At ACT, we seek the ideals of paideia. Our mandate is to Teach, Disciple, & Proclaim the Gospel faithfully according to the Christian Bible handed down through the Church.
1. ROMANS 12:2
Be transformed - thinking things through in the cultural spheres of influence: commerce, academia, media, politics and sports (CAMPS). We desire security and significance (SS). Leadership and success must be redefined. Science is a method of knowing while revelation is the content of knowledge. Together, science and revelation lead to better understanding.
By renewing your minds - control your control beliefs, worship God with your mind and cultivate the person as God’s image (imago Dei).
Discern the will of God – seek wisdom from insight & understanding of knowledge.
Romans 12 tell us that we ought to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we may discern the will of God … which is our spiritual worship! This means that all the Christian talk about worshipping God in spirit begins with a new way of thinking.
2. DEVELOPING A CHRIST-CENTERED WORLDVIEW
2.1 What Is The Christian Philosophy Of Knowledge And Understanding?
God is God and we are not!
God is sovereign in the absolute-hermeneutics of trust
God is love - teleology
Christian worldview must replace our secular humanist worldview
How can we use this to engage our minds to worship God as we allow God to educate us? Presuppositions: God is the ultimate teacher and all of reality is used by God to reveal himself to us. God created the world and cares deeply about it. We show our love for God by also caring for what happens to the world. In this, we concern ourselves with every field of human inquiry and every sphere of cultural influence.
2.2 Sources of Adoptive Authorities to Develop A Christ-Centered Worldview
• Testimony: CCC (Commitment to Convictional Confession) Experiential relevance
• Science: DDD (Discovery of Divine Disclosure) Empirical adequacy
• Philosophy: RRR (Reason to make Revelation Relevant) Logical coherence. By far the most significant barrier to today’s evangelistic enterprise is the apparent lack of relevance. As we learn to reason well by submitting to God’s word, we have to also learn to relate honestly to the strangers in our midst. RRR (Reason and Relate to make Relevant the message of the Gospel).
3 THE NEW APOLOGETICS - SCIENTISM & RELIGIOUS PLURALISM
3.1 Science & Scientism
Discover convergence between science and revelation
1. Science is the most manicured form of rationality known to us - it is God’s gift to us so that we may discover divine disclosure.
2. Scientism is the philosophical presumption that science alone holds the key to understanding all there is to understand. It is often disguised as science.
3. Contemporary issues of true science include Extra-Terrestrial life, animal consciousness & morality, and neuroscientific explanations for free will and sinful behavior.
3.2 Religious Pluralism
What About the Other Faiths? Are All Faiths Equally Valid?
Religious pluralism has existed from time immemorial. The philosophy of religious pluralism, which claims that all religions are equally valid and that they all make similar claims - is false. Explore the wisdom of other faiths to enrich your own
1. How do we know that Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims and other religions are wrong? The single common difference (scd) between the Christian faith and all other religions is the identity of Jesus.
2. What about those who die in infancy?
3. What about those who die in adulthood and have never heard the gospel?
4. What about those who are born or become, mentally retarded?
