedience must be included in love. According to Calvin, piety is, “reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces.” And, he goes on to say, pious men do not think up ideas about God and what he is or is not, they just listen to what God tells them. This is a kind of knowledge of God. From this, Calvin starts to get into his argument about the knowledge of God concerning the Seed of Religion.
Hey Francine! You did an excellent job on explaining what Martin Luther believed about the image of God. God is full of grace and full of power. He is Lord over all and chose us to be in His image.
That is the major reason why you shouldn’t take your worship for granted. It is the hedge we have over others. Anything that happens in the physical has already taken place in the spiritual. That is why as Christians, you need to be connected through worship so you can always receive direction and inspiration from God.
These are the traditions that were mentioned beforehand, that Catholic’s clung dearly to during the Counter Reformation. A few examples of these are the idea of purgatory, prayer to saints and priests in a hierarchy form. None of these conventions or beliefs are proven in the bible and Martin Luther therefore considered them a distraction from the centrality and importance of Christ. (Tarr 45) This is another reason why Lutheranism went to the bible for all answers.
In order to find your true identity you have to open the ultimate Truth, God's Word. His Word tells us that we are children of God, a brand new creation in Him, a masterpiece, restored, and made right through Him. 1 Peter 2:9 says, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." So, who are you?
These, according to Jesus, are the two great commandments given for us to follow. God has given us directives to live by that have nothing to do with a church. Ecclesiastes 12:13 tells us “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man”. Do you see any mention here about any church in the “conclusion of the whole matter”?
This work of his was received with both criticism and intrigue. Calvin’s ideas were very radical, but he sought to back each of them up with what he believed was the ultimate authority of the Scripture. Calvin combats the idea that the church gives Scripture its authority because he believes that the Bible offers “as clear evidence of its truth, as white and black things do of their color, or sweet and bitter things of their taste” (31). He was constantly searching for ways to prove the consistency of the Bible, so he could further establish how authoritative it was. Calvin and Luther did not agree on the sacraments or the use of the law, but both were very influential theological figures of the Protestant Reformation and they both claimed that Scripture, not the church, was the true
Therefore, it is crucial that we take the time to listen to all the sides of an issue; in the case of immigration, it means
Why should Christ died for all when He foreknow and predestined that the atonement would only be effective for some people? God foreknown how we would respond and how we would use our free will and yet why does He still decided to atone those whose heart would not be budged toward Him later? I get the impression that God want to give all of us the same opportunity of salvation because all of us is the same according to God, all of us are His image and creation, and the fulfillment of the salvation will depend on our respond to His calling. So is it possible for the pronounced believers to be the unintended object of salvation plan all along? There is still some part that remain unsolved for me and I am still trying to seek for the
The Bible explicitly affirms that of all that God created, He highly favored humans to be perfectly created in His image and likeness; and having such great intrinsic knowledge, strength, and ability; God blessed and entrusted them to govern and enrich His creations. Distinctively, with God at the very center of the life and existence of His creations, the Bible remarkably picture how they existed together as a holy community to fulfill God’s righteous purposes, in creating the world for His praise and greater glory. Regrettably, the beautiful relationship that God and humans intimately shared together had been disrupted when the insidious sin managed to permeate human minds that made them capable of thinking evil and behaving selfishly disobeying