Course 9 Week 6 Main Comments

You may place your comments for week 6 here anytime after midnight on Monday. You have been doing a good job of carrying this by yourselves. Thank you.

I hope to see you all tomorrow night.

Course 9 Week 5 Main Comments

Please place your comments for week 5 Under "The Saftey Factor . . . " post. There is an explanation there. I hope to get back to the position of being able to post about the exclusive claims of Christianity soon.

The Safety Factor in Making Truth Claims

We have been talking about the fact that almost every major religion makes exclusive claims to truth.

Some have said that it sounds arrogant for Christians to make the claim that Christ is exclusively the way to Heaven. While Christians certanly are capable of making arrogant statement (and capable of making a whole lot more mistakes too), that does not mean that it is not possible to make truth claims without being arrogant.

Aside from sounding arrogant, some making truth claims can be so narrow that to oppose them can be very dangerous. I know of no nation that has been heavily influenced by Christianity that puts a person's life at risk if he or she claims another religion other than Christianity. However, there are countries where it can be very dangerous for a person to convert to Christianity. Countries, such as, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran, are examples of places where a person can put himself or his family at risk if he were to convert to Christianity.

The bottom line is that it is possible to talk about the truth in a loving manner. That should be the desire of all Christians.

The Exclusive Nature of Truth Claims

Pilate, when Jesus was brought before him, asked the question, "What is truth?" That question implied his hopelessness and frustration with real meaning in life. Can we rely on anything?

Since we believe in absolute truth, we also become aware of the exclusive nature of claims to truth. Our society tries to make the claim that "Everything is relative." There is a problem with that, and we will note it in a minute. Christianity, on the other hand acknowledges that "some things are relative, and some things are absolute."

Since every major religion makes claims of exclusivity, it is not really fair to claim that Christians are arrogant when they make the claim that there is only one way to Heaven. The Christian claim is no more arrogant than the claims of the other religions.

Truth, by definition, is exclusive. If something is true, then opposing items must be false. The opposite of truth is certainly excluded by truth itself.

Some People try to deny this (that statements contrary to each other are exclusive). However, the assertions they make that are regarded as "truth" and yet are contrary to each other are nothing more than opinions. Look back at the statement made earlier: "Everything is relative." Another way of stating that principle is "There are no absolutes." Now, concerning truth, others may say "there is no exclusive nature to truth claims."

Let's look at the words that are used by those making the statements mentioned in the last paragraph. "Everything is relative." "There are no absolutes." "There is no exclusive nature to truth claims." Did you notice that those are all absolute words? They are all absolute claims.

My son puts it like this: someone says, "There are no absolutes." Then he asks, "Are you sure about that?" Then they might slip up and say, "Absolutely!"

Truth inherently is exclusive. If something is true, then something contrary to it is false.

In your comments this week, I challenge you to see how claims to truth relate to what you are studying. Tell us how truth, or surety of truth, affects preaching and doctrine.

Almost Every Major Religion Claims Exclusivity

Sikhism is a challenge to both Buddism and Hinduism. Atheism excludes many with theistic view points. Baha'ism claims to embrace offshoots of most major religions; however, while it is inclusive of many viewpoints, it does exclude others who claim to be exclusivists.

Hinduism Claims Exclusivity

Hindus claim to have a very tolerant faith, but when you look more into their belief system, you find that, yes, they claim to be very tolerant--as long as you buy into their belief system as it speaks of truth. What is that belief system? It is syncretism. Syncretism is the attempt to bring together different, or perhaps even apparently opposing, beliefs. So, they are intolerant to those who believe in absolute truth, such as that which is presented in the Word of God. Since they exclude others, they too claim exclusivity for their belief system.

Course 9 Week 4 Main Comment Area

You may post your comments for week 4 below anytime after 12:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

Course 9 End of Week 3

Today is the last day for week 3.

I hope you all are enjoying your study. I think that Tyler has already finshed his course on doctrines. It turned out to be much shorter than either one of us expected.

Course 9 Week 3 Main Comment Area

Sorry, Fellas,

I made a trip to Dunn Loring, VA, (a suburb of Washington D.C.) to speak at Jameson's (my sixth grandchild's) baby dedication service. On our way home on Sunday evening, the fuel pump went out on our car. We were towed to a town about 18 miles back down the road. We could not get anyone to work on the car until Tuesday.

I will extend the deadlines for the bonuses by two days for each one, but we will still try to end the week on Monday.

Tyler, the comments you made on the Muslim's Claim to exclusivity posting area, will count. Roger and Corey, if you have already made some in another posting area (like last week's), they will count already too.

All new comments should be placed below.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Muslims Claim Exclusivity

We have been talking about the fact that Christianity is not the only religion that claims to have an "only way" to God.

Muslims claim to have the truth. They believe, if I understand it correctly, that the Koran gives the only truth about such matters; however, they believe that translations of the Koran only corrupt the truth. So, if you really want to know the truth, you must understand Arabic and study the Koran in that language. Also, you must have an advanced standing when it comes to comprehending the Arabic language.

I mention these other claims to exclusivity as a foundation for saying that if you want to include some of them as having another way to God, there is a problem with that as far as what they claim themselves. They would not accept the other ways (other than what their claims are).

Exclusivity Seems Offensive

A claim to exclusivity when, it comes to getting to Heaven, seems offensive in our culture of relativism. A buzz word of the day is that of "pluralism." Religious pluralism means respect for all religions.

While we respect all religions, it really is not fair to say that "anything will work." If I wanted to go from here (Illinois) to Atlanta, GA, I would need to go east. Someone would say you cannot get there by going west if you stay in the United States. Others would make a case that if you kept going west (outside of the United States and all the way around the world), you could eventually get to Georgia. (Of course, you would have to go a little south too.)

If you went straight north or south you would never get there. It would not matter whether saying that was offensive or not. You just would not get there. All roads do not lead to Atlanta.

While there may be more than one way of getting to Atlanta, we do have to agree that not all roads lead to Atlanta.

Likewise, not all religions get to heaven. Especially if they have contradictory points. This does not prove there is only one way, but it does narrow things somewhat. The question is, "how far are things narrowed down?" That is the question with which the Bible deals.

Christianity's Claims to Exclusivity

While you are going through your materials this time, I plan to do some study on Christianity's claims to Exclusity. Christianity sometimes comes under fire because of its claims that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. This is often done in such a way to makes it appear that Christianity is the only religion that makes such claims.

But, is this really the case?

I will share with you some of the things I find out.

Couse 9 Week 2 Main Comment Area

You may use this area to make your comments starting anytime on Tuesday (after midnight on Monday).

I will try to join in better with you next week.

Again, good job, for each of you getting started.

Cpourse 9 Week 1 Last Day

Today marks the end of week 1.

All of you did a good job getting startecd. Your goal was to make 9 comments this week. Count them and see if you need any more.

Tomorrow starts a regular week. Read over the requirements again, and take off for week 2.

Anyone wanting to join us as a regular participant must do so by tonight or tomorrow. Others, of course, are welcome to join the discussion by commenting on our posts.

New Materials

So far, we know that we are going to be dealing with doctrines and preaching. One of the ways of dealin with the doctrinal issues is to major on them as they relate to orthodox Christianity in general, and to learn from the denominational distinctives that are presented too.

Sean emailed me and said he will be sitting out this time. Corey is gone for a few days, but he hopes to be able to give several posts this weekend or at least on Monday.

I think I emailed your transcripts to you. If you did not get them, please let me know.

Again, it is a great time to solidify your thought on doctrines and to learn great communication tips for preaching.

Course 9 Week 1

Enter your posts for week 1 in the comments section below this post.

This week, as usual, is an introduction week. Please try to introduce yourself. If you have done that before, you may paste it in here again, or you may tell us something else about yourself.

Your first or second post should include the title of your book or DVD course. Then list the table of contents from the book (or at least the chapter titles of all the chapters if it has an expanded table of contents.)

You will try to make 9 or more posts this week. They can basically be about anything, but they need to be at least 3 sentences long to count toward the 9. You can make other posts that are shorter than that, but they won't count toward the minimum requirements.

Anyone is welcome to join us this week if he has a book that he would like to study. Just send an email to rcarneysurey@yahoo.come, and we will set things up.

Taking Off a Little While

Our next local Preachers Meeting will be in August. We will rest a little and regroup then. In the mean time, I will periodically put some posts on various topics here.

Have a great summer.

On Our Way Home

This is late Friday night, July 17. I am able to hook up in our motel room.

We had a great couple of weeks (9 days of church services and teaching seminars). About 20 people (probably more) made professions of faith in Christ this week! It is great to see people recognize their need of Christ and come to Him.

I guess this is the last week of this course, ending on Monday. I will try to catch up emailing your previous grades before then.

I heard that Roger acknowledged his call to preach at Unity last Wednesday night. Praise the Lord!

We will probably be home tomorrow afternoon. Lot's of catcvhing up to do. Hope you all are doing well.

Several Services

Hi, Guys,

We have had three services at Pastor Antonio's church. (Bro. Roger, you will remember Pastor Antonio as being the head of the orphange we visited that had the banana tree in the front yard.)

Last night, we had our first service at Pastor Jose's church. (Bro. Roger, he was the pastor (under Bro. Carlos) of the church where we had the service in the open air. His church is now where Pastor Carlos' used to be.)

There were six salvations or decisions for Christ last night, with many more coming for prayer. In all, we estimate about ten salvations, or at least decisions that appeard to be salvations, on this trip.

Hope things are going well.

Tomorrow is when I start the first of three days of seminars for pastors. I may not be able to get back online until Thursday or Friday. I may not even to get to read all your posts today. I hope you are discussing among yourselves and finding the posting areas O.K.

Catch you later!

Church Service

We had our first service last night at Pastor Antonio Ramirez' church in Acuna, Mexico. Bro. Roger did a good job of preaching with a new interpreter. He spoke on the subject of "Who Jesus Is." We prayed with serveral Christians for various needs after the service. Pray for tonight's service.

We had probably between 55 and 60 there. The building, like many down here, had no air condintioning, and I'm sure the temperature earlier in the day had been over 100 degrees! We took bottled water in with us, and we all seem to be doing O.K. today.