What Christianity Means to God

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Section II: The Moral Character of God

Dale Moreau

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A Call for Authentic Christianity

The Biblical affirmation of the Trinity is in the moral character of God. The moral character of God has been revealed from the Father to Abraham and the Children of Israel, and manifested from the Son to the Church, and is universally bestowed from the Spirit to the world through the up-building of the Body of Christ.

This blog is an attempt to capture what it means to be Christian in the moral character of God. It is of my belief that there are basically two versions of Christianity.

One version is founded upon man and his needs, the salvation of his soul from hell to the security of heaven, his wants, his happiness, his relief from all disasters and his non-involvement with the world.

The other version centers on the moral character of God and mankind's relationship with it. Its concerns are not in one's salvation from sins in order to get into heaven and avoid hell at all cost. True and authentic Christianity is centered on the great enterprise of God that seeks the cosmic redemption of all things in heaven and upon earth through the moral being of Jesus Christ in the sons and daughters of Abraham who partner with Him in its transformation.

One version is centered on making men into being Godlike in Christ's moral character while the other is centered on saving souls from out of a sinful world to secure their place in heaven and from the hellish fires of the damned. One version is man-centered while the other is centered on God. One version is in the presentation of a whole Gospel while the other is in a partial Gospel. One version is based upon what Christianity means to God while the other is built upon what Christianity means to man.

One is led to Christ by the Spirit and into the presence of the Father to be fashioned after the moral image of the Son.

This website is dedicated to Dr. Nathaniel Tracy who taught the beauty of the whole Gospel and the absolute necessity of recapturing it for the churches. It was in Dr. Tracy's belief that we have come dangerously near with missing authentic Christianity. If the Church does not call for Christianity's authenticity in its gathering places and meeting halls, then our nation will fall and the Churches will be to blame. With the onslaught of attacks on Christians in America and the erosion of a the core Christian values in men of power in high places, the Church needs a call back to what Christianity means to God rather than to pursue the futility of what Christianity means man.

Over the next few months I will be laying out my case for the need of authentic Christianity. I will lay this out in a different format than in what is being done in other forums and blogs. I feel the necessity of laying out my arguments in outline form which is a much better way of reading than in straight prose writings.

I want to lay out the premises of my beliefs in Christianity. First, I am a Christian realist in opposition to some idealistic philosophy or theology that is presently prominent in all areas of disciplines and thought of this day and time. Christian realism is the harmonious union of external realism with the revelatory truth claims of Scripture. Christian realism is in the belief that the external world does exists apart from the minds which know and rationalize about it. That which is in the known world is independent of the knower. Realism has problems unless you can add another dimension to its view. The revelatory truth claims of the Bible are to be added in realism to create a view of the world that is impossible to see without divine revelation.

These revelatory truth-claims are in the insights that are derived from: (1). the doctrine of the Trinity in its unity-in-diversity life, (2). the doctrine of the immanence and transcendence of God, (3). the doctrine of pre-creation, (3). the doctrine of creation from out of nothing, (4). the doctrine of man, the image of God, and his purpose in creation, (5). the doctrine of sin, (6). the doctrine of the moral character of God, (7). the doctrine of the incarnation, (8). the doctrine of Christ's Lordship, (9). the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in Christian living, and (10). the doctrine of eschatology or the last days. Without the insights from these revelatory truths of Scripture, realism and all other disciplines are incapable with knowing the external world. Knowledge becomes piece-meal and one's knowledge of the whole of reality is lost without the revelatory truths in harmonious union with realism.

Idealism says that which is in the external world is dependent upon the mind or otherwise it cannot exist. This course of idealistic thinking is absolutely incoherent with the known world of reality. When a tree falls in the forest, one can know it fell though he or she did not see or hear it to fall. Idealism says the tree and all its characteristics and actions cannot be real unless the mind is involved with validating it to be true. Idealism leads to contradictory ideas of the real world in much the same way with which its proponents live contrary to the real world that is around them.

Second, the foundation of Christianity is not in a God whose immutable or natural attributes of absolute power, might, omniscience, all- knowing wisdom, etc. are in the forefront of Christian belief but rather is in the emphasis on the moral character of God of love, acceptance and forgiveness, etc. with being the lead of all theologies.

Third, I believe Biblical theology is the judge of all other theologies. This means Biblical theology is a way of reading the Bible to get insights into what was being said in the days of the Biblical authors and what it means in our day and time. Biblical theology is to be done in a bi-focal approach - what it meant and what it means. Biblical theology judges dogmatic and systematic theologies and not the other way around. The premise of Biblical theology is in the belief that all Scripture is inspired but all Scripture is not relevant. There are degrees of relevance in the Biblical text and we need to learn with how to discern it.

Fourth, Christianity is not in the saving of souls from out of a sinful world but is about the making of men into Godlikeness to be fitted with going back into the world. One is saved by Christ when he or she is formed after the moral being and image of the Son and not when he or she supposedly repents of sin while never having declared sin to be an outlaw in one's life and never having sought sin's eradication. Christianity is about the making of the sons and daughters of Abraham who come from a sin-marred world and are perfectly fitted by the moral character of God with joining in partnership with Christ in the plan of the ages of the remaking, reclamation, unifying and transformation of the cosmos from the rift of sin.

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

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