The Kingdom of God:

Part 4 – Statutes and Standards

Session #8 God Rules – by what standard?

58 minutes

Dallas Willard:
the Kingdom of God “is the domain where what he prefers is what actually happens.”

1. The All-Embracing Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16,17)

1.1 All of Life

a) Exhaustive in scope

b) Sufficient in content

The Bible does not claim to say much about any particular subject, but it does claim that it says enough about each subject. The Bible uses the phrase, “the beginning of knowledge”.

Ken Ham: “[T]he history recorded from the beginning in the Bible does involve issues of biology, geology, astronomy, anthropology and chemistry. Now the Bible is not a science textbook (which is a good thing, since science textbooks change every year!). But the Bible is a revelation of history that gives us the “Big Picture” in every area of reality. In other words, the Bible gives us the right foundational thinking so we can approach geology, biology, anthropology, etc. in the correct way.”
Culture Wars: Ham vs Bacon (in Creation Magazine – Vol 25. Issue 1)

1.2 All of Scripture

When Paul says “All Scripture,” he means all scripture; not just the New Testament. Our ignirance concerning the Kingdom of God is because we have lost our roots in the Old Testament.

The New Testament says relatively little about many thinks (politics, for example) because the Old Testament has already said a lot!

• Do we only retain from the Old Testament that which is reiterated in the New Testament?
• Or do we only discard from the Old Testament that which is adjusted in the New Testament?

1.3 All or Nothing

If we lose Genesis, eventually we will actually lose John too.

Gallup polls revealing a shift:

• In 1963, two out of three Americans told Gallup they believed “the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.”
• By 1998, only one in three took that stance, while nearly half preferred: “The Bible is the inspired word of God, not everything in it should be taken literally.”

If we see the Old Testament as made up of stories, it will eventually be seen as a collection of fairy tales.

But is this insistence on defending the historicity and reliability of Old Testament a case of “majoring on minors”? Surely we ought to focus our energy on the proclamation of the gospel?

• If we cannot trust the history of the Old Testament, why would we expect people to trust the history of the New Testament?

52 minutes

2. The Absolute Word of God

2.1 Absolute truth vs dualism

Nancy Pearcey: “Most believers compartmentalize their lives, absorbing the reigning secular assumptions in their field of study while maintaining a devotional life on the side in their private time.” Total Truth [Crossway], p.98.

2.2 Absolute truth vs relativism

28 minutes

a) The Melting Pot

The Great Seal of the United States: “E pluribus unum” (= out of many, one).

b) Multiculturalism